Chapter fourteen

After a shaky two-hour drive, they arrived at the spot where they were supposed to enter the forest's thickness. Sasha dropped the whole bunch down at the forest's edge and left them with Armin Violette and Kalman. He and Leo headed back towards the river. Leo got out of the vehicle, found a heavy stone, and carried it to the car's cabin. Then he turned the truck towards the river, and while driving, placed the stone on the gas pedal and jumped out of the vehicle, which continued into the river and disappeared into its depths.

They started walking towards the group, and when they were nearby, they suddenly heard the engine of a surveillance plane. Sasha immediately realized that the Germans had sent a light aircraft to search for them, and he ordered everyone to enter the thickness of the forest and stand near tree trunks. The plane circled over them several laps and continued down the river.

The little children were frightened. They had never seen a forest and feared predators; no explanation helped, and every adult had to take a child in his arms and carry him, which made walking very difficult. Armin and Leo led the group, who knew the forest like the palm of their hand, followed closely by Violette with the two women, and Kalman led the older children. Sasha was the last in the group with his gun in his hand, ready for any event.

When they arrived at the camp, it was late in the evening, the two guards were astonished to see the number of children who had arrived, and they all came out to meet them with hugs and shouts of joy. Thus, twenty-four children and two women survived a certain death in the daring commando operation of the Jewish partisans.

After the children were handed over to the camp's women, Violette decided to look for Jaroslaw. Despite her fatigue, she went to the residential part and did not find him, then searched at headquarters and in the shower area. She refrained from asking about him due to the delicate relationship that developed. Finally, when she could not find him, she went to Shalma's room, "Our heroine Violette" greeted Shalma and went to hug her.

She smiled a little shyly, "I'm not a hero; the team that was with me, they are the real heroes, one by one, brave fighters," she replied.

"After two thousand years of exile of persecution, humiliation, prohibition, and murder, here the Maccabees rise from their ashes and raise their heads proudly. Be proud that you are taking an active part in the resurrection of the Jewish people."

'I'm very proud, you taught me to be proud of my Judaism, and for that, I will be forever grateful to you. And now if you tell me where my friend Jaroslaw is? '

"The cute red-haired boy? He is out on a critical mission; hopefully, they will return today," he replied.

Violette left his room, and her heart was heavy; she feared she could lose him forever. She suddenly realized how much she loved him.

For three days, Violette heard nothing from the group that had gone into action and had not returned. Her heart feared the worst; she was afraid that the offended Jaroslaw had volunteered on a suicide mission.

At midnight of the third day, she awoke to movement in the camp. She went out into the open and saw some fighters gathered. "Jaroslaw is back," the thought flashed in her mind; she ran quickly, searching among the group of partisans, just returned from a mission. "Where is Jaroslaw?" She shouted. One of the fighters approached her and laid his hand on her shoulder. "Please do not lose hope; he may have survived and is still looking for his way back."

Violette felt she was about to faint; she no longer heard the voices and did not see the people.

When she woke up, she found herself lying on her mattress, and one of the women she helped to escape from the orphanage was next to her. "Do you want water?" She asked. Violette shook her head positively.

"My name is Nadzia; drink some water, and you'll feel better." She brought the glass closer to Violette's lips.

"What are the fighters that came back reporting?" She asked in a weak voice.

"Bad news. You rescued a few fortunate who hid in the building, but those two hundred children taken by the Gestapo were executed. Henia and other caretakers, together with the children, were assassinated in one of Lublin suburbs. Honest Poles who passed nearby told of heartbreaking cries and horrific sights. The SS brought tractors and buried them all in a huge pit covered with earth." Nadzia sobbed while described to Violette the horrific news the fighters brought.

"Several hundred patients were forced out of the hospital, together with the nurses and some doctors, and taken away. Then, in Nemica Forest, which is about 15 km from Lublin in the opposite direction from us, they were shot to death and buried in huge pits."

Violette heard the woman's words and did not respond; she lost all desire to live. Suddenly she felt how cruel life is to her, as she loses everything dear to her. She realized what a terrible mistake she had made when she rejected the only man who really loved her, and she loved him.

Violette lay awake before getting up this morning; she was suddenly reminded of the student house at the University of Vienna, where she shared her room with Anna Greek for four years. Anna was a short, plump girl with a congenital disability in her left leg, which did not stop her from studying medicine and being one of the most outstanding female students. It was Anna who pushed Violette to study, and thanks to her, she reached high grades. Anna invited her to her family's summer house on Lake Neusiedler near Vienna, where she met her parents during the holidays.

