Chapter 16
Escape
July 1942
Warsaw Ghetto, Poland
Irena waited in the long line to enter the ghetto. The July heat was stifling, and she sweated profusely. Although she thought she might pass out from the burning, humid sun, the moisture on her face masked the fear raging through her heart. Today was the day she’d planned so many months for.
The search at the gate was perfunctory. She knew the primary guard well, having walked through this entrance hundreds of times. He barely glanced at her documents and she didn’t even have to slow down as she passed through the entrance. She walked quickly into the crowd, losing herself in the business of the Jewish Quarter. The familiar sights and sounds greeted her: the begging, the pleas for help, mixed with the black-market salesmen and -women hawking some bread or flour they’d secured on the Aryan side of Warsaw.
She made her way toward Sienna Street, reaching the wooden footbridge over Chłodna Street that separated the big ghetto from the little one. The Judenrat had ordered the bridge constructed a few months after the ghetto was created so that traffic on Chłodna would not have to be interrupted by the passage of the Jews from one section of the ghetto to the other. As she walked along, she thought about the streetcars that used to operate here. She had planned to use them, but the Germans had ceased their operation through the ghetto as part of their crackdown on smuggling.
There was a glut of foot traffic at the bridge, a common occurrence. She waited her turn, climbing slowly, one step at a time, up to the platform and then swayed with the rest of the crowd as the shuffled across to the little ghetto. She walked the last couple of blocks to Sienna Street and found her destination: Dr. Korczak’s orphanage.
She entered the building. Adam was already waiting. He put his arms around her and held her briefly. She felt her whole body begin to tremble, a mixture of pleasure and fear.
“Hush now,” he whispered. “Everything is going to be all right. Today is the day.” His words echoed her own.
“Is everything ready?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“You’ve talked to Ala?”
“This morning.”
“Let’s go then,” said Irena. Adam turned and she followed him through the entrance and past a set of double doors into a long corridor. Adam stopped at the last door on the left. “Are you ready?” he asked.
Irena steeled herself. “I’ve worked so hard to prepare this. I am ready.”
Adam opened the door. They entered a sparse room with a single bed. A small desk and chair rested in the corner. There were a few books, a tiny closet with a smattering of hangers. Ewa was there, sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling up at her, holding a little girl’s hand.
“Kaji. I’m here.”
Kaji looked up and squealed with delight. She threw herself in Irena’s arms, holding her close. “Is today the day?” she echoed.
“It is. Do you remember everything I told you?”
Kaji nodded.
“Good. We must follow all the steps exactly like I instructed. You have to be a very brave girl today, do you understand?”
“Yes. Ewa made me practice.” Kaji lay back straight as a board. She closed her eyes and held her breath. “Just like this.”
“That’s perfect,” Irena said. She turned to Ewa. “Thank you for everything.”
“Of course, my sister. Anything for you.”
Adam checked his watch. “It’s time, we need to go.”
Irena nodded and took Kaji’s hand. Ewa gave her a hug and a kiss on the head. “I’ll see you again soon, little one.”
“Goodbye, Aunt Ewa.”
Ewa’s eyes filled with tears. “Goodbye, dearest Kaji.”
Irena led Kaji out of the door and they followed Adam as he left the orphanage and made his way through the streets of the ghetto. They passed the wooden bridge without incident and marched on slowly through the stifling heat of the ghetto toward the hospital. When they arrived, Ala was already standing at the entrance, waiting for them.
“You’re here,” she said.
Adam laughed. “Of course we are. We haven’t done anything dangerous yet. Nobody wants to stop a Jew from walking through the ghetto.”
“That’s true,” said Ala, smiling. “Still, I’m so nervous.” She looked down at Kaji and took her face in her hands. “Are you ready, my dear?”
“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” said Kaji.
“It’s an important day,” said Ala. “Perhaps the most important in your whole life.”
“Aunt Ewa taught me what to do. I’m ready.”
“Is everything prepared?” asked Irena.
“Yes,” said Ala. “Follow me.”
