David Budnik

Under a Lucky Star

PART 6

The cynical murderers had foreseen all problems except one. They did not realize that some of the people they thought were dead had actually survived and would tell the world about what they had seen in that hell. They did not think that the prisoners in chains, exhausted, helpless, facing their well-oiled machine of mass annihilation would be ready for any action, any sacrifice to enable at least one to survive and tell the world about these crimes against humanity.

We had been thinking about insurrection and gradually began to prepare for it. We were extremely careful. We did not permit discussion among different prisoners because there were a lot of different people and not everyone could be trusted. We had no time to test them and no right to risk other lives on them.

We had a Rumanian Jew, Yakov Steyuk, among us. When the war began he had been mobilized in defense of Kiev with me. When the Germans found out he was a Jew he was sent to the camp, like me. He was very careful, never confided in just anybody since he understood what could happen. As it turned out, we became close friends and he confided in me.

Steyuk was a highly educated man. He knew many foreign languages. In 1967, I went to Kaluga, where he moved after the war to visit him. At the teachers' training college where Yasha taught German and Latin there took place a reading of Anatoly Kusnetov's well-known novel Babi Yar. Volodya Davidov, Yakov Steyuk and I took part in the conference as witnesses to those events.

Yakov worked in the camp like all of us, though sometimes the Germans used him as an interpreter. Consequently, we were able to learn from him all the news that no one wanted us to know.

The Germans are in a great hurry, Steyuk once said, they said that within several days they would finish the operation here and head for Zhitomir.

It became clear that our escape could not be postponed. In our barracks there were people who had different opinions and views, but we managed to make ourselves allies. Since we all slept in one place, we could discuss our plans at night. We decided to look for the key for the padlock on the door. It could be done during our work, since the people who were shot often had keys in their pockets, since they did not know that they would be shot.

We agreed that the keys would be tested by Volodya Kuklya since he was an experienced welder. When they served us our gruel in the open air, we did our best to hide Volodya who was busy at the lock behind our backs.

The first try was a failure and the search continued. Kuklya suggested doing it both during the night and day. That was very dangerous since there was the chief of the regional police department in our group. We had to be careful since it was our last chance. To make sure the shackles did not cut our feet, we wrapped our ankles with rags. They inspected the shackles regularly and any scratches on them were considered proof that the prisoners tried to remove them. If that happened, the prisoner was shot.

Only a few people knew about the keys, including Davidov, Trubakov, Wilkes, Ostrovsky and Kaper. It turned out that the key brought by Kaper worked when Kuklya tried it during the serving of gruel.

After all the years that have passed, we still argue about that key, who found it and who opened the lock. Yasha claims that the first key he found worked. I am absolutely sure that it did not since we tried several more times until we found this key. Actually, this is not the main point. The fact remains that the key fit and that was a miracle. That heavy padlock was the barrier to our liberty or at least a death by bullets. By this time we decided that it was better to be killed during an escape attempt that to pass up such an opportunity.

One time we were sent to dig up corpses on the territory of the Pavlov psychiatric clinic. At least 800 people were shot there. Among them were prisoners, cripples and the disabled, whom the nazis deemed expendable, military prisoners and civilians. We dug with our hands. The next batch of prisoners was supposed to load the corpses into a truck and transport them to the furnaces. On our way back we saw a newly built furnace. I asked Steyuk who he thought that furnace was meant for.

Don't you understand, he said, it is for us. Then he added It's now or never.

In the evening some of the brigadiers came to the camp and everybody stood at attention as they walked by. We were drawn out from our barracks. The guards stood around us with dogs and we all thought that we would be shot. Then they led us back into the barracks again. Steyuk told us how he heard one fascist tell another that tomorrow we were going to heaven.

Yakov repeated these words in German. I could only guess what they meant. He then translated them again and added that it was just as he told us.

Then one of the guards opened the door. Again we thought it was the end. A big iron barrel with the remains of supper was brought in and we were locked in.

