The Remnant - Stories of the Jewish Resistance in WWII (Boomer Book Series)

by Othniel J. Seiden

  "Is it possible others than Jews circumcise among these Ukrainians?" the Colonel asked.

  "I assure you, Colonel, only the Jews do that. It's the same all over Europe and especially in the east. I understand that some non-Jews do this in America now, but here-they are Jews."

  Oberman paused a moment to find his train of thought again. "Secondly, there are many guerrilla groups in the forests around Kiev. The wide range of territory in which these activities have taken place precludes there being only a few. They could not travel freely enough to cover such vast areas. I think there are many groups, which work independently, perhaps within a radius of fifty kilometers of their camps. Now, if that is true, these vast forests around Kiev could easily hide up to a hundred different resistance groups."

  The Colonel was stunned. "Up to a hundred?"

  "Absolutely and many wouldn't even run into each other. If they were in remote areas they could keep as isolated as they wanted. There are thousands of square kilometers of forests around here.

  "Our best hope is to totally overpower them. We could be risking many lives and even then they might escape. To go into those woods blindly, with less than a hundred well armed men-that would be inviting disaster!

  "Now, a second method might be more productive, but it would require knowing their exact locations."

  The Colonel pondered Oberman's assessment of the situation.

  "If we concentrate on circled 'X's," Oberman continued, "We see that they are concentrated in this area to the west and north of the city. Incidents have occurred outside this area a few times, but seldom to the east of Kiev-and seldom beyond this radius. The Rozvazhev raid, the Goering Squadron train and a few others are exceptions. I'm sure they're encamped in this large forest northeast of us.

  "Of course, that area covers two thousand square kilometers. We must narrow it far more than that. If we assume that the radio transmissions in that same area are from them, then that will narrow it some more.

  "Admittedly, there are very few transmissions from that area. We only have three to go by. But if we assume they would go less than twenty kilometers to transmit, then we've narrowed the camp location to within sixteen hundred square kilometers. That's still a large area but much less than the original."

  A pleased expression crossed the Colonel's face.

  "Now, Colonel, let me pose a question to you. Do we want to go after those Jews or shall we go after one of the other guerrilla groups?"

  The question took the Colonel completely by surprise. "I don't understand you, Oberman. One minute you are brilliant and the next you ask a question like that-and I'm convinced you are completely mad! Why would we spare those Jew bastards, especially since they are responsible for Rozvazhev?"

  "Not only Rozvazhev, but many other major actions," Oberman added. "But remember, you and I are the only ones who know that. And since I have these files it is unlikely that anyone else will find out-unless we make it known."

  "Oberman, I still do not understand."

  "Let me pour you another drink, Colonel and I will explain." He filled the glasses.

  "Prost!"

  The Colonel raised his glass in a silent salute. "Please explain yourself, Oberman."

  "As I see it, Colonel, there will be great repercussions if it becomes known that the Jews have been operating under our noses in Kiev. You and I will bear the brunt. The high command will not be pleased to hear that Jewish sub-humans have been carrying on a guerrilla war against the finest army in the world for over a year-and undetected! Who do you think they will lay blame on for such a humiliation?

  "Colonel, you and I will be made out to be fools, inferior to the subhuman Jew. I hate to think what our reward for such stupidity will be."

  The Colonel saw Oberman's point. The wrath of the Reich would be upon them.

  "What shall we do?" His voice was edged with fear.

  Oberman was calm. He drew on his cigar and savored the smoke, which he exhaled slowly through pursed lips.

  "It is simple. If we keep all this to ourselves, we can still be the heroes. I will see to it-with your permission, of course-that these medical reports never reappear. Without the corpse descriptions no one will ever know what they were. Germany's propaganda will go unquestioned. The Jews will be remembered as cowards who went like lambs to slaughter! And we will not be seen as fools and failures."

  "How, how can we save the situation? What must we do?"

