Deliver Us from Evil

By John Terence Kane

Deliver Us from Evil is the sweeping saga of one man's struggle to find his place in an ever-changing world. From its origins in London and ranging throughout the globe, Deliver Us from Evil tells a story from the past that was never more relevant than it is today. Born in Poland to Jewish and Muslim parents, Omar Josue Konrad and his mother are imprisoned by Nazis on his eighth birthday. Omar's Jewish father is summarily executed. As the grandson of an Arab prince, Omar has value as a hostage and survives the Holocaust. Faced with such evil, Omar questions how God can exist in this world. Omar wrestles with the conflict between his desire to rid the world of evil and the desire to be a good man. Having a quick mind and facility with languages, Omar finds himself at the newly formed United Nations. His royal grandfather and his United Nations position provide access to world leaders-and tough choices. Omar faces the hardest question of his life: How far will he go to make the world a better place? Both epic novel and geopolitical thriller, Deliver Us from Evil is one man's journey through life and his struggle with the questions that we must all answer about our existence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098035693

Book preview

Chapter 1

On June 25, 1930, Aaron Josef Konrad wed Elisabeth bat Omar il Khalid without the approval of her family. Married in London in a civil ceremony, they honeymooned for the entire summer in the United States of America. During their honeymoon, they visited New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Chicago and returned to Europe via steamship from New York.

Settling in Warsaw, Poland, at the end of September, Aaron took up duties in his father’s bank. Elisabeth began the furnishing of their large home in the left bank district of Warsaw. She sent photographs of herself, her husband, and her new home to her parents. She received no answers. She became consumed by a deep melancholy which she kept concealed from Aaron. She knew that the cause of her feelings was her estrangement from her family, but she also knew that the ball of lightning which exploded regularly within her bosom was a far more powerful feeling than the one of gloomy loss. And the melancholy inexplicably left her altogether when she became pregnant late in 1930. She had never known how complete love could make her feel until the arrival of Omar Josue Konrad on September 4, 1931. Her husband had helped her to feel his pride in the wonder of their son. The experience of labor and delivery did not seem linked to conception. She now knew how life, in perpetuation of itself, used intense pleasure of short duration to camouflage discomfort of a very long duration. In any case, she became attached to Omar instantly. Her first experience with nursing the infant was physically painful but emotionally wonderful, and she toughened up very quickly. She began to feel more at peace with her decision to allow her family to disown her. She knew and began to feel that if this was the final outcome of that decision, then it was definitely correct. She sent a photograph of the infant home and hoped that her father’s heart would be softened by the fact that the child was named after him. She received no response.

In April of 1934, Aaron’s father died, and Aaron became the youngest head of any bank in Europe. Eschewing the services of a governess, Elisabeth was enjoying the company of Omar. She determined to make him aware of his unique heritage. He had English, Polish, and Arabic national roots. She read him folktales from each culture. He showed every evidence of being very bright. She wondered if all children were actually capable of developing exactly as Omar was, given someone who would take the time to love and teach them. There had been no difficulty in conceiving, carrying, and delivering Omar; she didn’t know why there was yet no prospect of another child. She wondered if more children multiplied or divided a mother’s love. She hoped that she would get the opportunity to find out because she dearly wanted Omar to have a brother or a sister as soon as possible. In the meantime, she would give all that she had to him.

One of the unique experiences of love was the sharing of parenthood. Elisabeth didn’t think that it was possible to get closer to Aaron than she already was, but it was happening. She couldn’t explain the deepening of her feelings, but she knew that Aaron was experiencing the same emotional change. It was a wonderful feeling.

Aaron’s good feelings about home were being impacted by world conditions. He felt competent in operating the bank, but he was becoming increasingly aware of the changes that were taking place in Germany since Adolf Hitler had become chancellor. He had seen the popularity of Hitler begin to rise, and so he decided to find out what he could about the man. He was appalled at what he read in Mein Kampf.

Guessing at how Hitler was going to get where he wanted to go was not difficult. In a short period of time, he had become absolute master of Germany and had taken the title führer. There was no question about his position on Jews. He had written about an icy shudder which had caused him to see the Jews in a new light. This light showed them as: maggots in a rotting corpse, slimy jelly and poison. From a feeble cosmopolite I had turned into a fanatical Anti-Semite. By warding off the Jews, I am fighting the Lord’s work. A state, which in the epoch of race poisoning, dedicates itself to the cherishing of its best racial elements must some day be master of the world.

