Page 151 - LEIBY

Chapter 19 151

say, Shema Yisrael, or Avraham,Yitzchak, and Yaakov.”The priest
was well-versed in the pesukim of the Torah, having learned the
texts in lashon hakodesh.

“No, the Jews are too clever for that,” Leiby explained. “They
thought that perhaps some Polish non-Jews would try to sneak
into their group and would try to guess the password, so they
intentionally selected anti-Semitic phrases that no Pole who
would attempt to join the border smugglers would ever dream
to be the password. There are many, many Poles who want to
leave Poland.”

The priest sighed. “Loyal Polish Catholics, from the best of
our ranks, who fought in the right-wing Polish resistance
movements, are now being accused by the Bolsheviks of having
cooperated with the Germans,” he complained. “They are doing
anything possible to try and escape, even joining up with Jews. I
have no objection. I say, squeeze out everything you need from
the Jews, then discard them.”

Leiby smiled politely in response.The priest’s words didn’t ruffle
him at all, accustomed as he was the Poles’ acerbic hatred of the
Jews. Anti-Semitism had existed in Poland ever since the first
Jews had arrived there, generations before. They had dubbed
the country with the Hebrew words ‘poh lin – here we will stay,’
and had hoped that it would indeed prove to be a place where
Jews could find tranquility and live in peace. But the Poles,
for their part, had always considered the Jews to be no more
than a means to help the Polish economy prosper. They had
intended to milk them of any skills and business acumen they
had to offer, and then rid themselves of the so-called invaders
of their land by organizing pogroms, or by imposing social and
economic sanctions on them that would make it impossible for
them to continue living there. The priests and other clergymen
had long been the most enthusiastic fanners of the anti-Semitic
fires.

Leiby recalled a visit he had once paid to a church, in order
to buy some armaments that had been hidden there. At the