  "As I said, it is simple. All our superiors want is to get the guerrillas. With this information, all we have to do is go after one of the other groups-from another area-where dead Jews have not been found. In fact, it will be easier to go after a group that's been careless about its activities and that resides in a smaller, more accessible forest."

  Again there was silence as Oberman let his Colonel ponder. Finally, a smile crept over his face-a smile where strain had been moments before.

  "Fate plays many strange tricks, but none of those partisans would ever believe that they're being saved because they are Jews!" Oberman grinned.

  The irony was wasted on the Colonel. "Major, not 'saved' only 'reprieved.'"

  * * *

  A few days later, Oberman staged a raid on a small wooded area south of Kiev. His calculations indicated that a small guerrilla band was working out of that area. He sent an overpowering force, which annihilated the entire group. He'd ordered, "No prisoners!" The ruse worked. Their superiors were satisfied.

  For Major Hans Oberman, however, the matter was not closed. He knew that the Jews were operating in the area and they would eventually come back to haunt him. As far as he was concerned, the decoy operation only bought him time. Sooner or later he would have to destroy the Jewish resistance fighters. Now he could take his time and do it quietly. He set about developing a plan to accomplish his own final solution.

  57

  Reorganization...

  After the Rozvazhev mission, the Jewish resistance fighters had to reorganize.

  Moshe was dead.

  Solomon and Yorgi became joint heads of the general command-Yorgi leader of all military matters, Sol to be responsible for all non-military matters. The rest of the general command was made up of Rachel, Uri, Father Peter, Ivan and Gregor. Ivan still lived on his farm with Sosha, but took part in many of the decisions of the community. He was their link to the outside world. During this reorganization Sol suddenly realized that he, Rachel, Uri and Ivan were among the few survivors of the original group. Time and battles had taken their toll.

  And again Solomon found himself asking, "Why? Why me? Why not me?"

  58

  Operation

  Barbarossa...

  The winter of 1943 made an abrupt and ferocious debut. Autumn of 1942 had hardly arrived when snow began to fall on Russia and the Ukraine. By the end of October, the forest floor was carpeted white. The Jewish community's attention narrowed to problems of food and shelter.

  Elsewhere in the Soviet Union, nature was about to play a decisive role in world history. A year earlier, she saved a nation under siege; now she would strike a blow that would eventually bring down the aggressor nation.

  "Operation Barbarossa" began on June 22, 1941, when Hitler hurled the most powerful army the world had ever seen against Stalin's ill-equipped, poorly trained and ineptly led troops. He attacked the Russians on a front that spread from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean. An enormous force of more than two hundred and fifty divisions was set in motion to race for Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Stalingrad and all territories between. Barbarossa's objective was not just to gain these territories, but to destroy, totally, the Red Army. Had nature not sided with the Soviets, Barbarossa would have succeeded.

  It was Hitler's idea that Barbarossa would accomplish all its objectives within eight months, putting the Soviet Union at the mercy of the German Reich. His timetable was delayed from the beginning. Barbarossa was to be launched in May of 1941, but because of misfortunes on other fronts-especially Mussolini's problems in
Greece and at Belgrade-the starting date was postponed. When the Germans began their move on Moscow and Leningrad, winter entered the battle on the side of the Russians. The first snows of the Russian winter were falling.

  The modern and ferocious German war machine bogged down in snowdrifts; men and animals froze. Supplies couldn't keep up with the advancing armies; men and machines became stranded without fuel, ammunitions, warm clothes or sufficient food. For the first time, the Germans found themselves at a disadvantage. German losses became heavier and harder to replace. By the time winter had set in at the end of 1941, Hitler had lost more than three quarters of a million men to the Russian campaign. That was only about a fourth of the original force he had thrown into the campaign. Seven hundred and fifty thousand Germans dead and the fury of the Russian winter brought the momentum of the Nazi advance to a standstill. An age old Russian strategy was to work again. They had traded space for time, strategically retreating over vast wastelands while they equipped and trained men for the eventual counterattack in their heartland.

