Irena's War

by Shipman, James D.

  He was offering her life back to her. That and perhaps more. Protection, freedom from worry. All if she simply turned Kaji in. A simple thing to do.

  “Don’t worry about her,” said Klaus, as if reading her thoughts. “Do you think we would harm her? I just want to return her to her rightful place. You have friends in that Jewish orphanage, don’t you? Dr. Korczak, is it? Isn’t she better off there than out here among the vultures where she might be killed or even worse? You know your fellow Poles can’t be trusted.”

  She knew what he was talking about. Poles who held Jews ransom for everything they owned. They would extort the family in hiding, demanding protection money and exorbitant prices for food. Once they’d paid out all they had, the Poles would turn them over to the Gestapo, gleaning one final reward. This scum did not constitute more than a tiny minority of the Polish population, but they did exist and they were a shame on the nation’s conscience.

  “I see you know what I’m talking about.” Klaus leaned forward. “Won’t you help me then? You can walk her to the ghetto with me. Afterward we’ll have a little chat. I have a few other ideas of ways you can help me. Nothing terrible, mind you. I just want to know how your department really works. Who the players are. In exchange, I would be very grateful.”

  She heard shouts and steps on the next floor down. They’d be in the basement soon. She had to decide. She could take Kaji to safety herself and save her life in the process. She looked at Klaus; his eyes pleaded with her to accept. She desperately wanted to. She was terrified of torture and she knew within an hour she might be experiencing that very thing. She took a deep breath, her mind reeling. But she couldn’t. Something stopped her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “That’s very disappointing, Irena,” said Klaus, sitting back. “I thought I’d made a better choice when I selected you for this position. By the sounds of the search, I suspect they are nearing the basement. When they retrieve the child, you and I will chat further.” He rose and stepped toward the door. “Last chance,” he said.

  “I have nothing to say.”

  He squared his shoulders and stepped out. She sat there in the semidarkness, listening to the sounds of the search, waiting for the scream from Kaji that would tell her she was caught. The moments ticked by one after another, each seeming to take an eternity.

  Long hours later, or was it mere minutes? Klaus appeared back in the doorway. “Nothing,” he said, his voice shaking with anger. “Nothing. Where did you hide her?” he demanded.

  “There is no her,” said Irena, not believing Kaji had escaped. “There never was. Whoever is giving you information is lying to you.”

  Klaus looked at her for long moments. He took a half step into the office but then stopped himself. “All right, Frau Sendler. You can play your little game with me. I will find this brat and when I do, I’ll personally attend to your questioning. Remember,” he said, his eyes flashing fire, “you had your chance.” The Nazi stormed out of her office. She heard the loud clapping of boots on the tiled hallway floor for a few more minutes, then all was silence.

  She sat back in her chair and closed her eyes. Her body started to shake uncontrollably, and her eyes filled with tears. By some miracle she was still here, still alive. But where was Kaji?

  “I see God still protects you.” She looked up. Maria was there, cigarette in hand, leaning against the doorway.

  “You turned me into the Germans!” Irena shouted accusingly.

  “Not me, darling. But someone surely did.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  Maria scoffed. “I don’t care what you believe. Perhaps what you should be thinking about is where your little Jewish brat has gone?”

  “What did you do with her?” Irena demanded, rising out of her chair and preparing to throw herself at Maria.

  “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  “Where is she?” Irena demanded.

  “Jan took her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He came back about half an hour ago and he took Kaji with him.”

  Irena felt relief wash over her. Kaji was safe. “Where did he take her?”

  “The only place he could. Where you should have taken her right from the start. Back to the ghetto.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Because unlike you, he’s not a fool. Unlike you, he’s not prepared to sacrifice us all just for one little girl.” Maria took a puff of her cigarette. “You should praise him, not condemn him. He saved you, and all of us.”

