Upfall

She breathed in deeply and cautiously walked back toward the trucks, hoping to find an extra pistol or rifle among the piles of equipment.

Had she been religious she might have thanked God for her salvation, but as her head cleared she guessed why the Uzi hadn't fired, and it had nothing to do with the Almighty. There is a second safety behind the grip of an Uzi that has to be depressed to fire the weapon. Mueller clearly hadn't known that, and in fact, the idea would have been alien to him. Eventually, he would figure it out, but by then she hoped to be back in the protection of the sayeret and long gone.

In the back of one of the trucks she found a single old Mauser carbine. It was a strange to her as the Uzi had been to Mueller, but with time on her hands, she pulled out a box of bullets and began working with the weapon—just in case.

Chapter 24

After the generator shack exploded, Wirth returned to the prisoners’ barracks and assembled a small squad of men to escort him to Erbel’s office. He ordered the rest of the SS platoon fan out into the camp and engage the enemy—which he guessed they were unlikely to actually do. No matter, thought Wirth as he made his way to Erbel's head-quarters through the gloomy camp. He already sensed that Treblinka was lost.

Wirth tried to affect calm as he stepped out of the prisoner enclosure into the blacked out alley that ran to the Front Camp. The dark appeared to offer enough safety and anonymity to make a safe passage. But as Wirth walked toward Erbel's compound with his escort, one after another of his men was struck down by bullets that seemed to come out of nowhere and hit with the accuracy of a firing squad. In a minute four of his SS escorts were down, leaving Wirth and one other man still standing—a young corporal. They looked at each other, then took off at a dead run for the Forward Camp. Wirth alone made it to safety. He burst into Erbel‘s office, panicked and drenched in sweat. Incredibly, Erbel was in worse shape, kneeling on the floor and fiddling pointlessly with a dead telephone. Treblinka's sergeant major stood nearby, shamefaced. Wirth ignored Der Spiess and joined Erbel on the floor of the office. The two officers exchanged ashen glances.

"What is going on?" Wirth demanded. Erbel just shook his head.

"The camp is being overrun" said Sergeant Major Hahn. "Anybody who steps outside is killed."

"I just came from outside" said Wirth with false bravado, knowing full well that the Sergeant Major was right.

"You're lucky" said Der Spiess.

"We are organizing an attack on Camp 4" croaked Erbel lamely.

"Most of the firing seems to be coming from there" said Hahn. "We could use some of your men."

"What about the new Ukranian company?" asked Wirth. "Nobody can contact them. They have probably fled" said Hahn.

"Who is to lead this attack?"

Erbel turned and looked directly at Wirth. "I expect you to lead it" said the Commandant. "That's why you were sent here. You said so."

"I was sent here to muck out the mess you've made of this place."

Erbel suddenly became energized. "Mess?" he asked. "You call Treblinka a mess? It is an extermination camp. We slaughter people. What did you expect?"

Wirth admired Erbel's sudden rationality, but had no intention of countenancing it. "Your job is to exterminate Jews" said Wirth calmly. "Like cattle at a slaughterhouse. Any common tradesman could run this place better than you. I have no intention of pulling your coals out of this fire. Attack Camp 4 yourself."

Wirth turned and walked to the door with the firm intention of getting out Treblinka in one piece. Whatever force had struck this miserable place, it was clearly beyond the SS guard and the Ukranians to handle. Some elite paratroop force had evidently infiltrated the Lubin District and was hitting its installations. It would take a comparable force of crack German troops to bring them to heal, and those troops were not available at Treblinka. Wirth was intent on running away as quickly as possible Better to live and make his excuses to Globocnik than die in this charnelhouse.

Erbel up incredulously as Wirth opened the door on his way out.

"Where are you going?" the Commandant demanded.

"Treblinka is yours to command not mine" said Wirth. "I‘ll tell Globocnik that you died well." Wirth shut the door and trotted toward the front entrance, careful to keep buildings between him and the deadly fire that still came from the towers in Camp 4.

Faint and near to collapse, Erbel gripped the edge of his desk and glared at Der Spiess. "Well Hauptsturmfuhrer" said Erbel, his voice a trembling in fear and anger "it is up to us to sort this situation out. Prepare an assault on Camp 4. Gather all available men. I'll join you in a moment."