THE NEW SHOP FOREMAN, Major Fahlstein, was an older man with gray hair and large, round eyeglasses. He came by my station a few days after the twins were born and asked me about Karolina and why she wasn’t coming to work. ‘I need her,’ he said. ‘She’s one of my best.’
“I stopped short of telling him about the babies. Families with babies were the first ones on the list. I’m sure he knew Karolina was pregnant, but he probably didn’t know when she was due. ‘She has a bit of the croup,’ I said, ‘but she’s recovering nicely and I expect her back to work within a few days,’ even though I didn’t know if she’d ever come back to work. Who would care for the two newborns? Who would feed the babies?
“Another deportation came and fourteen hundred more Jews were lined up and marched to the trains. There were very few children left in the ghetto. Families with little children had already been put on the list for deportation and sent out. By February, the only people immune from deportation were the members of the Judenrat, the doctors and nurses of the clinic, and the most productive seamstresses at the Shop. Everyone else checked the board each week, praying that their names would not be on the list.
“The winter of 1942 to 1943 brought major changes to Chrzanów. Orders came down to clear out and destroy the ghetto, orders in compliance with Reinhard Heydrich’s implementation of the Final Solution: strong and healthy Jews living in ghettos were to be sent to slave labor camps. The rest were to be sent to one of the six extermination camps: Sobibór, Chelmno, Belzec, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Transports were to begin immediately. Of course, deportations had been going on in Chrzanów for months. Now there was an observable increase.
“The winter of 1942 to 1943 also impacted the German presence in Chrzanów. Before the winter, our town was crawling with German soldiers, SS officers, and Gestapo, filling the square, the restaurants and the bars, and harassing us on every corner. Now there were noticeably fewer Germans in the square. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was due to the carnage in the eastern campaign.
“Hitler’s Russian strategy was a disaster, which most historians regard as the turning point in the war. The Wehrmacht suffered over a million casualties in 1941 to 1942 in their unsuccessful drive to take Moscow. After the army’s retreat, Hitler changed his strategy and in 1942 sent his armies south to take Stalingrad and the rich oil fields of the Caucasus.
“The Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest of the war. One million Russians died. Eight hundred and fifty thousand Axis troops died and what was left of the German Sixth Army surrendered. The city of Stalingrad was bombed to rubble. Total lives lost in the battle exceeded two million. When news of Germany’s defeat and surrender at Stalingrad spread across the world it had an emotional effect. To the Allies it was a sign that Russia was a powerful and competent ally and that Germany could be defeated. To the Germans it was demoralizing.
“For us, totally uninformed about the progress of the war, the winter brought an increased demand for wool coats and a sharp reduction in the German presence in Chrzanów. Week by week we’d see the number of young German soldiers in our shop decrease. Rumors spread that things were going badly on the Eastern Front and that’s why enlisted men, especially those who worked in the Shop, were being redeployed.
“Because of the need for coats, Major Fahlstein received permission to keep one hundred Jewish women free from transports to work in the Shop. I went to him and asked if he intended to keep Karolina and me.
“‘Where is Karolina?’ he said. ‘I would keep her if she’d return to work. She’s one of my best. But she’s been out for almost a month.’
“‘She’ll be back in a week or two.’
“‘Not good enough. Either she comes back on Friday or I’m releasing her name for resettlement.’ I started to object, but he turned and walked away.
“Friday was just two days away. Karolina was healthy enough, but what about the babies? She couldn’t leave them alone. There was certainly no day care in the Chrzanów ghetto, and no babysitters. In fact, it had been strongly against Judenrat policy to conceive any children since 1940. That night, I asked Muriel to meet with Karolina and me in the basement apartment. I had a plan.
“‘Major Fahlstein says that he’ll only keep Karolina if she returns by Friday,’ I said. ‘We know we can’t leave the babies. The only solution is to juggle our shifts. I can stay on the day shift. If we can get Karolina assigned to the evening shift, I can watch the babies until she comes home.’
“‘What about shift change?’ Karolina asked. ‘There’s an hour when neither one of us will be here.’
“I looked at Muriel. She nodded. ‘I’ll cover the hour.’
“The next day at the Shop I informed Major Fahlstein that Karolina would be back and that she preferred the evening shift. He was delighted. He was getting one of his best seamstresses back, and one who even volunteered to work the evening shift.
“Muriel was a godsend. Not only did she help us with the babies, but she found baby supplies in the abandoned apartments. She brought over several one-piece outfits, little pink bodysuits, baby blankets, hand-knit sweaters and two coats. She also found three baby bottles and an assortment of nipples to feed the babies when Karolina was at work.
“‘Where did you get all this stuff?’ Karolina said.
“Muriel smiled, but it was a smile tinged with regret. ‘They were left behind.’
“That realization made Karolina cry. ‘How can I take these? They were given to other little children with love, children who were rounded up and sent off on the trains. These clothes belong to those children.’
“‘They’re not here anymore,’ Muriel said in a consoling tone. ‘I’m sure the parents would want you to have them rather than see the Nazis throw them away.’
“Karolina nodded. She hugged the clothes. ‘I’m sure you’re right. I’ll treat them with love and care.’
“As we entered March, we felt reasonably secure for the time being. The basement apartment was warm, we were well stocked with food, drink, clothing and coal, and we had solved the day care dilemma. After all, as Colonel Müller had said, it’s all about survival. One day to the next. Little did we know what would happen within the next thirty days.”