Page 113 - LEIBY

Chapter 14 113

to explain.

“Yashko, the son of the poor woman crying over there, has been
murdered. The Jews killed him for their matzos.” Leiby couldn’t
believe what he was hearing, but the man was completely
serious. “He was last seen walking around the area, but now he’s
disappeared. It’s clear that the Jews got hold of him. His mother
also saw the Jewish butcher leaving the committee building,
waving a knife dripping blood. The Jews are all emerging now
from their lairs and killing our children,” he concluded.

The street was in chaos. Out of the corner of his eye, Leiby
noticed a group of youths armed with spades and axes running
towards the back windows of the committee building. He
hurried to mingle with the enraged crowd. “Let’s call the police!
They’ll deal with the Jews,” he screamed, waving his clenched
fists.

“Ha, ha, ha… The Bolshevik police, he says. They’re Jewish
themselves,” two tall, muscular Poles jeered.

“Madam, where did you last see your son?” Leiby turned to the
weeping lady whose frantic cries frenzied the crowd.

“He was right here, on the next street. He was playing with
some friends, and suddenly disappeared. “

“Who are your son’s friends? And where do they live?” Leiby
tried to extract some information from her.

“There’s Anthony Blokshevsky, he lives in the last building over
there, on the ground floor, and Adam Popkorovitz, who lives
on the first floor in the green building,” the woman replied
distractedly.

Leiby jotted down the addresses, casting an anxious glance at
the crowd that was growing bigger every moment. A bona fide
pogrom was being organized just in front of his face, and there
was nothing he could do to stop it.

He ran as fast as he could to the addresses that the woman
had given him, the inflamed cries of the band of hooligans
spurring him on, but did not find the boy at any of his friends’