Lodzi measured girl after girl, and he felt a sense of fear deep inside his body that, for once, wasn't fear for himself, but for another. He knew no good would come from this, only evil, and his hatred of Heiss was never stronger than at that minute. He imagined he had a knife and he imagined the joy he would feel if he were to plunge it up to the hilt in the captain's chest. He imagined the blade slicing heart muscle and puncturing lung and imagined the bloody froth issuing from the dying devil’s mouth.
But none of that happened.
Instead, he measured the girls, sending some to the back of the platform, and sending dozens of others down the path to Barracks Eight.
It snowed that day, all afternoon and into the early evening. The air was so cold the snow froze. Ice began lacquering the trees with long, silvery strokes that caused branches to bend low and drag across the snow as the wind picked up and moved them to and fro. Breath—exhaled by the workers as they labored at the ditches—hung in the air in long plumes, intermingled, and drifted to the ground.
At six o'clock, Hauptsturmführer Heiss entered the Barracks Eight outer room and ordered Lodzi and his fellow workers to strip the girls of all clothing, eyeglasses, jewelry and watches. Five minutes later he strode into the roomful of sixty-five nude girls. Most were ten to twelve years of age, although there were a dozen or so seven-, eight- and nine-year-olds present.
"Tonight," he told them, "we're going to have a contest. There can only be one winner. First, you will go outside for a very short time and then return inside and have hot soup. Then you will be given fresh clothes and reunited with your parents. Following which we will have a party with cake and rewards. Sound good?"
The girls were weeping, mortified with the embarrassment of disrobing before strangers. The Ukrainian guards strolled among them and fondled them, daring them to respond. Some were even pulled aside for sex as those nearby turned away and wept. Heiss stood back, inhaling the hysteria, delighted with the perversions all around.
En masse, they were marched outside into the snow. Lodzi and his fellows guided the weeping girls along the icy path that just that morning had been covered with sand. The sand was now buried under an inch of new ice, and girls were slipping and falling and crying out in pain all along the path. Teeth began chattering and cries of desperation erupted in the -20°C temperatures. They were marched by the Ukrainians and Lodzi's group to the edge of the forest and made to form up into a long, single line. They were told they would remain there five minutes. They were told not to move, not even to blink. That was part of the contest.
Five minutes later the Ukrainians told them someone among them had moved out of line, so another five minutes had been added on. By now lips were blue, arms enfolded torsos and many of the girls were hugging and crying loudly as the cold ate into their naked feet and tortured their bare bodies. Still they were told they had yet another five minutes to wait.
Several hours later, at least half of the girls had fallen to the ice and were struggling to breathe. Weeping and tears had trailed off as all energy was expended keeping warm. By now the temperature had plummeted to -30°C and even the guards in their heavy woolen coats and fur hats and fur-lined gloves were cold and stamping as they stood smoking and trading stories. The girls were totally ignored, their complaints went unheard, their prayers leapt into the night air and hung there and blew into the trees along with the wind which was picking up and blowing ice across the field.
An hour later, Hauptsturmführer Heiss came for them.
"Follow me, everyone, it's time for the party!"
The guards and workers helped the girls to their feet, with the exception of those too far gone to resuscitate for the march back to the barracks. The dying and the dead were left for the winds and wolves.
No one looked back at them as they made haste for the barracks.
Once everyone was assembled in the main room, Hauptsturmführer Heiss walked in among them, his jackboots gleaming with icy rivulets and his thin Aryan nose damp from the brief time he was outside that night.
"All right, time for coffee!"
The workers circulated among the girls and arranged them into a line that passed by a table with a coffee urn and paper cups. Everyone took and drank heartily, for the hot cups and steaming liquid made everything seem, at least for a moment, as if all was well.
"Now for the shower!" Hauptsturmführer Heiss shouted. "Everyone into the showers and then warm clothes will be waiting at the other end."
