In the Sewers of Lvov (18 page)

Each day the Death Brigades marched to the sands where they shovelled tons of soil out of long graves, then climbed down into the pits and removed the decaying remains. In the process they retrieved any gold rings and the gold fillings from teeth. It was claimed by one survivor that ‘each day we collected eight kilos of gold’. Meanwhile, a pyre was built out of massive logs and the putrefying bodies were then heaped on to the flames, which were fuelled by jets of heating oil, and consumed up to 800 corpses at a time. The same survivor recalled the scene:

The fire crackles and sizzles. Some of the bodies in the fire have their hands extended. It looks as if they are pleading to be taken out. Many bodies are lying around with open mouths. Could they be trying to say: ‘We are your mothers and fathers …’
¹¹

After the bread and soup, Margulies was led back to the barracks where it had been agreed he could sleep. He had entered a madhouse. He talked about trying to make contact with one or two women in the camp but there seemed no point in trying anything until the morning. He was told of an incident that had occurred only a few weeks before. Some of the SS officers had engaged in an orgy with some twenty or so of the prettiest young women in the camp. They had decided to allow them to live in the SS quarters as cleaners but when the women rebelled they were taken out and shot.

The barracks were controlled by an
Ordners
(elder), who was responsible for maintaining discipline. They filed past him to the bunks that lined each wall. These were three plain wooden shelves, about a metre and a half deep, that sloped down towards the wall. Each level was barely half a metre above the other, so it was impossible to sit up once inside the bunk. There were no mattresses, no sheets, no pillows. Just plain boards separated by a gap of a couple of centimetres. The bunks were so crowded that everyone had to sleep on their side. During the night, most were too weak to drag themselves out of the bunk and make their way to the night bucket, so those on the lower bunks were often woken by a shower of urine. The lights-out was at ten o’clock.

When Margulies failed to return to the storm basin the following night they assumed the worst. There had been too many occasions in the past when people had gone out to the street and were never heard of again. The following day they half expected Socha to deliver news that Korsarz had been found dead somewhere near the opening to the Peltwa. But Socha had nothing to report. He sat and shared coffee with them, talked about what rumours he had of the war and left to get on with his duties. Klara was left not knowing, her anxiety unresolved: ‘If he was alive, I couldn’t think how he could ever find his way back to the place where we were hidden. It was impossible.’

Life continued as it had done before. While some people’s thoughts were with the pirate, other matters came to a head. Genia Weinberg, the quiet member of the group, had decided she could no longer keep her condition a secret. By the middle of the month, she had begun to feel weak and had once or twice almost passed out. While the men were preoccupied with other things, she confessed to some of the women that she was about to have a baby. Though some had come to suspect it, the hard reality still came as a shock. ‘I just couldn’t imagine how during all our escapes, our mad scrambles, crawling through narrow pipes, how she and the foetus had survived. She had never complained of pain,’ recalled Paulina.

The men were told and they too were shocked. It was the last thing they had expected. So far as Genia could tell, she was near to nine months pregnant. Chiger tried to think what should be done about it but confessed that he was ‘frankly confused’. Some of the group seemed more concerned about what Socha and
Wroblewski might say when they were told, and that seemed to jolt him into action. Chiger decided that he and his wife would break the news.

When Socha was told, he wavered between incredulity and outright fury. Wroblewski threw his hands into the air and refused to have anything more to do with it at all. Socha peppered them with questions: ‘A baby born in the sewers? But how do you expect to deliver it? How are you going to care for it, feed it, keep it quiet …?’

No one knew the answers and the sewer workers were faced with blank expressions. Yet, no matter how much he protested, it was now an unavoidable fact that just had to be digested and somehow dealt with. And though he lectured them that it was madness to think that they could deliver a baby and then keep it alive in the sewers, he was already looking for a solution. In private, Socha talked it over with Wroblewski and between them they decided to try and find someone to adopt the baby. Perhaps even Wanda would look after it. In fact there were many possible answers, but in the meantime, of course, the baby had to survive the birth. Socha searched about for anything that might have been useful in the delivery. He decided not to go to the chemists because that would arouse suspicion and in the event was only able to find a pair of old rusty scissors and a clean towel.