He was bringing men such as Hess, Goebbels, Himmler, Goering, Bormann, and Eichmann into the government. They were blindly submissive to Hitler. He was eliminating anyone who disagreed with him, such as Ernst Röhm who had helped him to bring the Nazi Party to power. The method of elimination was death. The führer was promulgating by decree that, through right granted from God, anyone of Aryan blood, who did the bidding of Adolf Hitler, was part of a master race. Anyone who did not meet the criteria which he established was dead.

Aaron really had no idea why Hitler held the view that Jews were responsible for the chaotic conditions that surrounded most economic systems. Jews were good at handling money. They were historically superb merchants and bankers. They did not create the terrible financial situations in which others seemed to find themselves. As a matter of fact, they seemed very good at avoiding those very situations and, as a result, had excess financial capacity when others did not. It didn’t matter whether the currency was pounds, marks, dollars, francs, or rubles. It didn’t matter if the system of governance was a monarchy or a democracy. It didn’t matter how old or new the political entity was. When it came to the financial pitfalls into which most people collapsed, Jews did not. Adolf Hitler hated them for that ability; he seemed to be determined to persuade others to hate them as well.

Aaron became convinced that Hitler would go to war with all his European neighbors sooner or later. He decided therefore to begin to transfer some of his assets to the United States of America. He had no intention of leaving Poland himself, but he felt sure that, if war broke out, Elisabeth and Omar would be safe in the United States. He was actually kind of glad that the estrangement between Elisabeth and her family would not make either Riyadh or Belfast attractive alternatives to her. He established an account in the Chase Bank in New York, with trust responsibility belonging to the bank. He placed ownership of the account in the joint names of Elisabeth and Omar Konrad. He provided that the income from the trust would go to Elisabeth whenever she asked for it and was able to prove her identity. Fifty percent of the income would pass to Omar upon his achievement of the age of twenty-five until the death of his mother, at which time the trust could be released in its entirety to Omar.

Elisabeth taught Omar Arabic and Polish as well as English. She had no idea whether he would be able to retain three languages simultaneously, but she felt that it would somehow be important to him in the future. In any case, she thought that he should be able to speak the native languages of both his father and his mother. English was for sentimental reasons. It was the language in which she and Aaron had first met and first professed their love.

Elisabeth also kept sending letters and photographs of herself and her family to her parents. She held nothing against them for their actions against her. She was sad for them. They were missing someone whom she felt would have been a joy in their lives, their grandson. In the meantime, Omar was developing beautifully. He had the dark hair and chiseled features of the nomadic tribes of the Sahara and the clear skin and bright facial expressions of the Central Europeans. His most compelling feature was his almond-shaped eyes with their soft golden color which flashed an occasional glint of violet. He was growing rapidly and was obviously going to be a powerfully built man if all the tales concerning how to take a guess at the final size of a child came true. Omar was memorizing the stories which Elisabeth would tell him. By the time he was two-and-a-half years old, he was beginning to read on his own. Elisabeth had wanted a brother or sister for Omar, but as he came to the summer before he would go to school for the first time, she realized that the time for him to have a sibling playmate had passed.

The war clouds gathering over Europe were now producing ominous bursts of thunder. The Anschluss with Austria was terrifying. And it appeared that Hitler had set his sights on possessing Poland.

On the day that Omar began his formal education in September 1938, Elisabeth received a letter from her father telling her of her mother’s death. He said that her mother’s last wish was to be reconciled to Elisabeth and her son. Elisabeth’s father explained how he had been moved to feel the same way and acknowledged Omar as his grandson. He begged Elisabeth for forgiveness and asked if she and Aaron would consider bringing Omar to live in Riyadh until it was certain that there would be no danger to them from the increased potential of war in Europe.