Every last girl was herded into the gas chamber, the doors hermetically sealed, and the automobile engine started up. Its exhaust was ported directly into the room through the shower nozzles. The girls, exhausted and sobbing, fell against one another and, one-by-one, were overcome in the thickening cloud of carbon monoxide. More than a hundred deaths were recorded that night in the books at Treblinka.
"That," said Hauptsturmführer Heiss to the subordinates gathered around him and bringing him his cognac, "is my idea of a party. Good night, gentlemen. You know what to do with the bodies. In the ground and covered in thirty minutes, no more. Time for my beauty sleep, all. Ta, as our English brothers and sisters say, ta.”
The last young face disappeared into the sand at 1:05 a.m. With horror coursing through his body such that he had never known, Lodzi made the slow trek back to his own barracks. There he lay down at an open spot on the dirt floor and cried himself to sleep.
Chapter Seven
Heiss was excited to meet with Himmler in Warsaw, but there was another use he planned to make of his time there. Perhaps an even more important use of time than meeting with the head of the SS.
He stepped down off the train in early afternoon. The train station operated beneath a long blue sign that said Warszawa Wschodnia Osobowa (literally, Warsaw East Passenger). The station consisted of eleven sets of tracks under one huge, glass-topped roof. German soldiers were everywhere, coming and going, hurrying from off-load to ticketing office to on-load. The air was dark with fumes from the engines and the light was bad under cloudy skies above. Along the tracks were support columns with suspended light fixtures. They attempted to glow in the gloom with useful light but were fluttering and spotty at best. The time and occasion was grim; the light underscored and contributed to the feeling of decay and impending ruin. The train station would eventually be destroyed in the war.
Heiss located his bag and hurried back up the track platform toward the interior of the station. He passed many Poles, who stepped by with eyes averted. Heiss was certain he recognized Jewish features on many of the faces and he was pleased with his work at the camp and pleased that soon those features would be erased from the earth. As he walked along, at each sign of what he considered Jewish features, he would toss a dour look in that person's direction and consciously move into their path as if to push them from the platform onto the tracks below. It was his way of telling them he wasn't fooled, he knew a Jew when he saw one. He hoped they would remember his face when they met again at the camp. For their part, the Jews so confronted would apologize for stepping into the path of the angry SS officer and move meekly aside as he strode back up the platform.
As he walked he patted his chest several times, making sure the long wallet was still tucked safely inside the interior breast pocket. Inside the wallet was enough currency to guarantee his safe passage out of Warsaw, beyond Germany, out of Europe and overseas, if the time for desertion should come. Heiss was a survivor at heart. While he loved the Führer and the fatherland, he wasn't above fleeing with Marta should the walls of the Nazi palace start to crumble.
In his briefcase was the report from Himmler entitled “The Warsaw Jewish Problem.” It briefed the gathering of death camp operators like Heiss on what would occur in Warsaw and highlighted the history of the Jews there so the officers knew what they were facing. Extermination was a difficult business and they were exterminating a people who were anything but simple-minded.
Himmler's report stated the Jewish population in Warsaw p
re-war was right at 400,000. Beginning two years earlier, in 1940, the Germans began construction of the walls to be known later as the Warsaw Ghetto. Anti-Jewish measures were implemented soon after. These included forced labor, the Jewish star on all chests, and laws against riding on public transportation. Then began the collection, where the Nazis deported Jews from throughout Western Europe and forced them into the Ghetto. The population had recently risen to a half a million people. Typhoid and hunger were rampant. Burial was too expensive and the streets were filled with corpses Jews couldn't afford to bury. So the bodies remained, rotting and feeding packs of dogs which had turned feral. The situation was dire and Reichsführer Himmler wanted a more concentrated effort in moving the Jews from the Ghetto to Treblinka before civil war broke out and an uprising had to be quelled. His demands were for doubled-up train schedules and longer trains. Which would require the death camp officers like Heiss to adjust for the new influx of walking corpses, as Himmler called the death camp arrivals.
