Last Stork Summer (11 page)

The legend that the European White Stork brings babies is believed to have originated in northern Germany, perhaps because storks arrive on their breeding grounds nine months after midsummer
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Connection is a link or a bond. Joining or relating two or more things. I’d made connections with Anna and Hardy. I would not be able to leave without them. They, along with my memories and my love of nature had kept me alive. I didn’t know how we’d get out of here, but I was sure about one thing…. I’d take the opportunity when it came.

Another winter.
Please God, may it be my last in this misery
. It had always been vital to do everything within my power to stay alive, but now it was even more crucial. The youngest children were being transported out, and only the children ten and older were allowed to stay and work. Anna had been reassigned to a munitions factory. I was still attending the dogs and cleaning the kennels, even though their numbers were dwindling as well. Slowly and methodically, I loaded and transported all the waste out to the dumping pit. I turned and looked back at the camp, a picture forever imprinted on my brain and my soul. Through the rows of wire I saw the buildings. Again, the color brown stood out. Rows of brown desolation, vacant buildings of hunger and deprivation. Even the buildings looked starved. I eyed the lookout sentry in his tower. He stood fixed, gazing at the camp and fields with binoculars, oblivious to the suffering around him. I wondered how it was possible for him to not see it.

Usually I saw the soldiers on sentry duty with their guns ready. Today, however, there were very few patrolling the camp,
and they didn’t look like they were watching the inmates. I noticed they were looking up at the sky. Even though it was cold, the sun was shining, but it looked as if it was snowing. White pieces of paper were floating down from the sky. I saw one of the sentries reach out and grab one. A piece floated down out of the sky and landed in the wagon. I looked around to see if the soldiers in the guard tower were looking at me, but they were looking up at all the white falling from the sky.

In three different languages, the paper said the war was over! I quickly folded the paper and put it in the bottom of my shoe. I could hardly wait to show the others in my block.
Could it be true?
It didn’t look like the war was over. I finished emptying the wagon and headed back to the kennel. Walking back I saw soldiers in small groups, talking quietly among themselves. There seemed to be an uneasy restlessness hanging over the camp. I checked the kennel one more time for Hardy, but he still wasn’t back.

After putting the wagon and tools away I headed out of the maze of fences and gates toward the barracks. I entered our building and found everyone sitting on their bunks, including Anna. They were wrapped in rags, huddled together for warmth. I thought about the years we’d spent here, the struggles we’d fought through, the deprivation we’d endured. I looked at their thin faces, shaved heads, bruise-covered skin. All bore testament to the years of slave labor we’d survived.

We survived, WE SURVIVED…those words hit me like a wall of water, and my stomach fluttered. I grabbed the post to steady myself. I climbed silently onto our bunk. Was this truly the end of the war? I couldn’t believe it! Why so quiet? No roll call, no dinner, no sound, nothing…I wanted to show Anna the paper I’d found but was too afraid of causing a commotion if anyone else saw it.

After a while under the protection of darkness, Kashia crouched low, crawled over and peeked out the window. The
lights that normally scanned the camp were black. Was this blackout an attempt by our captors to hide the camp? Were we going to be bombed by the allies like the Germans had done to us at the start of the war? We all wondered about the total darkness, and the complete lack of noise….could it actually be true? Had the German soldiers abandoned the camp? Somewhere in the distance we could hear the low rumble of tanks, transport trucks and planes.

Kashia thought that she could see the camp gates open, but it was too dark to tell for sure. None of us wanted to risk getting shot so close to liberation. Perhaps it was a trick. Morning light would show us the truth for sure. I made the girls promise to be absolutely silent, then pulling the paper I’d found out of my shoe, I read it to them. The black print told about the war being over. They all stared at the ground as I showed them the notice. Then three other girls pulled the same papers out of their shoes. Some had tears rolling down their dirt streaked faces forming a clean trail down their cheeks. It seemed like it was too good to be true. Many had lost hope long ago and were just barely surviving hour by hour. Others had been here so long that this was the only home they could remember. Some of us had vivid memories and were eager to leave but also a little hesitant of what we might find upon returning to our homes. No matter what I might find upon my return home, I knew it couldn’t possibly be as horrific as this camp.

