Outside the sky was darkening; the curfew was nearly upon them.
‘Ruth’s right. She will die if we don’t get her to hospital,’ Mrs Mordkowicz said.
‘But she’ll almost certainly be taken if she’s spotted on the streets in such a condition,’ Dorotha cried.
‘It’ll be dark soon,’ Oscar said. ‘When it is, we will take our chances and get her to hospital.’
‘I thought they shut down all the hospitals after theSperre?’ Ruth said.
‘No, there are a few still functioning,’ Oscar replied.
‘That makes no sense though,’ she said, baffled. ‘What do they care about our health? Surely to the Nazis, the only good Jew is a dead one?’
‘Think about it, Ruth,’ Oscar replied. ‘Anyone not deemed a useless mouth can still be put to work, so they have allowed theJudenratto continue running a couple of hospitals. Not that there is much in the way of medicine, but still, we have to try.’
Dorotha could see his thoughts frantically ticking over.
‘I have a doctor friend who’s discreet and will help,’ he said. ‘Arnold Mostowicz. He works at the Hospital for Contagious Diseases at Dworska Street. We can trust him.’
Dorotha’s eyes grew wide. ‘I don’t see we have any choice, do we?’
‘It’s little wonder the child is ill,’ Mrs Mordkowicz cried, growing hysterical. ‘With no chance to breathe anything other than the foul air of this decaying building.’
She kicked the edge of the cupboard, so damp it was warped and no longer opened.
‘Look! Look how we live, like animals in a cave.’
‘Mama, you must calm down,’ Ruth urged.
‘Dorotha, you come with me, in case Gabriele regains consciousness and is startled to see me,’ said Oscar, ignoring Mrs Mordkowicz’s outburst and instead taking charge. ‘We must leave now.’
They hurried out, Oscar carrying the weak child despite his own frailty, leaving behind Ruth to comfort her mother, her wretched sobs following them down the stairs. Dusk was falling as they made their way out onto the ghetto street.
Oscar draped his coat over Gabriele’s body but her legs dangled underneath. Dorotha hugged herself into the side of his body in a vain attempt to keep Gabriele covered.
‘We must keep as calm as possible. We mustn’t do anything to attract attention,’ Oscar said in a low, steady voice. ‘Don’t forget, the Gestapo are out in force today, looking for the escapees.’
She felt Oscar’s free arm snake around hers.
‘We’re a young couple hurrying home before curfew.’
They continued in silence, Dorotha’s heart hammering in time to their steps.
We need a miracle, she thought.That’s the only thing that can save us all now.
Darkness became their friend as it enveloped them. Oscar knew the sly alleys and streets like the back of his hand as he navigated them through the ghetto in silence. They paused only once when a tram rattled past. Oscar flattened them against the side of a furniture workshop. Inside the tram they saw the outlines of the Gestapo, striding up the carriages, checking prisoners’ identity cards. By the time they reached the hospital, Dorotha felt like she might collapse from fear. They paused outside the old building, previously a home for the elderly, until the GreatSperrehad emptied it of old people. It loomed over them, tall and forbidding, its broken windows like so many dark eyes.
‘Wait here,’ Oscar ordered. ‘I’ll take her in.’
She touched the girl’s forehead, burning to the touch, and prayed. In those fevered moments, she realised she was praying with the same intensity that her mother had done every night before she had been taken. It was a prayer from the heart forthe child whom she had grown to love. Perhaps her faith hadn’t entirely abandoned her?
16
Dorotha
Occupied Poland, July 1944
‘Libertatem per Lectio’
