I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree by Laura Hillman Read Free Book Online Page A

around another.
    Over and over I softly called their names, but there was no response. A man in a dark overcoat seemed to be following me. I fled, remembering Eugen’s warning about informants.
    When evening drew nearer, I sat down on the stoop of a house. My hopes shattered, I sobbed into my hands. When I looked up, I saw Eugen, grim-faced, running toward me.
    â€œI’ve looked for you for almost an hour. Youmust hurry. The Germans are back. Their trucks are waiting to take us away!”
    â€œWhat about my mother and brother? I can’t leave without them!”
    â€œYou can see they are not here. Chances are they were discovered. I did my best, you have to believe that. Come with me now. They’ll shoot you if you disobey.”

chapter nine
    â€œFaster, faster, you pig,” an SS man yelled, hurling me onto a truck already filled with many people. There was barely enough room to stand. Fortunately, the ride was short.
    The same words were repeated when the truck halted. I got out as quickly as I could to avoid being hit. There was only one thing on my mind: finding Mama and Selly.
    The camp was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. Inside the camp’s main square was the so-called Appellplatz, the place to be counted and humiliated and, as I found out later, where prisoners were punished. Lining the square were barracks. The overseer, a prisoner herself,of the barrack to which I was assigned stood at the entrance of the building. She looked like a farm girl. Her sturdiness and rosy complexion belied the fact that she was a camp inmate.
    â€œHere you do as I tell you,” she addressed us newcomers. “When I blow the whistle, you will run.”
    It was obvious not only to me but to many of the women that had it not been for the nightmarish turn of events, this girl would never have risen to a position of power. After issuing us a thin blanket and a tin cup, she disappeared behind a curtained-off cubicle.
    I waited eagerly for the evening meal, having had nothing to eat all day. When the food arrived, I was among the first to stand in line for the brown water that was supposedly coffee and a slice of bread with beet jam. It did little to satisfy my hunger.
    Suddenly I was aware of a woman staring at me. “Forgive me,” she said. “For a moment I thought you were my daughter. You look somuch like her. We were separated a few weeks ago, and with every new transport that arrives my hopes of finding her go up.”
    â€œI know the feeling,” I said. “Until this morning my mother, my younger brother, and I lived together in the ghetto. We lost one another during the liquidation. I hope they are here. Does this place have a name?”
    â€œThis is Belzyce,” the woman said. “It is not bad, as labor camps go.” She invited me to bunk near her, where the straw was still fresh.
    When Eugen came looking for me the next day, I asked for news about Mama and Selly. He had nothing to report. For him the good news was that he was again a Judenrat policeman. And he had the prospect of a job for me.
    â€œThere is a very small infirmary here. They need a nurse.”
    I reminded him that I was not trained as a nurse.
    â€œYou don’t need nursing skills to work in a camp infirmary. I know the doctor who runsthe place. We came from the same town. He will take you on as a favor to me.”
    When it was settled, I started work in the infirmary. The small wooden barrack located at the end of the compound held only six beds. A cheerful redheaded man dressed in a white coat looked at me through thick lenses.
    â€œJanek is the name,” he said, taking a bow. “About time they sent me a helper. Patients come and go. No one wants to stay. You see, it’s not healthy staying too long.” He laughed, assuming I knew what he meant.
    I appreciated his grim sense of humor, his easy manner, and looked forward to working with him. In one corner stood a cast-iron