A light rain began to fall, with clouds covered the moon and the stars, and a heavy darkness covered the camp as we closed our eyes on our last night in this barren room that had been our prison. I had Anna by my side. I’d look for Hardy first thing in the morning. I pulled the filthy rag we’d been using for a blanket over us. I said a quick silent prayer, thankful that liberation was finally, really here. I’d gone over and over this moment many times in my mind, but somehow now that it was possibly here, it didn’t match the pictures in my mind. I guess I didn’t think about
having to get myself back home. I let my worries, confusion and excitement be engulfed in the blackness of the night; for now I just needed sleep.

We woke at first light. There were still no camp sounds, no lookouts in the tower, no soldiers around. Occasionally, we could hear dogs barking in the distance. One of the older children walked into our barrack and warned us that Russian soldiers were closing in, and that we should leave the camp as quickly as possible. The rain had stopped falling and the sun was just rising. We got up and looked at one another.

We saw other children walking quietly by our window – it was really true…we were free! We had made it! We’d survived the war! I had imagined my freedom numerous times over the long years of internment but never like this. We weren’t acting like children, happy and excited. We grabbed our few belongings and headed out the door. Quickly and silently the camp was emptying out. Most of us had only one plan; find some food then head for home. We couldn’t quite believe we were actually free, and after years of forced quiet and forbidden speech, I don’t think we knew what to say.

Anna grabbed my hand as we headed out the door.

“Anna, I have to go find Hardy! Come with me,” I said.

“Ewa, how will we ever take care of him? We have no food.”

“I know, but I’ll think of something…please, Anna.”

Anna was clearly uneasy but willing to give me a few more minutes to find Hardy. “Ok, but I’m going to go search the kitchen. I think I might know where to find some potatoes or beets, and maybe there is still some bread.”

I walked over quickly to the kennels, while Anna headed to the kitchen. I didn’t want to waste any time in case the Germans came back, or the Russians showed up. The kennels were empty! Now what?

I waited for Anna to return from her search in the kitchen. When Anna saw me without Hardy she offered a thought:
“Maybe they took the dogs with them.”

“But I heard barking this morning, Anna, just a short while ago.”

We listened to see if we could hear the barking again, but there was nothing.

“We’d better go,” I said. Sadly, I turned around and headed for the main gate. Then I remembered the soldier who’d spoken to me about taking Hardy. “Anna, I just remembered something. Give me one more minute, then we’ll leave, I promise.”

Anna nodded, shifting her weight from foot to foot to keep warm.

Hopefully, he was in the soldiers’ barracks.

“Wait here, Anna.”

I walked back to the barracks that housed the dog handlers. I quietly opened the door.

“Hardy,” I called.

I heard a bark, then some whining, followed by more barking. I was too terrified to step inside so I called his name again. Suddenly, a wooden table started sliding toward me with Hardy hooked to it by a rope! One of the table legs caught the corner edge of the wall and broke apart with a loud cracking sound, sending splinters of wood flying everywhere. Hardy reached me with only one table leg still attached to the rope. Tail wagging, he immediately started licking my face; I was trying to untangle the rope from the table leg but Hardy’s excitement was making it hard.

“Hardy, sit!”

He obediently sat, head cocked sideways, trying to remain patient while I untangled the mess. I grabbed the rope and headed back to Anna.

“Ewa, you found him!” Anna grabbed my free hand and with Hardy on one side and Anna on the other we walked through the gate that had stood in the way of a life I longed to leave behind, and toward a life I longed to regain.

I took my first breath of freedom and looked up, searching the bright blue sky for a stork. It was winter, and the storks were long gone and months away from returning. But my heart was full of hope and longing for home. My eyes filled with tears as Anna dropped my hand and pointed in amazement at a stork flying quietly overhead, its large, black-tipped wings making the soft swishing sound I knew so well. I smiled as my grandfather’s face slid into memory, a blessing and a measure of good luck was upon our heads now. “Thank you, Grandpa.”

