"There is one more thing" added Yatom coldly. "You and the rest of your people must deal with the captured Germans and Ukranians. It is up to you, and them, to deal with the prisoners."
The exhausted Dutchman had not considered the issue, the Germans and Ukranians having been isolated for the past few hours. Besides, he figured the commandos would somehow take care of it.
"Colonel" said De Jong haltingly, his English suddenly fractured. "We cannot.. we cannot... very well take them...with us."
"I agree" said Yatom. "I doubt the victims of Sobibor would agree to let them go."
"So" said De Jong slowly, making certain he understood Yatom's English "you suggest that we kill them all?"
"That's up to you" answered Yatom, matter-of-factly. "Eliminating them would be smart. It would also give you an opportunity to blood some of your new soldiers."
"By killing in cold blood?"
"Why don't you put it to a vote? Or ask that fellow Sandler and his
De Jong already knew the answer to the last question, and also knew that Yatom was right. Had it not been for Yatom and his men, he along with everybody on the train would have been killed mercilessly by the gray-clad men now in his power.
"Okay" said De Jong wearily, passing sentence on the captured Germans and Ukrainians in those two unfamiliar English syllables.
"Who are you taking with you, if I may ask?" he added diffidently, changing the subject.
"Over there" Yatom said with a nod of his head. De Jong turned to see about half of his original men helping the Israelis load the trucks and staff cars with ammunition, water, and food. Among the group were Sandler and about a dozen former
"You're taking Sandler and those men too?" De J ong asked. Not much would ever surprise him again after this day.
"Yes. Sandler's a natural leader. His men are hardened and angry. I think that they will fight like demons if we give them the chance."
"No doubt" agreed De Jong.
"We are also distributing about 200 mines to your people that we found in a storage building" Feldhandler added out of the blue—a detail Yatom had left out.
"Mines?"
"The Germans intended to mine the perimeter of this place but didn't quite have a chance to do it" continued Feldhandler. "You can lay those mines around whatever refuge you find. It's more to carry, but if each man takes one, you should be able to take them all. I think they will be very useful. We're taking a few for ourselves."
"Can I ask where you are going?" said De Jong.
"No" said Yatom. "Deal with those Germans and leave here." Yatom paused. "We will take the German police sergeant, Mueller too — so you won't have to deal with him."
"Yes" said De Jong quietly. "And thank you." Yatom grasped De Jong's right arm tightly, slapped him on the shoulder, and then turned away.
Yatom walked through the Himmelgang and passed into Camp 3. There Roskovskyhad taken a dozen of Sobibor's landmines and rigged them to the tank engines and the gas chambers. They were primed to explode with simple detonation cord. The engineer met Yatom near the exit of the passageway.
"Commander" said Roskovsky "let's move down a few meters."
The two commandos slunk back down the Himmelgang until Roskovsky was satisfied. Then he pressed the detonator.
Near the entrance to the camp Mofaz had smartly organized the convoy of captured staff cars and trucks. Standing next to the vehicles the sayeret watched amusedly as the gas complex disappeared in the blasts.
One of the camp's staff cars led the convoy and the other picked up the rear. Each of the cars carried one team of lsraelis—Yatorn's men in the first car (along with F eldhandler) with Mofaz and his team in the rear vehicle. Shapira's team rode in the first truck, with Perchansky, Mueller, and most of the extra food, fuel, mines and ammunition. The other two trucks carried the armed Jews. One group of twelve men rode under the direct command of Natan Fliegel; the other consisting of former Sonderkommandos and a few large tough» looking men from the main camp were under Sandler. Along with plenty of hand grenades, Fliegel's men carried all the Uzis, one MG—34 and rifles for the rest of the men. Sandler's were also well equipped with five captured MP-40s, another MG-34 and several rifles. The fact that, for the most part, the men had no idea how to use the weapons didn't matter. Sandler and his men caressed the guns with sense of wonder, pride and newfound hope.
Yatom reached the convoy and met Feldhandler, Mofaz and Shapira by the lead staff car. "We're ready Mofaz? Then yalla!”
"Shouldn't we see them off first" said Feldhandler, motioning to the hundreds of Jews still milling around about the center of Camp 2 while De Jong and his lieutenants and a few other men who had assumed leadership positions shouted at thern.
