4: Smuggled to Hungary

Irene and Frici find a group of smugglers who will take Oscar out of Prešov for a fee. They plan to send Oscar to Kassa [Košice] in Hungary to live with Irene’s older sister, Oscar’s Aunt Ella Zinger. Just twenty miles from Prešov, Kassa had been part of Czechoslovakia before 1939. The smuggler who will take Oscar is a local baker called Straka. When Straka comes for Oscar to set off on this journey, Irene gives Oscar a parting instruction. She tells him if he meets any policemen along the journey to lie and tell them that his parents have died and that he is an orphan. Young Oscar is distraught at this instruction. To lie is so opposed to how he has been taught to behave! And he is heartbroken to leave his parents. But they say their goodbyes, Oscar takes Straka’s hand, and the two set off for Hungary.

Oscar leaves Prešov in the spring of 1943, and he and the baker-turned-smuggler trudge across a countryside still covered in a crust of snow. Straka instructs Oscar as they walk. He says if they get separated, Oscar should wait and listen for his whistle. If they encounter anyone, Oscar is to stay silent and let Straka speak. Oscar’s fear grows as Straka tells him about the many dangers they may encounter: thieves or runaway prisoners, suspicious peasants, and wild dogs. After a long walk—at points Straka must carry the exhausted eight-year-old Oscar—they near Slovakia’s border with Hungary.

After crossing through a cold creek, Oscar and Straka reach the edge of a meadow. On the other side is Hungary.

Excerpt from Escape to the Tatras

Mr. Straka told me in a whisper that I must cross the meadow alone. He pointed straight forward and told me to hunch down close to the snow and pretend to be a rabbit. He knelt beside me to show me the exact position. Then, I was to cross to the opposite side very quietly and carefully until I reached a distant stand of trees.

“When you reach them,” he said, “sit down, rest, and wait for me. If you see someone or hear a noise, stop crawling, lay down flat, and wait until all is clear. If you hear me making an owl sound, a quick ‘hoot-hoot’, lay down quick and wait until I whistle for you to continue.”

I was more than scared, trembling all over. Mr. Straka gave me the signal to go. I crawled straight forward on my hands and knees. Luckily, I had warm gloves on. But after a while I felt my knees and fingers aching with the bitter cold. Then they went numb. I just kept pretending to be a bunny rabbit. My breathing grew heavy, but I followed a rhythm; arms and legs coordinated, left-right, left-right, following the beat of a song I liked, pretending I was dancing. Once I thought of [my mother] Anyu, her beautiful smile.

Suddenly, I heard a distant pop, a loud sound like a rifle shot. Then a couple of men shouted something to each other and then, the hoot of an owl. I hit the snow flat on my stomach! Were these men hunting for rabbits? I could hear myself breathing hard, my heart beating like a drum. Then silence. Nothing moved. Straka whistled again, the sign for me to keep moving. I looked toward the trees. The more I stared at them, the more they looked like eerie human shapes, secretive and dark. What if there were soldiers in the trees waiting for me?

By then I was thoroughly soaked and numb all over from the cold and snow. At last, I reached the trees and realized that no one was there, no one was waiting. I sat down, shaking and shivering, but proud of my accomplishment. Still, I was too frightened to move. I took a deep breath. After a long while, Mr. Straka appeared and signaled, “Follow me. Once we get deeper into the forest we can stop to rest, eat and drink.”

He circled my shoulder with his big gloved hand. “Good boy, Oskar,” he said, using a normal speaking voice for the first time in hours. The sound of it startled me. He gave me a slight squeeze. “Now we are in Hungary.”

They make their way to a farmhouse where dinner is waiting for them. The next morning, Oscar finds Straka has already left and another man is waiting to take him by car to Kassa. The man drops Oscar off in the middle of the town and instructs him to wait for his aunt to arrive. Oscar waits and waits but no one comes. Finally, a man approaches him—a policeman. The policeman begins to question him and Oscar, remembering his mother’s instruction, lies. He tells the policeman his parents are dead, killed by Nazis, and he has fled from Prešov to Kassa alone to find his Aunt Ella. The policeman takes him to a station where he is questioned again and again, but Oscar does not change his story. Finally, he remembers a note with his aunt’s address that his mother had tucked into his pocket. Fishing it out, he gives it to the police. The police call Ella and she quickly comes to take him to her home.