They made their way through the halls of the hospital. Ala looked this way and that, making sure that nobody was paying them too much attention. They went down a flight of stairs, reaching the basement. They arrived at a heavy metal door with signs warning against entrance.
“It’s in here,” Ala said. She paused a moment and then pulled on the heavy latch. The door swung open and they entered a large tiled room with stark white walls. Several metal tables sat in the middle of the room, built on rollers with a slight incline. There was a counter with a long line of cabinets. The counter contained several trays of metal instruments.
“The morgue,” Ala explained. “We store the dead here and our doctors perform the occasional autopsy. Not that we really need to know what anyone is dying from. Disease or starvation mixed in with the occasional bullet to the head. Take your pick.”
Irena held Kaji’s hands tightly. She was worried that the room would scare the little girl, but she didn’t seem to understand where they were. Ala looked at them for a moment and then turned, moving toward another door at the far end.
“This is the loading room,” she said, opening the door into a second smaller space. This area contained bunks on both sides and a long metal corrugated gate at the far end. The bunks were full of corpses on both sides, lined to the ceiling.
“What do we do now?” asked Irena, shielding Kaji’s eyes from the stacked pile of dead.
“We wait for the cart,” said Ala. “I told them to be here at noon.” She checked her watch. “It’s a little after right now. They shouldn’t be long.”
Irena felt a squeeze on her hand, and she looked down and smiled. She thought back to that terrible night when she thought she’d lost Kaji forever.
After talking to Jan, she’d rushed to the ghetto. Night was falling and she risked arrest, but she didn’t care. She had to make sure Kaji was safe. The guard at the gate had argued with her. “It’s too late to go into the ghetto today,” he’d said.
But she insisted there was an emergency outbreak of typhoid fever and at last he’d relented. She’d made her way into the streets, desperately calling for Kaji. She’d searched for more than an hour, even as night was falling and the streets were emptying. She was risking everything. Her pass let her into the ghetto and gave her a certain amount of protection, but murder came easily in the Jewish Quarter, and a German might shoot first and ask questions later, particularly in the twilight conditions when she was just another body moving through the streets.
Finally, darkness had fallen. She’d given up, the tears streaming freely down her face. She’d made her way to Ala’s flat, which was not too far, with the idea of spending the night. She’d start the search again in the morning. She started to wonder if Jan had deceived her, and perhaps had simply taken Kaji straightaway to the police.
She was making her way toward her friend’s apartment when she’d heard a feeble voice calling out in the darkness. She’d recognized the sound and turned, straining her eyes to see through the blackness. There she was. Kaji was hiding in an alleyway. It reminded her of when she’d found her outside the ghetto, peeking around the corner of another dark alley. Irena rushed to her and picked her up. Kaji had buried her head into Irena’s chest, sobbing. Irena had calmed her with words of encouragement as she rushed through the darkness. The danger had not passed. They were outside past curfew, subject to death if they were caught. Miraculously they’d made it to Ala’s flat and safety.
The next day Irena had taken Kaji to Dr. Korczak’s orphanage and enrolled her. In the months since then, Ewa and Adam had kept a close eye on her and made sure she’d wanted for nothing. Irena had visited her every day, bringing her food and warm clothing to make sure she was safe. She’d taken up her smuggling again, using a different gate and bringing in food and supplies not only for Kaji but for the other children at the orphanage. She’d risked her life every day, but there was another reason to do so now, not just to defy the Germans or to help Adam, but to save the life of her little girl.
Over the months they had grown closer, until she thought of Kaji as a daughter. She’d worked to construct a plan so she could get Kaji out of the ghetto and bring her to safety. She’d gained her own mother’s support to have her come and live with them. She’d built up her savings by selling a little of the food in the ghetto until she had reserves to support three people at their home. Finally, and most difficult, she’d snuck into Jan’s office and removed a stack of the precious birth certificates, and using an original she’d found from the Lwów parish, she’d forged a fake document for Kaji.
In the meantime, Ewa and Adam had worked with Kaji, teaching her a little Latin and the main Catholic prayers. Once on the outside, Kaji’s life might depend on her ability to recite some of the Catholic rites to a suspicious policeman or neighbor. Jews were hiding everywhere in Aryan Poland, and the Gestapo was increasingly cracking down.