After a little while we started unchaining each other, trying to make as little noise as possible. The clamps were primitive and all you had to do was stretch them a little to make a gap big enough for the chain to go through to remove them. It was difficult to do it alone so we helped each other to save time. Volodya Kuklya, Davidov and Steyukstood at the door and. Steyuk could speak with the guards. Kaper, Ostrovsky and I were about two meters behind them.

Volodya carefully stretched his hands through the rods of the door and inserted the key into the lock. From midnight until 4 in the morning we waited for the moment when he would be able to unlock it. He turned the key once and said that it did not go any further.

Getting nervous, he knocked over the barrel next to the door. A guard heard the noise and cried out if something was wrong. Luckily, Steyuk found the right word to say and explained that we had a fight over the potatoes.

The guard thought it was very funny that we were fighting over food tonight, while tomorrow we would not need anything to eat ever again. He cursed, pointed his flashlight on the lock and saw that it was in place.

Our hearts were in our throats. If they had found one person unchained they would have shot the entire barracks. By that time we were all nearly unchained. Yasha helped me and thinking that these might be the last moments of my life, I said that I wanted to live a half hour longer.

No one believed that we would escape alive. Yasha took my chains off and said that I could live as long as I like.

We talked in a whisper so we would not wake those we could not trust, especially the police chief who would have informed to the Germans to save his life. He was a danger to all of us and we considered getting rid of him. We asked one fellow I can not remember his name, only that he was a welder-to do it. He refused out right saying that he would not even be able to cut a hen's throat.

At that moment Volodya turned the key the second time and whispered that everything was OK. The door was unlocked. Very quietly we transmitted the information to one another. There were 327 people in the barracks and everybody headed at once to the exit. Those in the rear started to push those in front. The barrel was in the way. We pushed on the railing and those in the front ran up the stairs. It was such a moment of victory that we could not keep calm and started crying out loudly Hurrah! For our Motherland!, For Stalin! It was not surprising. Hearing these words our soldiers attacked in the front.

At this moment the machine gun started firing. Several people fell on the staircase which was the obvious target. The stairwell was very steep and everyone coming out of the barracks found themselves in a ditch, at which the machine gun was firing. Fortunately, the cartridge ran out. Taking advantage of that short break in the firing, everybody burst forward while the guard reloaded, tripping over each other. Nothing could stop the rush of people. We swept past the guards who ran into the yard in their underwear yelling Mein Gott. The guard on the watch tower ran out of bullets. We split up into small groups to make it more difficult to shoot at us. They managed to get the standing machine gun shooting after us escapees. I think that every one in the barracks managed to run away. The soldiers also used grenades and incendiary bombs to stop us. Many died in the escape attempt. Out of 327 in the barracks only 14 remained alive.

We agreed with Steyuk that we would retreat in groups. We took off our wadded jackets to make it easier to run along the path that followed the little river. The dawn was gloomy and it was drizzling. Suddenly it was like daytime when a flare exploded. I saw that Davidov was not with us. We found out later that he ran in another direction.

Somewhere above us a machine gun was firing at the ravine. We ran near to the walls of the ravine so we would not be seen from above. We could not stop for a moment. Bullets flew and fell into the water. Hearing my name I had to stop. A man, his name was Brodsky, was behind me and was wounded. I bent over him, risking being shot and told him that we must run since it was our only chance to escape. He got up and ran forward. Five of us, Kaper, Ostrovsky, Wilkes, Senya Berland and I managed to get to the cannery. There on the ground lay enormous barrels having neither tops nor bottoms, about six meters long and about the height of one and a half men in diameter. There was a guard pacing up and down the grounds. He had a cap pulled over his ears to protect against the frost. He reminded me of one of Napoleon's soldiers from the war of 1812 suffering from he Russian winter.

Senya said that we should kill him. It would have been a mistake since the workers getting off their shift would have noticed him and we would have been discovered.

We waited for him to turn his back to us and then one by one dove into one of those barrel-like tunnels. They led to the brick factory which was not far away. When we regrouped it turned out that Senyya Berland had disappeared. He had gone to the nearest hut in search of food and had not returned.