Page 183 - LEIBY

Chapter 24 183

perplexed.

“We have an unwritten,informal agreement with the authorities
that allows an unlimited number of Jews to leave Poland freely,”
Akiva dropped the bombshell.

“What?” Leiby stared at him in disbelief.

“Yes,” Akiva beamed. “Today, any Jew who so desires just has
to get to the meeting point and can leave Poland at his will. He
just has to do it quickly, because the agreement is liable to be
cancelled any day.”

Leiby still found it hard to believe. “How did this miracle
happen?”

“It was after the pogrom in Kieltze,” Akiva explained. “The
government finally realized that the Jews were giving them
an unnecessary headache. On the one hand, Jews were being
massacred in the Polish streets, damaging the government’s
image, and giving them a bad reputation in the West. On the
other hand, the government was reluctant to come down too
hard on the Polish thugs, so that they wouldn’t be accused by
the anti-Semitic public of being Jew-lovers. Letting all the Jews
leave was a convenient way out of their predicament.”

“It kind of reminds me of Pharaoh, running around looking for
Moshe and Aharon and begging them to take the Jews out of
Mitzrayim,” Leiby snickered.

“Oh no, it’s completely different here,” Akiva corrected him.
“When Pharaoh let the Jews out of Mitzrayim, he let them go
in broad daylight with all their animals and possessions. In our
case it’s not like that at all.Ya’akov Berman,Stalin’s henchman in
Poland, sent us a message through the Polish general Kommer
that the government is presently willing to turn a blind eye to
Jewish emigration from Poland, on condition that all money
and belongings be left behind and that no one travel to the
Soviet area of Germany. Another condition was that the mass
departure be carried out surreptitiously so as not to aggravate