Elisabeth was thrilled. She discussed the letter with Aaron and asked him to come on a visit as requested. Aaron was pleased for her and agreed. However, Aaron wanted Elisabeth and Omar to stay with her father when the time came for him to return. He wanted her to pass the information on to her father concerning the American bank account which now contained $2,500,000. He wanted them to have the option if things got difficult anywhere in the world to go to America, where he felt that his family would find safety. He wanted Omar to complete his first year of school. He wanted more time, and so he felt that by the end of the next summer, all should be in readiness. He said that they would be able to travel on September 4, 1939, by means of steamship from Gdansk. Since that date coincided with the celebration of Omar’s birthday, Aaron thought it was a good omen. Elisabeth wrote a joyful letter to her father, even while she grieved the loss of her mother, whom she hadn’t seen for seven years and who had never seen her son. The Konrads spent the year in preparation.

On September 1, 1939, the Wehrmacht blitzkrieg was unleashed on Poland. In the early morning on September 4, the day that they had planned to leave Warsaw on a journey of joy, the Gestapo stormed the home of Aaron and Elisabeth Konrad. The stormtroopers executed Aaron by machine gun fire as he sat in his kitchen. They dragged Elisabeth screaming into the bright morning sun while she clutched her son. As a rifle stock smacked into her face, she thought how the destruction of her husband had occurred with the speed of lightning.

Her unconscious state seemed to cause a delirium in Elisabeth in which she could envision her husband and her mother finally meeting. Her own falling in love with Aaron returned vividly in her unconscious mind, as she seemed to begin to relive that portion of her life. The intensity of feeling was almost tangible within her.

*****

The feelings which are described succinctly as love in most languages and which cause total strangers to feel instantly at ease with each other are among the most powerful forces in the universe, she remembered. They also had absolutely no respect for the rules of decorum developed by the various pockets of humanity over the millennia. Her parents had been perfect examples of this phenomenon since while her father was studying at Cambridge in England and her mother was attending one of London’s finest finishing schools, they had met and fallen in love. This was not in accordance with the rules of decorum established by their long-standing family traditions. Her father was a prince of Saudi Arabia, and her mother was the daughter of the Lord High Governor of Ireland. Both families had attempted to discourage the announced intention of the couple to marry. Yet the power of love had dissuaded all opposition or at the very least convinced the opposers that they could not win. So the lovers had married. She had been the result.

At the appropriate time in her educational life, Elisabeth attended the same finishing school in London that had provided her mother with the opportunity to meet her father. Six months after her arrival, the stories which had been passed on to her by both her father and mother became a daily source of pleasure for her. Twenty years later, the circumstances were the same for Elisabeth because she had found herself madly, unreasonably, and irretrievably in love.

Her feelings had been triggered in her by the first sight of Aaron Josef Konrad, who was then studying at Oxford. He was the son of a very successful Warsaw banker. The feelings were magnified in intensity because she had not experienced them with anyone else. Whenever she saw Aaron, she would feel a lightning bolt move from just beneath her heart to the base of her spine and then ricochet through her stomach into the front of her throat, creating a difficulty in her ability to breathe. When he moved toward her, the lightning bolt compressed itself into a ball and spun in her center, making her feel simultaneously warm and frenzied. When he touched her, just placing his hand on hers, the ball of lightning sent tingling flashes through her body to the very spot of his touch. She felt that he would feel this activity coursing through her body, and yet he had given no sign of it by his actions. When she kissed him, the ball of lightning simply exploded, touching every fiber of her being and simultaneously demanding to be extinguished lest she die yet be fueled as the very essence of what was necessary to keep her from dying. And when she reluctantly ended a kiss, opened her eyes—when had they closed?—and gazed into his, she knew that he could feel her feelings because she could see the lightning flashing in his eyes. She would think, I am complete. And then the rules of decorum from her pocket of humanity would surface to wipe away all that she was feeling and thinking with a solution of nervousness and fear of loss. For Aaron was a Polish Jew.

When this happened, Elisabeth could feel him change, and she would know why because she had become aware of how they seemed to think each other’s thoughts and feel each other’s feelings. Then she would spin for him the storybook tale of her father and mother. Because she had an Anglo-Saxon Protestant mother and an Arabian Muslim father, she knew there was hope for them. They had proved to her that love has nothing to do with upbringing. She had known that her parents understood the glories of love and that they would support any decision that she made.

Aaron had no such certainty about his own family. He was convinced that they would feel as if he betrayed his heritage by even announcing a liking for a non-Jew. He therefore swore her to keep their relationship a secret until he could figure out how to inform his parents that he wished to marry. Elisabeth, confident that her own family would support her immediately, felt that this concession was more than reasonable. She knew that once Aaron had developed the correct approach, his family would eventually understand, and there would be no obstacles to their marriage. She did, however, limit her forbearance to six months since by that time she would have had to return home.

