The Warsaw Anagrams

by Richard Zimler

  ‘Był she grumbled – ‘He looks heavy – I’ll need the wheelbarrow.’ Those were the only words she ever spoke to Izzy and me – the woman who saved our lives.

  CHAPTER 14

  Izzy had done business for years with Wysocki Jewellers on Elektoralna Street. Though just a small neighbourhood shop, it had the advantage of being on our way home.

  To avoid being spotted, we walked a mile east to the banks of the Vistula and made our way north along a tangled path towards the medieval-looking towers of the Poniatowski Bridge. From there, we headed west into the city centre. We went slowly, stopping often, too exhausted and troubled to exchange more than a few words.

  It was nearly two hours later when we finally made it to the jewellery shop. Only then did I notice that Izzy no longer had his tweed fabric.

  ‘I tossed the bag away while we were running,’ he told me, shrugging off his irritation.

  Inside the shop was a wiry young man sitting behind a bulky, old-fashioned desk, hunched over a book, lost to the world. Despite the cold, Izzy and I were sweating heavily, and his arthritis had him close to tears.

  ‘That’s Andrzej,’ he told me, ‘the eldest, and a good boy, but’ – here, Izzy tapped his temple and added, ‘not much up here – der shoyte ben pikholtz.’

  Andrzej looked up on hearing the bells on the door tinkle. ‘Mr Nowak, what a surprise!’ he exclaimed gleefully, coming around the counter with his arms open.

  After hugging Izzy, the young man remembered that nosy neighbours might be watching. Locking the door with a decisive click, he invited us into his storeroom. Once we were safely out of view, I introduced myself and shook his hand.

  Andrzej’s hair was a brown skullcap, but he’d left a four-inch whip in front that dangled between his eyes. In his thick, black-rimmed spectacles, he looked like a cross between a Talmud student and a jazz musician.

  ‘So, tell me about the ghetto,’ he said to us in a fearful tone. ‘Is it bad?’

  I deferred to Izzy. He was already seated in the armchair in the corner and was pressing at the shooting pains in his right hip. ‘Don’t ask,’ he replied wearily. ‘Listen, Andrzej, we’re in a hurry. We need to sell a wedding ring. Show him, Erik.’

  While the young jeweller examined the diamond, I dropped down on the bench along the wall. After a minute or so, he lowered his ivory-handled magnifying glass. ‘Times are hard, Dr Cohen, so if you’d be willing to accept two thousand, then…’

  ‘Where’s your father?’ Izzy cut in.

  ‘Papa’s got a cold. So I’m not sure I can…’

  ‘Get him on the phone.’

  ‘The phones are down. I think that…’

  ‘It’s worth eight thousand and we won’t take less than four!’ Izzy announced, using a jabbing finger to intimidate Andrzej.

  ‘Papa has set a two-thousand-złoty limit for me,’ Andrzej replied sadly.

  They began to haggle, and their words became needles poking into my fragile composure. When Izzy began to plead, I told them I’d wait in the shop. Seated at the desk, with the door to the storeroom closed behind me, I eased open the top drawer and found a handsome silver letter opener on top of a ledger book. I slipped it in my pocket. I lit a cigarette, then leaned down to undo the laces on my shoes. The smoke made my eyes tear, which gave me an excuse to shut them. To never open them again seemed my best option.

  Izzy was sputtering curses in Yiddish and French when he hobbled out. Andrzej trailed behind him like a punished puppy. He came to me and apologized for not being able to offer a fair price, desperate for forgiveness, and I gave it to him, but I curled my fingers around the letter opener in my coat pocket as though its theft were my real reply.

  After I’d done up my laces, Izzy handed me a stack of notes – two thousand four hundred złoty. ‘Let’s go,’ he told me, and after twisting the deadbolt, he pulled open the door as if he was ready to clobber the first person we met on the street. I faced Andrzej and asked if he knew of a nearby crossing point back to the ghetto. He said no, but Izzy didn’t believe him. To shame the young man, he tried to stuff a ten-złoty note into his coat pocket, saying, ‘Here’s what you Christians need to make you charitable!’

  Andrzej pushed the money away. ‘For the love of God, Mr Nowak, stop!’

  Outside, shivering, the young man pointed towards a bakery down the block. ‘I’ve seen delivery men loading sacks of flour on to wagons. I’m not sure, but try there.’

