Sasha moved quickly. Irena followed as fast as she could. She climbed out of the manhole and onto the street. She looked around, shocked at the piles of rubble and the fires illuminating the night. Whole blocks were destroyed around her. “Get down!” Sasha shouted. Irena bent down low and waited anxiously for Sasha to move the cover back into place. “This way,” she said, scuffling forward low and into one of the buildings across the street that was still partially intact.
Irena followed Sasha doorway by doorway, street by street. She could hear the staccato cracking of machine gun fire in the distance. The sky was orange and the air thick with dust and the acrid smell of burning buildings.
They made their way in the next half hour to Ala’s apartment building. Irena was relieved to see it was still intact, as was the entire block. The Germans hadn’t cleared out this section yet. They moved quickly inside and up the stairs, brushing past dark figures huddling in the corridors. They made it to Ala’s apartment and Irena banged on the door. They heard a voice inside asking who was there. It was Rami.
“Irena and Sasha,” Irena answered. The door opened and Rami was there, thin and dirty, her clothes tattered. “Where’s your mother?” Irena asked.
“She had to go to the hospital.”
Irena was surprised. That was not part of the plan. What should they do? Should they wait for her here?
“I thought she was going to be waiting for us,” said Sasha, looking at her watch.
“That was what we agreed on,” said Irena. “But it’s Ala. She won’t go until she feels she’s done everything she can.”
“What should we do?” asked Sasha.
“I don’t know,” said Irena. “Maybe we should go get her. The hospital is only a few blocks away.”
Sasha hesitated as if making up her own mind. “That’s fine, but let’s leave the girl behind. It will be safer.”
“No!” said Rami. “Take me with you. I don’t want to stay here anymore.”
“She’ll be fine,” said Irena. “Look at her. She’s young and fast. You can keep up? Can’t you, Rami?”
The girl nodded.
“And you must be very quiet.”
“I know how to hide,” she said. “All I do is hide.”
Irena realized that was likely true. For years now Rami had stayed for hours at a time in this little apartment. During the relocation, she was probably hiding for days and days. What a terrible and sad life. But all of that would change tonight.
Sasha assented, and they made their way back down and out of the building. Rami walked next to Irena, clutching her hand.
“Do you know where the hospital is?” Irena asked Sasha.
“Of course.” Their guide moved off and Irena followed closely behind. They rushed again from door to door, moving ever closer to the hospital block. They reached the corner and turned toward the structure. Irena stared in horror. The building was surrounded by trucks. A tank stood directly out front; the turret aimed at the entrance. Germans were leading a trail of people out of the hospital. Irena saw a familiar figure standing out front, directing the traffic. The tall, overweight form of Peter was unmistakable in the harsh light created by the truck headlights. He was joking with another officer as they watched the Jewish workers being loaded into the back of the vehicles.
There she was. She saw Ala stepping out, her eyes blinking in the bright lights. She was looking around as if expecting to find Irena there, saving her at last. A soldier moved forward, grabbing her arm. She was pulled from the group and whisked over toward Peter. He said something to her, as did the man next to him. She was sure it was Klaus. Ala was pulled past them and placed in a separate car. A second woman was pulled out and taken to Klaus. It was Wiera. The raid on the hospital had targeted them, Irena realized. Someone had tipped them off. She’d been betrayed again.
“Where’s my mother?” asked Rami, standing next to her. “Why are the Germans here?”
“It’s all right,” said Irena. “Everything will be all right.” She knew the lie in her words, even as she said them.
Chapter 27
A Flight in Darkness
April 1943
Warsaw Ghetto, Poland
Irena stood stunned, unable to move as she watched the scene unfolding around her.
She felt a sharp jerk on her arm. “We have to go,” whispered Sasha.
“I can’t,” she said. “I can’t leave without her.”
“We have to. We can’t stay here long. We’ll be caught. Do you want Rami to be arrested too?”
