Page 130 - LEIBY

130 Leiby – Border Smuggler

all classifying themselves as Greek prisoners who have been
liberated from the labor camps, and the guides have stamped
Red Cross authorizations.”

“Greek?”

“Of course, Greek,” Alexander winked. “Our refugees don’t
understand any language other than Greek, and even their
guide barely knows a word of the local languages.”

“But how do the refugees learn Greek so quickly?”

Alexander chuckled. “All of us – all the Jews – have always
spoken Greek, didn’t you know? I’ve taken many ‘Greek’ groups
over the border on their way to Germany. The border police
scrutinized us and asked, ‘Who are you?’

“There was no one among us who understood Polish. There
was a religious Jew in the group who undertook to answer
the questions in fluent Greek. ‘Uva l’tzion goel u’lshavei pesha
b’Yaakov…’”

Alexander uttered the Hebrew words in a strange Polish
pronunciation, and Leiby was perplexed.

“’Where are you from?’ the guard tried again.

“’Ruchi asher alecha, u’dvarai asher samti b’ficha,’” Alexander
continued to quote.

Leiby protested. “Stop with this peculiar accent, you sound like
a goy.”

Alexander blushed and fell silent, and after a moment went
on. “The guards grumbled and cursed, but after they heard
the group members calling me Alexandros, they had no more
doubts about our Greek identity, and allowed us to cross the
border.”

With an earsplitting screech of its horn, a train pulled into the
station.The throngs of waiting people scrambled to get onto the
carriages and find a seat. Alexander and Leiby, too, hurriedly
made their way to the platform, climbed up onto one of the
carriages and settled themselves in a corner. Alexander seemed