A POLISH BOY: The Youngest Partisan by Jochnowitz BF

Author:Jochnowitz, BF [Jochnowitz, BF]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BF Jochnowitz
Published: 2013-06-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12: Krakow

The Russians don’t welcome us with open arms. Two of the soldiers point guns at us and ask for identification. When Uncle Yossef explains we are Polish Jewish partisans and were hiding out in the woods, they’re not impressed. One of them says, “Jews, huh?”

My uncle and cousins look at each other and then at me. Then Uncle Yossef thinks fast and says, “We have been trying to save this little Polish boy. His mother and father were killed by the Germans and he’s all alone. We think he has relatives left in Poland. We want to help him find them.”

At first I don’t know what he’s talking about, but then I know that Uncle wants me to play along. In Polish, one of the soldiers asks me. “Is that true, kid?” When I have trouble getting the word “Yes” out of my mouth because I stutter so much, he says, “Never mind. Go.” We run fast toward Zasov and Uncle Yossef says, “The Russians aren’t crazy about Jews either.”

***

In Zasov, the whole village is war torn. The big house that belonged to the boss of the village is just a shell. Most of the houses are now rubble. People are running around looking for family. We go to where Uncle’s house and my house used to be. We stand together and have tears in our eyes—thinking of the lives we used to have and the loved ones who are dead. I wonder if my mother’s candlesticks are still buried here somewhere.

A young woman is walking up the little hill. She looks very skinny. Her hair is thin and her eyes are sad and empty, but they come alive when she sees us. Uncle screams, “Thank God, it’s Leah.” She runs to us and we can’t stop hugging and crying all at once.

After we calm down, we sit on the ground in a circle and Leah tells us what happened to her. She was in the concentration camp near Krakow the whole time. Very hard, but she met two new friends there, Ruth and Kerinka. They slept on either side of Leah. Ruth, a pretty dark-haired girl a little older than Leah and Kerinka, who had a bad cough, was so thin you could see her bones. The only time she smiled was when the three girls whispered to each other at night, talking about their old life, their families and their dreams of freedom. During the day, they worked in a nearby factory under guard and managed not to call attention to themselves.

Kerinka’s cough was constant but she tried not to be too loud. She didn’t want the guard to hear her. They had no use for sick prisoners. After returning from the factory one day, the three girls said good night to each other and fell asleep. The following morning, Leah and Ruth couldn’t get Kerinka up. She was dead. They had no choice but to leave her there and went off to line up and go to work.

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