Page 227 - LEIBY

Chapter 30 227

Chapter 30

Leiby was greeted like an old friend in the escape activists’
headquarters in Lodz. They prepared him a cup of tea and an
American canned beef sandwich. He was also served a bowl of
steaming soup from their scrupulously kosher kitchen.

Not a mention was made of the ‘hikers’ who had been murdered
just meters away from the Slovakian border. The men there had
faced death so many times and now just wanted to focus on life
and achievement, to bury the past and build the future.

“We’re currently working on getting the children from the
orphanages out of Poland,” a tall, serious looking breichnik sat
down beside Leiby and spread a map on his knees. “There are
many children who we managed to extract from the non-Jewish
families who protected them during the war, and they’ve been
placed in orphanages in the meantime. However, we’re worried
that they may decide to run away and return to the families any
day, and then they’ll be lost to our people forever. We have to
get the children to the DP camps in Germany, where they’ll
be in a secure Jewish environment.” He paused for a moment,
looked keenly at Leiby and continued. “Leiby, we need you to
assist us with evacuating the children from the orphanage on
Kilinsky Street. It’s urgent.”