  Irena stood for long moments, her hands clenched. She wanted to strike Maria, but the words hit home. There was truth in them. Irena had risked all their lives to save one. Perhaps Maria was right. Perhaps Jan was. But one other overriding thought consumed her. She’d been betrayed by someone, and she swore to herself she would find out who.

  Chapter 16

  Escape

  July 1942

  Warsaw Ghetto, Poland

  Irena waited in the long line to enter the ghetto. The July heat was stifling, and she sweated profusely. Although she thought she might pass out from the burning, humid sun, the moisture on her face masked the fear raging through her heart. Today was the day she’d planned so many months for.

  The search at the gate was perfunctory. She knew the primary guard well, having walked through this entrance hundreds of times. He barely glanced at her documents and she didn’t even have to slow down as she passed through the entrance. She walked quickly into the crowd, losing herself in the business of the Jewish Quarter. The familiar sights and sounds greeted her: the begging, the pleas for help, mixed with the black-market salesmen and -women hawking some bread or flour they’d secured on the Aryan side of Warsaw.

  She made her way toward Sienna Street, reaching the wooden footbridge over Chłodna Street that separated the big ghetto from the little one. The Judenrat had ordered the bridge constructed a few months after the ghetto was created so that traffic on Chłodna would not have to be interrupted by the passage of the Jews from one section of the ghetto to the other. As she walked along, she thought about the streetcars that used to operate here. She had planned to use them, but the Germans had ceased their operation through the ghetto as part of their crackdown on smuggling.

  There was a glut of foot traffic at the bridge, a common occurrence. She waited her turn, climbing slowly, one step at a time, up to the platform and then swayed with the rest of the crowd as the shuffled across to the little ghetto. She walked the last couple of blocks to Sienna Street and found her destination: Dr. Korczak’s orphanage.

  She entered the building. Adam was already waiting. He put his arms around her and held her briefly. She felt her whole body begin to tremble, a mixture of pleasure and fear.

  “Hush now,” he whispered. “Everything is going to be all right. Today is the day.” His words echoed her own.

  “Is everything ready?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You’ve talked to Ala?”

  “This morning.”

  “Let’s go then,” said Irena. Adam turned and she followed him through the entrance and past a set of double doors into a long corridor. Adam stopped at the last door on the left. “Are you ready?” he asked.

  Irena steeled herself. “I’ve worked so hard to prepare this. I am ready.”

  Adam opened the door. They entered a sparse room with a single bed. A small desk and chair rested in the corner. There were a few books, a tiny closet with a smattering of hangers. Ewa was there, sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling up at her, holding a little girl’s hand.

  “Kaji. I’m here.”

  Kaji looked up and squealed with delight. She threw herself in Irena’s arms, holding her close. “Is today the day?” she echoed.

  “It is. Do you remember everything I told you?”

  Kaji nodded.

  “Good. We must follow all the steps exactly like I instructed. You have to be a very brave girl today, d
o you understand?”

  “Yes. Ewa made me practice.” Kaji lay back straight as a board. She closed her eyes and held her breath. “Just like this.”

  “That’s perfect,” Irena said. She turned to Ewa. “Thank you for everything.”

  “Of course, my sister. Anything for you.”

  Adam checked his watch. “It’s time, we need to go.”

  Irena nodded and took Kaji’s hand. Ewa gave her a hug and a kiss on the head. “I’ll see you again soon, little one.”

  “Goodbye, Aunt Ewa.”

  Ewa’s eyes filled with tears. “Goodbye, dearest Kaji.”

  Irena led Kaji out of the door and they followed Adam as he left the orphanage and made his way through the streets of the ghetto. They passed the wooden bridge without incident and marched on slowly through the stifling heat of the ghetto toward the hospital. When they arrived, Ala was already standing at the entrance, waiting for them.

  “You’re here,” she said.

  Adam laughed. “Of course we are. We haven’t done anything dangerous yet. Nobody wants to stop a Jew from walking through the ghetto.”

  “That’s true,” said Ala, smiling. “Still, I’m so nervous.” She looked down at Kaji and took her face in her hands. “Are you ready, my dear?”