After months of preparation, they’d developed a plan to get Kaji out of the ghetto and smuggle her to Irena’s apartment in safety. Now, as they waited for the cart in this frozen corpse-filled cellar, Irena hoped everything would go as they had planned.
Minutes passed. Kaji was shivering now in the cold of the freezer and starting to complain. Ala kept looking at her watch. A half hour passed, then an hour. “Something is wrong,” she said finally. “They should have been here a long time ago.”
“We can’t stay here indefinitely,” said Irena. “Look at poor Kaji. She’s freezing.”
“Let’s go back upstairs,” said Ala. “I’ll get lunch together for us and then I’ll check into things and find out what went wrong.”
They left the morgue and marched upstairs to the kitchen. Ala set a little table and laid out some bread and cheese for them to eat. When they were set she left to find out what had happened to the cart.
“It’s not going to happen today, is it?” asked Kaji. Irena could see the sadness and the fear in her eyes.
“That’s not necessarily true,” said Irena. “It’s just a little delay. Eat your bread and don’t you worry about things. Ala will take care of everything.”
“That’s right,” said Adam, placing his hand on Kaji’s shoulders. “We’ll get you out of here today, Kaji.”
“Promise?”
“I promise,” he said.
Irena hoped Adam could keep that commitment to her.
They waited another half hour, now too warm again in the humid heat. Irena checked her watch over and over, the minutes ticking relentlessly by. When she thought she couldn’t wait another second, Ala appeared, her face pale.
“What happened?” Irena asked.
“Janek is down with a fever,” she said. “He’s at home in his apartment, unable to move. He said there will be no cart today. Perhaps not tomorrow either.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Irena.
“We wait.”
Kaji started to cry. “I don’t want to wait anymore,” she said. “I want to go today.”
“Isn’t there something we could do?” asked Adam.
Ala shrugged her shoulders. “It’s Janek’s cart. He and his men operate the corpse removal from the hospital. He knows the routes, the guards. I don’t see what we can do about it.”
“I’m sorry, my dear. We will have to wait until tomorrow,” said Irena. “Perhaps the next day.”
Kaji’s cries turned to weeping. “I don’t want to wait another day.” She turned to Adam. “You promised.”
“Don’t be silly,” said Irena. “It’s not Adam’s fault. We are just going to have to wait until Janek is better.”
“Why can’t I take the cart out?” asked Adam.
“You don’t know where you’re going. And you’d raise suspicion at the gate,” said Ala.
“Not just me,” said Adam. “I could go with Janek’s crew. If I’m just one of the men on the cart, the Germans wouldn’t necessarily be suspicious. Isn’t that true?”
“I’m not sure he would allow it,” said Ala.
“Couldn’t we try?” asked Adam. “Look at her. She’s waited long enough. Let’s get her out.”
Ala paused, considering it. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask.”
Irena was joyous. She hugged Ala. “Thank you. Thank you, my friend!”
Ala smiled. “You’re welcome. Now stay here and keep yourselves warm. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
* * *
They waited in the kitchen for another hour, the time trickling by. Ala returned and from her expression Irena knew the answer was bad news.
“He refuses,” her friend said.
“Why won’t he trust us?” asked Adam.
“He said it’s for your own good. He said the Germans would never let Adam through. He’s had the same crew for more than a year. They would stop them, search the cart. It’s too much risk. He said he would be ready tomorrow. Same time, same plan.”
“Let me talk to him,” said Adam, starting toward the door.
“No,” said Irena. “He’s right. If his absence increases the risk even a little bit, it’s not worth it. It’s only one more day.”
“No!” said Kaji. “I don’t want to stay here any longer.”
“I know,” said Irena, holding her. “But it’s just until tomorrow. Besides, I’ll stay tonight with you in the ghetto. I’ll sleep in the same bed with you. We can stay up late, and I’ll tell you stories from when I was a little girl, just like you.”
Kaji’s face brightened. “I would like that,” she said finally.
