The Remnant - Stories of the Jewish Resistance in WWII (27 page)

It had been recognized almost a century earlier that for the Jews to ever have their just dignity and freedom, they would have to have their own nation. The Jews were a nation in Diaspora. That fact and Christianity's refusal to allow Jews equal status in any nation under its influence, made Europe and Russia a hostile environment for the Jews.

These young Zionist resistance fighters, under the influence of the founder of their movement, Theodor Herzl, organized before the war with the intention of settling on land in Palestine purchased by the Jewish Agency. There they would form a community, a kibbutz. They would be one of the many settlements with the dream of joining to become a new Jewish State-the State of Israel.

The training for the hardships they would face in Palestine stood them well here in the forests of the Ukraine. But all the time they fought against the German occupation, they kept alive their dream. For the Zionists, this was just one of the difficult steps to the Promised Land.

Rachel and Sol decided they would make their way to Palestine with the young Zionists and start a new life after the war. Their families had been exterminated. There wasn't even a grave marker for them to visit in Europe.

Major Hans Oberman spent much of the winter seeking out and destroying guerrilla groups. Using his clever map and tracks left in the snow, he established an impressive record for his superiors. In a few short months, he rid the Kiev area of a dozen partisan groups not as cautious as the Jews. Forced to move out of their camps to obtain supplies, many groups were easily stalked by the Germans. Oberman still suspected Jewish partisans of headquartering in the vast forest but was unable to detect their movements.

Frustrated, Oberman decided to fly over the forest personally with an experienced reconnaissance pilot. For two days, they flew over the area northwest of Kiev and found nothing. On the third day, they spotted deep tracks in the snow. They followed them from the air for several kilometers to a small herd of deer. Oberman swore at the animals and cursed the pilot. "Damn it, find me some tracks or some smoke or some lodges! Those bastards are down there someplace. Why the hell can't you find them? You're supposed to be the best we have!"

The pilot answered meekly. "I'm sorry, sir. That is an enormous area down there. We could fly over it for a week and not find them. They're probably smart enough to put out their fires on windless days. When it's windy the smoke dissipates before it clears the trees. And to see tracks among those trees from above is near impossible. We only found those deer because they crossed a clearing. I doubt the guerrillas ever get out from the cover of the trees."

Oberman fumed in silence. When they landed back at Kiev, he canceled any further overflights. He would find another way.

When spring arrived in 1943, everyone was ready to welcome it.

Major Hans Oberman was disgruntled that he had not yet pinpointed the location of the Jews. The advent of spring would let partisans all over Eastern Europe and the Ukraine move about freely and resume their activities. Oberman had been unable to track the Jews in the snow; perhaps he could get at them through their activities now.

The German army was, of course, also overjoyed at the end of winter. Winter had been their mightiest foe so far. Now they could retrench, resupply, reinforce their starved and frozen troops. What they did not realize was that during the long winter the Russians had built up their forces and supplies and had modernized their equipment. The Russians were also ready for spring.

During the long winter, while Father Peter monitored the radio, he began to suspect another resistance group had moved into the area. They didn't broadcast often, but when they did their transmissions were always clear. Also, though most of what they transmitted was brief and in coded conversation, they occasionally made references to familiar things-to a fierce blizzard, just after the family camp had also been hit by a fierce blizzard, for example. A few other transmissions had raised Father Peter's suspicion-also his fears. He had maintained radio silence to avoid detection by the Germans and now another group was sending messages that might bring the Nazis down on them all.

The rest of the group was also concerned; they considered breaking radio silence to warn the others not to transmit so frequently and freely. Father Peter was sure they were in the immediate vicinity. "Now that we can move out of the camp, let's carry a radio and our hand generator to a safe distance and radio them."

"And what if they are a group hostile to Jews?" Uri suggested. "We have a lot of supplies and weapons that another group would love to get their hands on. If they are a large force it would not surprise me to have them turn on us. Believe me I've had experience with another resistance group. We'd be smart to know who they are before we give knowledge of ourselves away to them."

"How can we contact them without inviting the Germans also?" Sol asked. "A meeting I mean. Arrange to find them without jeopardizing ourselves. If they are hostile to Jews, they just might decide to attack us."

"A definite possibility," Yorgi agreed. "If only we could locate the new group without revealing ourselves. That would give us a chance to look them over before risking our own security."

Everyone feared too long a wait. If the group increased their transmissions or did something else to bring the Germans this deep into the forest, they might also be found. They didn't just want to transmit a warning, but agreed it was the wisest move. Just before the vote, Rachel asked, "Just how do the Germans locate a radio transmission?"

Yorgi explained, "Radios have directional aerials. They receive the best signal when the aerials are trained in the direction from which the transmissions come. That being the case, all the Germans need to do is draw a line on a map from their receiver in the direction of the signals. Then they know the transmitter is somewhere on that line. To pinpoint the spot, they have another listener at a different location draw a second line from his receiver to the signal's direction of origin. Where those two lines intersect on the map is the location of the transmitter. That's why we go far from camp to transmit and why we never transmit from the same spot twice."

"We have two radios. Can't we do the same thing to locate the other camp?" Rachel asked.

"If we had a map," Yorgi concluded. "But then we would only be locating the point they transmitted from. By the time we got there, we'd find only empty woods-if we were lucky-Germans with the same idea if we were unlucky."

"I'm not so sure," Sol said. "I have an idea. It has some problems, but I think we can work it out. Wait a few minutes while I get Ilya." He jumped to his feet and ran out of the room, leaving everyone wondering what he had in mind.

