Page 61 - LEIBY

Chapter 7 61

Chapter 7

Two envelopes arrived that day at Leiby’s home, the first letters
that he had received since registering his new address in the
city registrar.

The first letter was a call-up notice to the army. Leiby’s face fell
when he saw it. He knew that the government’s plan was to
send all former partisans to the battlefront. They preferred to
get any partisan who had not been absorbed into the local city
authorities out of the way, so that they would not be tempted
to stage a rebellion against Mother Russia who had overtaken
their country and was curtailing their freedom.

The second letter informed him that Zalman had fallen on the
Warsaw battlefield. Leiby’s heart turned to stone when he read
the news. Zalman, his good friend, the energetic young partisan,
had died. Zalman had been the last member of his entire
extended family to survive, and Leiby had begged him to stay
home, and not to volunteer for combat, but he had insisted on
going. He had wanted to prove to the non-Jewish, anti-Semitic
partisans that the Jews were not cowards, and could fight just
as well as anyone else. His commanding officer had sent him
to the regiment with the most dangerous of assignments and
it was no wonder that he had met his death there, although
Leiby suspected that it may actually have been a fellow Russian