I can’t say why the stork was there at that time of year. Perhaps it had been injured and too weak to fly when the others had migrated south. Maybe it was smaller than the others and too young to fly. I didn’t know, but I felt grateful for the opportunity to see it. Connection is also made by the beliefs and memories that bind you to another, no matter how many miles separate you. Knowledge of life’s source is the realization of all the abundance that exists on earth. My time here had shown me that nature and all of creation continued to move through life cycles and generate new life, no matter what humans were doing. Poland was overflowing with potential, abundance and life. I’d been searching for God’s goodness and somehow I’d managed to find and hang on to some of the light that still existed in the world. Maybe it was possible to see the light amidst all this darkness. Maybe it was a gift from God providing me with a spark to light my way. After all, my name is Ewa, and it means “life”.

Grandpa’s saying came out of my mouth. “If God came down from heaven, he’d come to Poland because it would remind him of the Garden of Eden.”

Anna squeezed my hand.

* * *

Sovereignty is authority, dominance, or the final gathering of all
resources. From 1921 to April of 1945 Adolf Hitler attempted world dominance. His programs for racial purification, social cleansing, Germanization, and developing a “Master Race” all played a part in the destruction of millions of lives. It is estimated that six million Polish citizens lost their lives during Hitler’s reign.

Allies –
Nations that support one another in their war effort. Germany and Russia supported one another at the start of WWII.

Aryan –
In Nazi Doctrine, a non-Jewish Caucasian of Nordic stock. Adolf Hitler believed that the Aryan race was an ideal, pure, superior race and that this entitled them to expand their lands by taking what they wanted.

Blackout –
Turn out or conceal all lights that might be visible to enemy air raids.

Colonization –
To enter another country and settle the land there, usually displacing the people who already live there.

Concentration camp –
a place of confinement, a prison.

Depolonization –
to destroy; in this story it meant to destroy the Polish people, including their language, culture, traditions, beliefs and country.

Deportation -
To expel from a place or country. In this case the Polish people were deported from their homes and forced to live and work in concentration camps and labor camps.

Emaciation –
to lose too much weight. Many of the concentration camp prisoners weren’t fed enough to keep weight on their bodies.

Ewa –
Polish spelling for Eva. Her name means “life.”

Feast of the Annunciation
- March 25, is one of the most important holy days in the Catholic Church calendar. It celebrates the actual Incarnation of Jesus in the womb of His mother, Mary.

Germanization –
to make or become German in character, thought, language etc.

Ghetto –
any section of a city where many members of a certain racial or ethnic group live or are restricted from leaving.

Goose step-
A marching step where the legs swing high and
straight out.

Hitler, Adolf – Leader
of the Nazi Party. He was chancellor of Germany from 1933-1945. He was a dictator and center of Nazi Germany. His goal was to establish a “New Order” of absolute Nazi German. He transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism.

Inmates –
a person confined with others in an institution or prison.

Lent –
in the Christian religion an annual season of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter.

Nazi -
a member of the National Socialist German Workers’ party of Germany. In 1933 under Adolf Hitler, the Nazi party seized political control of the country, suppressing all opposition and establishing a dictatorship over all cultural, economic, and political activities of the people, and promoted belief in the supremacy of Adolf Hitler as Führer. The party was officially abolished in 1945 at the conclusion of World War II.

Rehabilitate -
to restore to a condition of good health, ability to work, or the like.

Resettlement -
the act or instance of settling or being settled in another place. The Nazis used this phrase to refer to forced deportation. Millions of people were resettled into ghettos, concentration camps and labor camps.

Resistance –
During WWII the resistance was anyone or any group of people involved in undermining and opposing the efforts of the Nazis and those governments who supported the Nazis.

The Führer-
A German word (führen) for the term leader. Adolf Hitler was Germany’s absolute dictator during WWII.

Transport trains –
trains that were used in WWII to take people from their homes to concentration camps. The trains were very full and the people riding them had no bathrooms, food, water, or place to sit or rest. Many people died during the
transports since it would take several days for them to travel to the camps.