Chapter 53

53

For the second time in her life, Jana sat in a Red Cross vehicle passing through the gates of Terezin. Apart from the warm sun in a blue sky, things could not have been more different. The Germans were gone, and the streets were filled with nurses, social workers and food trucks. The former prisoners, skeletal figures in loose, tattered clothing who were too weak to stand, were tended to by aid workers, while others, clutching bowls, tottered towards the food truck. Heart thudding, Jana searched the faces looking for Lenka. Andrej, sitting beside her, squeezed her hand.

They had left Papa and Babi, who would be staying one more night at the school, and had hitched a lift from a Soviet military truck to Ivan and Lenka's apartment, hoping that Ivan would have news of Lenka. No one was home.

‘He must've gone to Terezin to find Lenka,' said Jana. ‘Let's go to a Red Cross point and find a truck that's going out there.'

They had been lucky and found a ride with a truck of nurses heading for the camp. Both Jana and Andrej had been flagging, pain and exhaustion taking its toll. But the Red Cross had given them food and painkillers, and after a nap on the journey, they both felt better. After they clambered out the truck, they were directed to an information point in one of the buildings which she recognised at once. It was the place where the Jewish Elders lived, where she had delivered the books to at her last visit, and where she had sneaked out the back to find Lenka.

Another queue, another wait. Finally, they reached a long table where three men sat. Jana looked twice at one of the men: now bald, with a long, silver beard, thin and stoop-shouldered. It was Samuel, who had helped her out the back window and covered for her absence when the German guard had come looking for her. She called his name. He looked across at her with vacant eyes, his face etched with fatigue.

‘I came here with books about three years ago and you helped me out the building, directing me to the women's barracks.'

He peered at her closely before recognition crossed his face and he smiled, two teeth missing since she had last seen him. ‘The book girl.'

Eagerly, she asked him for news on Lenka, Lillian, and Michal's parents. He showed her the few lists that he had, explaining the Germans had destroyed much of the documentation once they knew Prague would fall to the allies.

‘Tens of thousands of us were transported out of here to God knows where. I suspect, over the next few weeks, we will find out what happened to them all. I'm still here because the Nazis forced the Elders Committee to organise it all, draw up the lists…' His voice broke and his head fell to his chest.

Jana reached across the desk and clasped his hands. She had suspected this was happening from the moment she'd heard Heydrich talk of his solution and read his letter to Himmler. And yet she had been unable to stop it despite her messages of warning hidden in her bookmarks. And when Heydrich had died, it was too late; the ball had already been set in motion.

‘I did what I could,' Samuel sobbed. ‘Held back the young, the children when possible, but they began sending anybody, the Elders too. I was due soon…'

When Samuel had composed himself, he searched through the lists he had available. He found Lillian. She was alive and still at Terezin. Jana's heart swelled. Maddie and Yveta's mother had survived.

‘Where can I find her?' asked Jana.

‘You can try the women's barracks. The Red Cross have erected tents there to give the women medical treatment before sending them on.'

Jana and Andrej thanked him and before they left, Samuel said, ‘You might find out more information about your other friends at the former Gestapo office.'

They eventually found Lillian on a stretcher in a makeshift hospital tent, attached to a drip. She was dehydrated and malnourished but would soon recover, a nurse assured Jana. Beside her sat a man in a hat and coat, despite the warm weather. He held Lillian's hand, gazing at her in anguish. As Jana approached, her eyes fluttered open and her first words were, ‘My girls! Yveta, Maddie, my girls.' Seeing Lillian's expression when she told her the children were safe was a moment so moving, Jana would never forget it.

Lillian explained that she and the man by her side had fallen in love and because he was an Elder, he had fought to keep her off the transport lists. So there was some hope and happy endings, thought Jana; it was a miracle Lillian had survived .

‘I can't wait till the girls are reunited with their mother,' Jana said to Andrej as they walked away, bubbles of joy lifting her spirits.

‘Let's see if we can find some more good news about Lenka and Michal's parents.'

An hour later, Jana and Andrej were sitting with Ivan on the grass outside the entrance to the Terezin Fortress. They had found him in the Gestapo building begging for information on his wife and child. But there was no mention of Lenka or Alena in the few documents that remained and they were not listed as survivors in Terezin. The official told Ivan enquiries would be made in other Nazi concentration camps, but this would take time. Ivan left his name and address.

‘And that's it?' he said, now looking from Jana to Andrej. ‘I should just go home and wait?'

Jana had no words. It was Andrej who spoke, his voice gentle. ‘Yes. That's all you can do. Go home and wait.'