Sasha was right. She shook her head, trying to drive the agony out of her mind. “All right,” she said. “Let’s go.”
“What about my mother?” asked Rami. “I’m not leaving without her.”
Irena didn’t know what to say.
“Don’t worry about your mother,” said Sasha. “She’s going to meet us outside the ghetto. We are going to go ahead of her.”
“I don’t want to leave her!” said Rami, her voice rising. “Why can’t she come now!”
“Quiet!” whispered Sasha. “Now listen to me. You must be a good girl now. You must do everything I tell you. Otherwise, the Germans will catch us, and you’ll never see your mother again. Do you understand?”
Rami nodded without answering. Irena was grateful that Sasha had taken over and talked to the girl. She didn’t have the heart to tell her the awful truth.
“Let’s go,” said Sasha. “Irena, you keep close to Rami. I’m in the lead.”
They moved cautiously away from the hospital. Sasha led them in a new direction. Irena was confused at first but then realized her guide must be taking them out from another route. She wondered why but finally it occurred to her that the location of Ala’s apartment might have influenced how Sasha brought her in, and now she was taking a more direct route out.
They moved again in the same pattern. Rushing from door to door. Pausing for long moments at each intersection before they scrambled across to the next hiding spot. After what seemed an eternity, they made it to a street where Sasha halted them.
“We’re here,” she whispered. “I’m going to go open the cover. You two stay here.”
Sasha crouched down and scurried forward, staying low, her eyes darting this way and that. Her figure was illuminated dimly by the orange glow of the sky. She reached the center of the street and kneeled, reaching out with her metal prybar to hook the top of the cover. She pulled and wrenched the cover open.
A shot rang out, startling Irena. Her heart jumped out of her throat. Sasha looked this way and that and then raised a hand to her head. She toppled over, her body shaking violently for a few moments before it lay still. A dark pool of liquid formed on the pavement near her head, expanding every moment. Irena watched, unable to move, horror overcoming her.
She heard the scream as if from a distance. A high-pitched shriek. She realized with horror that it was Rami, shouting in terror. Another shot. The wall to her left exploded in dust. She had to do something. But what?
She grabbed Rami’s hand and took off, sprinting down the street. Another shot and another explosion directly behind her. She kept running, Rami barely keeping up. She expected any moment for the fiery pain of a bullet to erupt between her shoulder blades. Another shot rang out and another. They reached the corner and turned sharply, continuing down another street, and another. She turned left and jogged halfway down the block. She was huffing loudly now, out of breath, ready to pass out from the pain in her lungs. She pulled Rami into an alley and stopped, leaning against the wall, trying to catch her breath.
“What happened to Sasha?” Rami whispered.
“She’s gone,” said Irena, trying to process those words.
“Did the Germans get her?”
Irena nodded.
“What are we going to do?”
Irena wondered that herself. There was no way she could lead Rami through the sewers herself. Her hope was that they might run across one of the other guides and she could j
oin the escape. She just had to find a manhole and then a good hiding space. Her breath gradually eased, and she could think straight again.
“Irena. What are we to do?” Rami repeated.
“We’re going to find a hiding place and wait for help,” said Irena. “Hold my hand and come with me.”
Irena led her cautiously back out onto the street. She didn’t know where they were, so she moved to the end of the block and stood, staring at the wall across the road. Miła Street. She recognized the name. They were only a few blocks from the ghetto wall. There was a good chance someone would come along near here and she could flag them down. She strained her eyes, staring into the middle of the intersection. Luck was with her; there was a manhole cover in the middle of the street. She looked around and found a set of stairs rising to a doorway. The base of the stairs offered at least a little cover for hiding. She led Rami over to the wall and pulled her down. Crouching together against the wall in their dark clothes, there was every chance they would be able to hide and wait for another group to come by.
