––––––––
Nicolae’s laughter proved infectious and very soon the sombre mood of the house had been replaced by a more cheerful atmosphere. But after a few hours we had exhausted our entertainments and longed to be outside.
Though we kept the curtains closed as Henryk had asked we could not help but note the sun was beaming down on a pleasant autumn day, the clouds all but banished from the sky, and we longed to play beneath it. I fended Nicolae’s demands to go into the street as best I could. Inevitably, boredom was quick to manifest itself, and I suggested we play at tidying the house, a proposition well-received by the children.
In fact Henryk exhibited a most respectable domesticity, but it could hardly cause harm to unleash Nicolae and Elone with a besom and feather duster, and would at least keep them occupied until our host returned.
In this I was to prove well judged, for the activity engaged the young ones for much of the afternoon and I too joined in, relishing mundane domestic chores I would once studiously have avoided.
It was whilst engaged in one such task, polishing an oak cabinet that had known finer days, that I made my discovery.
Quite by accident I knocked a sheaf of papers onto the floor, scattering them across the boards such that it was necessary to pick them up one by one. Of course I had no intent or interest in perusing them, and merely undertook to put them back as I had found them.
Thus scanning the sheets for some indication of order I became aware I was holding Henryk’s delivery schedules. If my capacity to read Polish was even less developed than my verbal skills, still I quickly realised this was a list of Nazi labour camps, not just in Poland but across Europe, some of which were marked with Henryk’s name.
From somewhere deep in my mind came the thought that the camp Mama had been sent to might be listed here. While I could not remember its name I knew Mama had told me, once, the day before our departure from Medgidia. I had taken no notice at the time, for it meant nothing to me then. But now... My first, hurried scans of the lists of names produced no result and I tried again more slowly, sounding out each name in the hope of recognition.
The list seemed endless and as I read them out the sheer scale of the Nazi operations began to sink in, for it covered countries from Poland to Austria and included even Germany itself. Treblinka; Gross-Rosen; Sobibor; Belzec; Dachau; Pirszkow; Bergen Belsen; Mauthause; Buchenwald; Majdanek; Chelmno and on and on.
These names meant nothing to me, however, and I was beginning to lose hope when suddenly it was there in front of me. Suddenly, unquestioningly, this one name stood out from the others and I knew this was the camp Mama had been bound for. If my heart leapt at this realization, how much more my pulse raced when I realised Henryk was a designated driver for this route!
I rushed out of the room yelling to Elone and Nicolae, determined they should share my discovery, but halted myself as I reached the door, remembering that, even if Mama was there, in all likelihood Chaim and Golda had perished on the train. I could not raise Elone’s hopes.
“What is it Anca? What is it?” Elone and Nicolae came racing to attend my excited tones.
“It is nothing, children. I am sorry. I thought I had found something of interest, but I was mistaken. Go back to your play.”
“We are not playing, Anca,” Nicolae said indignantly. “We are working hard! Do you think Henryk will be pleased when he gets back? When he sees how hard we have worked?”
I smiled reassuringly. “I am sure he will, little one.”
Elone eyed me with suspicion, clearly not taken in by my change of tone, but she kept her thoughts to herself. Not for the first time I found myself wondering just how deep ran this child’s understanding.