Chapter thirteen

Jaroslaw was in seventh heaven; he hoped for a moment when he could make love with the woman he loved. He hugged her and kissed her neck; he felt her breasts crushed against his body, his hands gripped her tightly, and his mouth groped for her lips. Full of emotion for his passion that burned like fire in his chest, his organ had hardened, feeling her body rubbing against it. "Come and let's getaway to the bushes," he whispered in her ear. Suddenly as if awakened from a dream, she pushed him over her until she tripped and landed on the ground. "You are taking advantage of my mental state; all I wanted was to hug you and not beyond that," she said in a sullen voice. The hurt Jaroslaw got to his feet, "Do you enjoy insulting me? What kind of person are you?" He left her and walked towards the celebrants.

Violette remained standing in her place. She suddenly understood the meaning of her behavior. When Jaroslaw embraced her, the thought of Henrik came to her; suddenly, she felt a desire for him; she fell in love with the handsome guy who saved her on the street in Lublin. Jaroslaw was a friend, a brother, a family member, but she was not physically attracted to him, she knew he was in love with her, and she loved the feeling of being loved, but she did not see him as her lover.

Now she felt compassion for Jaroslaw; she knew she could not fulfill his desires, so she decided to go to the living section and wait for tomorrow to approach Jaroslaw and ask his forgiveness.

As she lay down on her mattress and tried to fall asleep, she felt a strong desire for intimate touch. The hug with Jaroslaw and the rubbing with his hardened organ aroused the dormant horniness she had been trying to suppress for a long time. As she inserted her hand between her legs, Henrik's smiling image came to her mind; she felt her wet vagina shrink and relaxing alternately, her fingers penetrating her genitals with one hand and with the other, she plucked her erect nipples as she writhed and trembled with desire. Suddenly her legs trembled, and a heavy sigh came from her throat, then came the relaxation and the tired feeling of satisfaction, she fell asleep.

When she woke up, everything around her was dark; she heard the monotonous snores of her friends sharing the room with her. Dawn had not yet risen, and from the depths of the forest, the familiar sounds of nocturnal animals could be heard. However, she was not calm, the dizziness in her mind made her mentally confused, and the pictures changed at a crazy pace in front of her eyes; she saw the orphan Rosa who she had left in Juziek's house sexually abused, Henrik, who joined Armia Krajowa wearing medals had amputated hands, Henia holding two dead babies in her hands while a Nazi soldier threatens her with a rifle, Klara lying in a pool of blood and next to her Anton who committed suicide, her good Polish friend who was found dead by the creek, her father Arthur who smiles at her holding a red apple coated on a stick, and also her beloved Johan who demands that she return his engagement ring. "Am I dreaming or awake?" She pinched herself to realize those bad thoughts were indeed stirring her mind.

"Maybe I deserve all this for my behavior toward Jaroslaw, the only person who loves me, and I hurt him," she wondered.

When dawn broke, and everyone began to wake up and leave their rooms, she suddenly felt exhausted and fell asleep again.

Shalma called those whom he had assigned the task of rescuing the orphans into the commander's office, "The task you are facing is more important than killing the Nazi enemy. A verse in the Torah says: "Everyone who saves one soul is as if he saves an entire world," and what does it mean for us to save one Jew from certain death? It means the continuation of Judaism; those Jewish boys or girls are the next generation who will multiply and increase the Jewish nation, which is going through one of its most difficult hours. Remember slavery in Egypt when Pharaoh gave an order to kill every firstborn of the Jewish families, remember the evil Haman in Persia who wanted to kill the Jews and the pogroms of the anti-Semite Khmelnitsky. Remember the Passover Haggadah where we read that there is one, who rises to destroy us, in every generation. Therefore, we will set out on a mission to save children knowing that this is a supreme value, and we must take risks and save as many children as possible. "Shalma finished his speech, and everyone wiped a tear from their eyes.

Violette was about to leave for Lublin together with Kalman as head of the team. He chose Armin and Leo to come with them, as they knew the ghetto and the city of Lublin well.

Another unit of six fighters went out into the depths of the forests to look for Jews who escaped the camps and give them help with clothing, food, and hiding. Shalma knew that rural Poles roamed the forest hunting Jews for ransom, extracting gold teeth, and searching for jewelry. The captured Jews had no chance of surviving.

Violette approached Jaroslaw, who had demonstratively ignored her in recent days, "Can I talk to you?"

Jaroslaw did not answer her and turned his head. She stood in front of him. "Jaroslaw, why are you avoiding me? Won't you let me talk to you? '

He got up and walked away without answering.

