Chapter 8 – Liberation

Three hours must have passed when I was awakened by the sound of a more terrible battle than before. I also sensed that it was very humid and I found that I was perspiring. Getting a grip on my sanity I understood that the action had begun once more. I had two choices; I could remain in the bunker with the possibility of the building above me collapsing, or I could try to run towards the central ghetto shelter, which was stronger. I sprang up and ran to the entrance, opening it. A gust of hot air greeted my body as the odor of smoke filled my lungs. In great horror I realized that ghetto was now being set alight. I turned to my left and I could see smoke drifting down the street where I had been stationed.

I ran as fast as I could down the empty street, a thousand voices filled my head; the cries of all the beggars in the street and the starving children. The midday sun was stinging my face as I continued ever close to the shelter, when suddenly from around a corner, an armed SS man trapped me.

I gasped in shock at the sight before me. He grinned at me lifting his revolver slowly as if he had been waiting so long to kill me and wanted to enjoy every second of his cruel infliction. I closed my eyes and awaited my death. I was not afraid because I was tired of my struggle.

A shot was fired but it didn’t strike me. I opened my eyes to the sight of a dead German, bleeding on the ground.

"Quick Yickheil!’ I jerked to my right. It was Shalom, standing behind the German with a revolver in his hand.

"We must leave now. Members of the Polish People’s Guard have penetrated the ghetto wall and are beginning their rescue operations. We are going to be saved."

No, it was too good to be true. It couldn’t be true. It all seemed so easy. I just stood there gaping at him.

"Don’t just stand there! Get his gun." I walked over to the German, took the gun from his hand and ran after Shalom who was already on his way. My legs were no longer weak but filled with vivacity. The sound of collapsing buildings, explosions and gunfire continued to fill my ears, but one word in my mind beat louder..Freedom, Freedom, Freedom.

We continued to run for our life until we had reached just outside the central underground. The unfamiliar sight of a truck surrounded by Polish Guards and a small number of Jews appeared. They were being led into the truck. "Wait!" yelled Shalom. The Jews had entered through the back of the truck and the door was being closed. Looking around, the guards saw us and told us to hurry, opening the door again. We jumped in the truck.

With a screeching start, the truck sped down the streets of the ghetto which hadn’t been invaded yet, and was soon at a ghetto entrance I had never seen before. I saw all this from a peephole in the back of the truck and was expecting the truck to come to a halt. But it didn’t, going straight through the entrance, passing dead Germans on the ground. Since most of the guards were fighting inside the ghetto there were hardly any guards at the gate.

Realising that we were outside of the ghetto wall, I yelled out the news as everyone in the truck shouted for joy. The ghetto gate slowly diminished in the increasing distance. I could see a cloud of smoke hanging over the ghetto where undoubtedly thousands were being burnt to a crisp. At this sight I turned away from the hole and into the arms of Shalom. He had saved my life.

Ten minutes passed with the joyous tears of the five women on board. The truck came to a halt and the doors were opened. We all rushed out into the beauty of luscious trees, a sight I thought I would never see again. Leaving everyone behind me, hugging each other with shouts of joy, I turned to my right. I looked up in the distance behind the sun-drenched trees. The sun’s rays were shining brilliantly onto what I recognized to be a Convent.

It was there that I, and my small group of survivors, finally found our freedom.