Page 166 - LEIBY

166 Leiby – Border Smuggler

saw his father and mother, little Zalman, ten-year-old Rivka’le,
thirteen-year-old Dov Ber. He felt as if he was going insane.

“You murdered them!” he roared. “This is for Papa… this is for
Mama… for Rivka’le...” Again and again his knife flashed. He
could barely see beyond the visions of smoke, blood, and tears
that filled his view. All of them, all his beloved family members
were holding his hand and demanding revenge… revenge.
His heart was on fire, a thick black fog enveloped him, but he
wielded his knife like a man gone mad.

In a blur, Hershel saw Jews running towards him, but didn’t
know if they were here in the present, or there in the past. They
tried to calm him, but Hershel could not be calmed. He gripped
the Nazi’s arm with all his strength and no one could stop him.
Again his knife flashed like the sword of the Angel of Death
himself. Eventually Hershel collapsed onto the floor, panting
heavily, and burst out in loud, overwhelming crying. Pesach
arrived immediately, and Dovid, who had left the place just a
short while earlier, heard the ruckus and returned.

They lifted the disguised Nazi from his pool of blood and
locked him in one of the rooms, then dispersed the crowd of
bemused onlookers.

Pesach and Dovid were in a quandary. What on earth would
they do with the injured Nazi? How could they get rid of him?
They were all illegal immigrants, and the last thing they needed
was a visit from the legal authorities. The war was long over,
and the government was strictly opposed to civilians taking the
law into their own hands. The police who were likely to appear
here very soon were the same police who had served during
the war and had enthusiastically sent Jews to the concentration
camps. There was no knowing how they would react to the
latest development and which anti-Semitic demons would be
released.

The first and most crucial thing to do was to destroy any
evidence. Pesach and Dovid hurried to the locked room where
they had placed the dying Nazi, and Dovid suggested that