Ilya Chuikov was a small man in his early thirties. He'd been a mathematics teacher. He wore thick glasses. One lens was cracked and the metal frame held it precariously. The crack caused him to squint-and to remember. The lens had been cracked by the Nazis when they broke into his home months earlier. They'd arrested him, his wife and two children-a boy three and a girl two months old. They were immediately separated and he never saw his family again. He'd been arrested and made good his escape. He couldn't help his family. He couldn't even find where they'd been taken. Dejected, despondent, overcome with grief, Ilya blindly and dazed, escaped to the countryside. He made his way into the forest, like a ghost, empty and in despair. Three weeks later his path crossed that of the guerrillas and he joined their ranks.

Sol explained the problem to Ilya when they got back to the room where the general staff tried to chart their actions. "Ilya, what information would you need, would we have to give you for you to locate another resistance group somewhere in these woods? We can pick up their transmissions from two different locations and can tell the directions from which the transmissions come. But we have no map to plot their locations."

Ilya didn't even have to think before he answered. "That's a simple trigonometry problem. If you can give me the directions, I can convert them into the degrees of angle of two sides of a triangle. If you can give me the exact distance between the two receiving sets, I will have two angles and one side of a triangle. Given that bit of information, I can easily construct the rest of the triangle and tell you exactly how far you have to go and in what direction to find them."

"Then there's the answer!" Sol exclaimed.

"There are still a few problems with that," Yorgi pointed out. "First, we will not find their camp, only a transmission point from which they will have fled by the time we get there."

"I have that figured out, too," Solomon smiled triumphantly. "We'll send out two men with a radio for a known distance. The men will send an emergency message to the other group, which I hope they will return. That will give Ilya his two angles and the distance. He'll point us in the right direction and tell us how far to go.

"Our reconnaissance will observe them. If they look safe we'll make contact. If not we'll get the hell out of there and warn them by radio to stop sending before the Germans get them-or us!"

"Do you think they'll be foolish enough to transmit a reply from their camp?" Yorgi challenged.

"I have a theory about that group," Solomon explained. "I don't think they have a permanent camp like this one. I think they are mobile and move about, every few days. If they have a permanent camp, I don't think they'll transmit. Anyway, that decision will be theirs."

"Why not just warn them by radio to keep their transmitter quiet and leave it at that?" Uri asked, still uneasy about making themselves known to another resistance group.

"Because if they're moving around out there," Sol replied, "I want to know who they are before they perhaps, happen onto us. They are a greater threat to us than we to them if they are mobile. It's worth a try to find them. Our security may depend on knowing where and who they are."

The most difficult problem was measuring the exact distance between the two radios. They tied together and measured out two hundred meters of rope. One man walked with his end of the rope until it was fully extended, then the other walked past him until it was once more extended. They repeated their tedious process forty times, making the distance eight kilometers. It took them over twice as long as traveling that distance usually would. When they reached their destination the two men set up their radio and transmitted, using the other group's code name, picked up from monitoring transmissions.

"White Rabbit-White Rabbit-Please respond. White Rabbit-brothers in arms share your woods-please reply-we have an emergency. White Rabbit..." They transmitted the same message five times, once every minute. Then suddenly a reply came.

"Brothers in arms-this is White Rabbit. Transmit your message."

"White Rabbit-brothers in arms need to make contact with you. Can you make transmission appointment for tomorrow?" Please give time and frequency-we will stand by..."

The Jews were not really interested in establishing a time for the other group to transmit to them the next day; they just wanted them to transmit an answer that they could beam in on. The reply came.

"White Rabbit will transmit on this frequency tomorrow at 1400-Will stand by for one minute now if there in any further message."

As soon as the message started to come in, the Jews at both receivers moved their aerials to determine the direction of best reception. Two minutes after the transmission from the other group ended, the Jews at the family camp changed to another prearranged frequency and received the exact directions from the other radio. Ilya took less than one minute to figure.

"They are exactly thirty one kilometers north of here-about five degrees west of due north."

In minutes, a contingent of five set out in that direction. It would be a torturous journey through virgin forest, with no roads or trails to make travel easier. In thirty kilometers, an error of one or two degrees could cause them to miss the other camp completely. They took one of the radios with them. If they had not made contact by transmission time tomorrow, they could use that broadcast to give them a new fix.

The trip proved more difficult than anticipated. It took more than twenty hours to travel what they estimated to be the proper distance. It was three hours before White Rabbit was scheduled to transmit again. The Jews decided to rest for the remainder of the time rather than go blindly through the woods. When the transmission came, they would get a new direction.

Of course, the Germans had monitored the transmissions of the day before and had pinpointed both parties. Their locations were marked on a map for Major Hans Oberman.

While four of the Jews rested, sleeping under the trees, one got up to explore the immediate area. He went one direction, then another. He found nothing, nor did he expect to, but he couldn't sleep and this kept him occupied. He'd been wondering for about twenty minutes when he found himself looking down the barrel of a German machine gun. It was in the hands of a bearded man in civilian clothes. He'd crossed paths with that of a sentry posted by the partisan group they'd been seeking.

It had been the intention of the Jews to observe the other organization before making contact. Now as he eyed his captor, the Jew wondered what he should do next. He assumed the man he faced was a partisan, but he made a split second decision not to reveal his four companions. Certainly he was not about to reveal himself as a Jew.

"Who are you? What do you do here?" the captor demanded.

"I'm a refugee. I escaped arrest in Irpen," the Jew answered, making up what he thought might be a believable story.

"Irpen? That's a hell of a long way from here. How long have you been in this forest?"

"Five days, I think. I'm no longer sure."

"Why were the Germans after you?"

"They suspect that I was involved in partisan activities."