Rena's Promise (6 page)

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Authors: Rena Kornreich Gelissen,Heather Dune Macadam

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Historical, #test

BOOK: Rena's Promise
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According to the Nuremberg Laws, any Aryan having sex with a non-Aryan could be punished by death, and many of the Jewish families thought their daughters were safe because of this concept of Rassenschamde, or "race disgrace." Not long after the incident at the river, though, a German soldier saw Rena walking to work and asked Joseph's son, Alex, who she was
.
It was the middle of the night when the soldier staggered drunkenly up to Alex's house. "Open up this door!" he shouted. "Alex, I insist you open up this door and take me to Rena's house!"
Joseph quickly woke up his son, sending him out the window to run and warn the Kornreichs. Then he stalled the SS man until Alex could return
.
"Chaim! Sarah!" Alex shouted outside. "Hide Rena quickly! There is a German soldier looking for her." My eyes shot open.
"Papa, you keep a lookout while I hide Rena. Yell when you see them." I could hear Mama's voice downstairs and was out of bed before she could reach my room. "Follow me." She took my hand, leading me into the attic.
"Lie down on your stomach." Her voice did not waver, her hands did not tremble. I lay down as she covered me with straw. "Do not move until you hear me telling you it's all right." She smoothed the straw out over my body, making it even so it would not look as if anyone was hiding.
"Mama, they're near!" Papa's voice warned us.
"
Ribono she! olam
, Lord of the universe, protect my child," Mama prayed before hurrying downstairs. Lying very flat, my stomach pulsating against the floorboards, I turned my face sideways and tried very hard not to breathe. I could hear the rifle butt denting our front door and the officer yelling, "Where's Rena? Bring me Rena!"
"She's not at home." Father pretended that he'd been rudely awakened.

 

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"I do not believe you!
Scheiss-Jude!
You would not let your precious daughter stay out this late at night."
"She is visiting family in another town."
"We'll see about that! I know where you cursed dogs hide your favorite things!" He pushed Papa aside, barging into our home, walking immediately up the stairs to our attic. This was the only place to hide in farmhouses, besides the potato cellars, so it was the first place he looked.
"Is she here?" I heard him poking through the straw. "Perhaps you want to tell me before I stab her through her pretty eye!" The boards creaked beneath the weight of his feet; every movement he made shuddered the floor beneath me.
He dared Mama and Papa to make a move that would betray my hiding place. They were stone, solid and silent.
"So she isn't hiding under that pilebut maybe here?" He stabbed the straw repeatedly, as if it were alive and he were killing it. My heart thumped against the wood flooring. I tried not to panic, but I was sure he could hear every skip and beat of the throbbing river of blood racing through my head. A flash of steel found its mark four inches from my nose.
I did not move.
"I know you're lying to me, Jew. You'd better make sure she's here the next time a German officer comes to call or I'll cut your throat!" He slammed the door of our house so hard that the china tinkled in the cabinets.
Mama came back to the loft. "Rena, are you okay?" I held her, trying not to cry, trying to be brave. But I was shaken beyond all bravery.
"You will have to sleep up here tonight"she smoothed my hair back across my head"in case he returns. Try to rest. We will see about this in the morning. You're not going back to those barracks to work, though, that's for sure." She kissed my forehead, squeezing me tight against her breasts while I dampened her nightdress with my tears.

 

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That night changed everything. It had become dangerous for Rena to live in Tylicz. The village was distraught over the incident and almost everyone rallied to help. A Gentile friend took a letter to Rena's uncle in Slovakia, saying that she would be coming to live with them just as Zosia had done, and Papa deliberated long and hard over whom to contact about smuggling her across the border. Andrzej had been fighting the Germans when Poland had first been invaded, but he'd been fortunate enough to escape capture; returning secretly to Tylicz, he was now working for the Polish resistance
.
Who knew the border better than Andrzej?
My father had never met Andrzej, yet that morning he sent for the boy he had forbidden me to see to come into our house. Not a word had been spoken to me about these arrangements. This was my father, and of course I was not consulted.
I was standing in the kitchen when I heard Andrzej's voice at our door. My knees sank. Mama scrutinized me, but I did not even look at his face.
"Welcome, Andrzej. Please have a seat." Papa offered him a chair. "Would you like a cigarette?" Mama and I watched them from the other room.
"Thank you, Mr. Kornreich." Andrzej took the cigarette with a grateful nod.
"I have a favor to ask of you, Andrzej . . . This is very difficult for me, but I must ask. It is no longer safe in Tylicz for Rena. Her mother and I are worried for her safety every day."
"I heard what happened last night, Mr. Kornreich. I understand your concern."
"I have no money to pay you for this favor."
"Sir, I would not take any money from you. She is my friend since childhood. I will do whatever you ask to help your daughter."
"Thank you." Papa paused, stroking his chin where his beard should have been. "You seem like a man of your word. If you

 

