* * *
Eli returned to the brickyard, his mind in a daze. Maximilian had sworn to protect her, to safeguard her. He obviously knew that the Lipowa camp was closing and concealed it. Even this very day, knowing she was gone, Maximilian falsely promised he would have Esther released from Lipowa and get them all to Sweden. How foolish, Eli thought, to rely on a single word that Maximilian uttered.
Yet if anybody would know what happened to Esther, if anyone would know where she had been sent, it was Maximilian. But he was as good as dead. More than likely shot to death within minutes of leaving Globočnik’s office.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
FÖHRENWALD
FÖHRENWALD DP CAMP
AMERICAN ZONE
DECEMBER 1946
Before returning to Föhrenwald, Eli and Major Donnelly met in the Landsberg camp administration office to review the details of the plan to arrest Max the following week. They were joined by Aaron Davison, Shael Bruchstein and Moshe Pogrund. A map of the camp was spread out on a table. Major Donnelly tapped the map with his finger. “My MPs will be placed here and here, behind the administration office and out of sight. I will be here. Mr. Davison, you will stand here outside of the commissary. When Max tenders the visa to you, you will hand over the six thousand Swiss francs to him in full view. We’ll have it all on film. Then we’ll take him into custody. With any luck and a great deal of persuasion, Max will then give up his source in the United States.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Max evaded capture in Föhrenwald,” Eli said. “We should have had him, but because one of our residents alerted him to the sting, he didn’t show. If Max learns about this operation and doesn’t show up next week because one of you tipped him off or failed to keep this operation secret, there will be hell to pay.”
“We know,” Pogrund said. “No one will say a thing.”
Satisfied that everything was in place, Donnelly and Eli left Landsberg for the return drive to Föhrenwald. Eli was anxious to get home. He had only been gone for the day, but he hadn’t wanted to leave Izaak at all. He had agreed to go to Landsberg only because of Adinah’s kind offer to stay and Dr. Weisman’s promise to check in on him. Weisman had said that Izaak was a strong little boy, and he seemed to be holding his own, but Eli was beside himself with worry. He felt helpless and could only pray.
Adinah met him at the door with a cautious smile. “I think he’s doing better,” she said, crossing her fingers. “Less coughing today since the injection. Dr. Weisman stopped in tonight after his clinic hours and examined him. He said he was pleased with what he saw. ‘There is reason for optimism,’ he said. He hopes to have the results from the strep test tomorrow or Tuesday, but he wants him to keep taking the medicine.”
Eli breathed a sigh of relief. Though nothing was certain, he had seen the dreaded disease quickly consume Bernard without any remission or reason to be optimistic. Adinah’s report that Izaak was improving was surely a good sign. He quietly walked into the bedroom to tuck Izzie in and noticed that the rosy-red complexion that had covered his face and chest was almost gone. Izaak did not feel as warm as he had when Eli left early that morning. He returned to the living room to thank Adinah, but she had fallen asleep on the couch.
* * *
The aroma of eggs and toast greeted Eli as he opened his eyes. He sat up in bed and listened as Adinah and Izzie carried on a spirited conversation in the other room. When he entered the kitchen, he saw Izaak devouring a plate of scrambled eggs.
“Hi, Papa!”
Eli leaned over to give him a hug and noted that his forehead was cool to the touch. “How are you feeling this morning, my boy?”
“Pretty good. My throat’s still sore, but I’m not so tired today.”
“That’s his second plate of eggs,” Adinah said with a smile.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Eli said, but she waved him off. “It’s nothing. You are doing more for me than I am doing for you.”
“She taught me some songs, Papa. We’ve been singing together, except for when my throat hurt.”
“Adinah, you’ve been a godsend. You can say it’s nothing, but Izzie and I know better. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Yes,” she said. “You can sit down while I make a breakfast for you.”
Eli patted his son on the back and said, “I can’t turn that down, can I, Izzie?”
Izaak answered with his mouth full. “No, she’s a good cook.”