Inside the Janowska camp, Margulies rose at dawn and dragged himself from the bunk. He lined up with everyone else to wait his turn at the latrine, then taking his kettle he followed the others to the kitchen. The corpses were still in the tank. Inside the kitchen, Margulies moved from one person to another, whispering to them, ‘Is there a Manya Keler still here?’

Finally he came to someone who had some contact with the women’s barrack. They promised to find out. He also asked after his two brothers, who had been sent to the camp the year before. There was no news of any Margulies, they must have disappeared months ago. Korsarz then had to follow his group out to the assembly ground, where they would be counted before leaving for the factory. If there was any news of Manya, it would have to
wait until evening. In the factory Margulies explained to the man he had left behind that he needed to go back again at the end of the shift. They argued about the risks but Margulies was adamant about returning to the camp. At the end of the shift, they assembled once more into their familiar ranks and were marched back down the Janowska Road. Back inside the compound there was news: there was a Manya Keler and a message had been sent to her. It might be possible to get her to meet him by the wire sometime tomorrow.

As Margulies lay down on the filthy bunks in the men’s barracks, back in the storm basin Genia Weinberg’s labour was well advanced. She had woken the others with her soft little cries and this set in motion a remarkable scene of silent industry. All the lamps were primed and lit and a pot of water was placed on a stove to boil. The men cleared a space on the boards and lifted Genia on to them. Chiger dropped the scissors into the water and then took a small bowl of it to wash his hands and arms. He had been elected the midwife.

Old Mrs Weiss sat down beside Genia, calming her with quiet words, while Halina, who had formed a deep attachment to the woman, held her hand and applied a cool piece of cloth to her forehead. With each successive cramp, Halina took the pain in the grip of Genia’s hand. Genia hardly uttered a sound. She knew that by having allowed the pregnancy to go its full course she had created a very dangerous situation for everyone. What if she were to cry out during her labour – and what of the baby’s cries? She had risked all of their lives.

In fact, Genia displayed the most extraordinary resolve. Her pain intensified, and Halina could feel it through her grip. She leaned forward and whispered to her, ‘Bite my shoulder. Don’t make a sound, but if the pain is too much, bite into my shoulder.’

Her agonies continued for almost an hour, until finally, weak with the exertion, Genia Weinberg delivered a surprisingly weighty baby boy. His lusty cries soon filled the room. Chiger used the scissors to cut the umbilical cord and clear away the placenta. The baby was wrapped in the clean towel and handed
to his mother. Yet, in the after-glow of relief and joy that spread throughout the group, there were already many who were afraid for the future. Chiger recorded that at the time he had thought to himself, ‘Here we bring this new life into a sewer, where everyone else is waiting for death.’

The birth of the baby was one of the most significant episodes their entire ordeal. It brought everyone to a level of intimacy they have probably not shared since, nor may ever wish to. For some it caused certain bonds to be strengthened, for others it was devastating. It marked the beginning of what Chiger and others have described as ‘the family’. However, perhaps because the incident left such a deep impression, the telling of it poses some problems. For at this point the accounts differ somewhat, though the conclusion remains precisely the same.

In the account that has come down from Mrs Weinberg herself, the story concludes as follows:

The group quickly realized the hopelessness of trying to care for a baby under their circumstances. The baby’s cries would alert people in the street of their presence and so it was agreed, unanimously, that the baby be terminated. It was taken away, killed, and disposed of.

