Starting Agfiin Starting Again
The Bones of Ludvipol
It turned out that this man was a guard responsible for protecting the site of the former kasharan, the fenced-in Polish military bar- racks where the Jews of Ludvipol had been taken the day before their murder. The site was now used by the Russians for storing dynamite and other chemicals. The guard was not accustomed to seeing people wandering around, which is why he was so rattled and almost opened fire against the intruders. Once the guard calmed down, Ben gave him some of the Marl- boros he had brought along to encourage cooperation. I had warned Ben not to tip with American dollars, for which he could have been arrested, but to use American cigarettes instead. The guard was so excited to have the cigarettes that he became almost friendly. He knew where the mass grave was and guided them to the spot. It had been many years since anyone had come to the grave, so the surrounding area was as overgrown as a jungle. It was difficult to get to the location of the grave, though it was only two hundred feet or so from where they first met the guard. Once they had bat - tled their way through the undergrowth to reach the site, it struck Ben that not even a blade of grass grew in the place where the peo- ple were buried. It was barren. Nothing grew on this soil that was so saturated with blood. Ben and Cindy found a small monument on the site. There was no mention of Jews on the monument, which noted that in the year 1942 victims of German fascism were killed on this spot. This monument had been erected by two brothers named Yasnobolka, Jewish survivors from Ludvipol who now lived in Kharkov. Due to their prominent positions in the Russian army, they had con- nections and influence. They persuaded the Russian government to order the local authorities to place a small monument on the site of the mass slaughter. No other survivors from Ludvipol had seen the monument until Ben and Cindy’s arrival. The guard helped Ben and Cindy to gather stones to place on the monument, in keeping with the Jewish custom of leaving stones when you visit a grave.
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