Page 66 - LEIBY

66 Leiby – Border Smuggler

“Firstly, both Poland and Russia are presently trying to curry
favor with the West, and this gesture to the Jews may help
give them a more humanitarian impression. The reports of the
horrific treatment that the Jews received at the hands of both
governments are beginning to infiltrate into Western society
and are arousing the world’s conscience. Poland and Russia
realize that they have to improve their image in the world’s
eyes. Secondly, the Polish are desperate to have the territories
in Eastern Poland that were under their regime before the
war returned to them. As of now, the Polish are a minority in
these areas, and they think that an influx of Jews with Polish
citizenship may help to swing the balance in their favor, and
they’ll be able to demand the return of the territory.”

“And the Russians? What about them?”

The professor had an answer for everything. “The Russians see
the Polish Jews as an excellent human resource with which to
establish a communist government in Poland.”

“And will there be a Jewish prime minister in Poland?” Leiby
asked innocently.

“Never!” the professor replied firmly. “The Jews will always be
just a tool in the hands of the soviet government, to be used
until they find enough ethnic Poles who will cooperate with
them. At the first opportunity they have, they’ll throw out all the
Jews from any prominent positions they may have succeeded in
attaining, no matter how loyal they may have proved themselves
to be and how influential they may have been in establishing
the government.” Seeing Leiby’s expression, he added, “I see
that you think that’s awful, but I can understand them. No
nation would be willing to have members of another nation
take them over. In my opinion, if the Jews wish to have any
authority, they’ll have to establish their own state with their
own government. In any event, in Soviet Belorussia, where we
are now, there’s no chance of reviving the Jewish institutions
that were here before the war, and so I say, that if the border to
Poland is open, we have to seize the opportunity and cross over
to Poland.”