Constant Vigilance

Constant Vigilance

Tomorrow is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

These are my handsome great uncles in 1951 Vienna with their 1934 BMW. Seven years earlier, they hid in holes in the ground left by uprooted trees while Nazis searched for them with bloodhounds.

Stefan and Ladislaus, 1951 Vienna

 

The Nazis had put a bounty on both of their heads, determined to capture the brothers, who had cunningly escaped.

The man who hid them in the woods, Ilya Paliok, a forester, sprinkled black pepper around the area to repel the dogs.

The brothers lived in the woods for months, withstanding the elements and listening for soldiers or dogs or gunshots or voices of local residents, who sometimes searched the local woods for mushrooms.

The act of hiding was dangerous and daring, an endeavor of constant vigilance and strategy.

We remember.

 

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My Great Uncle Stefan
My Great Uncle Stefan
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