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would bring Rena across the border to Slovakia, her mother and I might find sleep at night."
"I will see to it," Andrzej answered gallantly. "And I swear that with my life I'm going to guard her and not one hair is going to fall from her head. I give you my word of honor that I will bring her safely to Slovakia according to your wishes. I will hold only her hand because it is rough terrain, but I will not touch her, sir. You may trust me."
My father concluded their business with a handshake, but there was a look in his eyes I had never seen before, the appearance of complete humiliation and defeat.
That evening my mother kissed my brow, weeping. "Rena, be brave, be careful, be well."
I promised to write and send them food. "I'll come home as soon as things get better."
"Safe journey," Papa said solemnly. "Bless you." I kissed him good-bye and hugged Danka. Then I walked into the dark winter night, unchaperoned, to join Andrzej.
"We will have to walk all night. We cannot as much as whispernot a wordbecause the dogs can pick up sounds for a long diStance and once they begin to bark there is no stopping them," Andrzej instructed me. "The search teams will be out looking for us and the chance of slipping through their net is very slim. If I motion down, lie flat on the ground. Do not raise your head or move in the slightest until I motion you to get up." He took my hand. "I am going to hold your hand the whole way so you won't fall. It will be just like when we were children and I brought you and Danka down the hill."
It was rainy, cold, and just beginning to sleet. Whenever searchlights cascaded across the landscape we fell face down so as not to create a shadow. It would have been hard enough walking in that slippery slush in daylight while laughing and singing winter sledding songs, but silent, under threat of death, trying not to crunch through the new crust of snow, it was nearly impossible. Along a

 

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ravine, we threaded our way between trees, using the underbrush to hide our tracks.
Andrzej stumbled, losing his grasp on my hand for a second. Thrown off balance, struggling to keep from falling into the abyss below, I plummeted out of reach. Rolling down the steep incline, I grabbed at tree branches to break my fall as they ripped the mittens from my hands. Biting my tongue, I splashed into a stream with no cushion but ice-covered boulders. The silence of the night shrank. Icy water crept into my clothes. Our ears pricked up for the sound of rudely woken dogs in the nearby kennels. There was the sound of water dripping off my elbows. Neither of us dared move or breathe. No dogs barked.
Finally, Andrzej signaled for me to stand up. Slowly, bracing my hands against the river rocks, I stood. My legs were barely able to stand my weight, they were shaking so badly with cold and fear. Grabbing hold of a tree for an anchor, Andrzej reached toward me. My nails dug into his flesh. My muscles shuddered, but he didn't weaken as I forced myself up the embankment. Finally I stood on level ground. His hands rubbed mine, trying to warm them as I clamped my mouth shut to muffle the chattering of my teeth. He smiled, knowing how wet and cold I was, then, taking my hand more firmly than before, he led me toward our destination.
The light from the farmhouse seemed at first to be a mirage. I was sure I was dreaming; it was late, one or two in the morning, but there were these gorgeous lights shimmering out across the snow. Andrzej motioned me toward the stable. There, snuggling between the horses and cows, we waited.
"This is the connecting point between the Slovakian and Polish undergrounds," he whispered into my ear. I nodded, knowing we were now safe.
They were greeted by a farmer who boasted about his poker game with the border guards, and his wife, who served them hot cocoa and gave Rena some dry clothes. The farmer, Karl, assumed that Rena and Andrzej would sleep together, but Andrzej assured him

 

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that that wouldn't be proper, so Rena was given the couple's bed while Andrzej slept in the attic. The next morning, dressed like Slovakian farmers, Karl, Andrzej, and Rena climbed into a wagon and headed for the city of Bardejov
.
Outside of Uncle Jacob's, Andrzej took my hand. "I kept my promise to your father, didn't I?"
"Yes you did, Andrzej."
"I only held your hand." I wanted him to hold it forever and never let go. I was so frightened of this big city and this strange country.
"I love you, Rena."
"Thank you for delivering me to my Uncle Jacob Schützer's house." I blushed, darting inside.
Rena hid in the Schützers' house until she could speak Slovakian fluently, and had her long braids cut off so she would look more like a city girl. She tried to tell her aunt and uncle about the horrors the Jews in Poland were experiencing, but they thought she was being far too serious and didn't believe her. Cili and Gizzy, her cousins, tried to get Rena to go out and have fun. As hard as Rena tried, they just didn't seem to understand the severity of the situation
.
Two weeks after my arrival in Bardejov, I saw Andrzej standing outside the house. He'd smuggled in a package from Mama with some clothes in it for me. I got nervous and tried to cut our conversation short, but he asked if we could speak privately. We stepped behind my uncle's house.
"I've just heard that they're going to start taking young Jewish people to camps for forced labor unless they are a mixed couple," Andrzej began. "If you were married to a Gentile there'd be a good chance they wouldn't take you." I wanted to stop his words before he spoke them. "I want to marry youtomorrow. I have it all arranged. My brother is living about fifteen kilometers away and has a room we can stay in. I would not have to go back and forth to Poland anymore, except for the important people, and we could live here in Slovakia, where it's safe."

 

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