  Now the Russians could start trading lives with the Germans. They were willing to do it because they knew they were fighting for their very survival in their own homeland. Under these circumstances the Germans stood no chance. They had difficulty transporting replacements to the front now, while the Russians had endless replacements, taking them right out of the population as needed. The Russians could trade five lives for every German if need be and still outnumber them.

  While the German mechanized divisions stood with their radiators frozen and fuel tanks empty, the Russian cavalry, six hundred thousand strong, galloped out of the forests to surprise and slaughter the Germans, paralyzed by the weather.

  By the third week of October, 1941, the German Army was within one hundred kilometers of Moscow. It was probably the worst moment of the war for the Russians. Stalin himself directed the battle for the defense of Moscow from the Kremlin. It was Russia's moment of truth. If Moscow fell, the Kremlin would fall and with it the entire Soviet Union. Barbarossa would be realized. The retreat of the Russians would have to end at Moscow's doorstep.

  Every war has many miracles-events decisive in their timeliness. Such was the first heavy snow of the winter which began falling while Germany was preparing to make its final assault on the heart of the Soviet Union.

  First the snow came, then a melt and a rain, which left the Germans wallowing in mud. Then there came a freeze and ice and then more snow. Suddenly, the great German Army found itself frozen in its tracks to the west, north and southeast of Moscow.

  Through the long and cold month of November, the German army tried to regroup and salvage what it could. The generals wanted to withdraw to a point where they could dig in and resupply, but Hitler would not hear of it.

  The Russians spent this time productively, building forces and supplies at the points where they were needed. And they waited for their ally; winter, to unleash its full force against the Germans. Now the Russians would decide when and where the next offensive would take place-the Russian offensive.

  On December 6th, 1941, General Georgi Zhukov dispatched his one hundred divisions in a counteroffensive that shattered the German lines.

  The myth of German invincibility was destroyed.

  To the north of Leningrad, the Germans were also stopped before they could enter that city. But there the story was quite different. The Germans were indeed stopped, but the city was surrounded on three sides with its back against the Baltic Sea. And across the sea was Finland, a small but determined enemy of Russia and an ally of the Germans against the Soviets.

  When Leningrad was first cut off, surrounded, there was only a few days' food supply in the city. It led to a ghastly and deadly siege. By the height of that winter 1941-42, up to five thousand people were dying daily of starvation. That blockade lasted until 1943. Never did the Germans or Finnish armies penetrate the boundaries of Leningrad, but they shelled and bombed the city to rubble. A few supplies were smuggled in or dropped by parachute, but they were a mere pittance compared to what was needed. Still, those people of Leningrad held on. By the time the blockade was broken in 1943, more than six hundred thousand men, women and children had died there.

  * * *

  As the summer of 1942 approached, it became increasingly clear that the German takeover of Russia had ended. It was obvious to everyone but Hitler and a few of his closest confidants who shared his madness and unshaken belief in their own propaganda.

  Hitler issued his directive that Stalingrad and the Caucasus were to be the objectives of the 1942 German offensive. On September 13, 1942, a German division broke through the defenses and entered Stalingrad. What they found was a bombed out city, but not a relinquished city. Every foot of that metropolis cost the Germans dearly in lives. Every deserted building was mined, almost room by room. Snipers, marksmen, were everywhere. Each overhead window was an opening through which death could be hurled in the form of a Molotov cocktail. The German advance was no longer measured in kilometers, blocks or even meters. It was measured in corpses.

  Miraculously, General Vasili Chuikov and his troops, reinforced by civilians of Stalingrad, held the besieged city. For more than two months, they dealt death to the Germans who shared their city with them, while they themselves suffered terrible casualties.