Towards noon the group set off. At the head of the group were Leo and Armin with weapons in their hands, followed by Kalman and Violette, and at the end, Sasha went as a security guard. All dressed as villagers.

After several hours of tense walking, they encountered a rural Pole walking in the forest; they surrounded him and checked in his tools. He had a sack full of wild mushrooms and a shovel. "What are you doing in the woods?" Kalman asked him.

"I'm looking for mushrooms, don't you see?" He said.

"Are you alone? And where did you come from?" Kalman asked.

"I came alone, and I live in a forest not far from here with my wife and fifteen-year-old son."

"Why do you live in the forest?"

"I ran away from the village, the Nazis raided the village and took the males, we managed to escape at the last minute, when they leave the area, we will return to our house."

"Have you met other groups in the forest?"

"Yes, I met a group who beat me until they realized I was not a Jew, stripped me naked, and whipped me" He took off his shirt and showed them the marks of whipping on his back.

They left him alone and advanced towards the valley from where they would continue along the creek towards the city of Lublin.

Until late in the night, they marched almost non-stop. Then, when they reached the point where they were supposed to get out of the forest and walk along the river, they decided to stop. They spent the night in an open area surrounded by tangled vegetation and stood to watch in turns. During the night, it started to rain, so they had to find shelter and dry spots under the trees.

Violette sat down next to Kalman; both couldn't sleep, the pale moonlight illuminating his face. The handsome man who left the ghetto about a month ago suddenly had grown very old. The gleam in his eyes disappeared; he knew the fate awaited his children and his young wife; he hoped to get to the ghetto and see them again.

"Tell me, Violette, why is there no justice in the world? What bad did the four little children and my kind-hearted wife do? Why do they deserve to die? Where is God? Why does he not intervene to save the pure souls? I will tell you this; I come from a very religious Hassidic family. My grandfather, in his youth, was a cantor in the synagogue, my father led a religious kosher life, and my mother was a pious woman who was very strict about the rules. And I myself studied in the 'Cheder' (an elementary Jewish school in which children are taught to read the Torah), we maintained a Jewish way of life. Still, now that I see that our God has abandoned his people and let these accursed Germans lead us like sheep to a massacre and does not interfere at all, I can only say God doesn't exist."

Violette looked at him; he seemed like a desperate person. She, who came from a completely secular family, was most surprised by his words in which religion was not a significant factor.

"Kalman, calm down; when we get to the ghetto, you will find your children healthy and happy. Your wife must have taken care to hide them well in advance" Violette knew that her words were empty, but she did everything to calm his tormented soul.

Before dawn, everyone was ready to continue. They walked in the same composition as in the forest; Leo and Armin went; first, they hid their guns in the belt of their pants under their shirts, followed by Kalman and Violette, and in some distance from them went Sasha.

They stopped the first truck they met by showing the driver the gun. Armin sat next to the driver, and everyone got behind. The frightened driver brought them to the outskirts of the city of Lublin as they bypassed the town of Polowy and drove on side roads so as not to encounter the SS checkpoints.

Armin took the driver's documents and looked at them. "If you talk, we'll get to your house and slaughter your family," he said before leaving the vehicle.

When they got down, they split into two groups, Armin, Leo and Sasha entered the ghetto area, and advanced keeping a distance from each other, mingling with Jews wandering around doing nothing, some begging and some trying to sell something.

Violette and Kalman went straight to his apartment. Violette did not want to leave him alone because she assumed he would not find anyone in the apartment.

When they reached the building, he jumped through the stairs and came across his door. At the knock, the door opened, and an unfamiliar woman stood in the doorway. "Where did the family live here before? My wife and four children?"

"Sorry, there was an 'Aktion'. Everyone was gone, the apartment was empty, and we went inside."

"As I said, there is no God; who knows where they were taken?" He grunted, and he fainted.

Violette poured water on him and slapped his face a few times. Then, finally, Kalman woke up and got up to sit. 'What would I do without them? Where will I go? He wept bitterly.

Violette dragged him out of the apartment, and they went down to the street. "We have a mission, be strong, the war will end, and you will find them, we must save children, now we will go to the orphanage. Do you understand me, Kalman?"

He nodded, and the two advanced toward the orphanage.

The institution's doors where the orphanage was located were wide open and shattered; Violette's heart pounded. When they went up the stairs, they did not hear the voices she had heard from inside the building on her previous visit. Everything was quiet. Kalman came in first, ready with his palm on the butt of his pistol that lay in his pocket, and Violette stepped after him pale as a ghost.

