Page 230 - LEIBY

230 Leiby – Border Smuggler

is the prerequisite for receiving the payment.”

During the long years that Ya’akov spent in the labor camps,
he never once saw a Jewish child. As far as the Nazis were
concerned, children didn’t have the right to live. But now a
Jewish child was standing here right in front of him, having
defied the Nazis by surviving and returning to his people. His
murdered parents were surely looking down from Heaven and
rejoicing to see their son returning to their nation, perpetuating
their life and legacy.

Ya’akov looked fondly at the boy and tried to conceal his
eagerness to have the boy handed over to him. Any Jewish
child who was found to have survived the war was cause for
celebration for all the committee staff members.

The farmer woman deliberated the matter. On the one hand
she needed the boy, who worked for her from early dawn to late
at night. First thing in the morning, he milked her cows, then
he took her sheep out to pasture, and when he returned in the
evening, he helped her with the difficult household chores. His
salary was a daily slice of bread, a cup of milk, and a cooked
meal in the afternoon. The farmer was having a difficult time
making ends meet; since the war had ended, the price of bread
had gone down, and the Russian soldiers’ frequent raids of her
farm had left her funds severely depleted.

“How much do you pay for a child?”

“Five thousand zlotys.”

“That’s all?” She chafed. “Come, Pavel, we’re going.” She pulled
the boy after her as she turned to leave. “I won’t hear of a penny
less than 15,000 zlotys.”

“Alright, for you – six thousand. No one here gets more than
that, believe me,” Ya’akov persuaded her. “Leave the boy here
with us, and G-d will bless you.There are so few Jewish children
left and G-d wants them to return to their faith.”

The farmer woman stood, undecided, until the uniformed