Mila 18 - Leon Uris [119]
The thought of seeing each other kept them alive. It was able to make them somewhat oblivious of the horror around them. More and more terrible things were happening. So long as there was that electric second when he ran up the final flight of steps into her arms, the rest did not matter so much.
Journal Entry
Last night the Good Fellowship Club met to discuss the latest disaster.
Yesterday morning twenty-five Reinhard Corps Nazis, under the personal direction of Sieghold Stutze, entered the ghetto at the Zelazna Gate. Their barracks are directly outside the wall, so there is little or no warning. They proceeded directly to Nowolipki 24 and surrounded the house. Fifty-three occupants—men, women, and children—were pulled out and loaded aboard two army trucks.
As they drove off, the Jewish Militia posted signs all over the building that it was “contaminated by typhus, rodents, etc. ...”
The fifty-three were taken to the Jewish cemetery. On the north wall they were forced to dig a huge ditch, undress, and stand on its edge. They were shot in the back and, after they fell into the ditches, were bayoneted.
The Militia entered the Nowolipki property and carted off every single belonging.
We have had mass executions at the cemetery before. Usually a group accused of “criminal” activities or intellectuals. Never have fifty-three people been indiscriminately lopped off without excuse.
Although the property was “condemned as contaminated,” I was able to lease it this morning as an orphans’ home. Now I hear that the Germans are going to do a series of legal explanations of their actions to “justify” the executions. “Fear of epidemic” is their main reason as well as the catchall phrase “criminal activities.”
We in the Good Fellowship Club are rather certain this mass execution was a test case.
Other distressing signs. A further ration cut was ordered this morning. Dr. Glazer says this puts us below starvation level. This means that anyone obtaining enough food to live is a “criminal,” according to Nazi logic. Who figures these things out for them?
It is in the Soviet Union where the real terror is going on. More and more word comes back about special SS “Action Kommandos” massacring Jews all over the Baltics, White Russia, and the Ukraine just as quickly as the German army presses forward.
We heard something about a plan to send all the Jews to the island of Madagascar. (It might be a vacation.)
Hans Frank has lost his battle, once and for all. Not only are Jews still pouring into the General Government Area, but criminals, homosexuals, gypsies, “Slavic types,” political prisoners, prostitutes, and others deemed as “subhuman.” So, the General Government Area has become the “cesspool” for Germany’s non-Aryans. Several huge new concentration camps are under construction. One in particular, Auschwitz in Silesia, I hear, is mammoth.
The Good Fellowship Club reasons that this transporting of Jews and “sub-humans” is a burden on the rail system, especially for the German army on the Russian front. It is taking tens of thousands of their manpower also.
Conclusion: The Germans have reached their decision for a “final solution” for us. I fear further executions until they reach the desired level for slave labor.
The phone interrupted Alex.
“Hello, Alexander Brandel, here.”
“Alex. Shalom aleichem,” a voice on the other end said. It was a greeting from a contact named Romek on the other side of the wall.
“Shalom,” Alex answered.
“Alex, I hope you didn’t forget we have a lunch date.”
“Ach, what a stoop I am. I forgot to mark it down.”
“Yetta’s house at two o’clock.”
“Good, good, I’ll be there.”
Alex quickly locked the volume of the journal in the safe and went upstairs to his room. Wolf was playing with baby Moses on the floor.
“Son,” Alex said, “get Andrei at once. Wanda has arrived from Krakow with a package. Tell him to send one of the Farber girls to the Old Town Square. He’ll understand. Time is important. Wanda will pass at two o’clock.”
When Wolf arrived at the loft over the Workman