Upfall

"Stop!" yelled Erbel pathetically. He raised his pistol and pointed it at the wriggling mass. A tall woman jumped on his back. She bit his ear, cutting straight through the cartilage and spraying the side of his face with blood. Erbel cried and swung her around, crashing into more women who now attacked and tore at him like they were cats and he an unfortunate mouse. Hannah Zuckerman pulled away from Erbel's grasp and crawled toward her sister, the dark haired woman who had started the melee. "Norit!" she cried Schweinsteiger cocked and raised his machine pistol. A teenage girl grabbed at it another girl clawed at his mouth, while a third caught him from behind and dug her nails into an eye socket. Schweinsteiger screamed and fiailed at his tormentors, half-blind and mad with pain.

Private Engel and the the other Ukranian pushed their way the door, twisting and turning to get past the rioting women. The two men reached threshold and tumbled out, preferring their chances against the enemy commandos to being torn limb from limb by the raging mob inside the barrack. Outside, Engel and the Ukranian, suddenly free paused, unsure of whether to surrender or run. Their indecision lasted only a second before Ilan and Bolander cut them down with single shots to the head.

They fell at the feet of Shapira and Yatom who were already hurrying toward the barrack. The commandos pulled out their pistols, and joined by Chaim rushed the barrack door. But before the trio reached the entrance they were almost run over by a phalanx women and girls stampeding out of the building, trampling the corpses of Engel and the Ukranian on the way.

The commandos finally pushed their way through the mob to the barrack door. From inside the barrack the commandos heard a bizarre mix of shrieking and crying, both male and female. Shapira and Chaim went in first, pistols at the ready, leaving Yatom behind at the doorway. Beyond the entrance to the right Shapira saw four or five women atop an SS man, beating, biting and clawing at him while he struggled weakly beneath them. A girl pointed an MP 40 in the German's direction, ready to shoot him dead if he survived the mauling. Further inside to the left Shapira identified the camp commandant. A tall middle-aged woman, her face covered in blood, was bashing his head repeatedly against the wooden floor. Erbel's mouth was agape and blood poured from a fractured nose and from the base of his skull. It was hard to say if he was living or dead—but if the former, he wouldn't last much longer. Against the far wall a dark haired younger woman, lithe and muscular, was using the butt of a Mauser to smash the head of an already unconscious Ukranian guard. Shapira shrugged and walked out of the abattoir. He holstered his pistol as he approached Yatom. "The hostage crisis is over" said Shapira.

A few minutes later, the bloody but victorious women left the barrack, astonished to be greeted by clapping, cheers and whoops from the otherworldly-appearing commandos. The women ignored the strange but affable men and searched for their own friends and relatives amidst the still chaotic square. It was onto this surreal scene that Feldhandler now marched, leading several dozen dazed and ragged Sonderkommandos out of the death passage. Behind them, the gas chambers roared, engulfed by huge fires lovingly set by Feldhandler and his companions.

"Did I miss anything?" asked the puzzled scientist.

Chapter 26

The Bulls and the Bears, assisted by random groups of Treblinka's former prisoners, mopped up the camp, dispensing justice to any surviving German or Ukranian that they encountered on the spot. Mofaz brought eight forlorn Ukranians and a single German SS man back to the deportation square. Yatom almost wished that he hadn't bothered, but respected the Major's discipline and stubborn ethics. Yatom ordered the Germans and Ukranians trussed and deposited in the men's barrack. What happened to them from there was not his concern.

Yatom wanted to get the sayeret out of Treblinka and back on the road. To this end Yatom and Nir hustled over to the motor pool while Shapira attempted to organize the prisoners in and around the deportation square. Happily, compared to Sobibor, Treblinka offered a veritable cornucopia of transport. The vehicles that brought Wirth and his men to Treblinka were mixed into the camp's existing motor pool.