It takes a long time to arrange your escape through the sewers. You must learn the map of these underground passages. One wrong turn could be fatal. Even if you survived, you could possibly wind up back in the ghetto. You spend some of your precious money to bribe a Polish policeman to guard the exit on the outside and help you once you have emerged.
On a dark night, you slip into this subterranean maze and slither through the pipes. Filth and refuse rise up to your hips, and the smell is overwhelming. Only your determination to live keeps you from fainting.
When you reach the end of the tunnel, you see a ladder reaching up
to street level. You stop for a moment, praying that nothing goes wrong.
Then, you climb up to the street and look around. The Polish policeman
is there. He saunters over to greet you; his greeting, however, is the barrel-
end of his rifle. He arrests you and turns you over to the Germans, I
caught this filthy Jew crawling around in the sewers. Take him away!
The SS troops take you to the camp at Treblinka, where the
crematorium smokestack is topped with a Star of David and where a sign
proclaims Judenstadt,
Jewish state. You realize that you have been
brought to village of death.