Poklosie Page #5

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The reform wouldn't have touched

their land. The law's on their side.

If this was Chicago

we'd all be sued by now.

- Are you sure?

- Swear to God.

It's all Jewish property,

all we can hope to get from the county

is that marshland Father moved out of.

Lucky this isn't America and the Yids...

the Jews don't run things,

otherwise it would

have been done long ago...

- No one claimed it all this time.

- That's what I'm saying.

Under communism nobody would have dared.

Now they might not know

their families lived here.

So now you know why folks

don't look kindly on you.

OK.

- We'll manage.

- Sure, why shouldn't we?

Work's harder than

you're used to in America.

Harder? Not harder,

it's no picnic in America either.

Although here you're working

for yourself, and not some ass.

Huh?

I dunno.

Makes it all seem worthwhile...

What?

Nothing. Jzek, let's go by

that river-bend later, huh?

Maybe our old house is still there?

- We're too close to the river.

- No we're not.

Durign the flood,

the water reached up to there.

The bed's normally

twenty meters narrower.

Jzek, anybody here still

remember the occupation?

Nobody I think.

Some historian in Lomza maybe?

- Suds - how old is he?

- Eighty or thereabouts.

Means he was a teenager during the war.

Anybody older?

They all passed away.

Then there's old Palka,

must be a hundred by now,

but you won't get any sense out of her.

Stone-deaf and senile.

There's also Malinowski,

he's way past eighty,

but they don't speak to no one.

- Malinowski?

- The old man, his son and grandson.

Edek's wife, the kid's

mother, lives with them,

but I never saw them speaking

to one another either.

- Strange, huh?

- You get all sorts.

No one says you have to talk to people.

What about the old madwoman?

That one who we were scared of?

Come on.

She was probably locked in a mental

hospital during Gomulka's governing.

She died there most likely.

People in America keep saying that

Poles denounced Jews to the Germans -

Jews in particular.

No wonder, too.

Poles won't say things like that.

Here it is.

Jeeez... you think

that's our old cottage?

Nothing else around.

Pretty small...

Way smaller...

Let's go. Gotta get up

at 3:
30 a. m. Tomorrow.

Fire! Jzek, it's burning!

Look!

Over here!

You f***ers.

Come on, we'll go get them...

We won't make it by ourselves.

Tell the men to mow it down

along the road double quick,

or else it'll all go up in smoke.

Fellas, grab your scythes and

clear it as far in as you can.

Dig!

Why're you here and not

at our place? The fire's there.

Get out of my face.

Talk to the captain.

What are you doing here?

It's our field that's burning!

It's too late to save yours.

We're making a line to

stop the fire spreading.

What do you mean too late?

There's a fire, you put it out.

Let us have two engines.

Or one, at least.

Don't tell me how to do my job.

Send your men to my field

right now, motherf***er.

Hands off, shithead.

Kalina calm down,

or I'll have you arrested.

Tell them to go to my field

before I f***ing kill you.

That's it, give them

Jews what they deserve.

Out.

I spoke to the police chief.

In view of what happened to you last

night, the disaster that befell you...

and of your condition...

well, he's willing to forget

about the whole thing.

He might be willing but I'm not.

Now you see, Father, what bastards,

begging the Father's pardon, they are.

- Gral, lock 'em up.

- Sooner or later, you son-of-a-b*tch...

- Shut up. - What?

- Shut up.

- Says who?

- Says me. Your older brother.

Thanks for bailing us out, Father.

- It was arson.

- You can't prove that.

In '44 they seized the farms

of all the Jews who got killed,

and now they're afraid

they'll lose them.

It's easy to cast blame on others.

Not others.

Our father took Wiemelman's

farm after they murdered him.

When did all this happen?

I never heard the story before,

and I read up on the history of

the parish before I took it over.

There have to be some traces.

The Germans executed 26 Jewish

families, over a hundred people in all.

Much smaller Nazi war crimes

were investigated.

They wouldn't have overlooked this.

And since witnesses are still around...

- Malinowski and what's her name...

- Old Palka.

Right, and Sudecki

has to remember something,

even though he was still a kid.

Mrs. Palka...

Mrs. Palka is a patient

in our ward. God bless.

- The Father asked me to fix you up.

- We'll be fine.

If you've got a problem

with my grandfather,

I suggest you take it up with him

and leave me out of it, alright?

Unless you want to die of tetanus?

- What's wrong with old Palka?

- Old age...

Good morning Mrs. Palka,

my name is Franek Kalina,

Stanislaw's son, remember me?

Whose son?

Stanislaw Kalina's,

lived by the woods.

He's dead, that one.

I'm his son, Stanislaw Kalina's son.

Edek...

Edek drowned, he was my older brother.

I'm the middle one, Franek.

I don't recall, it's been so

long, I don't recall.

Mrs. Palka, remember

who stole your rabbits?

Two bucks, your husband kept them.

Rabbits?

Sure, was the Kalina boy stole them,

- but they never fessed up.

- I was the one who stole them.

- I didn't want them to be killed.

- How's that?

I'm Kalina's boy, the one

who stole your rabbits.

- You're Franus?

- That's me.

Mrs. Palka, do you remember the Jews?

Sure I remember.

Pretty boys they were:

Abram, he was a pretty one,

such black eyes he had,

all us girls were sweet on him.

But he only had eyes for that Helka.

Way back when that was, they're

gone now, what's the use of talking?

Mrs. Palka, what happened to them?

- Abram?

- Abram and the others.

The usual thing...

Germans came and

then the Yids were gone.

What year was it, do you remember?

At the beginning of the war,

end of the war?

Weren't no end of the war.

Soon as the Germans came

they registered all the Yids

- and the same week they were gone.

- Did they deport them or something?

- To Lomza? To Bialystok?

- Who knows what they did.

They was here one day and gone

the next, every single one.

The Perlman boy hid

in the village awhiles,

but wasn't a week 'fore

the Germans took him, too.

- Whose place did he hide at?

- I don't know nothing 'bout that.

Did he hide at your place?

Heavens no,

mister, not on your life.

People talk, you don't even

know how mean people are.

They'll say anything

s'long as it suits them.

Saying I sold moonshine and all,

well, mebbe I did, and mebbe

I didn't, they can't prove it,

but I never sold no Jews out.

Not like the others.

Did you find out

anything from Mrs. Palka?

I'm not sure,

I'd need to talk to your grandfather.

Grandpa was a teenager

when the war started,

- he was just a child...

- Will you take me to him?

- What do you need this for?

- What? - All this...

As if I knew.

My brother got me into it,

and then it sort of happened.

I don't know why...

The more they don't

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