In the Sewers of Lvov (7 page)

On the evening of 31 May, Chiger, Berestycki and Kuba Leinwand slipped down the shaft to continue work on the tunnel they planned to make their home. Their anxiety was steadily rising and they knew that time was running out. They met with Socha that night to discuss their final plans.

While the meeting was taking place in the sewers, the authorities were hosting a concert out in the street near the administration block. The Julag orchestra was playing popular pieces for the few hundred who had turned up for a little distraction. In Chiger’s account he wrote that in addition to the music: ‘Grzymek arranged a play written by himself and invited everyone to attend the performance.’ One of those at the concert was Halina Wind, the young woman who lived with Weiss and his mother. Throughout the evening, the music was heard drifting through the deserted streets.

Paulina had stayed in the cellar with her children, waiting for Chiger and the others to return. Just after eleven Paulina heard Halina’s footsteps in the rooms above. She was breathless and apparently rushing from room to room. Paulina raised herself close to the floor boards in order to hear what was being said.

‘This is it, the end. The Ukrainian militia and the Gestapo have already spread throughout the Julag. We have to escape,’ Halina shouted. From out in the street came the sound of trucks pulling up outside and the rhythmic crump of boots; fifty, a hundred. three hundred – up and down the street.

By the time the men emerged from the sewer, the barrack was already in uproar. Chiger climbed into the room above and went to the window to look. Already standing there was a short,
tough-looking character. Margulies tossed him the news.

‘They’re shooting the Jewish police. That’s it, it’s all finished now.’

They could see that the Gestapo and Ukrainian militia had herded together a group of terrified men wearing the plain peaked caps and dark armbands of the Jewish police. A few men lay dead at their feet. A Gestapo officer took hold of each man’s cap and tossed it away. Likewise their belts and armbands were removed, and then as though it was all part of the same process, they were then each of them summarily shot on the spot. Some of them ran – or tried to run – and were cut down by machine-gun fire. The shooting of the Jewish police was the clearest signal yet. It could only mean the Julag would no longer function; the population was to be eliminated.

‘Let’s start packing,’ said Margulies and he left for his room.

Chiger peered through the window. ‘Everyone was in a state of panic. Running in every direction.’

Having seen enough, he moved back down to the cellar to confirm what his wife had already heard. She in the meantime was helping Kristina and Pawel get into their overcoats. Chiger began packing a knapsack and some bags with all the essentials they had thought they ought to take. Bandages, food, medicine, torches, candles.

Margulies had run across to the neighbouring barrack, where he lived. He climbed up through a trap in the ceiling and crawled through the attic to the water tank at one end. He reached behind and removed a revolver he had hidden there. He recalled: ‘I bought it from a man in the ghetto long before, with some bullets. It had been taken from a Russian tank crew. Sometimes, during an
Aktion
at night, I used to fire at the Germans. No one would know where the shots were coming from. But it frightened people, so I kept it hidden.’

Margulies had no thoughts of fighting that night. His mind was concentrated on getting back under Weiss’s floor. Out in the street the Gestapo had begun using heavy machine-guns. Bursts of heavy firing cut through the background of rising hysteria. The liquidation exercise, carried out by soldiers moving methodically
through the ghetto, took hours. Accounts suggest that thousands were shot that night. Many insist that no one left the Julag alive. One witness claimed: ‘They were just lined up against the wall and cut down. One group after another, like an assembly line. Those clearing the dead bodies could hardly keep up.’
⁴

Meanwhile, amidst the utter confusion, there were horrifying scenes of families being cut down or torn apart as each member fought for his or her survival. And everywhere people were being shot. The gunfire went on, round after round.

‘It was pitiful to watch. People running in every direction, they didn’t know where they were going. It was utter chaos,’ recalled Klara Keler. As she stood with Manya by the window in their room, Margulies came running in shouting, ‘It’s time to go down. Now!’

Klara looked across at her sister, who simply shook her head. Then the elderly Mrs Weiss and Halina appeared at the doorway.

‘Come on, girls, don’t wait.’ The girls followed and met with Berestycki. In Weiss’s room, there seemed to be no sign of movement. Inside he and his wife stood silently opposite each other, his daughter clinging to her mother. Neither would move.