  Izzy marched off without shaking Andrzej’s hand. When I caught up, he snarled, ‘I know I behaved badly, but don’t you dare start with me!’

  At the bakery, the owner’s wife advised us to go to a garage on Freta Street. ‘Ask for Maciej.’

  Maciej came to the door reeking of gasoline, his face streaked black with grease. ‘No, no, no,’ he told us when we asked after a crossing point, shooing us away like mosquitoes, but Izzy held up two ten-złoty notes and said, ‘Abracadabra!’

  Maciej and another mechanic pushed a black Ford into the corner of the garage, revealing a two-metre square of corrugated iron on the cement floor. Sliding it to the side gave us access to a hole the size of a wagon wheel.

  ‘What’s down there?’ I asked, peering in and seeing only sandy earth at the bottom.

  ‘A tunnel. And despite the rumours, I haven’t spotted a single albino crocodile inside – though I can’t guarantee you won’t find frogs.’

  ‘Frogs?’ Izzy asked.

  ‘A smuggler came back with a handful the other day. They must breed somewhere down there in the dark. Our theory is that they’re a bit shy when it comes to fucking.’ Grinning, he added, ‘Like Jewish girls.’

  I expect he thought that was witty. Izzy and I failed to laugh, so he apologized. He seemed a good man, but I didn’t trust him; he was a Christian, after all – with a wholly different destiny from ours, whether he wanted it or not.

  ‘How far do we have to go to reach the ghetto?’ I asked him.

  ‘After twenty-five metres you’ll reach another hole leading up. Just call out – the women will open the trap door.’

  ‘Women?’

  ‘They sew children’s clothing for the Germans.’

  A candle cost us fifty groszy; use of a ladder was free. Izzy climbed down while I showed Maciej my photos of Adam and Anna, but he didn’t recognize either of them.

  The tunnel’s entrance was only a few inches wider than our shoulders. The candle succeeded in pushing the darkness back just four or five metres. Wooden beams held up the ceiling; it looked like a tiny mineshaft. And it didn’t look like it had been built to last very long.

  ‘We’re going to have to crawl,’ Izzy told me morosely.

  ‘Listen,’ I replied in an urgent whisper, ‘we have no proof this even leads to the ghetto. We could be buried alive.’

  ‘Why the hell would Maciej want to trap us?’ he asked.

  ‘Why wouldn’t he? There are rewards for catching Jews.’

  Izzy scoffed, but then climbed back up and talked to Maciej. I stood on the second rung of the ladder and watched, but they kept their voices down, so I couldn’t make out what they said. At one point, Izzy took out Marlene. The burly mechanic patted his shoulder and smiled, as though they were old army comrades.

  ‘What did you tell him?’ I asked Izzy after he’d climbed back down.

  ‘That if we had any trouble I’d come back and blow his brains out.’

  ‘And what did he say?’

  ‘That I was sure as hell one angry Jew, but that he didn’t mind, because it was about time the Jews got fed up.’ He grinned boyishly. ‘He also said that my Jimmy Cagney imitation was excellent.’

  ‘Did he really say that?’

  ‘No, but I could see he wanted to!’

  I laughed – and for a few moments all that mattered was Izzy’s unstoppable sense of humour. Then his face grew grave. ‘I’m going to tell you a secret, Erik,’ he told me.

  ‘What?’

  ‘When you laugh, your eyes twinkle a
nd you look like you did when we were seven years old and planning adventures in our neighbourhood. It’s the best thing about you, your laughter, and the thing I’ve always loved, and that Hannah most loved, and though you probably think other things about you are much more important and profound, they aren’t. Because the way you can switch from grief or dread to absolute joy in an instant… like there’s a spring always ready to push you towards what’s best… It says something significant about the way you are – and it makes people side with you. And one other thing,’ he added, taking my arm, ‘it’s what Adam adored about you more than anything else.’

  I wanted to say something equal to my feelings, but the words wouldn’t come.

  Izzy came to my rescue, as always. ‘I’ll go first, Dr Freud,’ he said cheerfully.

  ‘Why you?’

  ‘Because I want to play the lead for a change! Besides, I’ve got the candle. You take Marlene.’ He handed me the pistol. ‘If you see anything furry that resembles Mickey or Minnie, pow – right between the eyes!’

