Upfall

About eight kilometers west of Sobibor Yatom identified a farm path that crossed the railroad track at a narrow cutting. The sayeret drove down the track for two more kilometers south of the rail-line, past several abandoned and dilapidated homesteads, until the path dead ended in another thick stand of woods. Yatom dismounted and walked forward across a derelict potato field until he found what appeared to be a forester‘s road. The Kubelwagens, cars and trucks bounced across the rutted meadow toward the road. They followed it west for several kilometers, until it dumped them on yet another farm path, bordered by another pair of deserted barns. Shapira checked his compass and ran a pencil over a map, then pointed to a forested hill about 3000 meters away.

"I think that‘s where they should be" said Shapira. "The capsule should be a few kilometers further to the south"

Yatom looked through his binoculars toward the distant hill hoping to see some sign of the refugees. The far—off height appeared silent and empty. Several moments later Mofaz and Ilan walked over to assess the situation.

"What do you think Ilan?" asked Mofaz. The sniper had the best eyes of the bunch. Ilan peered through the glasses.

"It looks like the right location, although we are approaching the area from a different direction. I don't see any sign of life in the trees."

"We may be too far away or they may have moved on" said Shapira. "They weren't supposed to stay there anyway. But hopefully they left an outpost or lookout."

"Let's find out" said Yatom. The column continued down the farm path and rumbled its way across several more broken fields. The commandos looked ahead nervously at the tree covered ridgeline.

They were driving into what would have been an excellent location for a German ambush. Not only were they hemmed in by rough terrain and trees, but the sun was setting behind the ridge to the west. The light was in their eyes, and the column was perfectly silhouetted for German artillery or machinegunners. But as the pushed on they heard only the groaning of the truck engines, accompanied by the buzzing of insects and the chirping of birds. This section of Poland was still mostly a wilderness, untouched by hideousness of the war.

Yatom halted the column at the base of the hill. Beyond the hill lay another, larger one. Shapira recognized the second hill—the stream that they had led the refugees to flowed along its base. "That's it" said Shapira decisively, checking compass and map to be certain. Yatom and Feldhandler nodded. Yatom, who had been driving the Kubelwagen himself dismounted and scanned the rise with his thermal binoculars.

"Ron, take Bolander and check the place out. We'll wait here."

Feldhandler climbed out of the German jeep and stood next to Yatom, while Shapira waived to the young marksman. Bolander joined Shapira in the Kubelwagen. Shapira drove while Bolander kept his Tavor at the ready. Halfway to the larger hill, Shapira remembered that he was driving a German vehicle, and wearing, as he often did on the road, a German tunic over his combat vest. He got out of the car and took off the tunic, and with his recharged radio called Yatom. "We are going the rest of the way on foot. I don't want to get shot by some lookout who mistakes us for Germans."

Yatom acknowledged the message. He should have thought of that, and reproved himself for his sloppiness. I shouldn't have led the column through an obvious ambush site either, he reflected. Yatom knew that he, along with everybody needed a good rest.

Shapira and Bolander walked down the rutted path another 200 meters, and then moved off the road into the brush. It was nearly dark, a bad time to approach a sentry, but there was nothing for it.

Shapira scanned the hill with his thermal binoculars, while Bolander did the same through his rifle sight. About 100 meters up the north side of the hill Shapira's thermal picked up the form of a seated man.

Bolander caught the figure a moment later, and noticed a second man also sitting nearby.

Shapira notified Yatom that they had found sentries and were going to make contact. The commandos moved up the hill slowly, staying under cover. They were able to approach unnoticed by the ill-trained guards. The two Israelis crouched behind a pair ofthick pines a stone's throw from the sentry position. Shapira called to the guards in German, hoping for the best.

"Hello, Kameraden. Wir sind Juden. Wir sind Freunden."

The startled sentries tumed awkwardly toward the commandos and shouted their challenge. Shapira repeated his words, and added quickly in rough mix of German and Yiddish, that they were the soldiers who had stopped the train, attacked Sobibor and then departed the week before.