Anna was from a mixed family; her mother was Jewish of Russian descent, and her father was an Austrian Catholic. When the race laws were published, and Violette was expelled from the university, Anna was allowed to continue her courses by the intervention of her aunt on her father's side, a city council member. As a result, Anna severed ties with her, and since then, they have not seen each other again. "Why did I remember Anna now?" She wondered, but she had no answer.

"There is a wounded man here; come and help," shouted the guard from the tower. Two fighters came out of the compound and found Jaroslaw lying bleeding; they picked him up and brought him to the clinic. Within minutes the rumor spread in the camp, and Violette arrived gasping from the run. Jaroslaw was stripped of his clothes, lying exhausted with his eyes closed as the nurse cleaned his wounds with a wet cloth. "He only has superficial wounds; he has nothing which endangers him," she said.

Violette walked over to him and stroked his mass of red hair, "Who are you?" The nurse asked her.

"I'm his wife," she replied without hesitation.

Jaroslaw opened his eyes and briefly looked at her. A slight smile appeared for a moment in the corner of his mouth, and he fell asleep immediately.

Violette went out of the treatment room and looked up at the sky. "Thank you, whoever you are, and thank you for returning him to me."

After sleeping for two whole days, Jaroslaw recovered to the point that he could already eat by himself, sitting on the mattress with Violette helping him.

"I'm so sorry I hurt you; excuse me, I'm going through a difficult time, and I cannot disconnect from what is happening around and dedicate myself to my love for you."

Jaroslaw looked at her with tears of happiness in his eyes. Then, for the first time, he heard her saying the words out loud. "I am willing to give my life for you. I have nothing in this world but my love for you," he said.

She leaned over and kissed him on the lips, "I am yours; you have conquered my heart forever."

"What happened to you? Where were you that you did not all came back together?" She asked.

"Frumke is dead if he has not returned by now, he must have been killed in an explosion, or the Poles or the Ukrainians killed him in the forest."

'But what happened? Tell me"

"We went out in one group with a bomb we got from the Russians to set on the train rails leading to Belzec. The world must know; it's a death factory. The Germans are sending trains from all over Poland loaded with Jews; men, women, children, and even babies. Once they arrive, they strip them of their clothes and take them immediately to gas chambers. The corpses are burned in large ovens, thousands a day." he held his face in his hands and burst into tears.

"How do you know that?" She asked.

"We got some information, there was one Ukrainian who told in his drunkenness that he worked in Majdanek building stoves, there were Polish residents who told of heavy, smelly smoke coming out of the chimneys day and night, there were two rural women repairing furs taken from Jews, and there was more evidence told by a farmer and his sons. None of the victims managed to escape from there to tell. Whoever enters through the gates of Belzec and Majdanek leaves through the chimney for eternal freedom."

"How were you injured?"

"When we placed the bomb on the tracks, we were suddenly attacked by a small vehicle traveling on the rails ahead of the train with three armed German soldiers with a machine gun. When the wagon suddenly popped up, our saboteur detonated the bomb without giving us a chance to get away, thus probably killing Frumke and the rest of us being forced back with relatively minor injuries. The Germans crashed, the tracks were damaged, and we fled in different directions. I lost my gun in the escape, so I had to return to the camp carefully not to be caught in the woods, and when I arrived, I was already exhausted."

"When you recover, in a day or two, I'll tell you my plan for both of us, not now."

She bent down and whispered something in his ear; he smiled and sent her a kiss when she got up.

Shamay Grayer was the man with the most significant influence in the ghetto. Before the war, he owned a brothel in the Old City, and now he became loyal to the Gestapo that operated in the ghetto area. In his restaurant on Lubertowska Street, the Gestapo's deportation crews enjoyed themselves. While Grayer would serve them his prestigious alcoholic beverages, they would plan their moves to the sounds of a Jewish band playing in the background. But Grayer had a joint business with the Gestapo staff; He sold Jewish Ausweis - ID cards to work outside the ghetto for needy Jews, for thousands of zlotys, which he shared with his Nazi partners, because of this, he was called the king of the Jews by the Germans.

"A team of two people will go to Lublin to meet Grayer and persuade him to work with us. If he refuses, you will eliminate him," Shalma said at a special meeting he assembled with some of the partisans trained for such purposes. Although Shalma did not tell them explicitly, he hinted that Grayer had blood on his hands by participating in the later selections of the human shipments to Majdanek.

Violette did not have to volunteer when Shalma turned to his men and asked, "Who will be the second to join Violette?" He took her for granted.

"I will join," replied Jaroslaw.

