Upfall

"Let's see" he went on blithely "it says find the partisan band.. .destroy them.. .at all costs.. .etc. So what?"

"Who is the order from?"

Feldhandler looked to the bottom of the paper where a large Nazi insignia was stamped next to the signature block. "Reinhardt Heydrich" he said calmly.

"What's wrong Professor?" asked Shapira.

Feldhandler considered deliberately, finally catching on.

"Heydrich was assassinated?"

Shapira pulled one of Feldhandler's beaten paperback histories of the Holocaust from the cargo pocket of his fatigue trousers. "Heydrich died on June 4, 1942" said Shapira, waving the book at Feldhandler.

"June 4 is a week away Lieutenant—even a junior officer should be able to figure that out."

"No Professor. The attack on Heydrich was on May 27- two days ago—and he was completely incapacitated afterward. He died of sepsis in a Prague hospital a week later. This order is dated May 28." Feldhandler grabbed the book and read quickly, then looked again at the blood-stained order.

"What's the point of all this?" said Yatom.

"Heydrich probably more than anybody, was the architect of the 'final solution‘ said Shapira. He organized the Wansee Conference. He effectively implemented Hitler's grand design. And now thanks to Dr. Feldhandler, he will keep on doing that. We've wrecked two of Heydrich's death camps, but somehow he is now around to build more."

"Is this true?" asked Perchensky, staring at Feldhandler.

"Is what true?" said Feldhandler rhetorically, like he was back in a physics classroom. "That Heydrich is alive, or that he'll replace the camps we destroyed?"

"Both" said Perchansky venomously.

"Perhaps our arrival altered the timeline, and as a result Heydrich escaped his assassination. Such changes are inevitable."

"This is great" said Mofaz. "We go through all this and end up helping the Germans!"

"Not only that" continued Shapira "but my guess that this aggressive pursuit we've faced is because of Heydrich. He has the power and influence to do it."

Feldhandler stood and looked around. "It's all for the better. We've destroyed Heydrich's death camps, wrecked his grand plans of mass murder, and showed him that Jews can fight. It's a huge embarrassment and a greater victory for that. The Germans would be after us no matter who's in charge. Heydrich isn't a boogeyman; he's just a Nazi bureaucrat."

"What if he rebuilds the camps?" said Mofaz.

"He won't" said Feldhandler. "The Germans tore down Sobibor and Treblinka after the 1943 revolts. They didn't rebuild them then, why would they now?"

"Because by 1943 they were running out of Jews to kill" said Perchensky.

"Maybe" conceded Feldhandler "but what we have done is still a net plus. We've saved countless people and stopped the death trains. This is not the time to doubt ourselves. That's the trouble with us Jews — always questioning, always doubting—not acting"

"Bullshit" said Mofaz, uttering a rare curse, and bringing the argument to an abrupt halt. The group sat silently for a few moments. Feldhandler seemed unconvinced by his own words.

"All this is interesting" said Yatom finally "but it doesn't change our present situation. We need resupply, especially petrol and batteries. Let's get everyone up and on the road."

The sayeret departed well before nightfall, but kept the trucks festooned with leafy branches, the better to hide from German reconnaissance flights. Again they drove east across the rough Polish plain, staying off the main roads. Yatom knew that the wounded, Chaim included, would suffer along the jarring route, but saw little alternative. He feared for the condition of the trucks as well, but the sturdy German LKWs didn't falter. A German bomber flew high over the column just before dusk but didn't attack. Most encouraging, there were no roadblocks. The sayeret had outraced the Germans’ ability to deploy units to cut them off.

Before dawn on May 30 the column reached the former Polish frontier and turned south. With gas almost exhausted and everybody wearied from the harsh ride, they pulled into a rumpled village called Rozanka, just off the high road. Yatom selected the village because it appeared, usually for a place of its size, to be connected to the power grid. Thus, he led the column into the town Hanzel-like, following a power line instead of crumbs.

It was pitch black, but through his thermal binoculars Yatom noted that Rozanka looked like a feudal throwback, a collection of a few rundown cottages amid forest and field, dominated by a small Catholic church, and two fine stone manor houses. In another time or age they would have housed the local nobility. Perhaps thought Yatom, they still did. In any case, it was to these superior buildings that the powerline ran.