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e train was crammed with Jewish Polish refugees who were
on their way back home from exile in Siberia.

“Where are you traveling to?”Leiby asked one of the passengers,
a middle-aged man equipped with several suitcases and wearing
gold-framed glasses that gave him a professor-like appearance.

“To Poland,” came the answer.

“But we’re already in Poland,” Leiby replied.

“Yes,” the gentleman agreed, “Lida was part of Poland before
the war, but as decided upon in the Molotov-Ribbentrop
agreement, it has been annexed to the Byelorussian Soviet
Socialist Republic.

“And how did you succeed in escaping Russia?” Leiby inquired.

“ e repatriation agreement,”17 the professor answered tersely.

“Agreement?” Leiby waved his hand skeptically

“Don’t take the agreement lightly,” the man protested.
“Sometimes one small deal, written on just a single page, can
save the lives of tens of thousands of people. e repatriation
agreement, for example. is arrangement allows all Polish
Jews to leave Russia, taking their belongings with them, and to
relocate to Poland. It’s an opportunity that may not be missed –
the last chance to break through the Soviet Iron Curtain.”

“But why does Poland agree to let the Jews cross their borders
from Russia?” Leiby queried, bemused. “And why does Russia
agree to let them leave? Both of these countries are notorious
for their hatred of the Jews.” Leiby felt sure that the agreement
held some sort of deception.

17 The first repatriation agreement was signed in the middle of
the war, in September 1944, between Poland and the Soviet Republic.
Under this agreement, the Jews who had fled from Poland to Russia
were permitted to return. Following that, a further two versions of the
agreement were signed, in 1945 and 1946, allowing Polish Jews to leave
the Soviet Union.