1944 (Part VII)

The engineer Swiechło was more or less my mother’s age, of average height, very handsome. Primarily, he wore pumps, the favorite type of pants of pre-war playboys. 

On appropriately brawny calves the engineer Swiechło put on very fat wool socks. He wore also a raglan sleeved, light beige coat, bergstaigers, a Borsalino and a mustache. 

My mother, who from before the war knew Italy not too poorly, always said that the engineer Swiechło looked like the king of smuggled Italian product from the Upper Adige region. Different collusions of my mother and the engineer Swiechło sent me into frenzy, and when sometimes on account of the uninterrupted bridge tournaments the engineer Swiechło and my mother played bridge as partners, this was able to drive me to suicidal thoughts. 

Because the windows were always covered and secured against Ukrainian bullets, the relatively bright lighting was provided by two carbide lamps with a characteristic, not so pleasant odor. One of the grown-ups, with weapon and dogs at hand, patrolled outside. 

The situation yet was not hopeless, because at the other end of the village the Germans seize a large park as a holding space for cars damaged during war actions and systematically brought from the front. 

A good hundred fifty soldier mechanics sat out the war there and the work was non-stop. They made use of trucks, so my family the entire time engaged in negotiations with them in the matter of transporting us with a portion of our belongings several hundred kilometers west. 

Of course, the entire transaction could not be legal. Quite a large sum of money paid in dollars came into play and the Germans the whole time tried to figure out how to falsify some trustworthy traveling order to a location that interested us, and cash in on this healthy sum. It could be an almost three hundred kilometer trek, weaving through hills, passes, wilderness and wastes. 

The terrain was controlled by numerous roving bands of UPA, though at points areas patrolled by German military field police were unavoidable; this whole place, after all, was quickly becoming the frontlines. It was generally known that at any moment the Soviet offensive could begin, and then entry by the Red Army was already only a question of time, which no one but Miss Stefa and her two Jewish girls wanted to experience anew. 

The German units included Bavarians who even had their own church chaplain, because, of course, Bavaria is Catholic. I missed the city a lot so, a little bit out of boredom and a little bit out of a lack of any more attractive options, I hung out around the area church and as soon as I got to know all of its nooks, in my mind came together a very interesting plan, which, so as not to waste time, I decided to realize as quickly as possible.