Chapter Four: Knock At the Door

My sisters lived on a grassy, secluded hill in a one bedroom farmhouse. It was a verdant area with small hills everywhere. Growing up on a farm, this area became familiar to me, though I was in a different country. “Do you think you’ll go back to Poland?” I asked after unpacking.

“Probably so, as soon as Stan gets back.” Magda replied, rubbing her small pregnant belly. “What do you think Anna?”

“I don’t know. I like it here. I like the city,” her face uninterested.

“There are cities in Poland.” I replied quickly. Anna just shook her head, gazing out the window.

“Maybe,” she shrugged.

 

After being in Oranienburg for nearly a month, I decided to remind my sisters why I came in the first place. “I have to get going soon if you two aren’t planning on leaving.” I mentioned one morning over breakfast. Magda still hadn’t heard from Stanley and Anna was always gone at work. I quickly became bored and impatient. “Magdalena!” Only our parents called her that, “are you coming with me?” I laughed at her reaction to my calling her Magdalena.

“I can’t be traveling so long pregnant and unaccompanied. Stan will write or telegraph when he is done with the coal mines.” She was withdrawn lately, her voice becoming softer through the days. I felt that she was losing hope in Stan returning. Trying to be reassuring, I rested my arm around her. Magda instantly became hysteric and buried her head into me. I hugged her close and stroked her hair, not knowing what else to do. “Will he ever write me?” She cried.

“Yes, of course he will. This is his home.” I smiled at her, but even I knew that coal mining was the most dangerous job. “Look, I don’t want to leave you like this, but I have to get back to work in Lublin. I feel like I am wasting away here.” I pulled a chair next to her, Magda still clung to me. She remained silent. “You called for me to come here and bring you and Anna back home. I have been here for almost four weeks. How much longer can I wait?” I was at wits end; my boss in Lublin was not expecting me to be gone this long.

“Just one more day, please,” Magda finally looked up at me, her mascara running down her cheeks, “I will telegraph tonight. If there is no response, then Anna and I will come home with you.” She forced a smile while wiping away her black tears. Anna and Magda both were unconcerned with Germany invading Poland on accounts that Hitler thought Poland was becoming aggressive with mobilizing. I couldn’t help but become worried. Erich warned me, and now I wondered if I should have listened. We didn’t listen to the radio much. I believed that my sisters simply didn’t want to know what was going on. All of our news came from the weekly paper that I read.

Anna slung open the front door so hard that it cracked as it hit the wall, and then cracked again when she shut it. Magda and I glared at her first in bewilderment, then in disbelief. Magda sprung up, but before she could get a word out, Anna interjected, “The Germans,” she was panting, “are searching house to house.” She ambled to the kitchen table where I was sitting and fell listlessly into one of the handmade wooden chairs.

“Searching for what?” Magda asked, unmoved by Anna’s reason for charging in like a psycho.

“I don’t know, but I know we are one of them!” Anna couldn’t sit still. Just as quickly as she sat down, she was up again, pacing the kitchen, rubbing her forehead.

“See Magda, we need to go. Telegraph Stan and we will leave tonight.” I told Magda, still sitting cross legged.

“Don’t you get it?” Anna was becoming irate, “You two are so smug, but the enemy is going door to door, literally, to…to I don’t know why, but it’s not to welcome us!” She continued to scream, “They have guns, and they have dogs!”

“Where did you hear this from?” Magda asked, approaching the wild Anna.

“I saw it with my own eyes!” She dragged her lower eye lids down with her fingers, “So I asked the neighbors who had already been searched what the fuss was about, and they told me that the Germans have secret police and armies going house to house to weed out immigrants and noncitizens.” Magda tried to calm her down, but she was inconsolable. Before we could talk about a plan of leaving, there were heavy knocks at the door, and the German language could be heard. Our eyes became wide in shock, I was sure Magda didn’t believe Anna’s story, but now our fate was inevitable.

Frozen with fear, another bang occurred on the door, followed by more German voices. “What do we do?” I finally asked, feeling like I was going to faint.

“Open the door. We have no other choice. That front door is our only way out.” Magda shrugged. I tiptoed to the door, my whole body shaking. Slowly, I reached my hand out to turn the knob, but the door was viciously kicked down, spewing splinters everywhere. A chunk from the wooden door lacerated my face, becoming lodged but then falling out as soon as I touched it. I shied away, becoming more concerned with my face and not with the door being kicked down.

Anna rushed to me, her face paled. Magda was yelling back at the already boisterous German soldiers who barged in. Blood spilled from my cheek. “Come with me to the bathroom. I have a kit there.” Anna whispered to me in Polish.

“Does anyone speak German?” One of the men barked, clutching his machine gun. The other man who came in with him was meddling around.

“We do,” I felt so small. I stood next to Anna with my legs close together and my hands wringing again.

“You three are Polish?” He asked, walking toward me. Anna and I decided that going to the bathroom wouldn’t work out.

“Yes, and we are sisters.” I added quietly, trying to keep my tone in check.

“Why are you here then? You must be spies.” His eyes narrowed in distrust. He was an ogre of a man; quite large and wide, reeking of beer.

“I came here for my sisters. They vacationed here and ended up staying.” I almost added, before you b******s took Poland.

“Are you going to fix my door?” Magda finally said, her voice high with annoyance.