“Good, it’s a bargain.”
They spent the long afternoon and evening together in the orphanage. Ewa and Adam lingered, sitting with them by the fire. True to her word, Irena told Kaji stories about growing up in Otwock, the resort town south of Warsaw on the Vistula. The Jewish families she played with. How the poor would come to her father for medical care and he took care of them no matter what, taking perhaps a chicken in payment or a day’s labor from the family. She spoke proudly of her father, his charity, his socialist beliefs, his dreams for a better Poland—a nation for everyone, rich and poor, Jew and gentile.
The night moved on and Ewa went upstairs to bed. Adam stayed with them, stoking the fire. Kaji eventually fell asleep, her head in Irena’s lap.
“I thought she’d be home with me by now,” said Irena.
“She will be by this time tomorrow.”
“If she’s still alive.”
“The plan is a good one,” he said, taking her hand and running his fingers over her palm.
“All plans are good until they fail.”
“Why the gloom?” he asked. “You’re ever the optimist.”
“There’s so much at stake.”
“I know. But don’t you worry. I know these men. Ala trusts them. Besides, the Germans want nothing to do with the dead. She’ll be safe.” He moved closer and she rested her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes. He was warm and comforting. He stroked her hair and she felt herself relax, her fears melting away in his protective arms.
“When are you coming out?” she asked.
He chuckled. “Have you looked at me?” he said. “My features scream Jew to anyone who would bother looking.”
“Some Poles look like Jews,” she said. “You speak Polish perfectly and you know enough German to get by. I can get you the papers you need to survive out there.”
“And where would I go? I don’t think your neighbors will believe you gained a niece and a cousin all at the same time.”
“I’m working on a place.”
He stroked her hair and he was silent for a few minutes. “I still have the same problems, my dear. My family is here. I can’t simply abandon them. Besides, the war is coming to an end. Surely once the Russians are defeated, the Germans will be busy with their new empire. Perhaps they will forget us?”
“That’s wishful thinking, you know that.”
“Only time will tell. For now, all I can think about is getting Kaji out of here and safely to your home. After that, we can talk about the future.”
“Our future?”
“All futures.”
She fell asleep before she realized it. She awoke the next morning, still lying on the hard wooden floor near the fireplace. Kaji was snuggled up against her, fast asleep. Adam was sitting in a chair a meter away, his head pressed against the cushions. She checked her watch; it was nearly nine in the morning.
She pulled herself up and moved away from Kaji, careful not to wake her. She moved to the chair and pressed her lips against Adam’s head. “Time to wake,” she whispered. He stretched in the chair and opened his eyes, blinking them a few times and looking around as if he was surprised by his surroundings. “That’s right,” he said finally. “There was a delay. I dreamt our little operation had gone off without a hitch, and Kaji was already in Aryan Warsaw.”
“That’s a good omen,” Irena said. “Let’s hope that everything goes today as planned.”
They ate breakfast and then spent the morning in the main hall of the orphanage. Kaji played with some of her friends while Ewa, Adam, and Irena waited impatiently for the time to slowly pass. At eleven thirty they departed and returned to the hospital. Ala was waiting for them, just like the day before.
“Is everything set?” Irena asked.
“Yes,” said Ala. “He’s already here.”
Feeling relieved, Irena trailed her friend as she led them again through the hospital and down to the morgue. They entered the adjoining room. This time the outside door was already open and the cart was there, backed up to the entrance. Irena tried to ignore the stacked bodies lining the bottom. Janek was there, looking around nervously.
“Is she ready?” he asked.
“All right, Kaji, just like we practiced,” said Irena. “And remember, you must remain perfectly still, and entirely quiet. Your life depends on it.”
Kaji nodded. “What if the Germans find me?” she asked.
“Don’t you worry about that,” said Irena. “You just do what we’ve practiced and everything will turn out all right.”
