Page 125 - LEIBY

Chapter 15 125

and one for the fraternity of nations!”

“You’re speaking sense! Three it will be! And now let’s dance
together.”The officer hugged Leiby and broke out into a spirited
Russian war song.

“There’s no time now for dancing,” Leiby counseled. “We’ll
dance when the attack is over. Now we have to get to work.”

“My dear child, you are so right,” the officer was totally
inebriated. “Just hearing you makes me want to dance!”

Leiby took matters into his own hands. He took a pen and
piece of paper from the officer’s desk and scribbled a directive
to send three truckloads of armed soldiers. He asked the officer
to sign, and in a drunken daze, he happily complied.

Leiby snatched the paper from his hands and ran agitatedly
around the base. Quickly, he organized three sizable groups of
armed soldiers and urged the truck drivers to set out without a
moment’s delay.

A dizzying journey along bumpy, pothole-filled roads brought
them to the outskirts of Praga. The streets still buzzed with
gangs of riotous thugs, who surrounded the Jewish committee
building and hammered on the locked iron doors. Terrified
screams and calls for help could be heard from inside the
building, mingling with the rioters’ bloodcurdling roars and
their vehement Polish curses.

The soldiers began shooting into the air and the sound of the
gunshots stunned the thugs for a few moments. Leiby made the
most of the sudden silence and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Get away from here, before we shoot you all in the head!”Two
soldiers pointed their guns at the men pounding on the doors
and shot randomly into the crowd.

Several rioters fell to the ground and the rest fled in panic,
and within seconds the entire street had totally emptied out.
Windows were hastily slammed shut in all the houses, as the
residents barricaded themselves in their homes. Leiby glanced
around the desolate street, which all of a sudden had been