Once Upon a Time (13 page)

The federal lawyer had probably just settled down to his Sunday morning coffee, because he was initially gruff on the phone, but as Green had hoped, when he explained his mission, the old adversarial passion began to stir. There was a long silence at the other end of the line as David Haley pondered Green's problem.

“There is no central registry that lists the fate of all European Jews caught in the Holocaust,” he began slowly. “The Red Cross compiled lists, but mainly of people who survived the camps. You could ask them to check their lists, in case your man Kressman turned up in their care, but you would need to know what camps he might have been sent to. All right, I'm getting some ideas.” His voice lost its groping quality. “A Holocaust historian such as Martin Gilbert in Britain or Raul Hilberg in the States could tell you when the Jews of Ozorkow were rounded up and what camps they were sent to. In fact, Peter Marks at the University of Toronto is becoming quite an expert. He could tell you. Then you could check the Red Cross lists for those camps. They might not be alphabetical, and it would be a hell of a job. Alternatively you could ask an archivist at Yad Vashem—that's the Holocaust Museum in Israel—to research their files. They have been gathering witness testimonials of both survivors and victims and have a massive collection of data. It requires slogging through archives and documents and letters and photos.”

“It sounds like it could take weeks.”

“Months. And cost thousands.”

“Hardly the kind of job a city police officer can justify to his bosses.”

“Well, it's not a neat, modern computerized database you can search at the touch of a button, like you guys are used to.” Haley chuckled. “The only other way I can possibly think of to track down a Joseph Kressman is to check with the Jewish Documentation Centre set up in France by Beate and Serge Klarsfeld. She's a German married to a Jew, and they're both active in collecting information on the Holocaust, with the intention of bringing Nazi War Criminals to justice.”

“Yes, I'm familiar with them. They tracked down Barbie, the Butcher of Lyons.”

“That's right. It's a long shot, but they might be able to help. And they're terrific people, it wouldn't be beneath them.”

That's wonderful, Green thought to himself after he'd hung up. Just how the hell am I supposed to justify a long-distance phone call to Paris or Israel? Jules' generosity had already been tapped dry for that day.

Peter Marks, on the other hand, was in Toronto, and dozens of calls were made between Toronto and the Ottawa force every day. In fact, he approved many of them. The historian might not appreciate a call to duty Sunday morning any more than the war crimes prosecutor had, but Green was counting on his being equally intrigued. A five-minute call, that was all it would take to find out if the search for Kressman was futile.

It took twenty minutes, however, to track down the right Peter Marks in the Toronto phone book. Marks was delighted to be involved in a real life quest which brought him out of the rarefied halls of academia. He consulted his library immediately, and Green could hear his heavy breathing as he flipped through the books.

“How much time do you have? We could take the short cut and say that Kressman's over ninety per cent likely to have been killed. Three million Polish Jews died in the Holocaust, only 225,000 survived. Not good odds. The worst odds in all of Europe, actually. And statistically he probably died in Chelmno, Treblinka or Belzec.”

Green knew that, but statistics had never deterred him. “All right, so the odds aren't good. But we think the man's from Ozorkow. Is there any way I can check survivors' lists or something, if we can trace what camp he'd been sent to?”

“Poland is a lot more complicated than David Haley led you to believe. Ozorkow's a town in the Warthegau, the part of western Poland that Germany annexed during the war. The Jews in Western Poland were handled in different stages. First, when the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, they rampaged through the towns and countryside, randomly torturing and killing Jews and Poles alike—Jews in greater proportion just for being Jews. About five thousand Jews from western towns and villages were killed in this fashion. Others fled eastward, still others were herded from the farms and smaller villages into larger ghettos in the cities so they could be more easily controlled. Ozorkow was one of the towns they were herded into. Let me check here.” His breathing hissed in the silence. “There were about five thousand Jews in Ozorkow before the war, and in October 1939 another forty-seven hundred were forced into it. Disease, winter cold and starvation took its toll. Then…I seem to remember, oh, here—yes, it was Chelmno. Between March and May 1942 the Jews of Ozorkow were sent to Chelmno and gassed. Most of Poland's Jews perished in 1942.”

“Chelmno. Any survivors from Chelmno?”