Janek reached a hand out and took Kaji’s arm. He pulled her up into the cart and helped her to lie down on the row of bodies, near the middle. Irena’s heart broke. How could she do this to her little girl? Still, she had to get her out of the ghetto and to safety. This was the best way. As she watched, barely able to breathe, Janek and his men carried additional bodies onto the cart, stacking them next to Kaji and then above her. They placed wooden slats on the bodies to her left and right, and then lay another corpse directly above her. The slats prevented the body from crushing her. They then filled in the rest of the cart until there were several more layers above Kaji.
“Can you breathe?” Irena asked. “Are you okay in there?”
“Yes,” Kaji responded. “But I’m scared.”
“You’ll be fine,” Irena said, her voice breaking. “You’re my brave little girl.”
“She’s going to be okay,” said Janek. “In an hour she’ll be on the Aryan side and safe forever.”
“Take care of her. No matter what.”
“I will,” Janek said.
The cart departed. Irena watched them move slowly away. She didn’t move until they were out of sight.
“You should be going,” Adam said.
“I wish you could go with me.”
“Someday, my dear.”
She pulled Ala and Adam in and held them tight. “Thank you. Thank you both. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Don’t come back for a few days,” ordered Ala. “Spend some time with Kaji. You deserve it.”
“Okay, I will,” said Irena. She relished the thought of a few days off. She would take Kaji shopping and buy her a new dress. They could walk in the park. Kaji had never known a normal life, and Irena was going to give her one.
These dreams waltzed through her mind as she departed the hospital and made her way through the gate and into Aryan Warsaw. She walked back to her apartment, arriving there a little after one. She made her mother lunch and then they sat together, waiting for the knock on the door that would signal the beginning of a new life for both of them. They sat at their kitchen table as the minutes dragged by.
“I’m proud of you,” her mother said. “Saving a life is a marvelous thing.”
“Even a Jewish life?” Irena asked.
“A child is a child. And I’ve never hated the Jews, Irena.”
“You’ve certainly acted like it.”
Her mother put a hand on hers. “Your father died from a disease he contracted taking care of a Jewish family.”
“That wasn’t their fault. He was just doing his job.”
“You’re right, but I suppose I did blame them in some way. It’s a difficult life to live when your husband dies and you’re still young. I lost my future that day, and your future too.”
“I miss him too, Mother. But I didn’t give up my future. My life is just what I wanted.”
“Including your marriage?”
“Mietek is a good man. But I never loved him. I don’t think he ever really loved me either. We liked and respected each other, but there was never much in the way of romantic feeling.”
“And you think you have that with Adam?”
“We aren’t romantic, Mother.”
“If you aren’t, you will be.”
“I don’t know that. I thought we would be by now, but something always holds us back.”
“If it comes to that—”
“I know, Mother. Thank you.”
An hour passed and then another. Irena could feel the fear growing inside her. Something was wrong. She waited until three, her eyes constantly scanning her watch. Finally, she could wait no longer. “I’m going back,” she said.
“No, stay here,” her mother responded. “They are probably just delayed a bit.”
Irena shook her head. “It’s something else. I know it.”
She headed to the door and back out onto the street. She rushed toward the ghetto, her heart full of fear. They were caught. Her little girl was arrested, or perhaps dead. She knew this had been too much of a risk. Too many things could go wrong. She arrived at the wall and endured the endless wait at the gate. She pushed her way through, almost forgetting to show her papers, and rushed to the orphanage. Ewa and Adam were waiting for her.
“What’s happened?” she demanded.
“She’s here,” said Ewa. “Everything is okay.”
Irena breathed a deep sigh of relief. “Why didn’t they take her out?”
“The ghetto is sealed off,” said Adam. “They aren’t letting anyone out right now, corpses or no.”
“But why?”
“Nobody knows,” he said.
“I do,” said a voice. Irena turned. Dr. Korczak was there. His face was pale, and a deep sadness creased his face. He held a crumpled paper in his hand.
“What is it?” she asked.
“They are taking us away,” he said, handing her the paper. “They want six thousand of us tomorrow for relocation to the east. And six thousand each day thereafter. We are to assemble at an Umschlagplatz—a place of gathering.”
She took the paper from him and held it in trembling hands. Six thousand by tomorrow. The ghetto was sealed, and they were taking the Jews away.