Beyond The Last Path [Illustrated Edition] by Eugene Weinstock

Author:Eugene Weinstock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2015-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

24. WE ADVANCE

THE BAKER RETURNED at two that morning from the excrement pit, in wretched condition. We had clean clothes and underwear ready for him; the attendant and his bunkmate gave him a bath and laid him down to sleep for the remaining two hours of the night. While he slept we washed his dirty clothes and put them away to be used as spares. We did not have the energy for the work, but we had the magic of solidarity.

The months passed. In February a new transport arrived bringing, among others, forty-five Jews from Holland. The Jewish Block now had four hundred inmates, including three rabbis, several doctors, engineers, merchants, and even a few industrialists.

One of the new group was a Dr. Frieder who had been an active Resistance fighter before his arrest in The Hague. Dr. Frieder became a stone-mason’s helper. He was an incorrigible optimist, and after his twelve hours of work he became the doctor for the barracks. He gave advice, bandaged wounds, cheered the despondent. If help was needed, there he was! Nobody knew how it came about, but a few days after his arrival he had on hand a stock of aspirin and bandages to aid him in his work. The others in his group also added to the morale of Block 22 because they were “politicals,” veterans of the Resistance.

The most striking of them was a young Hungarian from Holland named Perlmutter, a man about twenty-eight years old. He had the build of a trained athlete. He was six feet tall, handsome, perfectly proportioned, all muscle. Perlmutter was with us ten days when he received the order to report to Block 51. He started out happily enough because he wouldn’t have to spend the day carrying sacks of cement. We did not tell him that Block 51 was the Experimental Station. He would discover that soon enough.

Two weeks later Emil received instructions to take Perlmutter’s name off the list of inmates in our Block. That was all.

Nazi “doctors” must have learned much from Perlmutter’s splendid physique. How long, I wonder, did his heart beat when they laid it on the table? And today I also wonder how many of those German “doctors” the Allies have hanged. I have followed the news closely but I have heard of only two so far.

After Perlmutter’s disappearance the Workers’ Statistical Office sent through the notice for which we were all hoping. Three men from our Block might go to work in the Carpenter Shop. Only three —as a test. Emil chose me, a Hungarian boy from Strassburg, and an old Antwerp acquaintance of mine. Ours was a great responsibility. If we met the test there was a chance for all the other skilled Jews.

Emil called the three of us together after Appel, and urged us to do our very best. “I recommended you because I have confidence in you. You’ve got to pass muster.”

The shop, which employed twelve hundred carpenters, cabinetmakers, coopers, and wheelwrights, was equipped with the most modern machinery, stolen by the most modern methods.

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