For six months, all goes well. The masquerade of Swedish citizenship appears to be succeeding. Then, all of a sudden, Adolf Eichmann orders the SS troops to disregard Wallenberg's documents and arrest anyone thought to be a Jew. Papers or no papers, you are all herded into the Umschlagplatz and crammed into a train headed for Auschwitz.
Just before the train leaves, a distinguished man drives up in a car
bearing a red and white flag. He leaps out and rushes up to the German
commander. I am Charles Lutz,
he says, counsel general from
Switzerland. Some of the people you are about to deport are Swiss. Unless
you let them go, there will be a major international problem.
(Years later,
you learn that Lutz had simply made up his list to save Jews. He is
considered one of the Chasidei Umot Haolam,
one of the Righteous
People from among the Nations of the World,
honored at Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem.)
The SS officer and Lutz check each name. a number of people are
removed from the train and taken to safe places known as Swiss Houses.
You hold your breath, hoping that you will be among them, but you are
not. The door to the cattle car slams shut, the bolt clanks, and you hear the
snap of the lock. You are on your way to the dread camp at Auschwitz.
If you decide to take your chances at Auschwitz, knowing that you will soon be liberated by the advancing Russian army, continue to page 86.
If you decide to escape, continue to page 87.