The Horse Adjutant his horse was ready to go. I took a few minutes to see the place and help make sure everyone was ready. He gathered his children and his wife, and we all rode home on the rural unpaved road. I no longer worried about wolves because they wouldn’t bother our noisy wagon. Towards the end of the day we arrived, and my family wel- comed him with open arms. It was a stressful reunion because of our circumstances; however, we tried to make everyone comfortable. Later that night, my father took me aside and said, “Leon, while you were gone your mother and I was talking about you. It is time for you to leave home for good. Our neighborhood is becoming too crowded and dangerous. Your mother and I believe you will have a better chance of survival if you leave.” Just as I heard the wolves cry earlier, they must have felt a different kind of danger closer to home. I felt it, too, but I could not fathom how very bad it would soon become. Besides, he was right. There was little choice. Our relatives now also needed some room to sleep. There were over 20 people in our home. We were all being slowly starved to death, and I could not help everyone much longer without being caught myself. I had to leave just as I knew they couldn’t even consider it. There were just too many of them to travel un- accosted, and my younger brother and sisters were too frail from months of depriva- tion. I was now 15 and still not wearing an armband even though I was getting taller. I had no money, I had no food, I had no place to sleep, and I had no prospects, but I knew, it was time to leave. Leaving couldn’t be worse than the ghetto that Grybow had become. Resigned to my fate, I started to prepare. It didn’t take more than a few minutes to gather my small bag. Outside intervention was nowhere in sight. There was nothing we could do except just hang on. We could not fight back. Moreover, I was living in a community that did not even believe in fighting back. They believed in the goodness and over-arch - ing power of God. Their faith in God was so strong that the people thought anything that will happen to them will be God’s judgment, and he would never abandon his children or allow harm to fall upon us. The strength of our faith was a key reason why the majority of the Jewish people did not even consider fighting back. The rab - bis taught the people, that if they do not fight back, the Nazis would eventually real - ize they were harmless and allow them to live without fear, as they had for hundreds of years before. They also taught the people that no matter what the enemy may do, they cannot take God away from them. Looking back, history proves they were naive, as no one would have expected that millions of harmless Jews, Gypsies, and others would be subjected to genocide. The whole idea of this was so beyond the scope of imagination that when reports of gas-
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