IN APRIL AND MAY we saw several deportations, but none that were limited to children. Because the ghetto was ordered to systematically empty, the Judenrat was charged with supplying additional lists of names for ‘resettlement.’ The inclusion of your name on the list meant that your entire family was to show up at the market square to be transported.
“The official explanation from the Nazis was that other work camps were being constructed with new housing and ample room for all who were willing to work. People were told to take their nicest clothes and pack as much as they could in one suitcase per person. They gave each family a white marker to write their names and home addresses on the sides of each piece of luggage. That was to ensure that they could find their luggage when they got to the resettlement camp, and if it got lost, it would be forwarded to them.”
Lena shook her head. “Deep down, it sounded like a lie, but even a morsel of hope was enough to induce people to pack, line up and board the trains for resettlement without resistance.
“The Shop continued to manufacture coats and jackets, and those working at the Shop were generally immune from deportation lists, but in June rumors started circulating that the Shop would be closing by the end of the year. I don’t know if one of the girls overheard something or if our workloads were decreasing, but fear of the shutdown created anxiety among all of us. It was the only job left for Jews and the only thing saving us from the resettlement lists.
“I told you about winters in the ghetto, how harsh and deadly they were. Well, summers brought their own torments. Imagine thousands of people crammed into tiny living spaces in blistering temperatures with no way to cool off. Clean water was scarce. The Germans posted warnings about using the central fountain and erected a sign declaring it was contaminated with typhus. Some drank it anyway, believing it was just a German tactic to prevent us from getting water. Karolina and I found a well at a house on the other side of the tracks, outside the ghetto. We would fill bottles in the middle of the night.
“Insects—mosquitoes, flies, bugs of all sorts—flourished in the summer heat. People who chose to sleep outside and find respite from the heat were attacked by insects. Small pests—rats, mice—infested our area and our living quarters, especially the dormitory. The Shop, with its fifteen hundred workers, was a pressure cooker. A few fans were installed to bolster production, but they afforded little relief.”
“Wait a minute, Lena,” Catherine said. “You never told me what happened when Karolina told Siegfried that she was pregnant. What did he do?”
“I’m trying to keep this chronological. Siegfried was sent on a delivery detail, taking finished coats in a convoy up north. He was gone and didn’t return for a few weeks. The day he returned, Karolina was sitting at her station, and he came over to tell her he was back and that he wanted to see her. She didn’t come home that night.
“I saw her at the break the next afternoon. She winked at me. Because there were other women around, all she could say was, ‘It’s good. Tell you later.’
“She didn’t come back to our apartment to sleep for a few days. When she did, she filled me in. Siegfried had stopped at his home on his way back and told his mother that he had fallen in love with a German girl. He wanted to get married as soon as possible.”
“A German girl?”
“Well, technically he was correct. Chrzanów had been annexed into Germany along with the Upper Silesian towns in 1939 after the Blitzkrieg. So she really was a German girl in 1942. And she could speak German. He figured he could get away with it.”
“She was a Jew, not a German citizen.”
“Details, details. He figured with the progress the Germans were making, the war would soon be over and he’d return to Bavaria with Karolina, his German girlfriend. But Karolina wasn’t quite as optimistic. She related the conversation to me.
“‘Did your mother ask you about my religion?’ Karolina had said.
“He hemmed and hawed, and finally said, ‘Well, she didn’t ask me. I guess she just made her assumptions. She only asked me what kind of a person you were—and I told her beautiful, exciting, sweet and lovely.’
“‘What’s she going to do when she finds out who I really am?’
“‘Why would she find out? Who would tell her?’
“‘Siegfried, I think you’re being naïve. The Germans trace everybody’s bloodlines. They’ll want to know who my parents and grandparents were.’
“‘Don’t worry,’ Siegfried said. ‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. After the war no one will care.’
“So, that’s how Karolina and Siegfried left it. They would take it day by day. For the moment they were both at the Shop. He would make sure she was well taken care of, with food, clothing and special treatment.”
“Pretty risky, if you ask me,” Catherine said. “What if Siegfried were transferred? There was a war going on.”
“What were her alternatives? We were prisoners in a ghetto, under awful circumstances. We had learned that the ghetto was to be cleared out, that we would be sent somewhere else. What did the future hold for us? Karolina’s plan, no matter how improbable, was at least a plan.
“From then on, Karolina would spend an occasional night away and I didn’t question her. I came to understand that it wasn’t all for food and privilege. She had genuine feelings for her German soldier. I was not about to sit in judgment on my best friend.”