Page 25 - LEIBY

Chapter 3 25

war, and many of his customers were farmers who came every
week to the city to stock up on supplies. Papa hoped that one
of them would be willing to help us but he was quite skeptical.

“One night, we crawled to the fence that enclosed the ghetto
and we managed to get out – first Papa, then me, and lastly,
Mama and Mirushka. Mama had given Mirushka a sleeping
pill so that she would not make a noise and attract attention,
and she slept the entire time. We walked all night, using only
side streets and paths, until we left the city and arrived at a
village. We walked around for the next few days, going from
village to farm, on the lookout for the Gestapo all the time. We
met a local farmer’s wife and Papa asked her if she could take
Mirushka home with her, and she consented. Papa had feared
that no one would agree to help us because we knew that all
the local villagers harbored a rabid hatred for the Jews. He was
afraid that anyone who saw us would run immediately to report
us to the police. But I knew that she would want Mirushka.
Anyone would! She was the sweetest child ever!”

Yosef ’s eyes filled as he spoke about his baby sister. “Her hair
was long and golden, her eyes as blue as the sky, and the cutest
dimples lit up her cheeks when she smiled. When she was
small, people thought she was a doll! When we left the ghetto,
she wore a pink coat and hat that Mama had knitted especially
for her and she really did look like a doll. I missed her so much
when the farmer lady took her, but I knew that without her it
would be much easier for the rest of us to escape and hide.

“We continued our trek and came to a wheat field. Cautiously,
in complete silence, we crawled through the tall stalks of wheat.
Papa taught us to crawl in a way that anyone looking at the field
could not spot us. The farmers were always reluctant to trample
on the wheat stalks, and so they generally did not venture into
the fields on their search for Zhids and did their best to stop the
policemen from doing so too.

“When we got really hungry and desperate, Mama decided to
go to one of the farmhouses to try and beg for food. We waited
for her in the field all day, but she didn’t return. Afterwards, we