  Izzy started ahead. I followed close behind. The tunnel was filthy with scum, and the rotting-wood stink was nauseating. The scabs on my knees opened. The air became stale and the heat grew stifling. Hearing a metallic clang behind us, I looked over my shoulder. Blackness pressed against my eyes like a blindfold. We were sealed in.

  With my pulse racing, I tried to slip out of my suit coat, but there wasn’t enough room. Panic covered me like netting. I pushed out on the wooden planks of the tunnel. ‘I can’t go on!’ I announced.

  ‘Erik, if we aren’t there in two minutes, we’ll turn back.’

  Water dripping from the ceiling stepped its fingertips across my neck as I edged forward. My ears seemed stuffed, and I felt dizzy. The air became too thin to fill my lungs. Izzy’s candle grew dim and sputtered out. By my count, we had crawled thirty metres.

  Purple and red shapes floated around me. My thoughts were arrows flying out in wild directions. ‘Maciej tricked us!’ I said, sucking in air, then sucking again, because my lungs weren’t filling.

  ‘Give me your lighter!’ Izzy ordered.

  ‘No, I’m going back,’ I answered between gulps of air. I must have looked like a fish tossed on land. I tried to turn around, but it was too tight.

  ‘Erik, hand me your goddamned lighter!’ he repeated.

  I found only the letter opener in my coat pocket. ‘It’s gone,’ I said, panting. Get out of here now! was what the booming against my ribs meant.

  ‘You’ve still got it – try in your other pockets!’ he told me.

  I found it and held it out. ‘Take it!’

  His fingers groped along my arm and snatched it, but he couldn’t raise a flame. Fighting for breath, he whispered, ‘It doesn’t matter. I saw the exit just ahead.’

  I could tell he was lying, but before I could say so, my hands gave way and I slipped on to my belly. I was too weak to move and I was falling into darkness.

  I awoke pierced by light. Izzy was staring down at me, and his face seemed too big. A young woman with pretty brown eyes was also gazing down at me. Her eyelashes were long and delicate – like fern tendrils.

  ‘Yes, you’re alive,’ Izzy assured me. ‘We pulled you out with a rope.’

  ‘Out of where?’ I asked; my memory of the last hour was gone.

  ‘The tunnel.’

  ‘And where are we?’

  ‘Where would you like to be?’

  ‘London – the British Museum.’

  ‘Good choice! Anything I can get you?’ he questioned.

  ‘Some tea. And a scone. And maybe a thunderstorm.’ Strange things to ask for, but I was thinking that there was a lot to be said for English clichés when one has been crushed by German ones.

  ‘Sorry, we took a wrong turn somewhere near Brussels,’ Izzy replied. ‘We’re back home. How about a week-old sheygets and some ghetto water?’

  He sat down beside me and lifted a cup of water to my lips. I drank gratefully. My head was pounding.

  ‘So, how are you feeling?’ he asked.

  ‘That I wish I’d gone first. I wouldn’t have made a wrong turn near Brussels.’

  Smiling with relief, he helped me sit up. The woman beside him took his cup and held it to my lips again. I felt bruised and tender, as if I’d been stepped on. I looked around the room. Five women sat at sewing tables, pedalling like demons. I held up my hand and waved. Two of them noticed and smiled. They had sympathetic eyes and the same gaunt features we all had – starvation would make us all cousins before the Germans were through with us. Still, the whirring sound of the sewing machines was reassuring – a noble percussion that meant: we Jews are fighting on.

  I was lying on a lumpy couch, covered by a woollen blanket. I lifted it up. I was in my underwear. My knees were crusted with blood. And my arm was throbbing – I looked again at the angry burn Mrs Sawicki had given me.

  ‘Checking on your petzl?’ Izzy asked, raising his eyebrows.

  ‘I thought it might be prudent to make sure it’s still there,’ I told him.

  The women laughed.

  The air had become warm and full. My trousers were folded neatly on the seat of a chair by my head. My coat and shirt were hanging over its back. When I reached for my pants, an old season ticket for the omnibus fell out of my pocket. And just like that, I seemed to have entered one of Papa’s jokes: a skeleton crawls out of his grave five years after burial and finds a receipt in his coat pocket for the trousers that he’d been having altered when he died, so he goes to his tailor, presents the receipt to him and says, ‘So, Pinkus, are my pants ready?’

