Page 85 - LEIBY

Chapter 9 85

Yechiel’s face lit up as he took the box from Leiby. He ran
his hand over the stamps and caressed them as if they were
priceless gems. “We’ll be able to reopen our workshop, almost
legally, with real stamps…” But suddenly his face clouded over.
“Which train station are they from, Leiby? How long will it be
till someone notices that they’re missing?”

“It’s all arranged with the supervisor,” Leiby soothed him.

Yechiel’s eyes shone again as he looked at the stamps. “This is
real luck!”

“It’s not luck, it’s hashgacha pratis, Divine Providence,” Leiby
corrected him. “Hashem’s mercy on the few remaining Jews.”

The work in the locksmiths’ workshop resumed, full force.
Authorizations and travel permits were issued on a daily basis
and the trains arriving in Poland from the Soviet Union held
many Jews among their passengers.The major hubs of the border
smuggling activities were in Lvov and in Vilna. Many religious
Russian Jews joined the Polish returnees and emigrated to
Poland too, and so they succeeded in escaping the Iron Curtain
after having been confined there for the past twenty years, with
their religious freedom severely restricted.

It was in the Russian government’s own best interests to turn a
blind eye to the steady flow of refugees passing themselves off
as Poles, because tens of thousands of Polish exiles had died in
forced labor camps in Siberia during the war years, and they
wanted the number of returning Poles to match the number of
exiles. Anyone with even a little foresight took the opportunity
to flee Russia before the window of opportunity slammed shut.