They sat that way for hours. Irena kept checking her watch. It was four in the morning now. As the minutes ticked mercilessly by, she felt her hope slipping away. All the escapes were to take place simultaneously. Unless another group had been seriously delayed, they should all be in the sewers by now, if not already back in Aryan Warsaw. What was she going to do? She would have to make her way to one of the resistance bunkers and find another guide to get them out. The problem was she didn’t know the locations. Sasha could have told her easily and led them to safety. She only had another couple of hours before daylight.
She realized she could not risk it. She could not simply wander around the ghetto, hoping to find someone to help her. They would be arrested or shot. She had no chance on the streets. The only possibility, she realized, was the one option she feared the most.
* * *
Steeling herself, she made her decision. She took Rami by the hand and led her into the middle of the street. Reaching down, she hooked her finger into one of the holes in the sewer cover and pulled. The metal disk didn’t budge. She pulled again, harder this time. Nothing. She wished she’d been able to pick up Sasha’s tool, but she’d have been killed if she’d tried to run out and retrieve it. She pulled Rami back to the stairs. “Stay here,” she whispered. She moved away and walked along the street, moving until she found what she was looking for: a building that was partially collapsed and full of rubble.
Irena clambered up onto a pile of the bricks and began digging around in the darkness. She had her flashlight with her, but she dared not turn it on out here in the open. She moved brick after brick, desperately searching for something to help her. She’d almost given up hope when her hands came across what she was looking for, a ribbed metal bar about half a meter long. The iron rod was thick, about a centimeter in diameter. She pulled, and it came loose from the pile. She picked her way back down from the brick mound and hurried to the stairway. She checked her watch. Another half hour had passed. She had to get them underground soon or the dawn light would expose them to eyes in every direction.
She led Rami back out into the street. Squatting down, Irena wedged the iron rod into one of the holes in the cover. She twisted the bar and pulled down, trying to move the heavy cover. She felt the metal tearing at her skin and the grating shriek of metal on metal. At first the object would not move but she pushed harder, pressing all her weight down and pulling to her left at the same time. At once the cover gave, coming up at first a centimeter, then another. Finally, it rose above the street and she pulled hard, moving her feet against the street as she shoved the cover away from the hole. Three more times she had to begin again, but finally she had a large enough hole that she would be able to squeeze down into the darkness.
“I’ll go first,” she whispered to Rami. “If you hear anything happen to me, I want you to run and hide, anywhere you can. Wait until dark again and then go and try to find someone to help you.”
“I don’t want to leave you,” she said, her voice trembling. “I want to leave here. I want my mother.”
“I know, dear. I’m going to get you to safety. But you must promise if anything happens to me, you’ll run and hide.”
“I promise.”
Irena took a step down into the darkness, her foot groping around until she located a rung. She turned her body into the hole and took another step down and another, lowering herself slowly into the abyss. Halfway down she remembered there could be traps set inside. She retrieved her flashlight and flicked it on, running it along the interior of the hole and along the rungs. There was nothing. Breathing a sigh of relief, she pulled herself farther down until she could feel her feet hit the stone below. She was fortunate, there was no sewage here at all. The corridor could have been nothing more than an underground hallway if not for the overwhelming stench that already threatened to suffocate her. She turned her light back on and illuminated the rungs.
“Climb down now,” she ordered. Rami obeyed, pulling herself down rapidly until Irena could take her by the waist and lift her gently to the ground.
Irena considered returning the cover to its place, but she decided against it. She was too exhausted. The Germans might find the cover and investigate, but amongst the myriad of problems she faced, the risk seemed small. Flicking her light on again, she examined the corridor in both directions. It led in a straight line as far as she could see both ways. To her right, there appeared to be a passageway about a hundred meters away. Orienting herself as best she could in her mind to the streets above, this passage seemed to her to lead toward the ghetto wall. She took Rami’s hand and they walked toward this opening. Irena desperately wanted to keep the light on, but she knew she couldn’t risk it for long. Shutting the flashlight off, she felt her way along the wall, seeking out the passageway. Finally, they reached it and Irena prepared to take her first step into the unknown. She had no knowledge of the sewers, no guide. She knew there were dozens of branches down here, and that the Germans patrolled the corridors frequently. It would take a miracle for her to survive here. For the first time since she was a little girl, she bent her head and prayed, asking for guidance and a shepherd to lead them away.
