The Rabbi Who Tricked Stalin Page 12

The following evening was a regular tumultous and grey effort time in the big Interrogation Offices of the Gepau in Minsk. Gepau was thought at first to be less cruel than Cheka- the former secret police name; but soon people understood that it was the same cruel, plotting and accusations’ inventive secret police, as ever it had been in Russia, rulled by a white Tsar or Red Tsar.

  The Gepau main interrogation room in those days was 4X4 meters – and included three chairs plus desks for the interrogators.

  Other characteristics of this very special room had been:

  1)Heavy keys for locking the office door from inside.

  2)Tall guard, a menacing figure, who would come to- and go out from- the room by a side-door, when called by the chief interrogator and Head of Gepau in Minsk: ‘comrade Antonov’.

  3) a heavy stool, or special chair, comprised of a square metalic platform to sit on it, and high iron legs. This chair was located at the left corner of the wall opposite to the entry door. It was set up for performing on it some violent activity during an investigation.

  4)Dark curtains which were covering the window opposite to the entry door.. .

  Antonov was seated at his desk, located to the left side of the room’s entry. He was writing very fast on a paper, which was regularly- a lined copybook’d page. Having finished, he put it in his dark khaki unifom trousers, and rushed to the side door opposite to his desk: It was leading to another room. He opened it and called somebody. A tall baby-faced youth entered his room immediately, and was standing erect before him. He was a guard and ‘baby toy’ of his master, and his age about twenty.

  “Aliosha,” said Antonov, “Take this secret note. Stick it to the front door of Elya Ruhin’s flat. He’s the secretary of the Comsomol.”

  “Well, comrade Antonov. I know this man. His address too.”

  “Nobody should be informed- how, why, where, when- you have got this note. Is that clear?”

  “Well understood,” said the guy. His nickname was: ‘Tall Aliosha.’

  “Now Run!” pushed him Antonov in his back, ”Report back within an hour.”

  Tall guy Aliosha went out, and Antonov was seated back at his desk, looking for additional criminals that would have to be traced that night.

  The electric street’s lamps were on- in Elya’s neighborhood. Elya had just arrived to the building from his daily work, and climbed a few steps to reach his front door. As he pulled the key out of his trousers’ pocket, he discerned the note from Antonov. It was a folded paper, fixed in the split line between the door and the side frame. He picked it up and entered his rooms quickly, put on the electric light and opened the note, reading it in a whisper. His face became grimace, as he imagined to hear somebody declaiming, in a menacing voice:

  “We know who you are, and who is the woman you live with and beloved by you. She is a suspect, as well as your uncle Red Mogul. We know everything about everyone. They will be shot like dogs. You have a choice: tell us everything– or find yourself with them.” The note was signed by: “A band of Bolshevik Patriots.”.

  Elya shuddered. His fingers folded the paper, then smoothed it. He meditated nervously, walking to and fro in his bedroom, his whole body aching from high tension. After a few minutes he told himself it had been only a threatening letter. The best thing to do is just wait. He took his seat at his desk in the bedroom’s corner, his eyes hovering over the previous speech of Stalin about “Collective Farms in the ‘Five Years Plan.”.

  The key lock’s roll noise was heard from the front door.

  Elya saw Natalya at the corridor. She was hanging her coat.

  “Good evening,” said Elya, “How are you, Natalya?”

  “As yesterday,” she said in a choked voice.

  She entered the bedroom and picked up books from the book-case. Then she went outside to the corridor, bringing her old suitcase from there. She set it near the wardrobe- which she had opened, and began throwing hastily into the suitcase all her dresses, skirts and shirts.

  Elya rose from his seat, and moved toward her.

  “Where?” he asked.

  “I can’t stay with you any more,“ she said, “and you know that.”.

  “Don’t go. I know something. It is dangerous tonight.”

  Natalya didn’t answer. She got to the door with the suitcase in hand. He moved after her and shouted: “Crazy! With that heavy weight! You should call a wagon and horse tomorrow. You want to hurt yourself, when it would be too late. . .?”

  “Maybe,” she said bluntly, “And you will rejoice - getting rid of something that disturbs your life.”

  “Wait here, Natalya, and I’ll call a wagoner. I know where Hershel lives.. . Think logically.”

  She laid her suitcase on the floor, and Elya dressed his coat and got out of the house. But after three minutes he was back.

  “Gepau is around. I’m sure,” he gasped while telling her,”don’t be crazy now. It’s very dangerous. They may shoot people, and you’ll get hurt.”

  “If so - I will go to my friend Irina, without this load. I can’t remain with you, comrade Elya Ruhin. D’you understand? I’m disgusted.” she broke down in a weep, and he told her:

  “weeping and crying is not justified now, Natalya. The Gepaus are chasing people, d’you understand?. I hope my uncle is safe. I’ve just seen on the street one of their men, that I recognize! They may catch you for trying to contact a suspct, if you walk now.”.

  “You talk like crazy,” she said. “I’m not a spy. They won’t hurt me.”

  Natalya left the suitcase on the floor, and opened the front door.

  She went out.

  “You don’t know what you are doing!” He shouted after her.

  Gepau’s Tall Aliosha was staying at the staircase leading up from Elya’s flat to the second and third floors. He heard Natalya’s steps and tiptoed down staircase, back to the first floor. There was a smile on his lips. He left Elya’s house, tracing Natalya - who was walking to the direction of the Rabbi’s hut. The street lamps light drew on the ground long shadows of her and her follower. Then Aliosha succeeed to hide himself behind trees and between wagons at the roadside. He saw Natalya turning to the street in which Rabbi Aaron was living, and decided to assault.

  He shot in the air from his pistol. Natalya became scared and tried to escape from a gang of five Gepau men, most of them dressed in civil, who jumped from behind bush-fences in the neighborhood. The Gepau gangs attacked Natalya, threatening her with their pistols.

  They laid her on the sidewalk while grabbing her arms. She screamed from pain.

  “I am pregnant, please, don’t hurt me,” she implored, and for a moment lost her consciousness.

  One of the secret police gangs tied a black bandage on her eyes, and put chains on her hands. Then they raised her and were leading her toward the street corner. She saw a small crowd gathering thereby, watching the action. A City Police Officer, who was among the watchers- did not interfere. Then a small black ‘van-like’ vehicle arrived, and Natalya was pushed into it.

  She could in no way physically antagonize her captors. They set her in the vehicle, and she has seen that next to her was sitting a shabby dressed man, his hands chained like hers. She had not known who he was, and they did not talk. She told herself: ‘Thank God it’s not Red Mogid.’ The car started and was driving away. It soon came to stand opposite to Gepau Headquarters’ entry door..

  The commander Antonov faced the three gangs, who had brought the new hunted citizens.

  “Very well, Folks,” he told them, “a good hunt, I see.”

  He used to call his best group “Folks”, as it included a Russian, a Jew, a Kirgizian, an Armenian and a mustached Georgian.

  Elya heard two taps on the front door of his flat. It was a signal between him and his devoted young assistant, Yury, in a case of alarm. He hurried to open the door, and the youth entered, breathing heavily. Elya tr
ied to keep calm.

  “Has something happened?” he asked him.

  “Natalya has been arrested, I‘ve seen Gepau men taking her. . . She was cursing them, and they carried her into their waiting vehicle.”

  Elya thanked the youth, who left very quickly. He hurried to the kitchen, washed his face with cold water, and became very nerous. He knew he wouldn’t sleep.

  CHAPTER 13