“Two and a half years later? Not likely. But I think it's in here somewhere—” Pages began to flip. “Incredible book, this. Every horrible fact laid out in neat black and white. Ah-ha! Here we are. Two survivors.”

“Names?”

Marks snorted. “Three hundred and sixty thousand gassed at Chelmno, and he's asking about two survivors. Talk about odds!” There was some more wheezing, a curse, shuffling of papers and then a grunt of satisfaction. “Zurawski and Srebik. No Kressman. You know, you might have more luck if you approached the problem from the other end.”

“What do you mean?”

“Find a survivor from Ozorkow who knew Kressman before the war and ask if they know what happened to him. Ozorkow wasn't that big. Most of the Jews would have known each other.”

Green felt his hopes lift. “Are there records anywhere of survivors by city of origin?”

“Israel has the most complete list of survivors everywhere. But we had a survivors' reunion here in Canada back in the eighties, and there's a Holocaust Remembrance Committee that keeps track of survivors. They might have a list. Just a sec, I even have the contact person's phone number somewhere.”

Green waited as the man at the other end of the phone went off in search. Even through the wires, he could still hear the man's wheezing. Green remembered the survivors' reunion, which had been held in Ottawa about fifteen years earlier. His father had not attended, citing his heart, but Green had attended some of the sessions and had listened to the tales of triumph and despair. Most vividly he recalled the noticeboard where survivors had pinned notes asking if anyone knew the fate of brothers, sisters or husbands. Green shivered even now at the memory.

Peter Marks came back on the line with the information, which Green jotted down. Marks seemed eager to chat forever. “You could also check the survivors of the labour camps in central Poland. Some of the internees ended up in camps in Germany because of the forced evacuations. Check Sachsenhausen, Ravensbruck, Theriesenstadt and Buchenwald. Good luck, and let me know if I can do more.”

“What books are you consulting?”

Green recorded the titles, by the historians Martin Gilbert and Raul Hilberg whom David Haley had mentioned, and then gracefully extricated himself. His next call was to Naomi Wyman of the Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Committee in Toronto, who Green suspected was a survivor herself, for she had a gentle Yiddish lilt that reminded him of his own mother. His mind formed a picture of wide, patient brown eyes and grey hair drawn back in a bun.

When she heard Green's request, she clucked her tongue in exasperation. “There were hundreds of labour camps in Central Poland, and if Kressman was in one of them, Inspector, he could have ended up anywhere! The SS marched them here, there, all over the place at the end of the war, trying to outrun the Allies on both fronts. Sometimes they shot them all on the spot. Thousands died just days or hours before liberation. What am I saying, thousands died afterwards too.”

“I know it's a long shot, Mrs. Wyman,” Green replied patiently, then played his ace. “My own parents were survivors, so I know what a mess things were. But if you could just check your records for names of a few survivors of the labour camps, I'd be very grateful. And even more important, if you have any survivor who came from Ozorkow, please let me know.”

He heard an irritated sigh, and his image of the gentle, patient Yiddish grandmother began to fade. This one was feisty and anything but patient.

“It will take me a couple of days.”

“As quickly as you can, Mrs. Wyman. It's very important for a case we're working on.”

Suddenly her voice perked up. “A war crimes case?”

“I'm afraid I can't say any more at this time.”

Afterwards, Green gazed at the notes he jotted down. Holocaust, war crimes, concentration camps—what was he getting himself into? He had three old men, Walker, Kressman and Gryszkiewicz. All born in Ozorkow, all tied together in some way. Was the whole thing a coincidence, or was there a connection somewhere in Poland, deep in the lost events of the Second World War?

*    *    *

By the time Green arrived home from the university library with three books under his arm, Sharon and Tony had disappeared. They had both been asleep when he'd left to meet Sullivan earlier, and now the only sign of them was a note from Sharon on the kitchen counter.

Green, I'm off shopping for Tony's birthday. When you get home you'd better stay there, or your ass is toast.

He grinned with relief. Sharon was annoyed, but on a scale of one to ten, this ranked only a six. She still had a sense of humour. With Tony's first birthday bash only days away, maybe she was too excited to whip up much outrage.