As Adinah stood at the stove frying eggs, Izaak leaned over and whispered, “Papa, can Adinah stay here with us? She lives in a little room in another lady’s apartment.”
Eli shook his head and returned the whisper. “We don’t have an extra bedroom.”
Izaak was not about to give up. “Papa, she sleeps on the couch in our front room and she doesn’t mind. She told me it was comfortable.”
Eli watched as Adinah spooned the eggs from the pan onto a plate. “We’ll talk later,” he whispered.
Setting the plate before Eli, Adinah said, “How was your trip to Landsberg?”
“I think it went very well, but our business is unfinished. I’m afraid I’ll have to return next Wednesday.”
“I will stay.”
Izaak’s eyes brightened. “Can she?”
“I feel like we’re imposing on you, Adinah.”
“I have no plans. But even if I did, I would cancel them for Izzie.”
“That’s very kind, but…”
She took a step forward and spoke with emotion. “Listen to me. I have nothing. I have nobody. I lost everyone I ever loved. Now I sit alone in my room in yet another camp for Jews thinking only of the unfairness of it all.” Tears formed in her eyes. “Why was I given a life to spend in such a way? Why was everything I loved taken from me? I am full of self-pity, and I hate myself for it.” She looked at Izaak. “But I have made a friend, someone to care about, a wonderful boy who also cares for me. For the first time since I was taken from Zamość, I have a reason to look forward to the next day.”
Eli put his arm around her. “Never again say you have nobody. You have us; we are your family. You can stay with us as long as you wish.”
Adinah’s lips quivered. She tried to answer but turned her head and left the room.
* * *
After breakfast, Eli went to visit Bernard, anxious to report on the progress made at Landsberg. A nurse halted Eli at the sanitarium door and gave him a surgical mask. “He’s not doing well today,” she said. “There’s a lot of fluid in his lungs and he’s having protracted coughing spells. It’s hard for him to talk. Please don’t stay long, and when you leave, throw your mask in the receptacle and thoroughly wash your hands.”
Bernard lay on his back with his eyes closed. His breathing was labored. Eli stood beside his bed, and the nurse said, “Bernard, there’s someone here to see you.”
His eyes slowly opened and a smile came to his lips. With intermittent whispers, he said, “Did you catch him?”
Eli looked from Bernard to the nurse, but Bernard said, “She’s okay. You can talk.”
“With any luck, we’ll have him next Wednesday. The exchange is set inside Landsberg. We’ll have the major and the MPs, and we intend to arrest him as soon as he hands over the visa.”
“Next Wednesday?” His question was expressed in little more than a whisper.
The sight of his friend in such a state was hard to take, and a knot formed in Eli’s throat. “God willing.”
Bernard started to wheeze, and it progressed into a violent, racking cough from deep within his chest that lifted his body off the bed. The nurse took Eli by the elbow and led him from the room. “That’s enough for today,” she said.
* * *
Izaak was napping when Eli returned. “Is he all right? He doesn’t usually take naps.”
“I told him to lie down,” Adinah said, “he’s been a pretty sick boy. I’ve been giving him his medicine, and I think it’s working. I wouldn’t
make much out of the fact that he takes a little nap.”
Eli checked on him and returned to the kitchen, where Adinah had brewed a pot of tea. “He looks good,” he said. “He’s not warm. I know I’ve said this before, but I can’t thank you enough.”
Adinah sat down next to Eli. “Izaak is a fine young man, and we have formed a friendship. Although he’s asked me not to tell you, he’s been opening up to me.”
Eli raised his palm like a stop sign. “Then don’t tell me. I don’t want you to betray a confidence. If he told you things that he wants kept private, then that’s where they should remain.”
Adinah had both hands around her steaming cup of tea. She stared straight ahead. “There are times when he feels a need to talk about his feelings, and he brings those to me. I think it is because he does not want to appear weak in your eyes. I listen, and I am accepting of his sadness, his vulnerabilities and his fears.”