Shalma looked at the others and asked, "What happened to you? What happened to Leo? To Armin? To the brave Sasha and Kalman?"

Everyone was silent, they knew how much Violette would want Jaroslaw to join her, and they did not want to take that away from her.

"Well, then, Violette and Jaroslaw, you are in charge of this mission. The rest can disperse; I'll bring them up to date."

When they were alone, he turned to them with a severe face. You must not take unnecessary risks because our future will all be in great danger if you fall into their hands."

Violette and Jaroslaw were silent; they understood the nature of their action; it is a suicide mission, entering the lions' den when the lions are very thirsty for Jewish blood.

They decided to go to Juziek's house first and from there go on their mission; also, Violette wanted to see the orphaned girl he was hiding in his house. Another problem that arose was the villagers' increased search after killing the farmer and stealing his car.

On the eve of the day, just a day before they went into action, Violette and Jaroslaw went picking wild mushrooms deep in the woods; he took a gun with him for their protection and a large jute sack. The sun had not yet set, and its red rays protruded through the dense branches of the trees. From time to time, a crow chirping and the wings of birds were heard. Violette was careful of snakes and, with her foot, moved the cluster of mushrooms before reaching out to pick them. She gathered with her hands, using her shirt rolled up to get as much as possible. "I've never seen such a beautiful navel," Jaroslaw said as she came to empty the mushrooms into the sack. He bent down and kissed her navel; she did not object and smiled at him "navel wants another kiss, and this time with your tongue" he bent down and licked her navel until she burst out laughing because of the tickling. Finally, Jaroslaw grabbed her by the waist and pressed her to him, "everybody close to us is gone, dead, now it's just you and me, and our love." he whispered.

"If only we could be in a nice bedroom now, without all this hatred, the bloodshed, and extermination of our people," he got up and helped her pull up her shirt. "I would dishonor you by making love in this terrible time, and in an alienated and hostile place, my beloved, we will wait for another time and human conditions, we are not animals, we are human beings with love in our heart," they stood and hugged for a long time. "My love, how much I appreciate your consideration, I am all yours, always and forever."

At night loud explosions were heard nearby. The Germans knew that the forests were infested with opponents of all kinds and that an active movement of arms from Russia towards Poland existed. The Russians wanted the German forces to weaken, so they supported the partisans of the Armia Krajowa and the Jewish partisan units. Now the Germans began to bombard the forests blindly. Five reconnaissance planes circled above and dropped incendiary bombs that set fire to large parts of the forests. Luckily, the wind was blowing against, and the fire crept in the opposite direction; heavy rains began to fall in the morning, which completely extinguished the fire.

In the pouring rain, Violette and Jaroslaw set out on their mission. They were equipped with raincoats and warm clothes. November was considered a cold but not snowy month, so walking in the woods was relatively comfortable and quick. Jaroslaw carried a backpack containing food and ammunition as well as a blanket for the night.

They climbed the mountain ridge; from there, the visibility was good. They could easily identify where somebody lit a fire, thus avoiding meeting undesired characters. They were looking for fleeing victims from trains directed to extermination camps, who were not detected by the forest partisans.

Arriving at the lookout point, Violette found the abandoned hunters' hut. They settled in a cabin that sheltered them from the rain and cold wind.

Jaroslaw wanted to light a small fire, but Violette prevented him from doing so. So instead, Jaroslaw lay down with his face towards the door, and she clings to him from behind.

Before dawn, they suddenly awoke to the sound of breaking branches; Jaroslaw jumped and aimed his gun at the door. The voices were getting louder and louder until Violette woke up too and took cover. Then, there was a loud knock on the door and a slight rustling; then, silence. Jaroslaw walked close to the wooden door and listened, again the sound of breaking branches now passing to the other side of the hut, "They are trying to get in from behind," he whispered to Violette. "I'm going out for them," he said. "Watch out, shoot as soon as you notice a figure; our people are not around," she whispered to him.

He carefully opened the door and peeked out, then went outside and followed the still heard footsteps. Violette, who remained inside the hut, cringed in one corner and waited for what was to come.

Suddenly she heard Jaroslaw's rolling laughter. "It's a young deer sniffing around," he shouted.

Violette came out of the hut. The forest was lit by first light; everything was wet and gray, "Let's eat something and get going," he said.

The descent from the back of the mountain was more straightforward. However, when they saw the valley and the first village houses in the distance, they decided on a more challenging route; they would cross the river and advance along the bank on the other side.

When they went down to the lowlands, he put the gun in his jacket pocket and emptied the backpack of anything that might endanger them.