The Light of Days by Judy Batalion

Author:Judy Batalion
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: 2020-04-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

The Gestapo Net

Renia

AUGUST 1943

But how to get them out?

Desperate, wired, Renia could think of nothing else but how to help her comrades in the liquidation camp. Aside from Chajka, she’d heard that Aliza was there, Chawka Lenczner, children from Atid—even her sister Sarah. Each day, more Jews were deported to death. Renia did not know the guards or the layout of the entrance; she couldn’t get in by herself.

She frantically inquired and found out about Bolk Kojak, a member of The Zionist Youth (Hanoar Hatzioni), a less political Zionist youth group that focused on Jewish pluralism and rescue. Bolk knew several guards, and went in and out of the camp each day. He lived in Aryan Będzin, disguised as a Catholic. He’d been friends with several Freedom members, and Renia prayed that he’d help her—at least give her advice. Taking Ilza with her, Renia “stood in the street like a dog” waiting for two days to meet him. Suddenly Kojak appeared from afar, and Renia jumped up and ran toward him, inflated with hope.

They walked together, as if strolling on a promenade, then sat down on a bench in the market. They acted natural, but whispered, noting that two older Polish women sat nearby. Renia begged. “Please help me.”

“My priority is to rescue members of the Zionist Youth,” he told her, crushing her heart. She was so close, too close.

But Renia did not let up. As always, she did everything she could to get what she wanted. In her hushed tone, she begged, negotiated. Finally, she offered him several thousand marks if he saved even one Freedom kibbutznik.

“Meet me again the day after tomorrow,” he said. “Six in the morning.”

They parted, Bolk going one way, and Renia and Ilza walking in the other direction. They hurried to catch the tram to the nearby town of Katowice, where they were going to spend the night. Suddenly the two women who’d been sitting near them on the bench appeared. “You’re Jewish, aren’t you?”

They started chasing the girls, followed by a group of children yelling “Jews! Jews!”

“Let’s run,” Ilza whispered.

“No.” Renia didn’t want to raise suspicion. They strode quickly to an empty building that had been previously occupied by Jews. By then, however, a herd of people were after them, led by the two older women, who yelled, “You’re disguised as Poles. You met with a Jewish man!” A mob gathered around them. “We should kill you Hebrews, all of you!” One lady yelled, “If Hitler doesn’t get the job done, we will.”

Without thinking, without a moment of hesitation, Renia slapped the woman across the face. Then slapped her again. And again. “If I’m actually a Jew,” Renia said between whacks, “you should know what a Jew is capable of.”

“Call me a Jew again,” she threatened, “and you’ll get more of the same.”

Two undercover Gestapo agents arrived at the scene, which actually came as a relief. “What’s going on?” they asked.

Renia told them the story in Polish; a boy from the street translated.

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