Page 15 - LEIBY

Chapter 2 15

looked at the many books lining the walls in disgust.

“Pack up your stuff quickly and get out of here,” he snarled.
“Tomorrow, you must come to the recruitment office. And
remember – desertion means death!”

Leiby looked around at the framed pictures adorning the walls,
the comfortable couches, and the solid wood cabinets. In their
home in the ghetto there had been no furniture at all, and the
family had slept on mattresses that they had laid down on
the floor every evening. Even before the war, their home had
been sparsely furnished, for his late father had always said that
anywhere a Jew lives outside of Eretz Yisrael is only temporary,
so why should they invest in furniture? They’d buy anything
they needed once they got to the Holy Land. Leiby’s family
had actually applied for visas, but by the time they had arrived,
their city was under Nazi occupation and they could not leave.

“Hurry up, get everything out of here. Anything you leave will
be disposed of,” Stefan shouted. Quickly, not allowing himself
to think, Leiby dragged the few blankets that now held all the
family’s worldly possessions outside and went to find a new
place to live. Not all that long ago, Lida had been home to
thousands of Jews. In fact, the majority of the city’s residents
had been Jewish, and Yiddish was the language most heard on
the streets. But now there was not a Jew to be found.

Leiby walked through the streets in search of an empty house.
He finally found an abandoned house that looked potentially
suitable at the end of the street and returned home to fetch the
items he had left there. After he had taken everything, Stefan
locked the door and threw him a brusque reminder. “Don’t
forget – tomorrow, the recruitment office.”

Stefan was drunk, having discovered the wine cabinet and the
bottles of wine that the previous non-Jewish owners of the
home had left behind. Various empty bottles were strewn all
over the floor around his feet. Stefan was accompanied by a
large German shepherd dog and Leiby could not restrain
himself. “I can barely tell the difference between you and the