‘We can’t wait any longer.’

‘I’m not going down there,’ his wife shouted. She watched as people began to gather round the hole in their floor. The fear of imminent extinction did not seem to have affected her. She was not going to be persuaded, she was resolute.

Meanwhile, their room began to fill with strangers, people who had heard of some kind of tunnel. They brought with them fresh reports from the street. The Germans had begun to use flame throwers, moving through the streets sending bursts of fire into each shattered hovel until entire streets were ablaze. Stunned, mute with horror, they stumbled down into the cellar. Words couldn’t describe what they had seen. It was death on a scale as yet unimagined. Some wept for release from the nightmare, while others, though terrified, kept going.

Having packed their provisions, Chiger set about marshalling his family towards the shaft. Everyone who had actually worked on the project knew what to expect, but their families and friends
were soon horrified by the foul-smelling hole in the floor. Others had edged their way around the shaft, but were holding back from the unknown.

‘I can’t I can’t do it,’ someone screamed.

‘Feet first, feet first!’ Margulies was saying, trying not to raise his voice.

Meanwhile, Halina, Berestycki and old Mrs Weiss had also climbed down into the cellar. Halina looked across the cramped space and saw Paulina with her children for the first time. For an instant she was reminded of her own mother and some instinct moved her to stay close to the woman. Chiger was still shepherding his family to the opening, where they balked at the prospect. His brother-in-law Kuba was first to descend, to show how it was done. Then Paulina – ‘… someone pushed me from behind. I was pushed down through the shaft.’

Kristina and Pawel, already frightened by the stream of strangers pushing their way to the shaft, were determined not to follow. Kristina recalled with horror: ‘I saw the entrance to some dark place. I didn’t know what it was but it smelled terrible and my father said you have to go there.’ She remembered struggling against her father’s grip. ‘I started to cry. I was scared and I said, “I don’t want to go, Daddy!” And he said, “You must, Krisia, you must, please.”’

His strong hands on her shoulders edged her forwards until there was no escape. With her father standing behind her, she slipped to the floor and was pushed from behind into the shaft. As she slid against the rough concrete she suddenly felt a pair of hands take hold of her ankles and pull her the rest of the way down – into her personal nightmare. ‘It was total darkness and all I could hear was rushing water, like a waterfall – and screaming. I was terrified.’

In a moment Pawel was beside her and, eventually, her father. Back in Weiss’s room, the situation had quickly deteriorated. Before anyone could have done anything about it, the place had become choked with people, some clutching a few belongings, most of them total strangers. They streamed down into the cellar, most of them completely ignorant of where they were going.
There was nothing Margulies or the others could do but usher them towards the shaft.

‘Don’t stop, keep going down. Don’t block up the hole!’ cried Margulies. He and Berestycki knelt above the entrance, helping each one to edge their way down. Klara and her sister Manya finally reached Weiss’s room. It was packed with people, struggling and fighting towards the hole in the floor. By the time the last of their friends had arrived, it was hopelessly chaotic and they knew it. All their preparations were in jeopardy. There was nothing they could do to stem the tide, except urge them to move more quickly down the shaft.

Outside, the night sky was filled with flames and clouds of swirling sparks, while the streets were littered with the dead. News arrived that a fleet of lorries had arrived and they were herding people aboard. A new wave of panic swept through the room. Down in the cellar, Margulies and Berestycki began shouting and man-handling people in an effort to quench the hysteria. They pushed them down the shaft and if they got stuck, stamped on their shoulders – anything to speed up the exodus. Then Weiss’s wife burst out with some news.

‘There’s no need for this. They say we’re going to be safe. They say they’re going to take us somewhere where we will work – somewhere else – making clothes.’

‘Who said?’ asked Margulies from the cellar.

‘Someone in the street,’ she replied. ‘We’ll have rest and proper food and warm clothes to wear.’

‘They are killing people in the street!’ shouted Margulies. ‘This is the end.’

He came up into the room and took hold of Klara’s hand. She, in turn, held Manya’s.

