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23
18thFebruary 1943
The world was a snowy, glistening wonderland.Nacha leaned against the window of their Otwock apartment and studied the landscape below.Snow had fallen all night long and was falling still.It was silent and beautiful, and she couldn’t help feeling hopeful that everything was going to work out somehow.
Danuta had ridden the train to the ghetto and was currently ensconced on a chair beside Nacha, telling her all about what had transpired.
Jadzia was home from the extermination camp, something everyone said wasn’t possible.Jadzia was like a sister to Nacha and she’d been terrified that she would never see her again.She still hadn’t left the apartment since coming home, according to Danuta.She was tired and quiet and had lost a lot of weight.She wouldn’t talk much about what’d happened or what she’d seen, but she was safe and she was with Waltrina, and that was what mattered most.
She’d asked about her friend, Hanna.But Mama didn’t want to tell Jadzia that she hadn’t come home.
“And Jan is working with Mama today at the market.So, I said I would come and tell you all what happened.I caught the train on my own.Mama said I had to come straight here and right back home again without stopping.”
“I hope you were careful,” Nacha replied.
“Of course.I know my way around now.Besides, if it wasn’t for this stupid war, I would’ve been catching trains on my own long ago.I’m ten years old, after all.Jadzia was doing a lot more than me when she was ten.It’s really not fair.”
“The war has changed everything,” Nacha admitted.“I’m fifteen and I can’t catch trains, or go to the movies, or see my friends…”
A stone lodged in Nacha’s throat.
Danut’s face fell.“I’m sorry, I didn’t think.”
“It’s okay.It’s not your fault.The war has affected all of us.”
Screaming erupted outside the apartment building, followed by several loud shots.Nacha leapt up from her seat and scanned the neighbourhood.A man lay on the ground, red seeping from a wound in his head into the white snow.Nearby, a family wailed as a pair of guards ushered them away.
“What’s going on out there?”Tata asked, coming to the window.
“I don’t know.”
Danuta whimpered.“I want to go home.”
“You should go,” Tata said.“I will walk you to the fence.”
“Don’t leave us, Tata,” Nacha begged.
“We’ll all go together.”
Another group of Jews were herded past the window.Then suddenly the snowscape was filled with the trudging dark bodies of Jews bundled up in coats and scarves with booted feet.
Tata frowned.“On second thought, everyone get in your coats and warm things.Get your suitcases.It looks like we’re being deported.”
Nathan got up from where he was reading at the kitchen table and hurried into the bedroom.Nacha stood, frozen in place.
“Nacha, come on,” Tata said gently.
“But where will we go?”
“We will try to get out with Danuta.We have to take her to the fence.Come, be quick about it.”
They got ready quickly.Nacha felt numb.She couldn’t understand why this was happening.It was cold.There was snow on the ground.Winter had always been magical to her, but this wasn’t magic.This was terror, it was evil, it was a frozen tundra ravaged by the boots of thousands of Jews marching to their deaths and stained in the blood of those who’d fallen behind.
Dressed and with their small items of luggage in hand, the family hurried out of the apartment.Everywhere around them, people were peering out of doors or scurrying down staircases.There were shouts in the distance and the occasional firing of a rifle or a machine gun’s rat-a-tat.
They’d come for her family soon.Their only chance was to get ahead of their persecutors and scale the fence with Danuta.But after that, where would they go?They couldn’t put Danuta’s family at risk by attempting to travel all the way back to her place with her.They wouldn’t be allowed on the train without papers.They’d have to walk through the snow for twenty-five kilometres.The realisation made her stomach clench with fear.
“Let’s go,” Tata said.