Grateful for the peace and quiet, he took the books into his new study, spread them on his makeshift desk, picked up a pen and paper, and began to read.

He thought after all his years of wading through human depravity in Major Crimes, he would be inured to the horrors of the Holocaust, but as he worked his way through the coldly factual chronicle on the fate of Poland's three million Jews, he felt his comprehension fail him. He sat at his desk with a forgotten cup of coffee at his elbow and forced himself to write down the grim and twisting trail which had led most of the five thousand Jews of Ozorkow to the gas chambers. His first discovery was that the killing of Jews in Poland had not begun with the Nazi invasion in September 1939. Throughout the 1930s, there had been escalating acts of anti-Semitism, terrorism and murder across the country. Between 1935 and 1937 alone, seventy-nine Polish Jews had been murdered in random attacks, but this fact had become insignificant in the overwhelming slaughter that followed.

Sept. 1939—Hitler invades Western Poland, random killing of 16,000 civilians, 5,000 of them Jews.

Sept. 28 1939—Poland partitioned at Bug River, 250,000 Polish Jews driven or fled east across the Bug into Soviet-controlled territory. Unlikely Kressman among these, because Ozorkow too far west to reach river easily.

Oct. 1939—Jews in Western rural Poland herded into larger cities. Ozorkow ghetto swells to 9,600.

Dec. 1939—Nazis decree 2 years forced labour for all Jewish males ages 14-60.

1940-1942—in general two trends: 1) gradual deportation of Jews eastward out of annexed Poland, collecting them in massive ghettos like Warsaw, many die of starvation and disease. 2) rounding up of able-bodied young men for hundreds of slave labour camps, especially along Soviet border.

-no way to know if Kressman taken from Ozorkow, and if so, where went.

June 1941—Nazi elite decides on its “Final Solution”, the extermination of all Jews in Europe.

Early 1942—2,500 Jews from Ozorkow ghetto sent to be gassed at Chelmno death camp.

May 1942—800 “able-bodied” Ozorkow Jews sent to factories in Lodz, a large ghetto nearby (162,000 Jews).

Green stopped to consider the implications. The city of Lodz had been a major armaments manufacturing centre during the war. If Kressman were a blacksmith by trade, and if he were a relatively young and healthy man, his skills would have been useful in a munitions factory making planes and tanks for the war effort. So he might have been among the eight hundred chosen for slave labour in Lodz. It was a slim hope, but it was all he had.

Keeping track of both Ozorkow and Lodz now, Green continued his search.

Jan.-Aug. 1942—40,000 Lodz Jews gassed at Chelmno.

Sept. 1942—Lodz declared “working ghetto”, all those under ten or over 60, sick or weak, sent to gas chambers in Chelmno, 16,000 total.

Aug. 1944—last 70,000 Lodz Jews sent to Auschwitz to be gassed, except 500 selected for slave labour in Germany and 800 left to clean up.

June 1945—Lodz liberated by Russian army, 877 survivors.

He paused again in dismay. He had lost all track of Ozorkow, but it appeared likely from the general pattern of deportations that the Ozorkow ghetto had been emptied by the end of 1942, and most of its residents sent either to Chelmno death camp or to the ghettoes, then to Treblinka death camp. In either case, they were gassed. A select few able- bodied ones had been sent to Lodz, but the entire Lodz ghetto had been deported to the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1944, with only a few strong ones being spared. But after almost five years in slave labour, would Kressman still be strong enough to be selected? Unless he had been a very strong, healthy young man at the outset of the war, there was no way. Kressman's age was an essential part of the puzzle. But tracking that down required cooperation from authorities in Eastern Europe, assuming the records from sixty years ago were still around. Which was a faint hope.

With a sigh, he returned to his place among the dozens of slave labour camps surrounding Auschwitz. But a few minutes later, he laid down his pen again in frustration. The trail had become too fragmented. Depending on which labour camp Kressman had been sent to, he could have met a dozen deaths. He could have ended up in the ovens of Chelmno or Auschwitz. He could have been massacred by the SS in the last days of the war or died of typhus in the DP camps afterwards. It seemed futile to try to track down one lone Jew in this twisting criss-cross of fates.