They walked down the new corridor for some distance. Irena risked a little light. Another fifty meters ahead, the corridor ran into a “T.” The new passage must be part of the main sewage system because it sunk down into a river of sludge. Irena considered going back but she was sure she was headed the right direction. They continued until they reached the stream of refuse. The smell was overwhelming, and she heard Rami choke and gag behind her.
“We are going to have to get into the water,” Irena said. She heard Rami gasp.
“I can’t,” she whispered in horror.
“We have to,” Irena said. “Don’t worry, I’ve done this before, it’s only bad for a little bit.”
“No. Please,” Rami pleaded. “Can’t we go back?”
Irena shook her head, although she desperately wanted to agree with her. “No, we have to move forward. I’ll go first.”
Squatting down, she dipped her foot in and then her leg. Her toes searched for the bottom as she lowered her second leg in. She found the stone beneath her and stepped all the way in, the sludge lapping around her waist. “See,” she said, trying to be brave. “It’s not so bad.”
She reached out and took Rami’s hand and helped lower her into the sewage. The thick, putrid water reached up to the middle of the girl’s ribcage. Rami gagged again and vomited, liquid spilling out of her mouth and down her chest into the foul water.
“It will be all right,” Irena assured her. “We are going to be out of this and to safety before you know it.”
Irena turned and flicked the light on again, searching both directions. She wasn’t sure which way was best to go. She ultimately picked her left. “Hold on to me,” she said, and waded forward, into the muck, the water freezing her legs. Her eyes stung from the foul stench and
every step she choked back the nausea. After a few meters she retched, holding on to the wall for a few seconds until the heaving passed. Then she continued.
On and on they went. Irena would turn on the flashlight every few minutes, trying to keep her orientation. She passed a turn to her left and then another. She kept moving, looking for a passage that would lead to her right again. She checked her watch; it was nearly seven. They’d been wading through the foul water for more than an hour. Finally, she saw a passage opening to her right in the distance.
“That’s what we want,” she said in relief. “We will take that and soon we can climb out.” She hoped that was true, but in reality she had no idea where they were.
They moved on and finally reached the passage that opened to the left and the right. She turned her flashlight on and examined the entranceway. She was ready to turn it off when she spotted a wire a few centimeters above the waterline, extending the full length of the right passageway. In order to enter this way, they would have to swim under. She shook her head. She couldn’t do that. They would have to keep going.
“Halt!” She heard the deep, violent voice ricocheting down the stone corridor. She turned her light to the left and saw a German there, waist deep in the sewage, his rifle in both hands aiming at her. She flicked off her light and she heard a sharp report. He’d fired at her.
She felt the panic scorching through her. She had an instant to decide what to do. Grabbing Rami, she dove her head under the filth, pulling the child down with her. She felt her way with her eyes closed, turning the corner and swimming through the thick muck, feeling her way along the walls as far as she could away from the entrance. Her lungs felt like they would explode but she swam on, pushing beyond her endurance to try to move as far away as she could before she surfaced. She reached her limit and pushed with her feet, driving her head above water and pulling Rami up at the same time. She gasped for breath, some of the liquid in her mouth. She tasted the bitter flavor as she gasped for breath. Her nostrils and mouth were full of the foulness. She retched again and behind her she heard Rami doing the same. She opened her eyes. They stung like fire, but she blinked over and over until she could see. A light flicked up and down the corridor. She turned back; the soldier was still there. He spotted them and screamed again, firing another shot and moving toward them.
Irena's War Page 28