  Then, on November 19th, 1942, Zhukov, the General who saved Moscow, launched a counterattack at Stalingrad. In four days, he had the Germans trapped. Hitler would not allow his generals to surrender when they realized the struggle was hopeless. They continued their futile effort until January 13, 1943. By that time, General Freidrich Paulus had no choice. He was forced to surrender his German 6th Army to the Russians. He and ninety thousand emaciated, ragged, half frozen men were all that was left of the once proud three hundred thousand soldiers who had planned to take Stalingrad.

  The series of defeats that started at Moscow continued to plague the Germans along the entire Russian front. What the winter of 1941-42 started, the winter of 1943 finished.

  59

  Snowbound...

  As hard as the winter of 1941-42 was on the Jewish community in the forest northwest of Kiev, the winter of 1943 was far more difficult-even though they were better prepared for their second winter in their family camp.

  This winter of 1943, the snowfall was heavier and the sub zero winds made going out impossible for days at a time. The very first storm dropped on the family camp more than a meter of snow, which fierce winds drifted, here and there, to three meters in depth. An elderly woman who'd led a young child to the latrine lost her way in the blizzard, disoriented by the blinding snow. They froze to death not twenty meters from their dugout. When it was over, the dugouts looked like white burial mounds among the trees. No sooner did the Jews clear out their entrances and chimneys than the snows began to fall and swirl again. The second storm brought another half-meter of snow to the guerrillas' problems.

  Fortunately, Ivan and Sosha had been at their farm when the first storm broke and the only fighters caught out in it were five at the second camp. When the blizzard ended, the five made their difficult way to the cave Sol had found the year before. It was still used as a warehouse and emergency hideaway.

  There was sufficient food both at the family camp and at the cave, but feeding the horses became a real problem. The five men from the second camp led their horses to the gully where the cave was, but once there they found no hay. The animals could not graze the snow covered ground. There wasn't enough grain stored to last the horses even two days.

  The men had but two choices-to shoot the horses or let them go free in hopes they would be claimed by someone who could care for them. But merely to let them loose would not work. The animals would starve among the deep drifts. They decided to try to get the horses to the vicinity of Irpen and let them go there, though they'd probably fall into the hands of the Germans. Still, the Germans treated animals well-it wasn't like turning Jews over to the Nazis. And if Ukrainians did get h
old of the horses, they would probably be eaten.

  The day after they reached the cave, the second snow storm hit. The horses were tied together and under cover of the snowfall one man led the animals out of the gully to the road that led to Irpen. Two kilometers from the village, he released the animals and returned to the cave, letting the new snowfall cover the fresh tracks.

  In the family camp, they remained snowbound. The days turned to weeks, the weeks to months. The many kilometers of waist to shoulder deep snow they'd have to struggle through made guerrilla actions impossible. And if they could make it out, the deep tracks they would leave could never be entirely erased by snow. The Germans would surely find them and slaughter would follow. So the Jews became prisoners in their own community from November 1942 into March of 1943.

  The radios were the only link to the outside world. Without them, their morale would have dwindled. They couldn't get far enough from camp to transmit safely, but news coming in was tremendously uplifting. Each day brought news of more and greater disasters befalling the Nazis. The Russians beamed news of their victories over the now starving German army, into the occupied territories so that in the midst of their white prison the many resistance groups could gather hope for the future.

  When Father Peter was not busy with the radios or helping Rachel and me with the sick or in philosophic conversations with his other new comrades, he sat brooding on his own future. What does it hold for me? Will the Church accept me when this is all over? I've rebelled on behalf of my own conscience, but did the Church really condone the acts of the Nazis? Each time Father Peter asked that question the answer wounded him. "If the Church didn't condemn the Nazi atrocities-it condoned them. Anyone who didn't cry out against the crimes is guilty of the sin of omission."

  Father Peter wondered, in fact, whether he could ever, in clear conscience, return to the pulpit-should the Church accept him back. In his mind, the Vatican had lost its purity, its mystique, its holiness.