Staying In The Shadows

Chapter 10

Every day Max continued to meet with Marya. Not outside their shacks. That was too dangerous. If you were caught doing hanging out outside a shack that you didn't belong in, you were either shot or you meals were put on hold for a week and you just got water. Max didn't spend much of his time with his other friends nearly as much as he had before. For some reason, it just haunted him of Niklas and David. Max didn't like to even think of where he would be if Marya hadn't found him that afternoon. He probably would've gone followed the march again the next day or just died of depression. So you could say, Marya saved Max's life.

The news from the camp however, never improved. There were people arriving from countries all over Europe. Denmark, Norway, Yugoslavia, you name it. So to stop the camp getting too full, more gas chambers were built, and the amount of people sent on the march every day doubled, tripled, and quadrupled.

Max deeply dreaded the day that Marya, or any of his other friends, or even himself, might be sent on the march. So every day, half an hour before the march, Max, Marya, and a few of his other friends would hide in one of the abandoned buildings. This one was previously used as a workroom, where bricks where made and hardened. But it wasn't strongly built, and the Nazis decided they wouldn't use it anymore. It had a lot of hiding places inside it, and if they heard anyone coming near, they would all rush somewhere to hide. Up the chimney, under the wood left in the fireplace, or in the old storage cupboards. It wasn't really comfortable in there, and you were at risk of being killed by bits falling from the roof, but it was better than being sent on the march.

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Peter and Julia their walking - only in the dark - from the moment arrived at Munich. Luckily, they had a little food with them to last a few weeks if they ate it sparingly, so unlike before, they didn't have to worry themselves about food.

Every morning they had to find a place to sleep, whether it was in a deserted barn or even just in a bush. Finding places to sleep had been easier before when they were in the woods because there was so many places where you couldn't be seen. Anyway, most people in their right minds wouldn't be walking through the woods - unless they were in Peter and Julia's situation.

As the days passed, they got bolder and bolder. They needed to hurry up a bit as they were making very slow progress, so if they were in rural areas, they walked even in daylight. And sometimes, if they were feeling really brave, they even did it in towns.

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"Julia, I've still got no idea how we're meant to get over the boarder. There's guards there 24/7." Peter said one day.

Julia thought about it. Their escapade was so rushed that neither of them even considered what was arguably the most important part of the whole thing.

"I mean," Peter continued, "even if they did allow Jews over the boarder, we don't even have our passports."

"We could try get fake ones." Julia said, thinking aloud.

"What other ways could we get over?" Peter asked.

"We should just turn back, or just go to the boarder and hand ourselves in."

Peter thought some more. Fight the guards? No, there'd be too many and they would have guns. Ask kindly to go without their passports? No, if one guard did allow it, which he most likely wouldn't, then the others wouldn't. Disguise as a guard? No, they couldn't get a guard's uniform from anywhere. Get someone to throw them over? No, that's just ridiculous. Hide in a vehicle going to Switzerland? Now there was something in that.

"Julia, we could hide in a vehicle and get over secretly." Peter said, shivering with relief at having thought of something.

"It would be worth the try. If we get caught, we're dead meat though, so we'd better do it carefully."