Page 61 of Under a Sunburnt Sky

“They call us rats.Let us be rats then!”one man, wearing a shabby cap and too-large pants held up by suspenders said.“We’ll hide in bunkers and tunnels.We’ll come out and strike when they’re not ready.We won’t ever comply again.”

“I have five hundred men ready to fight,” added another man.He scratched his head.“But we’re not well armed, and not one of us has any training.”

“I’ve had it with doing what we’re told,” agreed the last man.“The Germans have given seven thousand Jews orders to show up for deportation tomorrow morning.Something to do with theFuhrer’sbirthday celebration.They want to kill as many of us as possible for his birthday, it seems.”The man spat into the water by his feet.

It was then the three of them noticed Jan watching silently from a distance.

“Is that you, Janek?”Marek asked.

Jan stepped forward.“What’s going on?”

“The Germans have commanded us to report for deportation tomorrow.But we’re not going to comply.”

“Will the people do it?”Jan asked.

“We’re all agreed,” replied Marek.“We’d rather go down fighting than do a single thing they ask us.We know their plans now.The people on the early deportations didn’t understand.They thought if they complied, they might be okay.But we know better.No one returns.We’ve heard the reports from villagers about the trains and trucks they see passing by, full of bodies.”

The other men nodded.

Anger burned in Jan’s gut.“If there’s anything I can do ...”

“We’ll use the sewers to escape if we can.There’s nothing you can do now but pray.”Adas was a tall, thin man with a rifle slung across his back.

“I will,” Jan agreed.

“Tomorrow is the Passover.Walter asked if we saw you to invite you to share the Passover with him in the ghetto.”

This could be Jan’s last chance to get Walter out of the ghetto to safety.“Tell him I’ll be there.”

Marek smiled.“I will.He will be glad to know it.If they plan to use our own sacred tradition against us, thinking we’ll fold, they will find themselves sorely mistaken.We won’t sit idle.We will fight.”

Jan shook hands with each of the men and wished them well.Then he watched as they silently made their way along the pipe.They walked like cats, on silent feet, one hand on the shoulder of the man ahead of them, the other hand brushing the side of the pipe so they could feel their way forward in the dark.