claimed it was Jews who had already been gassed! Lerner chuckled, and said under his breath, "They must be drunk."
Pechersky replied, "I don't know what they think they saw, but we should see for ourselves while the swine aren't paying any attention to us."
They ducked back inside and, after checking that there was no one watching the back door, went out and headed in the direction of Camp III.
Liora's mind was blank. She saw what was in front of her–a dead SS officer with his throat torn out, others running away to another part of the camp, a crowd of other people around her. The only thing that registered was the moaning coming from Rabbi Snaidman. She didn't recognize him, and in fact was completely unaware of any act of volition. Nor did she notice the bullet hole in her side, the cause of which had also shredded one of her kidneys and caused her to bleed profusely down her leg. She moved as if she was an shuffling automaton, focused entirely on the moaning she was hearing, bearing down relentlessly on her targets as if she were a missile sent to rain destruction down on the enemies of Israel.
By now, word of the strange events in Camp III had made it back to the SS administrative section. Oberscharführer Frenzel, temporarily in charge with Commandant Franz Reichleitner away on leave, unable to give any credence to the fantastic rumors he was hearing, decided to investigate and, if necessary, mete out suitable punishments for all involved.
He walked quickly to Camp I, where he found Niemann and Graetschus arguing with the SS and Ukrainians, telling them that what they said had happened couldn't have happened, and that if this was some kind of screwup heads would roll. Frenzel interrupted them and demanded to know what was going on.
Niemann said, "Herr Oberscharführer, according to this squad and several of the Ukrainian guards, the Jews came out of the gas chambers after the normal elimination process. They say that Kostenko is dead, as well as Scharfuhrer Wolf, and that a mob of"–he sneered, looking at the soldiers, who seemed anything other than an elite unit at the moment–"dead Jews is coming this way. Utter rubbish!"
"I agree," Frenzel said, "but we can get the details straight later. For right now, we have a problem that needs dealing with."
He thought for a moment, then gave orders. "Niemann, get together every soldier you can find. Graetschus, send some of the Ukrainians to keep watch over the slaves. Most of them, send with Niemann's SS. But first, get the Sonderkommando together. We'll use them as a shield in case the Jews somehow managed to arm themselves with anything lethal. Meet in ten minutes in Camp II."
Niemann and Graetschus snapped off sharp salutes and ran off to carry out their orders. Frenzel stood snapping his whip and looking forward to the opportunity to use it.
Alexander Pechersky and Yehuda Lerner made their way to Camp II and took up a position hidden behind the henhouse. It wasn't long before they saw what they were looking for–hundreds of Jewish prisoners shambling along the path that led to Camp III, coming back down the "street to heaven" from the gas chambers.
"This can't be," Pechersky said. "They're full of holes."
Lerner opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, and when he spoke his voice was shaky. "I can see all the way through some of them. How is that possible?"
"It isn't, or shouldn't be," his companion replied. "Lots of those wounds should be fatal, and even the ones that aren't haven't been bandaged, so they should have bled out. These people should be lying in the mass grave behind the showers."
"So what now?"
"We take advantage."
Frenzel's orders having been carried out, the SS, the Ukrainians, and their Sonderkommando human shields moved into Camp II. They saw the crowd bearing down on them, and prepared to open fire.
Niemann told the Sonderkommando to link arms and move forward. The plan was for the mob to get distracted by their fellow Jews, at which point his men and Graetschus's could wipe them all out at their leisure. The men of the special unit did as they were told, having decided beforehand that it was their only hope for survival. It was just possible that, in the general mayhem to follow, some of them might avoid the hail of bullets and live to be useful another day.
Rabbi Snaidman, leading the Jews, spotted the black uniformed SS, and began to moan and point. Those behind him followed his arm, and saw their target. Between them and their murderers were the Sonderkommando. The Rabbi seemed not to notice them, and continued to point to those behind.
"Ready!" shouted Frenzel. His men took firing stances. "Wait until the Sonderkommando reaches the old man in front!"
Seconds later, they did. But then something completely unexpected happened. Rabbi Snaidman walked right past them, breaking the link between two of them. Those right behind him did the same, passing by the human shields without taking any notice of them.