Without telling Elisabeth, Aaron had gone home to discuss his situation with his family. He had decided that with or without their approval, he would make Elisabeth his wife. To his surprise, his parents did not take an emotional approach to his situation at all. They sat down with him and listened to the depth of his feelings. They then tested the conviction with which those feelings were anchored. Satisfied that their son had carefully considered his own point of view, they then examined his consideration of Elisabeth’s position. Aaron had explained that Elisabeth felt that she would have no problem with her own family. He told them the story of the romance of Elisabeth’s parents. Mr. and Mrs. Konrad had then reviewed the future for the young couple in Warsaw and how that would affect Elisabeth, considering the disparity in culture and climate. Aaron said that there was no doubt that Elisabeth would be fine, providing that it would be possible for her to visit her home at least once a year. The senior Konrads gave their approval to their son, offered him a honeymoon trip to the United States, and asked for the first possible opportunity to come to London and meet the young lady who was so lucky to capture the heart of their son.

Aaron was ecstatic. He had returned to London and given the good news to Elisabeth. She had assured him that, based on her parents’ history, she had never had any doubts that love would conquer all. She had immediately written to her parents to describe the events which, heretofore, Aaron had not let her tell her family. It was a long letter, filled with the descriptions of the power of love in Elisabeth’s life, a power which she felt was surely the duplicate of what her parents had experienced when they were in precisely the same place. She wanted them to know that she had always felt happy, but that happiness had exploded beyond her wildest dreams since loving and being loved by Aaron. She had sought their permission to marry. She had been shocked by their response.

Her parents were absolutely opposed to the idea that she should even consider marriage to a Jew. How could she face herself on a daily basis with those kinds of thoughts in her head? How could she compare their own courtship to hers? Christians had no place having any truck with Jews; Muslims had even less. Didn’t she know any history? Didn’t she feel the betrayal of her heritage? How could she?

Elisabeth could not believe what she had read. She wrote back to her parents and asked how she could have misjudged their reaction by such a wide margin? Didn’t they remember their own circumstances? Hadn’t they taught her the power of love?

*****

Elisabeth’s reverie ended as she came painfully back to consciousness. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious. She was propped against a wall with Omar asleep against her thigh. She had a pain in her head and on her arm. She looked down and saw that she had a number tattooed on her forearm. Omar had one too.

Elisabeth looked up at her jailer, instinctively realizing that she was captive. He was dressed in black, and his uniform was decorated with skulls.

Welcome to the service of the German people, he said in Polish. You and your son are the first workers recruited from the ranks of the Jew lovers of Poland. His name was Fritsch. His rank was Oberst in the Gestapo. He was the commander of Einsatzgruppen A, the first of the killing squads organized by Reinhard Heydrich, Adolf Hitler’s designated handler of the Jewish problem. Fritsch, however, had been ordered not to kill these two but to turn them over to Oberstleutnant Heinrich Schwartz of the Schutzstaffel—the dreaded SS.

Elisabeth had no idea what was in store for her or for Omar. She was overwhelmed by grief at the execution of her husband which she and Omar had witnessed. As Fritsch looked at her, her grief became coupled with unadulterated fear. What will you do with us? she asked.

He responded tersely, telling her that she would be transported to meet her master in Auschwitz.

Chapter 2

Shortly after Elisabeth had heard herself pronounced a Jew lover, she and her son were thrown into the back of a large half-track vehicle which was completely enclosed in armor. They began to move immediately. There was no light, but as her eyes adjusted, Elisabeth began to examine Omar and found only the tattoo wound. She held him closely and felt him begin to cry. She rocked him until he fell asleep. They had not spoken. She did not look for an escape from the vehicle. She reasoned that she would not have any place to go in the midst of an armed invasion, so her best chance for survival was as a prisoner. Considering what Fritsch had said to her, she supposed that she would be put to some kind of work. The fear that engulfed her was not for herself but for Omar. She believed that her father would be able to arrange for her release, but only if she and Omar survived. Therefore, she decided that her only priority on this journey would be to ensure their survival. She felt that this was a single purpose, for if she failed to stay alive, she had no doubt that Omar would die as well. There was also no doubt that death was the main option offered by her captors. She thought of Aaron, and the fear left her with the onslaught of the overwhelming pain of loss. She began to weep, and the sounds of her own sadness mixed with the noise of the half-track lulled her mercifully to sleep.

She awoke when the vehicle lurched abruptly to a halt. The driver came around and opened the rear of the armored car. He ordered them out. In the dusk, she saw that they were on what appeared to be an old farm for horses because of the many stables. She observed other buildings that appeared to be like barracks and noticed some signs written over them in German. She then decided that she and Omar must have been taken back to Germany from the front. She was led to a building which seemed to be the headquarters and, through a change of several guards, was finally delivered to stand in an office before a handsome and smiling man who introduced himself as Oberstleutnant Heinrich Schwartz. He asked if she spoke English, to which she answered yes.

I am sure, he said, that your father will be notified of your difficulty and will arrange for your safe passage to his home. I have documentation which was forwarded to me from Berlin outlining your background as an Arabian princess. Berlin will handle the diplomacy involved, but in the meantime, princess or not, you will work for me in order to earn your keep. Your son will also be required to perform certain duties for the success of the German war effort. No one under my command will be permitted to live from the efforts of others. This requirement will apply to all regardless of age, sex, or previous experience. You will be responsible to maintain my quarters for the time being. At the moment, those quarters are the upper floor of this building. Your son will be your assistant for now. Your quarters are to be in the stable next door for this night. My driver will escort you there after you are finished inspecting your work area. Dismissed, Frau Konrad.

Elisabeth’s fear returned as the guard escorted her to the upstairs from the commander’s office. Are we in Germany? she asked the guard. He was unable to understand her. She was escorted around the quarters. There was a well-provisioned kitchen, a formal parlor, a bathroom with a tub, a commode, a bidet and two sinks, a huge dining room, and three other large rooms. One of these other rooms had been set up as the commandant’s bedroom.

Elisabeth and Omar were then taken to the stable outside, where they were locked in. Elisabeth looked around in the darkness and realized that she had to make the most of what had been provided. The knowledge she had gained through her conversations with Aaron and what she had seen happen to her husband had consumed her thoughts through the whole journey to this stable. She was here because Aaron was Jewish in a land now invaded by Nazis. She was acutely aware that she and her son were considered Semites. She made the decision to explain to Omar to the best of her ability what was happening and what may yet occur. She was overwhelmed with gratitude that his first name was Omar and not Josue, which it had almost been.

Elisabeth went to one corner of the stable and piled old straw in a makeshift mattress on which she and her son could sleep. She put Omar down and then lay down beside him. She considered how, last night, they had been excited about visiting her father. Tonight, she was a widow. She and her son were in danger of death. She had no idea how long the danger would be present, but she could see no end to it in sight. Her main concern was to protect her son and provide him with the tools to protect himself when she was not around. Tonight would be the first lesson. Omar, she said, "from this day forward, you will be required to keep foremost in your mind that you are an Arab by heritage more than you are anything else. Your father was killed because he was Jewish or because he was Polish or because he was a banker; for all I know, these barbarians with skulls on their uniforms will kill us.

"Right now, I believe that we are to be held for ransom. Since your grandfather is an Arab prince, I think that we will be used as some sort of instrument for these people to get what they want. If anyone asks you, you are an Arab.

I don’t know why these men have not killed us. I can’t imagine what my father has that they want, but I don’t think much provocation is necessary. Stay out of their way whenever possible. Do what you are told, but do your best to stay close to me. Learn to speak German. It may save your life. Above all, know that I love you and will do whatever is necessary for us to stay alive. She bent over him and kissed him. Good night, Omar, she said. After a moment’s pause, she added, Happy birthday.

They were roughly awakened by the guard in the morning and taken to the upstairs of the headquarters. Elisabeth began to prepare breakfast. Omar fetched wood for the stove. In less than half an hour, just as she had completed preparation of the morning meal consisting of bread, tea, and cheese, Heinrich Schwartz strode into the kitchen. He announced to her that he would take his morning meal in the kitchen but that all other meals would be taken in the dining room. His duty was to make a survey for the purpose of reporting to Berlin the best location for a Polish concentration camp. This old Austrian cavalry base had been commandeered as a base from which he would be able to conduct his survey. Her duties included making his meals, maintaining his clothing, doing his laundry, and keeping his quarters spotless and ready for the reception of any VIPs. Elisabeth was to set up one of the empty rooms as guest quarters and to make one room into quarters for herself and, for the time being at least, her son. She experienced an overwhelming sense of relief. From now until the following April, life in this part of the Third Reich was not unbearable for Elisabeth and Omar. Schwartz came and went at various intervals. He traveled extensively throughout Poland. He sent reports back to Wroclaw to his superiors.

On April 27, 1940, despite reports of unacceptable conditions, bad water, and other problems, Heinrich Himmler issued the order which established a Polish concentration camp at Auschwitz. He appointed Rudolph Hoess as overseer and commanded him to respond rapidly to the order to establish a camp for ten thousand transient prisoners. Hoess was quick to follow the instructions. He appointed Schwartz as his deputy and instructed him to begin all modifications and necessary new construction. Utilizing the Austrian Calvary buildings and some buildings from the Polish tobacco industry located together along the banks of the Solo River, Schwartz set up temporary incarceration facilities. He cleared twenty-five square kilometers of all civilian population. He built a village as an SS compound. All was in readiness for Hoess’s arrival at the end of May 1940. In June of that year, Auschwitz opened with the arrival of more than seven hundred Polish political prisoners.

While Auschwitz was in the process of being constructed, one of the homes in the SS compound was occupied by Schwartz, and Elisabeth and Omar continued their duties as his servants in the new home. There was never again any mention of the possibility that Elisabeth and Omar might go free. Elisabeth was now fairly conversant with the German language, and with his gift for languages, Omar was fluent. Whenever possible, Elisabeth would secretly instruct Omar in his ancestry, as well as teach him the basics in reading, writing, and numbers. She also felt that Omar needed to know about the American bank account and how to gain access. She knew that there was no guarantee of survival for either one of them; she particularly knew that a miracle would be the only reason why they survived together. Omar never ceased to amaze her with the quickness of his ability to learn, but his ability to focus his concentration was frightening considering his age. Underlying her fear for his life, Elisabeth was experiencing a pervasive sadness for the life that Omar was living.

Their work was unending since Schwartz was a very demanding man. He required his household to be spotlessly clean, a very difficult task to accomplish considering the climate, the amount of traffic in the area, and the construction. He required his meals to be served promptly at the designated times. He ate alone and spoke to them sparingly, usually only when they required instruction or reprimand. Elisabeth did not know how old Schwartz was but guessed that he was at least thirty-five years old. He had only one nonmilitary possession of a personal nature, that being his Victrola on which he played the masterworks of many different composers. He wrote no personal letters. He seemed to be an isolated, cold, and hard-bitten man. Despite his demeanor toward them, Elisabeth sensed in Schwartz a growing attachment to Omar. She knew that this was something that he could never openly demonstrate which manifested itself in small ways. For instance, even though Omar had a Jewish father, he was not required to wear the Star of David on his prison garments. Elisabeth knew this to be an indication of Schwartz’s protective attitude toward Omar, and she was thankful for it. She felt slightly guilty about her lot in comparison to those incarcerated in the stables. At least she and Omar had enough to eat and a place to sleep. She often worried about Omar when he was sent around the camp to deliver instructions from Schwartz. Elisabeth sometimes wondered how much jeopardy Schwartz would be in if his actions were uncovered by some of the more avid Aryans.

As the main compound of Auschwitz got underway, Himmler came to visit Hoess in March of 1941. He explained that Auschwitz was going to be expanded in order to accommodate one hundred thousand prisoners for use as laborers by the German chemical cartel. Himmler, Hoess, and Schwartz developed a plan for Buna which would house the slave labor to be used in the factory to be built at Monowitz. Schwartz was given the responsibility for further expanding the Auschwitz complex and beginning the construction of Buna.

