Alaine Polcz – One woman in the war
Hungary 1944–1945
Detail from the book:
“We were all extremely hungry when someone brought fresh bread to the fourth resting place on my left, to the woman who had called out the “Hail, Mary” so loudly. They cut into the loaf and started eating it. I became so agitated, I wanted some so badly, I broke into a sweat, and I considered going over to them, or sending a child, to offer my only treasure, a small bottle of Vetol oil, in exchange for a small piece of bread.
I was holding on to a small bottle of Vetol oil, a German oil for wounds, at that, in the buttoned-down pocket of the checkered blouse I have mentioned. I guarded it like a treasure, though I had noticed that when it was applied, the wound filled with puss, instead of healing. But I did not have anything else, just a safety pin and a small piece of driedup, moldy sausage, which I was saving until the very last, so that in case I or someone else should faint from hunger, something would be available. (I did save it from the war and reached liberated Budapest with it. And then… But what about until then?)
I did not dare go over to the woman to propose the exchange. I don’t know how it happened, but to me it was like a miracle, like an embodiment of goodness, as if the firmament had opened up. She sent her child over to me with a small, fresh, real, soft, fragrant piece of her bread. I ate it very slowly, so that I could savor it at leisure. The pleasure of the bread, which we had been without for weeks by then, the pleasure of eating, the pleasure of goodness—this is what that piece of bread meant to me.”