Page 47 - LEIBY

Chapter 5 47

panting in his efforts to catch up to Leiby.

“I’m not prepared to take any assistance from someone who is
so indifferent to the plight of a Jewish child in a non-Jewish
home and doesn’t even see any need to take her out from there.”
Leiby pulled Yosef ’s arm and the pair left the building.

“But he wanted to help us,” Yosef sobbed.

“We’ll go to Volodya, the Russian officer,” Leiby decided.
“He’ll probably be more obliging. It’s true, he’s not a Jewish
committee head, but at least he’s willing to help, and that’s the
most important thing. “

Yosef and Leiby made their way to Volodya’s military base.They
discovered it to be an attractive location, with lush green grass
and flowering plants growing all around it. They noticed several
signposts written in German that had been uprooted and
thrown down on the sides of the road, and new signs, written in
Russian, had been installed in their place at the entrance to the
building/ The base formerly had been German, but had been
taken over by the Russians, and now young Russian soldiers
patrolled there.

“Who are you?” The soldiers surrounded the two visitors in a
tight, suffocating ring.

“We need to meet with Volodya Morozov, he invited us.”

After extensive interrogation, Leiby and Yosef were ushered
into Volodya’s office. He looked most impressive, sitting behind
a mahogany desk, a huge map of Europe hanging on the wall
just behind him.The map was marked with arrows pointing out
the way to Berlin. Above the map was a picture of a Russian
soldier examining the soles of his shoes, and asking himself
“Will they last till we get to Berlin?”

The war was over, and the Red Army had overpowered almost
all of Eastern Poland and was presently camped out on the