Frenzel swore with amazement, and then, recovering himself, yelled, "Fire at will! Kill the swine!"
At once, the guns of his troops roared. The Jews were packed close enough together that it was almost impossible to miss. Arms were torn off, chests were opened, the tops of skulls exploded in showers of red. Still they came on, seemingly oblivious to the terrible price their bodies were paying.
A few, bullets having shattered their knees, went down, and others tripped over them. But that stopped them for only a moment, as some got back on their feet and limped along, dragging a useless leg behind them, or even crawled as they continued toward their objective.
Some were hit so many times that their bodies simply collapsed. But the numbers of bullets required to do that meant that the Germans and Ukrainians didn't have near enough ammunition to stop the Jews. They bore down relentlessly, led by their rabbi, who by now was missing his left arm, much of his left shoulder, and didn't have an internal organ that hadn't been shredded. Since he wasn't using them, however, he never noticed. Instead, he simply continued to point and moan, and shamble toward his intended victims.
Behind the Nazis's line, Pechersky and his underground had gathered, axes and homemade knives in hand. They watched the scene unfold, stunned by what they were seeing. Pechersky, having seen the condition of his fellow Jews before, was not surprised by what he saw. Instead, he passed word among his compatriots that they were to wait until the first of the crowd reached the troops, and then they were to attack.
Rabbi Snaidman was the first to reach the Nazi line. He shambled toward Johann Niemann, who was in the middle of reloading his pistol when the rabbi grabbed his tunic lapel. Eyes bulging, the deputy commandant of the Sobibor extermination camp stared horrified into the face of one of his countless victims. The Lithuanian Jew stared back at him with dead eyes, then opened his mouth as if to speak. An unearthly voice the likes of which Niemann had never heard before came forth from the old man, saying, "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord," at which the rabbi leaned in and bit a chunk of flesh out of the Nazi's neck.
Niemann screamed as blood poured out of his severed jugular. Rabbi Snaidman spit out the hunk of meat, dropped his victim on the ground, and went looking for his next.
Immediately behind him, Liora Vinokuras stepped forward and grabbed a shocked Siegfried Graetschus, and without hesitation yanked his head to the side and sank her teeth into his neck. The commander of the Ukrainian troops shrieked, and tried to beat her off with his fists, but she held tightly on to his neck, refusing to let go until it was clear that the life was leaving him. She, too, spat the German's flesh out of her mouth, and went looking for another neck.
By now, the crowd of dead Jews was overwhelming their murderers. Karl Frenzel had fled when he saw what happened to Niemann, run as fast as he could to Camp I, grabbed a staff car, and flown from Sobibor. The other SS soldiers and Ukrainian collaborators all suffered the same fate as their commanders. It happened so quickly that Pechersky and his men, lying in wait for their opportunity but a couple dozen yards away, never had a chance to move.
When all of their killers lay dead, the crowd of Jews looked at Rabbi Snaidman, as if seeking instructions. He looked around, but could n
ot sense the presence of any more of their tormentors. He turned to look at the hundreds of his brethren who had torn apart those who had gassed them, and then looked at Liora, standing next to him. Without knowing why, he found the slightest of smiles coming to his lips. He then fell to the ground, a genuinely lifeless body. In moments, all the rest of the Jews did so as well.
Alexander Pechersky and his comrades slowly emerged from behind the henhouse and surveyed the carnage in front of them. They examined each of the SS troops and Ukrainian guards to make sure they were dead. Several of them viciously kicked the bodies, and one of them took an axe to the head of Johann Niemann, simply to vent his anger.
Satisfied that their enemies were kaput, they began to wander amidst the bodies of the Jews who had brought them down. They checked bodies to see if they were really dead, and found not so much as a spark of life in any of them. Hardened men though they were, several of them vomited upon seeing the damage that had been wrought upon their brethren by the Nazi assault.
"I...I don't understand." one of them, looking down on the mutilated body of Liora Vinokuras. "I saw them kill these fascist bastards. But they...they were already dead!"
Pechersky let out a great gust of breath and replied, "I haven't got the vaguest idea how this happened. I