  For the life of me, I couldn’t remember the punchline of the joke, but I giggled anyway. Izzy looked at me inquisitively.

  ‘Too little oxygen,’ I told him, which must have been partially true, but I was mostly giddy at finding myself still alive.

  At home, Izzy and I found that Stefa was still unable to leave her bed. After I slipped into fresh clothes, I emptied her chamber pot, and she asked me what had happened to my hair. I reached up to check it was still there. Then I remembered. ‘I needed a disguise,’ I told her.

  She sighed as if I required great patience. ‘I’m sore all over,’ she moaned. ‘And my feet are still frozen. Could you make me some hot tea with lemon?’

  We had no lemons, so I trudged over to the Tarnowskis’ while Izzy massaged Stefa’s shoulders. As I stood in the doorway, Ida Tarnowski asked about my hair as well. ‘I’m up for a part in a Yiddish production of Don Juan in Hell,’ I told her, which I thought was witty, but she asked me when I’d know if I’d passed the audition.

  ‘Sorry, I was just kidding,’ I replied, and I asked her for a lemon, but she told me she couldn’t even remember what one looked like.

  I tried several other neighbours without luck. When I returned home, Stefa was snoring and Izzy was flat on his back in my bed, in all his clothes, his mouth open – an ancient cave with hidden gold. I chopped off most of my hair at the bathroom sink and ended up looking like a prisoner of war, which seemed right. Then I left a cup of hot water on my niece’s night table – sweetened with molasses – and climbed under the covers. The sheets were Siberian ice, but I was too exhausted to care.

  I woke up when I heard Izzy clomping around the room. He was munching on a piece of matzo. He sat down at the foot of my bed. ‘Your raven has flown away,’ he noted.

  ‘Gloria told him that Poland was no place for a bird.’

  We talked about our next moves. I needed to make some food for Stefa, so he agreed to go to Mikael Tengmann’s office and hand him the thousand złoty, then head to Mrs Rackemann’s shop, pay her what I still owed her and pick up my wedding band. I put Mikael’s money in one of Mrs Sawicki’s envelopes and asked him to note if the physician showed any unease or surprise on seeing her name; it occurred to me now that the killer – who must have lived outside the ghetto – might have had an accomplice inside. And Mikael was one of only two people I knew of who had known bot
h Adam and Anna, the other being Rowy. Maybe one of them was conspiring with Mrs Sawicki.

  An hour and a half later Izzy was back. I was frying up some wild onion to add to the borscht I’d made out of two withered old beets.

  ‘Mikael is getting the anti-typhus serum tomorrow,’ he told me. He stuffed the money in my coat pocket, since my hands were busy, and he put my wedding band down on the counter.

  ‘You could have paid Mikael already,’ I observed.

  He took a long sip of ersatz coffee out of my cup, then said, ‘He told me not to – not until he had the serum. So he hasn’t seen the envelope yet.’

  ‘What are you two talking about?’ my niece called out from her room.

  When I explained to her that we’d soon have the serum, she announced, ‘No one is injecting me with anything!’ Her voice was strong, but she gave herself a coughing fit and got bloody phlegm on her sheets.

  ‘I didn’t risk my life so you could put up a fuss,’ Izzy told her as I fetched a hand-towel from her wardrobe.

  ‘How did you risk your life?’ she asked, squinting suspiciously.

  I glared at Izzy to keep the truth hidden, but he’d already figured that out. ‘Every outing with your uncle puts me in danger of a fatal moral decline,’ he said dryly.

  ‘Go away!’ she told him nastily. ‘And you, too!’ she added, turning to me.

  The next morning, I awoke just after dawn, eager to speak to Anna’s friends before heading to Mikael’s office. Stefa looked fast asleep when I tiptoed into her room, so I turned round, which was when she spoke, making me jump.

  ‘I’m up,’ she said in a drowsy voice.

  She dared open her eyes only a sliver; the light streaming through the window made her head throb. She instructed me to look for a small book with a leather cover in the top drawer of her dresser. Once I’d found it, she had me open it to the first page. Written in her neat square handwriting – in Polish – was the following: