The Things We Cannot Say(120)

“Saul Weiss?”

“I think we can assume so,” Zofia says absentmindedly, because she’s focusing hard on Emilia. “Right, so Tomasz had organized a way out of Poland for himself and for Alina, but when the day came for them to go, Saul and his family were discovered by the Nazis. It seems they had been hiding with a farmer, and the farmer had betrayed them all, Tomasz included.” Emilia begins to speak again, and I have to watch my grandmother’s heartbreak right there on the laptop screen, almost as if it’s a slow-motion stream. She’s not wailing, she’s not sobbing, but her face has crumpled and her tears flow as constantly as Emilia’s words do. Zofia sighs sadly. “Saul’s wife and baby had been killed...”

“Eva and Tikva...” I whisper.

Emilia is quietly crying now as she speaks, looking into the camera toward my grandmother.

“Tomasz had already planned an escape—he had agreed to act as a courier, to take a canister of film across the border and to meet up with some English soldiers. Alina was to travel with him, but Tomasz refused to leave once the Nazis learned his identity. He was concerned for Emilia and her adoptive parents, because at that time, the Nazis had been executing the entire families of those who aided the Jews. This meant that Alina had to go without him, and to take the film herself.”

“Wow,” I say. I glance back at the screen, and see my grandmother is still silently crying.

“Emilia says she was not at all surprised when Tomasz told her what Alina was doing, because Alina Dziak was the bravest girl she knew.” Zofia speaks to Emilia for a moment, then tells me, “It is like I told you at the grave—it was almost impossible to leave during the occupation. Alina had to be smuggled out of the Third Reich, across the Eastern Front and into Soviet territory, and then somehow she made it all the way to America.”

“She’s a tough lady,” I whisper. “Even so...that’s amazing. What was on the film?”

“Tomasz didn’t tell her, but Emilia figured it out much later. She thinks it was photos from Auschwitz.” Zofia pauses, listening a moment as Emilia begins to speak again. “Ah...so then they decided that Saul would go with Alina. Emilia...ah...she thinks that Saul probably took Tomasz’s identity papers too...”

It takes me a moment to process the implications of this. But then it hits me like a punch to the stomach, and the shock is so intense that I can’t even breathe. But there’s no time for me to linger in my panic, because Emilia is still talking and Zofia is still translating. I have to immediately refocus my attention on the conversation at hand.

“After Alina and Saul had left, Tomasz came to Emilia’s home early in the morning and he woke her family up. She says he was very distressed and in a desperate hurry. He gave Emilia a message for Alina, then he told her adoptive parents to flee immediately. After that, he ran to turn himself in.”

“Why would he do that?” I whisper. Zofia and Emilia talk for a moment, then Zofia turns to me again.

“Tomasz knew so much about the Jews in hiding in the area. He knew the Nazis would be determined to find him, and inevitably, that would mean checkpoints on the roads.” Zofia’s eyes flick from Emilia’s face to mine. “Emilia says he was quite frantic—he’d tried desperately to think of an alternative, but the only way to be sure the Nazis wouldn’t search Alina’s truck as it left the district was to end the manhunt...and there was only one way he could do that...” I bite my lip, glancing hesitantly at Babcia. She is sobbing, and my mother is hovering helplessly beside her. Emilia continues in a hoarse whisper, and Zofia translates, “Emilia says now that it is an honor to finally deliver her brother’s message...that he’d be waiting for Alina on the other side because, even in death, he would keep his promise that they would be reunited.”

I look at the MacBook screen. My grandmother’s jaw hangs loose, and she lets out a moan of sheer grief that makes me sick to my stomach.

“Alice,” Mom says flatly, and the screen shifts to her very pissed-off face. “What the Hell is going on?”

I know Mom can’t hear Zofia. Emilia’s impassioned declarations are loud; Zofia’s voice is soft and close to my ear.

I’m going to have to tell her. I’m going to have to tell her.

“Mom,” I say unevenly. “Please, just give me a moment.”

“But she’s so upset—”

Emilia lets loose with a string of frustrated Polish, and Agnieszka says urgently, “Ah—perhaps your mother could put the camera back onto your grandmother?”

“Mom! Please,” I beg, and I can’t help it—I start to cry. “This is important,” I choke, through my tears. “Please, Mom. Please.”

Mom gives a growl, then the lens refocuses on Babcia’s face.

“One more minute, then if someone doesn’t tell me what’s going on, I’m ending this,” I hear Mom warn.

Emilia is momentarily silent now, giving her friend a chance to process what she’s heard. Babcia’s grief and heartbreak are written all over her face, but as I stare at her, those emotions shift just a little, until finally, she looks something like relieved. Emilia speaks again, and this time, her words fall more slowly—finally, Zofia can keep up.

“She asked Alina if she was okay...” Babcia nods, then waves her right hand, indicating for Emilia to continue. “She’s telling your grandmother that after the occupation ended, Tomasz was honored as Righteous Among the Nations—that’s the medal we saw on his gravestone.”