‘Come now,’ Margulies ordered.

‘But Manya won’t come.’

Margulies looked at Manya who was staring at the hole in the floor. She shook her head.

‘I couldn’t face it again. How long would we be down there?’ Manya asked. No one could tell her.

‘Until the
Aktion
is over,’ someone ventured.

‘I won’t go down there.’

Meanwhile Weiss and Berestycki had ushered old Mother Weiss and Halina towards the cellar. Weiss’s wife and daughter stood apart, stony faced. Mrs Weiss looked across at the youthful Halina and then at her husband. For anyone who had noticed her expression, the implication was obvious. Besides, there had been arguments between Weiss and his wife ever since Halina had arrived at their house. Mrs Weiss was convinced that her husband was in love with the young woman.

‘Why is she going down?’

‘Everyone is going down.’

‘You can’t live in a sewer.’

The argument escalated, but no one wanted to intervene. It may seem extraordinary that just as their world was being engulfed in flames, a husband and wife might reach a crisis over a suspected infidelity. From all accounts, Mrs Weiss’s suspicions were wholly unfounded. There was no such relationship between Weiss and Halina. Yet, living in an atmosphere of constant persecution, perhaps it’s not surprising that deeply buried fears and anxieties had come to the surface.

While her son and daughter-in-law argued, old Mother Weiss and Halina climbed down into the cellar and were led by Berestycki into the shaft. They slipped down into the underworld. In Halina’s account, she wrote, ‘I heard something that sounded like a river. I saw a lot of people. Some held torches and some had candles.’ Every so often, she heard the sound of a splash when someone slipped, or jumped into the river. Soon Berestycki descended too, took Halina by the hand and led her and old Mrs Weiss away.

‘Our sewer workers will be here. Just come with me.’

She hadn’t a clue what he meant, but she followed.

Meanwhile, in Weiss’s room, Margulies still had hold of Klara’s hand. His grip had become almost vice-like, wordlessly imploring ‘I won’t let you go. I’ll look after you.’

Manya stood like a statue, unable to move. Then Margulies suddenly remembered a woman they had taken down on the previous
occasion. A mother of two daughters. He told Klara to stay where she was and that he’d be back in a few minutes. He dashed down the corridor in search of the woman and her children. As he passed a window, he caught a glimpse of the scene outside. Some of the Jewish police who had escaped the initial slaughter were being chased towards the barrack. Were they seeking refuge amongst their erstwhile kinsmen? Margulies knew they could not be allowed anywhere near Weiss’s room or the cellar beneath. If everyone didn’t climb down the hole immediately, they risked leading the Germans to the shaft, and eventually those already down below.

He stumbled into the woman’s room but stopped dead in his tracks. There, in a corner, the mother and her two daughters lay retching. The cyanide they had taken had all but completely flushed the life from their bodies. ‘I just covered them up with a blanket – what could I do? – and closed the door.’

Back in Weiss’s room, Margulies took hold of Klara’s hand again. Time was now critical.

‘The Jewish police are coming this way.’

Manya had become hysterical and began to scream.

‘I want to live, I want to live!’

Around her the last remaining escapers had become infected with her hysteria and the final moments were lost in almost total panic. In order to regain control, Margulies had begun striking people before launching them down to the cellar. The final few were sent down and Margulies turned to Klara.

‘Come, come, come. …’

‘He was pulling me one way and she was pulling in the other,’ recalled Klara. But Manya was no match for Margulies’s determination.

‘Come!’ he repeated. Klara, in a daze, stepped into the cellar and did not glance back. Margulies followed and heaved the stone into place, closing the hole in Weiss’s floor. Manya was left behind. Then Marguiles led Klara to the shaft and told her to climb down it. He followed, pulling the iron grate into place.

Klara landed on the narrow ledge, took one or two tentative steps and suddenly felt her foot slip off the edge and into the
water. Margulies’s powerful hand instantly grabbed her arm and she felt his weight hauling her back against the wall. In the flashes of light that punctured the darkness, she saw the Peltwa rushing past her feet. They edged away from the shaft and away from the terror of the exterminations.