Читать книгу Chasing the King of Hearts - Ханна Кралль - Страница 28

The Sweater

Basia and Jurek Gajer are leaving Poland.

The Germans announce that any Jews who are citizens of other countries will be allowed to leave and people buy foreign passports on the black market. Basia and Jurek purchase ones from Honduras and report to the Hotel Polski on Długa Street.

Izolda wants to say goodbye to Basia.

Because it was at her place that she saw a blond man with helpless hands.

Because it was in her apartment that he said: You look like a rabbi’s daughter. To which she said: My father is a chemist who’s searching for a color that isn’t in the rainbow. That’s almost the same thing, he said, smiling, and that’s how love began.

Izolda wants to catch up before they leave and stays the night with the Gajers. They talk about Honduras, about how they’ll have to learn Spanish. That Spanish isn’t all that hard. That Basia’s colorful sweater will come in handy on the journey. (Basia explains the stitch—which loop goes where—and shows how she tied off all the bits of wool on the inside and covered the knots with a dark pink lining.)

The Germans surround the Hotel Polski at five in the morning. They send everyone to Pawiak prison and separate the Jews from the Poles. Izolda shows her identity card made out to Maria Pawlicka and stays with the Poles who came to say goodbye. Basia and Jurek show their Honduran passports and stay with the Jews. The Germans take the Jews away, the Poles stay in prison. She spends two months in Pawiak.