Page 43 - LEIBY

Chapter 5 43

my unit at the military base at the outskirts of the city,” he said.
“If you should need assistance with anything, please turn to
me.”

With a loud blaring of its horn, the train moved on, and
Leiby and Yosef proceeded to leave the station. Following the
directions they had received, they soon found themselves in the
library hall of Minsk, where the convention was to be held.
The hall was packed with refugees sitting on the chairs and
the floor, and others standing crammed together. With some
effort, Yosef and Leiby succeeded in finding a small piece of
floor space for themselves in the corner.

An emaciated looking young man, with intense eyes and
a formidable expression, chaired the event. It was almost
impossible to hear the speeches, and Yosef soon fell asleep, his
head resting on Leiby’s shoulder. Leiby strained to hear and to
make some sense of the fragmented words and half-sentences
that he heard. Slowly he managed to make out the speakers’
words. They were not reciting poems, as he had thought at first,
but dirges about their homes that had been demolished, their
parents, siblings, and children who had gone, never to return.

A thick, suffocating silence enveloped the hall. Leiby looked
around at the audience. Looking at the crowd, it was not difficult
to guess how each person had spent the war years. Expatriates
of the labor camps were gaunt and weak, their faces drawn
and their clothing hanging off their scrawny frames. People
who had succeeded in passing themselves off as Aryans were
blonde and immaculately dressed, with curled mustaches and
gleaming boots. The refugees who had survived exile in Siberia
looked strong and muscular, having worked for many months
chopping down trees for their wood. From Uzbekistan came
men whose faces were burned and darkened by many hours
spent outside under the blazing sun, and finally, there were
Red Army soldiers sitting tall and proud in their seats, rows of
medals on their chests.

The first speaker concluded his recital of some dairy entries
describing life in the ghetto and moved aside to let the emcee