June of 1941 saw Hoess summoned to Berlin. He took Schwartz with him. They were told of the selection of Auschwitz by Hitler himself to implement the Final Solution of the Jewish Question. When they came back from that meeting, they were accompanied by Adolph Eichmann. After several days of meetings, Schwartz mentioned to Elisabeth that the camp was to be expanded again. Schwartz was to be promoted to overseer of the new section to be known as Birkenau. His schedule would change, but other than that, there would be no real impact on Elisabeth or Omar. Omar was now approaching his tenth birthday. He had begun reporting to his mother the conditions that existed for those who were being sent into the camp. There were now close to ten thousand human beings housed at Auschwitz. Omar told his mother that the people were being whipped, tortured, starved, and shot. He said that so many were dying that they were burning the bodies in open pits. Elisabeth was somewhat skeptical about the extent of conditions as described by Omar and charged the vividness of his descriptions to a childish imagination fueled by his own feelings of captivity. He was becoming old before her eyes. He seemed to conduct himself as a fully matured man. He never cried; he seemed to sense that any activity which might annoy anyone in authority might be dangerous for him. He also never smiled, and Elisabeth became aware of the fact that she had not heard him laugh since they had been taken to this place. Elisabeth did not leave the Schwartz house and began to be concerned about Omar being sent on duties around the camp. Her concern heightened when Omar began to report the large number of children in the continually arriving prisoner caravans. Elisabeth became frightened when Omar reported that a crematorium had been built and the dead which he saw were composed of equal numbers of men, women, and children. Elisabeth asked Schwartz if it would be possible for Omar’s duties to be confined to the SS compound. Schwartz denied her request. Elisabeth then began to counsel Omar to avoid all potential trouble in his trips to various camp buildings. Omar confided to his mother the fear that one of the SS guards would kill him. He said that they were simply killing the inmates for no reason. He said that the Germans were taking the clothing from the people, taking their eyeglasses, taking their teeth if the teeth had any metal in them, taking their artificial limbs, taking everything, then cutting off their hair and shooting them or gassing them and burning their bodies. He said he was delivering messages from Schwartz to the soldiers in charge of the various stables where prisoners were being kept. He could see that the prisoners were not being provided with food, water, or any sanitary or washing accommodations. He said that there were now eight hundred people jammed into stables like the one in which they stayed the first night in Auschwitz. Elisabeth recalled that the stable may have handled forty to fifty horses. It was impossible to imagine for one who had not actually seen it. Omar told his mother that he knew the guards wanted to kill the prisoners. He said to his mother, I think that they like to kill the children, and I am always afraid. From that time forward, Elisabeth was always terrified when Omar was not in her sight.

Omar described one incident to his mother that occurred in August of 1941. There had been an escape attempt. The prisoners had been recaptured and executed. All but one. The commandant had assembled the prisoners and selected ten to die in payment for the one escapee who had not been recaptured. A man had stepped forward and asked to serve as a substitute for one prisoner who had a family. The commandant agreed and then ordered all the condemned to be starved to death. They were taken to the starvation hut. Omar had seen pairs of inmates committed to the starvation chamber in the past. When the corpses came out, one was usually mutilated by the cannibalization of the surviving companion. Omar could not imagine why this man would volunteer to die in such a fashion. On the next day, Omar saw the camp secretary over at the starvation hut. He walked over and asked the secretary for the name of the man who had volunteered to starve to death. As he got closer to the hut, he heard those inside. They were praying together. The camp secretary gave the name of the volunteer as Maximilian Kolbe, a Roman Catholic priest.

Omar waited until he had the opportunity to speak to his mother without being overheard. Mother, today in camp, I learned the name of a prisoner who volunteered to accept starvation death. Someone told me that he is a Roman Catholic priest. Can you tell me what is a Roman Catholic priest?

Elisabeth explained to Omar that Catholicism was a religion and that the priests were the leaders of this religion, similar to how the rabbis were the leaders of the Jewish faithful. She asked Omar how he had learned the name of the condemned man. Omar told her how the camp secretary was recording the names of the ten men placed into the starvation bunker in the Sterbebücher, the death record. He simply asked him for the name of the volunteer. Elisabeth became very upset with Omar for attracting attention to himself and demanded that he avoid all Germans in authority unless sent specifically by Schwartz.

Omar watched these people all wither over a period of two weeks. Even without food and water, all had not died during that period, so the commandant ordered their execution by carbolic acid injection. Omar was in the area when the cadavers of the victims were removed from the pit and taken for cremation. None of the bodies had been mutilated. Omar personalized the death of Maximilian Kolbe. He had a name for a victim for the first time since he had arrived