However, the account, as recalled and recorded by the Chigers, and confirmed by Klara presents a far more tragic set of events. The baby was being held by old Mrs Weiss, while Paulina warmed some drinking water and a little sugar to try and feed it. Mrs Weinberg showed no sign of wanting to suckle the baby, so, in order to quieten the little boy’s cries, Paulina tried to feed him some sweet water. She dipped a piece of clean material in the water and placed it against the baby’s mouth. Instinctively, he began to suck. The baby was finally placed down beside Genia and here Chiger allowed himself a little speculation: ‘The mother was apparently agonizing within herself over whether to give in to her instincts or sacrifice the child for the sake of the group …’

The baby had been given to Genia to hold but she appeared uninterested in it. Kristina, who was seven years old at the time, recalled: ‘I remember seeing my mother crawling towards the
baby and trying to give it a little water, and Mrs Weinberg was taking the baby away from my mother. I saw my mother fighting with her, my mother was trying to give some water and Mrs Weinberg was pulling the baby away.’ And Chiger’s account records: ‘She began to hug the baby closer and closer to herself, covering its face with a towel or rag, supposedly to quiet the sound of his whimpering. But my wife realized that she was in fact trying to suffocate the baby and she tried to pull the cloth away.’

The struggle continued for some time until the two women were just too exhausted to continue. Paulina put her children back to bed and then laid down beside them. In the morning, the little corpse was lying beside his mother, who had fallen into a sullen trance. ‘In the end, Mrs Weinberg had her way and during the night the baby had been suffocated,’ wrote Chiger. It was decided they should remove the corpse quickly, before the sight caused any more distress than was necessary. Klara and Berestycki volunteered. It was an exhausting business. Klara crawled into the Seventy feet first, then the bundle was slid in and Berestycki followed afterwards. They shuffled down the pipe on their elbows, gripping the tied ends of the baby’s shroud in their teeth. As they made their way down the pipe, the little corpse swung in its hammock all the way to the Peltwa.

Some time later Socha arrived ready to discuss his plans, but he was too late. Events had overtaken him. ‘The baby was dead and the body already disposed of,’ wrote Chiger.

Though Socha was clearly horrified by what had happened there was nothing that he could do about it. Nor could he blame anyone. He developed a tender affection for Genia, and came to look upon her as one of the more tragic victims of these events. As Chiger recorded, ‘He was filled with pity for her.’

I have presented both versions simply to emphasize that there can be no absolute version. There are no independent sources. This account relies entirely on the recollections of many different people. As a footnote to her recollection of the incident, Paulina was reminded of what Mrs Weinberg had said to her at the very beginning of their ordeal in the sewers: ‘Are you crazy? You bring
children into a place like this? Are you crazy? You cannot bring children here.’

Margulies had arranged a rendezvous with Manya at a point on the wire that divided the two compounds. At the appointed time she emerged from the women’s barrack and made her way to the wire. At first she couldn’t remember who he was, then he mentioned Klara, telling her that Klara was alive and well, and missed her very much. He described how badly her sister felt about abandoning her. Manya wasn’t bitter. It was a difficult scene and inconclusive.

Margulies had decided from the outset that if she was alive, he would try and rescue her – and anyone else if possible. But after the little time he had spent behind the walls, he had given up this plan. The women and children in the camp were never allowed beyond the confines of the outer wall. They did not march to any outside factory and so there was no hope of escape. Margulies and Manya knew this as they spoke to each other through the wire. They agreed to meet again the following day, Manya would give him a letter. After the brigades had been assembled, he marched into the outside world again, and returned at the end of the day.

The following morning he met again with Manya and she slipped him the letter for Klara. In it she explained to Klara, ‘… that none of it was her fault. She wasn’t to worry, besides no one could live in a sewer.’

But before Margulies could take his leave, he was suddenly assaulted by a madwoman. A figure had emerged from the women’s barracks and stumbled up to the wire where Manya and Margulies stood.

‘Where is my husband? Where is my husband?’ she screamed.

It was Weiss’s widow, completely mad. Mad with the scenes of horror she had witnessed since she and her husband had parted.

‘How could he leave me to this place? How could he abandon me?’

Margulies only gradually realized who the woman was and what she was talking about. Chilled, he remembered the scene in Weiss’s room when it seemed everyone wanted to get down to
the sewers and Weiss’s wife would not be stirred. She began screaming, louder and louder.