  “Why does everyone keep asking me that?” said Kaji.

  “It’s an important day,” said Ala. “Perhaps the most important in your whole life.”

  “Aunt Ewa taught me what to do. I’m ready.”

  “Is everything prepared?” asked Irena.

  “Yes,” said Ala. “Follow me.”

  They made their way through the halls of the hospital. Ala looked this way and that, making sure that nobody was paying them too much attention. They went down a flight of stairs, reaching the basement. They arrived at a heavy metal door with signs warning against entrance.

  “It’s in here,” Ala said. She paused a moment and then pulled on the heavy latch. The door swung open and they entered a large tiled room with stark white walls. Several metal tables sat in the middle of the room, built on rollers with a slight incline. There was a counter with a long line of cabinets. The counter contained several trays of metal instruments.

  “The morgue,” Ala explained. “We store the dead here and our doctors perform the occasional autopsy. Not that we really need to know what anyone is dying from. Disease or starvation mixed in with the occasional bullet to the head. Take your pick.”

  Irena held Kaji’s hands tightly. She was worried that the room would scare the little girl, but she didn’t seem to understand where they were. Ala looked at them for a moment and then turned, moving toward another door at the far end.

  “This is the loading room,” she said, opening the door into a second smaller space. This area contained bunks on both sides and a long metal corrugated gate at the far end. The bunks were full of corpses on both sides, lined to the ceiling.

  “What do we do now?” asked Irena, shielding Kaji’s eyes from the stacked pile of dead.

  “We wait for the cart,” said Ala. “I told them to be here at noon.” She checked her watch. “It’s a little after right now. They shouldn’t be long.”

  Irena felt a squeeze on her hand, and she looked down and smiled. She thought back to that terrible night when she thought she’d lost Kaji forever.

  After talking to Jan, she’d rushed to the ghetto. Night was falling and she risked arrest, but she didn’t care. She had to make sure Kaji was safe. The guard at the gate had argued with her. “It’s too late to go into the ghetto today,” he’d said.

  But she insisted there was an emergency outbreak of typhoid fever and at last he’d relented. She’d made her way into the streets, desperately calling for Kaji. She’d searched for more than an hour, even as night was falling and the streets were emptying. She was risking everything. Her pass let her into the ghetto and gave her a certain amount of protection, but murder came easily in the Jewish Quarter, and a German might shoot first and ask questions later, particularly in the twilight conditions when she was just another body moving through the streets.

  Finally, darkness had fallen. She’d given up, the tears streaming freely down her face. She’d made her way to Ala’s flat, which was not too far, with the idea of spending the night. She’d start the search again in the morning. She started to wonder if Jan had deceived her, and perhaps had simply taken Kaji straightaway to the police.

  She was making her way toward her friend’s apartment when she’d heard a feeble voice calling out in the darkness. She’d recognized the sound and turned, straining her eyes to see through the blackness. There she was. Kaji was hiding in an alleyway. It reminded her of when she’d found her outside the ghetto, peeking around the corner of another dark alley. Irena rushed to her and picked her up. Kaji had buried her head into Irena’s chest, sobbing. Irena had calmed her with words of encouragement as she rushed through the darkness. The danger had not passed. They were outside past curfew, subject to death if they were caught. Miraculously they’d made it to Ala’s flat and safety.

  The next day Irena had taken Kaji to Dr. Korczak’s orphanage and enrolled her. In the months since then, Ewa and Adam had kept a close eye on her and made sure she’d wanted for nothing. Irena had visited her every day, bringing her food and warm clothing to make sure she was safe. She’d taken up her smuggling again, using a different gate and bringing in food and supplies not only for Kaji but for the other children at the orphanage. She’d risked her life every day, but there was another reason to do so now, not just to defy the Germans or to help Adam, but to save the life of her little girl.