Eli’s jaw dropped. “Does he feel that I am not? Does he feel that he can’t talk to me?”
Adinah wagged her finger. “Please do not take this the wrong way. I am not his father. You are a god in his eyes. You represent everything he aspires to be: strength, wisdom, leadership. I am a woman, and I awaken memories of someone warm, gentle and safe. Perhaps in my eyes he sees similar fears, and we relate. One cannot know. There is a matter that sits heavily on his mind, and it is my judgment that you should know, both for your sake and his.”
Eli seemed confused.
“It concerns the time your wife left him with the Catholic woman in Lublin. In his mind, you are carrying guilt of abandoning your son, though he doesn’t express it quite that way. The matter remains unspoken between the two of you. He says you’ve never discussed it, but he needs for you to know that he doesn’t fault you or your wife. At the time he was taken to the church, he didn’t understand what was happening and he was resentful, but now he honors you and your wife for what you did.”
Eli swallowed hard. “Esther delivered him to Lucya on my instructions. We felt we had no choice.”
“Please understand: he doesn’t blame you or his mother. He is far more mature than that. But it’s been bottled up inside of him, and I think he’s trying to find a way to tell you about it. As necessary as it was to leave him with Lucya, it was traumatic for him.”
“I understand.”
“Maybe you do; maybe you don’t. He describes the day in vivid detail. His mother wrested him from his bed in the middle of the night. She grabbed a pillowcase full of clothes, took him by the hand and ran through the streets to the church. The church was empty, but for a light coming from beneath a closed rectory door. All of this was frightening to Izaak. I can only imagine the effect such an imposing ordeal would have on a seven-year-old.
“The priest quickly ushered Izaak and Esther into his room and closed the door. Then he threw on a coat and left. Minutes later, he returned with Lucya Sikorska, whom Izaak recognized from his uncle’s celebration. Izaak doesn’t know what was said outside his presence, but ultimately his mother returned and knelt on the floor. She hugged him and told him he would be staying with Lucya. He was told to obey her and follow her instructions without question. Esther couldn’t tell him when or if she would come back to pick him up. He remembers crying and begging her not to leave. He remembers his mother crying as well but insisting that it was for the best. Lucya and the priest were holding him tightly when Esther walked away. He remembers screaming for her to come back. That was the last time he saw her.”
Eli’s heart was heavy as he took it all in. “I have imagined that scene over and over in my mind, and it has haunted me. Indeed, I have asked myself, how does a man leave his son at a time of utmost danger and retain his self-respect? It’s only because you tell yourself it must be done in order to save his life. Now I’m at peace with it because Izaak survived and because Esther had the courage to do what had to be done. I know he has fears, but I continue to assure him that no one will ever leave him again.”
“But he can’t be certain of that, can he?”
Eli slowly shook his head. “No one can.”
“Exactly.”
Eli nodded. “Thank you for being here for Izzie. He has asked me if you could live here. I don’t know how you feel about that, but you may stay for as long as you like.”
“He has asked me as well.”
Eli took a deep breath. “Adinah, I…”
“He doesn’t want me to be his mother. He prays that he will be reunited with his mother, though I think he harbors serious doubts. I don’t want to replace his mother in his eyes or in yours. Maybe I could just be a placeholder until Esther is found, or until he is older. I know I don’t want him to suffer another person leaving him. Perhaps that is me talking. Perhaps I am the selfish one who fears separation. Perhaps I need him as much as he needs me. I don’t know the answer.”
“I meant it when I said you could stay with us as long as you like.”
Adinah nodded.
Eli smiled. “But that’s not the same as asking you to stay, is it?”
“No, it’s not.”
“Then let me be more direct. I can partition off a section of our front room. I can make it very pretty and very private. You don’t have to leave. Will you please stay with us?”