They heard some voices coming from one of the far rooms; they ran along the corridor and entered the room. Two older women with about ten children were in the room.

"What happened here? Where is everyone? Where is Hania?" Violette screamed angrily.

"One of the women answered in a low voice. "Dozens of trucks arrived a week ago and loaded all the children and the elderly; Henia joined them, "she said.

"And you? And those children? Why weren't you taken?"

"We hid, there was complete chaos here, babies screamed, children raged, they shot indiscriminately, we lay in the building outside, and they did not notice us, we heard them giving orders to drivers to go to Belzec."

"Are there any more children?" She asked.

"There may be, we should go and look; we also found these after a quiet day, so they started coming out on their own, but some of them fled to the streets."

Kalman suddenly appeared from one of the rooms leading a three-year-old girl, "They are no longer crying," he said dryly.

"Kalman, go out and look for our three friends; they are walking the streets of the ghetto. We will need help getting them all out of here."

While they were talking, a policeman from the Judenrat entered the building. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" He asked angrily, mixed with fear. "If they catch you, they'll shoot the whole street. You'll go out right away and turn yourself in.

Kalman approached him, "Are you a Jew?" He asked.

"Of course I'm Jewish," the policeman replied.

"And don't you have the heart to save these children?" He asked, his face flushed with anger.

"This is my job, me and my family or them; what would you do in my place?" He asked.

Kalman approached him and grabbed him by the head, and, in one turn, broke his neck. "I would do that if I were you."

He dragged the policeman's body to one of the rooms. "Hide, and I will come with help," he said to them before leaving.

Violette hid with the two women and children in the yard where they hid during the Aktion. She left them, went back to the building, and searched all the floors, calling the children out. One by one, all kinds of children of all ages appeared from hiding places all over. She now had about twenty children and two grown women. "How do we get them out of the ghetto?" She thought.

After several hours of waiting and searching, four other children who survived the Aktion came out. Voices were heard outside the building.

Sasha, Kalman, Leo, and Armin had arrived at the entrance to the building with an ambulance stolen on the Polish side of the ghetto.

"Bring them all, and hurry," commanded Kalman, who entered the building alone while the rest were outside standing guard. People began to gather around the ambulance to try to understand what was happening in the ghetto area.

Violetta dragged in the two women who pulled some of the younger children while the older ones helped bring them all. They were packed into the back of the ambulance in silence.

"Everyone is inside?" Sasha shouted from the driver's cabin.

"Go, go," screamed Leo, sitting next to Sasha with his gun drawn. "Do not turn on the siren yet, just when we leave the ghetto," he commanded.

The ambulance raced on a side road and immediately turned on the main road that led towards the city's suburbs and to Polawy. The siren sound cleared the streets, letting the ambulance through. Oddly enough, no checkpoints were seen on the way, and the ambulance made its way through the streets of Lublin without any interruption. Finally, they encountered a German checkpoint on the narrow road to Polawy, with five soldiers looked quite bored. "Let me talk," Leo said.

One of the soldiers raised his hand to stop, and Sasha did not turn off the siren even though the soldier ordered him to do so with his hand gestures.

The soldier approached the driver's window, and Leo wanted to say something, but suddenly Sasha shot the soldier in the forehead and pressed the vehicle's pedal. The stunned soldiers fired several shots, but the ambulance was already far away from them.

After a while, Sasha turned off the siren and got off to a narrow dirt road towards a small village that Leo had known from childhood. Before they got to the village, they went into a natural grove and let all the children and women out. Violette decided to stay with them. "Hide until we return to rescue you," Sasha said.

The ambulance continued towards the village. In one of the yards, they saw a house with a small truck loaded with hay. They entered the open grain barn. The farmer and his son ran out of their home. "Who are you? What do you want from us? Take this car away."

The farmer grabbed a pitchfork and ran towards Armin; without hesitation, Leo shot him in the neck and immediately turned to his son and stunned him.

They emptied the hay quickly from the truck, but the farmer's wife appeared screaming. She saw from the window of her house strangers walking around by the barn and realized that something was happening. Leo came out to her, "Why are you shouting, ma'am?" Your husband invited us." She looked at him, "Where is my husband?" She screamed and advanced towards the barn. Leo approached her, and with a punch, he knocked her unconscious.

Sasha started the vehicle with the keys found in the farmer's pocket, and they sped towards the hideout. After loading everyone on the truck, they set out along the river on their way to the camp.