  Over the months they had grown closer, until she thought of Kaji as a daughter. She’d worked to construct a plan so she could get Kaji out of the ghetto and bring her to safety. She’d gained her own mother’s support to have her come and live with them. She’d built up her savings by selling a little of the food in the ghetto until she had reserves to support three people at their home. Finally, and most difficult, she’d snuck into Jan’s office and removed a stack of the precious birth certificates, and using an original she’d found from the Lwów parish, she’d forged a fake document for Kaji.

  In the meantime, Ewa and Adam had worked with Kaji, teaching her a little Latin and the main Catholic prayers. Once on the outside, Kaji’s life might depend on her ability to recite some of the Catholic rites to a suspicious policeman or neighbor. Jews were hiding everywhere in Aryan Poland, and the Gestapo was increasingly cracking down.

  After months of preparation, they’d developed a plan to get Kaji out of the ghetto and smuggle her to Irena’s apartment in safety. Now, as they waited for the cart in this frozen corpse-filled cellar, Irena hoped everything would go as they had planned.

  Minutes passed. Kaji was shivering now in the cold of the freezer and starting to complain. Ala kept looking at her watch. A half hour passed, then an hour. “Something is wrong,” she said finally. “They should have been here a long time ago.”

  “We can’t stay here indefinitely,” said Irena. “Look at poor Kaji. She’s freezing.”

  “Let’s go back upstairs,” said Ala. “I’ll get lunch together for us and then I’ll check into things and find out what went wrong.”

  They left the morgue and marched upstairs to the kitchen. Ala set a little table and laid out some bread and cheese for them to eat. When they were set she left to find out what had happened to the cart.

  “It’s not going to happen today, is it?” asked Kaji. Irena could see the sadness and the fear in her eyes.

  “That’s not necessarily true,” said Irena. “It’s just a little delay. Eat your bread and don’t you worry about things. Ala will take care of everything.”

  “That’s right,” said Adam, placing his hand on Kaji’s shoulders. “We’ll get you out of here today, Kaji.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise,” he said.

  Irena hoped Adam could keep that commitment to her.

  They
waited another half hour, now too warm again in the humid heat. Irena checked her watch over and over, the minutes ticking relentlessly by. When she thought she couldn’t wait another second, Ala appeared, her face pale.

  “What happened?” Irena asked.

  “Janek is down with a fever,” she said. “He’s at home in his apartment, unable to move. He said there will be no cart today. Perhaps not tomorrow either.”

  “What are we going to do?” asked Irena.

  “We wait.”

  Kaji started to cry. “I don’t want to wait anymore,” she said. “I want to go today.”

  “Isn’t there something we could do?” asked Adam.

  Ala shrugged her shoulders. “It’s Janek’s cart. He and his men operate the corpse removal from the hospital. He knows the routes, the guards. I don’t see what we can do about it.”

  “I’m sorry, my dear. We will have to wait until tomorrow,” said Irena. “Perhaps the next day.”

  Kaji’s cries turned to weeping. “I don’t want to wait another day.” She turned to Adam. “You promised.”

  “Don’t be silly,” said Irena. “It’s not Adam’s fault. We are just going to have to wait until Janek is better.”

  “Why can’t I take the cart out?” asked Adam.

  “You don’t know where you’re going. And you’d raise suspicion at the gate,” said Ala.

  “Not just me,” said Adam. “I could go with Janek’s crew. If I’m just one of the men on the cart, the Germans wouldn’t necessarily be suspicious. Isn’t that true?”

  “I’m not sure he would allow it,” said Ala.

  “Couldn’t we try?” asked Adam. “Look at her. She’s waited long enough. Let’s get her out.”

  Ala paused, considering it. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask.”

  Irena was joyous. She hugged Ala. “Thank you. Thank you, my friend!”

  Ala smiled. “You’re welcome. Now stay here and keep yourselves warm. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  * * *

  They waited in the kitchen for another hour, the time trickling by. Ala returned and from her expression Irena knew the answer was bad news.