idea how to get her out, let alone Sol as well. But she would hear nothing about it. It was both or neither. “Show me how,” he said.
She told him that Sol had cached enough gold to buy their freedom. This had been his plan for some time. But he needed a means to get it from the KZ. Once it was safely hidden there was an officer, Lenneberg, who worked in administration with whom Sol believed he could barter. If the gold was found inside the KZ it would be taken and Sol sent to the shower. She cautioned Peter not to breathe a word to Max.
The key to the plan was to get the gold off the KZ, to a safe place, so Sol could barter.
There was no doubt in Peter’s mind that he would do as she asked though the risk for him was great. Max and the others had ways of smuggling small amounts of contraband out by splitting the profit with someone. But all of Sol’s gold was needed to buy their freedom so there could be no split. Even then, given the times, it might not be enough.
It was enough gold though that if Peter were caught with it he would be shot, hung or gassed as a war profiteer. His true crime, of course, would have been in getting caught.
Initially the problem of getting the gold from the KZ appeared difficult. They were all watched and there were only certain places they could be when not on duty. Any variation from routine would cause immediate suspicion.
It was February and the end of winter but the weather remained relentless. The trains continued to roll without letup. The Reich was on its knees and had only weeks remaining, but still the killing continued.
The next day when one train was scarcely off-loaded and the material was still in queue from the last, another arrived. They had nowhere to hold anyone and it would be a day or more before they could even begin delousing.
There was a great deal of arguing about what to do. SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Heidel ordered the train off-loaded onto the ground along the tracks. When all the cars were emptied the second train backed out to the main line.
The guards shepherded the six hundred Hungarians into the woods on the other side of the tracks. They were told they would wait here while warm barracks in the nonexistent family section of the KZ were prepared.
In the forest they kept them bunched close together. They were pressed into a circle and maintained there by the dogs. Groups of twenty were broken away at intervals for processing. They were taken to a clearing not far away. There they were forced to strip in the freezing air. They were run to a ravine, made to kneel down and shot in the back of the head with the silenced rifles. This was very similar to the mass executions Peter had witnessed in Russia by the Einsatzgruppen Special Units.
Even with the snarling dogs and the muffled shots, by the time a hundred or so were dead the rest had figured it out. It became necessary to shoot many to keep the rest in place.
Every five minutes twenty more were taken away and killed. One guard Peter overheard said to one of the men: “Why don't you Jews fight? Have you no pride? We will kill all of you. If we lose the war or not, you are dead.”
The man said and did nothing. They breathed those last few precious puffs of air like cows standing in a crowded pen on a cold morning until they were led off and the drunken Rumanians put a bullet into their brains
By then everyone was shrieking as they were chased naked to the killing ravine. The dogs bit at their heels. The guards slapped them with truncheons on the buttocks. In about five hours the Hungarian Jews were in a thick pile that filled the ravine. The clothing had been tossed into a great mound and the Canada cleared the luggage from the railroad and went to work on the clothes. There was an uncommon amount of theft that day since in the gathering gloom it was difficult to supervise the search properly.
After the slaughter there was laughter and horseplay among the men. It had been a good day's kill with no
She told him that Sol had cached enough gold to buy their freedom. This had been his plan for some time. But he needed a means to get it from the KZ. Once it was safely hidden there was an officer, Lenneberg, who worked in administration with whom Sol believed he could barter. If the gold was found inside the KZ it would be taken and Sol sent to the shower. She cautioned Peter not to breathe a word to Max.
The key to the plan was to get the gold off the KZ, to a safe place, so Sol could barter.
There was no doubt in Peter’s mind that he would do as she asked though the risk for him was great. Max and the others had ways of smuggling small amounts of contraband out by splitting the profit with someone. But all of Sol’s gold was needed to buy their freedom so there could be no split. Even then, given the times, it might not be enough.
It was enough gold though that if Peter were caught with it he would be shot, hung or gassed as a war profiteer. His true crime, of course, would have been in getting caught.
Initially the problem of getting the gold from the KZ appeared difficult. They were all watched and there were only certain places they could be when not on duty. Any variation from routine would cause immediate suspicion.
It was February and the end of winter but the weather remained relentless. The trains continued to roll without letup. The Reich was on its knees and had only weeks remaining, but still the killing continued.
The next day when one train was scarcely off-loaded and the material was still in queue from the last, another arrived. They had nowhere to hold anyone and it would be a day or more before they could even begin delousing.
There was a great deal of arguing about what to do. SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Heidel ordered the train off-loaded onto the ground along the tracks. When all the cars were emptied the second train backed out to the main line.
The guards shepherded the six hundred Hungarians into the woods on the other side of the tracks. They were told they would wait here while warm barracks in the nonexistent family section of the KZ were prepared.
In the forest they kept them bunched close together. They were pressed into a circle and maintained there by the dogs. Groups of twenty were broken away at intervals for processing. They were taken to a clearing not far away. There they were forced to strip in the freezing air. They were run to a ravine, made to kneel down and shot in the back of the head with the silenced rifles. This was very similar to the mass executions Peter had witnessed in Russia by the Einsatzgruppen Special Units.
Even with the snarling dogs and the muffled shots, by the time a hundred or so were dead the rest had figured it out. It became necessary to shoot many to keep the rest in place.
Every five minutes twenty more were taken away and killed. One guard Peter overheard said to one of the men: “Why don't you Jews fight? Have you no pride? We will kill all of you. If we lose the war or not, you are dead.”
The man said and did nothing. They breathed those last few precious puffs of air like cows standing in a crowded pen on a cold morning until they were led off and the drunken Rumanians put a bullet into their brains
By then everyone was shrieking as they were chased naked to the killing ravine. The dogs bit at their heels. The guards slapped them with truncheons on the buttocks. In about five hours the Hungarian Jews were in a thick pile that filled the ravine. The clothing had been tossed into a great mound and the Canada cleared the luggage from the railroad and went to work on the clothes. There was an uncommon amount of theft that day since in the gathering gloom it was difficult to supervise the search properly.
After the slaughter there was laughter and horseplay among the men. It had been a good day's kill with no
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