Adinah bowed her head. “Thank you.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
FÖHRENWALD DP CAMP
AMERICAN ZONE
DECEMBER 1946
Major Donnelly, Eli and three military policemen headed north out of Föhrenwald in the predawn hours, confident that they would terminate the illegal visa sales and arrest the impresario who went by the name of Max. For Eli, there was a more pressing quest—if Max was indeed Maximilian Poleski, then Eli would soon learn the truth about Esther. Maximilian would know.
Eli continued to wonder: How did Maximilian possibly survive? That last day in Globočnik’s office played out in his memory. Maximilian’s crimes were exposed, and his fate was sealed. He should have been executed on the spot. Maximilian had urged Eli to lie about the missing money on the premise that he would protect Esther and get them all safely to Sweden, yet he had to have known Lipowa was closed and the women had been transported away. Maximilian had to know where Esther was sent. If she was transported to Belzec, sadly, that would have been the end of the road. Half a million Jews were murdered in Belzec’s gas chambers.
But Maximilian had sworn to protect her. Maybe there was an opportunity for him to have Esther sent to another workshop, if for no other reason than to continue to use her as a hostage against Eli’s threat to leave the brickyard. If that was the case, she could have survived and Maximilian would know where she was. All of these conflicting thoughts went through Eli’s mind as he drove west toward Landsberg. In a few hours, he would have the answers.
* * *
“He told me that noon was a bad time to make the exchange,” Bruchstein said to the group. “Max will only do it under cover of darkness, and then only on the road outside of the camp. The plan is for me to have the Davisons’ money and meet him at eight p.m. Alone. He doesn’t want Aaron Davison or anyone else present. He said he doesn’t trust anyone but me. If he sees anyone else, he’ll bolt. He’s very skittish since the incident at Föhrenwald.”
Eli exhaled. “I don’t like it. It’s a dark wooded area.”
“I’m sure he’s considered that,” Bruchstein said.
The major waved off the concern. “No worries, we’ve done dark operations before. This is not new to us. We’ll be out of sight, and when the time comes, we’ll take him into custody. You have my assurance.”
Eli pulled the major aside. “When you grab him, before he’s taken away, I need a few minutes alone with him. I need to confront him. In private.”
“Colonel Bivens told me about the man who betrayed your family. I’ll give you the time, but I have to be present. I can’t risk you taking out your revenge.”
“Please, Major. I need to be alone in a room with h
im. I need to find out about my wife. He might not say anything if you were in the room, but he and I go back a long way. We had a relationship of sorts. I’m hoping a vestige remains. Information about my wife is far more important to me than revenge. It may lead me toward locating her, or it may simply give me closure. Please, just give me a few minutes, and you can have him. You have my word.”
* * *
As it happened, the road to Landsberg wound through a thick pine forest, perfect cover for Donnelly and his men. Light from a gibbous moon gave a soft glow to the snow-covered terrain at the point of exchange. Eli stationed himself behind a clump of evergreens and anxiously awaited the crescendo. Answers to his five-year quest lay in reach.
At precisely 8:00 p.m., a solitary vehicle approached from the east. Bruchstein took his place by the side of the road, and as the car drew nearer, he waved a flashlight. The car slowed to a halt a short distance in front of Bruchstein. Max left the motor running and walked forward. Twenty paces before reaching Bruchstein, Max suddenly stopped. “Shael, do you have the money?” he called.
“Of course, twelve thousand francs. Did you bring the two visas?”
He gestured back over his shoulder. “They’re in the car. Where is the money? I need to see the money first.”
Bruchstein held up an open envelope and thumbed through the bills. “It’s right here.”
Max took a step forward. “Hand it over, and I’ll go back and get the visas.”
“Max, the Davisons don’t want me handing over their money until I check to see that the visas are correct. Go get the visas and let’s finish this thing. Just like we did the other times.”
Max turned his head from side to side, scanning the forest. “I don’t like the way this is going down,” he said in a surly tone. “I smell a rat.”
Bruchstein chuckled. “Max, you’re getting paranoid. Let’s make the exchange, get it over with and let me get back into camp. It’s cold out here.”
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