It was the summer of 1942. Himmler's plan was to send 250,000 Ghetto residents to Treblinka over the summer. On the taxi ride to the military barracks on Choldna Street, Heiss viewed the area south of the Ghetto. He knew on the other side of Choldna Street, typhoid was killing Jews by the thousands. He had heard about the makeshift hospitals, public soup kitchens, orphanages, refugee centers and recreation facilities the Jews had built for themselves, as well as the school system. There was even a symphony orchestra. The Nazis projected part of the Jewish problem would resolve itself over the next three months, when typhoid was expected to claim 100,000 of the Ghetto's inhabitants.
During the evening, Heiss left the military barracks and walked north on Choldna Street to Czerniakow Street. He crossed into the Ghetto. One hundred meters north he began knocking on doors and asking for Mordecai Apfelbaum. After several doors were opened and his inquiry met with blank stares, he was finally invited inside at the fifth house. Wait here, he was told, and he took a chair in a drawing room furnished out of the 1890's. It contained heavy oak desks and tables, a roll top desk with a lamp, and two upholstered couches. Within minutes, a diminutive bald man strode into the room and went directly to the roll top desk. He opened the desk, brightened the light, and took out pen and paper. He then turned to the waiting Nazi.
“Captain Heiss?"
"Mr. Apfelbaum," said Heiss. "Thank you for seeing me."
Apfelbaum gave a slight smile. "It is only because of your money, I can assure you," said Apfelbaum.
"Under the circumstances, I can appreciate that," said Heiss.
"Now, how can I help?"
"I need two passports. I have brought the pictures as instructed. The names will be English, the nationality English. We will also need driver's licenses."
"I understand. Did you bring the money?"
"I did. ten thousand, correct?"
“Ten thousand per identity, as we agreed."
"Of course."
Heiss counted out twenty thousand zlotys as Apfelbaum watched. Apfelbaum then picked up the stack of bills and recounted for himself. When he was satisfied, he nodded.
"Very well. Where do I send them?"
"Send them to my attention at Treblinka. They will find their way to me without a problem."
"Now, about my wish."
"I've given it much thought. I believe you hold the solution in your own hands."
"With the twenty thousand?”
"That, and your ability to forge identification documents. Prepare identification for yourself and leave immediately. That is, after you have completed my work, of course."
"What about my name on the rolls?"
"I will make sure you are delisted from the rolls."
"You have access to the names of all Jews in the Ghetto?"
"I told you I do. You can disappear and no one will be the wiser. No one will come looking. This is a promise I can make you."
"Then we have a deal. Today is Wednesday. You will have your new documents next week."
"And I will arrange passage for you out of Warsaw. I will come to you personally and take you to the train station."
"Then I can deliver your documents to you at that time. Can we make it Wednesday next?"
“Yes, I will be here at nine a.m. sharp. I will see you then."
"Then it's agreed. Nine a.m. Wednesday. Good day Mr. Heiss."
"Good day Mr. Apfelbaum."
Back out on the sidewalk, Heiss stuffed his hands in the pockets of his overcoat, tucked his chin into his chest, and began retracing his steps. Out of the corner of his eye he watched the row houses as he walked past. Most were a good eighty years old, consisting of a front porch with two front doors, four windows above the porch—two to each side—and there would be an interior dividing wall dividing the left side of the house from the right. Each day, the Ghetto population was multiplying and each day the same square-mile of housing remaining was not enlarged. Which meant the houses and apartments and flats were doing double- and sometimes triple-duty with three families living where one family had lived before the war.
He came to the end of the first block and watched as a fire truck roared past, lights flashing and sirens blaring and he marveled at how the Jews had managed to maintain local services such as fire departments in the face of overwhelming odds posed by the Nazi deportation. When the fire truck and two follow-on black sedans had passed by, he stepped into the intersection and continued down the next block. At the next intersection, he passed through the checkpoint, which kept the Jews in and the non-Jews out. As usual, Heiss was relieved to be leaving the Ghetto.
The day was not at all cold, so Heiss continued walking to the barracks where he had been billeted for the night. Tomorrow he would meet with Himmler, along with a dozen others like Heiss, and they would all be ordered to increase production. More Jews would be coming with more Jews following and the gas chambers would be expected to operate around-the-clock. Heiss looked up at the leaden clouds and reminded himself it was all in furtherance of the Führer’s master plan and it was all necessary and good. This knowledge helped him sleep at night. It also helped relieve the slight twinge of guilt he was already feeling because of the betrayal he would spring on Apfelbaum next week once he had his documents safely in hand. None other than Heiss himself would shoot the Jew on the spot. After all, Heiss knew better than to leave a witness who might remember the path he had taken out of Poland. He had the feeling such information regarding his whereabouts and the other SS personnel operating the extermination camps would be extremely valuable to someone, someplace, sometime after the war. His plan was to be at least one ocean away before then.
Chapter Eight
The dentists were Jews who had been headed for the gas chambers when their professional licensure was found out. Their lives were saved. Which meant most of them had been at the camp more than a month and most of them knew each other and knew other Jews in the camp who had been awarded with longevity because of the nature of their specialized work. This included carpenters, automotive mechanics, electricians, physicians, nurses, nannies, and men who knew how to operate heavy equipment like the draglines and mechanical shovels used to enlarge the burial pits.
Longevity accomplished the one thing the Nazis feared: familiarity. Which resulted in a primitive communication system growing up among the Jews who managed to hang on day after day, week after week, and now, month after month. What was happening in one barracks could, over the span of a day, be communicated to the twenty-four other barracks. If Shamil Itzman was ill in Barracks Three then medical doctor Henrad Steinman in Barracks Eleven was summoned. And on it went as the network arose and became perfected among the longer-term inmates.
The inmates who had come to know each other felt their trust increase. They began talking among themselves of escape. Many of the long-term were frightened to talk about the one subject that would get them killed on the spot, like touching an SS guard could do, but it began to happen and the longer the stay, the more fre
quent it became.
The plan they would put into action actually began in Lodzi's Barracks One. In a far corner of the barracks, two inmates happened to be discussing how escape might be made, and a third went to the entrance to the barracks, announcing he would stand guard against Ukrainians and Nazis. Then the number of inmates engaged in the discussion almost magically doubled and quadrupled over the next hour. The next day, the proposal was passed along to the other barracks. By suppertime, every Jew in the camp had heard of the escape plan at least once, some more and some many more.
Adjustments were made to the plan. Embellishments were offered; some were turned away, while some were adopted outright.
The roles were assigned and selections made from among the inmates. Then backups and backups of backups were selected for those times when a key participant would be suddenly murdered. Continuity was the key to moving the plan forward. Continuity and consistency, so the plan was the only topic at night anymore. Certainly there were always those who said Kaddish for the day's dead, which Lodzi covered his ears against while humming out loud. But most often the time was taken up with making sure everyone knew what the final plan would be and everyone knew who all of the players were—at least their names, if they couldn't recognize them personally outside the barracks.
In January 1943, the SS transferred fifteen workers from Camp 2 to work with Lodzi and his fellow corpse tenders in Camp 1. Instead of shooting the most highly trained fifteen Jews for what amounted to minor trespasses against the sensibilities of their overseers, the violators were instead moved from camp to camp, reassigned, as it were, to remove them from the eye of the SS victims of the minor infractions.
Two of the new arrivals were a sailor, Adolf, and Zelo Boch, a Czech Jew and an officer in the Czech army. Soldiers—military. Now at last the inmates of Lodzi's camp included men who knew how violence worked, how plans could be staffed and executed. They brought word of a different, but similar, plan in Camp 2. The inmates in Camp 1 unanimously agreed they would adopt the Camp 2 plan instead of their old plan.
Unspeakable Prayers: WW II to Present Day (Thaddeus Murfee Series of Legal Thrillers) Page 6