The Silver Sword

Joseph walks into town, which is a mile away, and hides himself in a cable car designed to move luggage across a mountain range. At the other end of the line, he is discovered by a Polish man unloading the car, who agrees to hide Joseph at his home once Joseph assures him that he is Polish and not a Nazi soldier.

Joseph recuperates at the home of the cable car man and his wife, who agree to hide him even though this endangers their life. He has a close encounter with Nazi soldiers looking for him and has to hide in the chimney.

Two weeks later, once more of the snow has melted, the couple gives Joseph warm clothes, and the man accompanies Joseph for three days through the mountains towards Warsaw. The man bids farewell to Joseph at the river Sanajec, wishing him good luck.

Joseph walks to Warsaw, which takes him four and a half weeks. He is shocked by the wreckage of the city; the school where he used to work as well as his family’s home have been destroyed. He discovers from a neighbor that his wife was taken to Germany as part of an enforced labor scheme. He tries to ascertain the location of his children. The neighbor is evasive but finally admits that they were in the house when the Nazis destroyed it. She is fairly certain that Joseph’s children died in the explosion.

Joseph spends several days searching Warsaw for his children. He finds a letter opener shaped like a small silver sword in the wreckage of their old home; he remembers that it had been a gift for his wife. He notices a young boy watching and gifts him the letter opener on the condition that the boy, Jan, listens to his description of his children and tells them about their conversation if he ever encounters them. Joseph explains to Jan that Jan must tell his children that Joseph is going to Switzerland to his in-laws in hopes of finding his wife. Joseph realizes during the exchange that Jan, a talented pickpocket, has taken Joseph’s cheese sandwich from his pocket. Jan has a small cat whom he shares the sandwich with.

Joseph and Jan meet again the next morning. Jan tells Joseph, who wants to make his way to Switzerland, the best place to jump on moving goods trains leaving Warsaw, although he warns him that it is extremely dangerous and that many people freeze to death. They make their way to the bend in the tracks that Jan describes, ducking behind a wall to avoid a group of Nazi soldiers on patrol.

Joseph realizes that Jan has picked his pocket for his lunch, just as he did the previous day, but Jan then gives Joseph loaves of bread for his journey.

Jan watches Joseph leave, considering how much he loves his new silver sword letter opener.

Chapter 6 occurs chronologically before the events of the previous chapters; it recounts Margrit’s forced removal from her home and the children’s escape.

Edek, a member of the Warsaw Boys’ Rifle Brigade, shoots at the Nazi soldiers in the van on the street below who are taking his mother away. Ruth reasons that if Edek shoots at them, they will likely return to arrest or kill them. The three children climb out the window of their home onto the roof and creep along adjacent slippery roofs away from their home. When they are some distance away, they see their house explode. They climb down from the rooftops and shelter in a bombed-out building.

The children learn from the Polish Council of Protection that their mother has been taken to Germany as part of a forced labor program. The children continue to live in the bombed-out ruins, improvising curtains, furniture, and bedding from items they find or steal, or that Edek fashions. They have some food from Bronia and Ruth’s ration cards, but Edek does not apply for one, knowing that he will probably be taken as a worker if he does. Ruth forms a school and begins teaching the local children, including Bronia and other children her age and older.

In the summer, the children erect a lean-to in the forest and live there. Ruth continues running her school. Sometimes the children manage to find copies of the Biedronka, or “The Ladybird,” a children’s magazine printed by the Polish Underground Press.

Edek smuggles food from the Nazis whenever he can, and the local Polish peasants support the children living in the forest as best as they can. Edek goes into the city every night, looking for opportunities to steal things for himself and his sisters. One night, he does not return. Ruth learns that he was captured by the Nazis and taken away in a van.

Ruth and Bronia spend their summers in the woods and return to the ruins of the city during winter. During the summer of 1944, the city is under siege; Ruth and Bronia hear guns and bombs as the Russian army arrives to drive the Nazis from Poland. Many Polish individuals support the Russian army’s offensive, but the Nazis retaliate and manage to force Russia back, leaving the starving and outgunned Polish resistance alone. Poland sends desperate entreaties to the world, begging for help, but they are alone for months without supplies or support. Finally, in October, Russia returns for another Polish offensive, and Poland is under Russian control by January of 1945.

Ruth and Bronia, who stayed in the freezing woods later than usual to avoid the fighting, return to their cellar home in the destroyed building. Ruth continues teaching the local children in the cellar. One day, Bronia is playing with friends in the rubble above the cellar when she comes across a boy who appears unconscious. Ruth is summoned and helps the boy into the cellar. They feed him soup, which revives him. The boy’s rooster, Jimpy, joins him in the cellar. He has a box of possessions; his name is Jan.

Jan lives with them in the cellar. The children scrounge food from the Russians. One day, Ruth pushes her way into a Russian lieutenant’s office, demanding food, clothes, blankets, pencils, and paper. She also asks to add Edek’s name to a list of missing persons, but the lieutenant explains that, with the number of missing people, it is useless.

The next day, Ruth returns and is given sugar, flour, and blankets. She makes a cake for the local children. The lieutenant’s sentry, Ivan, comes to the cellar. Jan attacks him with his sword letter opener, and Ruth must pull him off. Ivan joins them in the cellar and tells Ruth that they have traced Edek to a transit camp in Posen. Ruth is overjoyed.

Jan appears in the doorway, crying; his wooden box was broken by Ivan in their scuffle. The sword falls out of his grasp. Ruth picks it up and recognizes it as the one her father gave to her mother. She starts to cry.

Jan tells Ruth about meeting Joseph, which he had forgotten. He tells Ruth that their father was bound for Switzerland. Ruth tells Bronia their plan: they will go to Switzerland via Posen to find their brother and then their father. Jan decides to come with them. Ivan helps by supplying the group with shoes, although Ruth forces Ivan to withhold Jan’s shoes until Jan apologizes to Ivan for picking his pockets. Ivan gives Jan a new wooden box engraved with his name.