Page 191 - LEIBY

Chapter 25 191

of the hotel as they approached made it clear that an additional
group of refugees had arrived.They entered the lobby and found
it teeming with people and their packages. The rooms were
severely overcrowded as well, with clusters of people standing
in every inch of space, talking and sharing their experiences.
They also spied refugees washing their laundry in huge vats in
the courtyard and hanging the clothes up to dry on makeshift
clotheslines. Near the kitchen snaked an endless line of hungry
people waiting to receive a bowl of hot soup.

Yosef and Leiby shuffled through the crowds, exhausted, and
Leiby looked around for a place to sleep.Akiva hurried past them,
dragging an oversized carton of cans and throwing instructions
to his assistants. He was also attempting simultaneously to help
some of the refugees who were facing various problems. It was
almost impossible to deal with the influx of refugees, yet despite
it all he noticed Leiby’s fatigue, and offered him his own bed
to sleep in.

“I can’t see myself getting any sleep in the next twenty-four
hours,” he smiled. “But I’m pleased to see that there are still
some people in the world who sleep in real beds!”

A couple of days later, a letter arrived from Hersh. He had
succeeded in getting a ride from an emissary of the Joint who
drove around the various DP transit camps, and had caught up
with the group who Yosef had left Poland with. He had probed
for information about the missing girl and discovered that she
had been seen talking with a strange looking man, dressed in
Chassidic garb, who had shortly afterwards been exposed as a
disguised Nazi and had been lynched. In all the bedlam that
had ensued, the girl had disappeared.

Leiby and Yosef read the letter intently, again and again, hoping
to glean any glimmer of information hidden between the lines.

“A goy in Chassidic attire,” Leiby mused, deep in thought.
Suddenly he slapped his forehead. “I saw him!” he exclaimed.
“He arrived at the farm looking for a way over the border. He
wanted to join up with the group that had just left the farm, and