Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6 The men left the barn quietly, leaving Aunt Hannah, Max, and Zena alone with their hugs and tears. Max and Zena told her about their escape from the brutal Nazi soldier and how Mr. Jablonski had rescued them. Aunt Hannah listened with wide eyes, gripping their hands. "Where is your papa?" she asked. Max and Zena both looked down. "The Nazis took him," Max said finally. "A month ago." "We don't know where he is," Zena told her.

Aunt Hannah seemed to stop breathing. It was a long moment before she spoke. "I wanted us all to escape together," she said softly. "I begged your papa. But he refused. He said it was too dangerous. Like most people, he wanted to believe that if we just went along with the Nazis, things would be okay. He didn't want to accept the truth — that the Nazis are more evil than we could have ever imagined." Aunt Hannah's words seemed to burrow deep into Max's mind, to a place where he kept his darkest fears. And in a flash, he understood: that all of those rumors he'd heard in the ghetto were true. The Nazis were cold-blooded killers. "Your papa and I had the most terrible fights," she said. Max remembered the argument he'd overheard, and Aunt Hannah's pleading words. "We all must go." "And then it was too late," Aunt Hannah said. "I never even got to say good-bye, to tell you

where I was going." "Where did you go?" Max asked. "There are Jews hiding in the forests who are fighting back against the Nazis," she said. "There are hundreds of them. I joined them." "You're a soldier?" Zena asked, her eyes wide. "Not a regular soldier," Aunt Hannah said. She explained that she was a partisan, a special kind of fighter. She did not belong to a real army, with uniforms and shining weapons. They could not go into battle against the Nazis — they didn't stand a chance against the German Panzer tanks and bombers and heavy machine guns. Instead, they worked in small groups, plotting surprise attacks. They blew up trains loaded with supplies and weapons, burned down factories that made German uniforms and guns, and ambushed troops in daring nighttime raids. Aunt Hannah said there were hundreds of partisan groups hiding in the forests around

Poland and other countries in the east. Not all partisans were Jewish, but everyone in Aunt Hannah's group was, including Martin and Lev, the two men here with her. Altogether there were twenty-four fighters in Aunt Hannah's group, she explained. Most were young men. But there were some older people too, and four other women besides Aunt Hannah. They lived together in a hideout deep in Loda Forest, an endless stretch of pitch-black woods about fifteen miles north of here. Max stared at his aunt as she talked. She had the same glittering green eyes he remembered so well. But Aunt Hannah had changed, and it wasn't just her chopped hair and her man's shirt and trousers. Her dreamy expression had hardened into one of toughness and determination. Aunt Hannah was no longer a carefree teenager from Esties. She was fighting the Nazis!

But was it really possible for a group of ragtag soldiers to take on the entire Germany military? Hitler had millions of soldiers fighting for him! Then Max thought of a Bible story he'd loved when he was little — about the Jewish boy David who'd fought against the monstrous warrior Goliath. The Jews were in the middle of a war back then, too, fighting against their most feared enemy, the Philistines. And Goliath was the most terrifying Philistine warrior of all. He stood nine feet tall, with the finest bronze armor and sharpest sword and javelin. Goliath taunted the Jews, daring them to send their toughest soldiers to fight him. But nobody would accept Goliath's challenge. Even the most famous Jewish warriors said it was hopeless, that no Jew stood a chance against Goliath. But David refused to believe that. He wasn't a soldier, just a shepherd. He didn't have armor or a

sword, only a slingshot. But he was fierce and smart and determined to fight. Goliath just laughed when skinny David stepped up to fight him. But then David shot at him with his slingshot. One small rock struck Goliath in the head. Goliath fell to the ground. David lunged forward and grabbed Goliath's sword and — whack! — he chopped off Goliath's head. The Jews soon won the war, and David became their king. Looking at Aunt Hannah now, as she gripped her battered rifle, Max thought she looked every bit as fierce as David must have. And a feeling came over him, as if he'd found something he'd lost, something precious. His hope. Max had a million more questions to ask Aunt Hannah, but there was no time. "It's a long trip back to the forest," she said. "We have to leave soon."