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to tell everyone that things were under control—and how could he have been foolish enough to believe them?
    What was happening to Anna, Irene and Justyn? He knew Henryk would 36
    Douglas W. Jacobson
    do anything to protect them, but what can anyone do against airplanes and bombs? Were they still in Warsaw? Had they tried to make a run for it? He had considered taking a train to Warsaw but that was sheer folly. Even if he could get on a train, it might take days to get to Warsaw, if he got there at all.
    No, he had fi nally decided, the only sensible thing to do was to stay put and wait to hear from them.
    The image in the mirror was pathetic, and Thaddeus turned away. He plodded back to the kitchen and switched on the radio to listen to the latest news bulletin. He picked up the cup of cold tea as a crackling voice began reading an announcement.
    His hand stopped in midair.
    He stared at the radio, not sure if he had heard correctly.
    The voice repeated the announcement. “Krakow has been declared an open city. The Polish High Command has determined the city cannot be defended.
    The Krakow Army is retreating to the east.”
    Thaddeus dropped the cup, oblivious to the shattering china and the liquid splashing over his arm. He stood up and gripped the edge of the table. His chair toppled over. Krakow an open city, left undefended? The royal city—the Mecca of Poland for a thousand years—occupied by the Germans? Was this possible in just two days?
    He stared out the window overlooking the terrace. If Krakow couldn’t be defended after only two days, what did it mean for the rest of Poland?
    He stepped outside and sat down in one of the wooden chairs positioned in a neat semicircle on the brick terrace. Hunched over with his elbows on his knees, and staring at the potted geraniums, a cloud of fear descended over him.
    He squeezed his intertwined fi ngers so hard that his hands shook, trying to resist the urge to smash every one of the goddamn pots.
    Janina burst through the kitchen door and onto the terrace. “Dr. Piekarski, have you heard? The Germans are coming!”
    Thaddeus turned toward her. Strangely, the frightened look in her eyes had a calming effect on him. “Yes, Janina, I’ve just heard.”
    “Everyone is leaving! We have to get out of town! Where will we go, Dr.
    Piekarski?”
    “What do you mean, ‘everyone is leaving’? Who’s leaving?”
    “It’s the talk all over. At the church. In the tram. Everyone is saying we’ll Night of Flames
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    have to leave or the Germans will round us up and put us in work camps!”
    Thaddeus took the plump woman by the arm and led her to one of the wooden chairs. She sat down heavily, clutching her white silk purse with both hands. “Janina, listen to me,” he said. “There’s nowhere to go. It’ll be more dangerous out in the country than here in the city. Our troops are retreating to the east of the city, and that’s where the fi ghting will be. German airplanes will be bombing the roads and the railroad tracks. Leaving the city now would be foolhardy.”
    “But what will we do if the Germans come into Krakow?”
    Thaddeus took a deep breath. “They will come into Krakow—and they’ll occupy the city, probably within the next few days. Nothing can stop that now.” He took another breath. The thought was abhorrent. He put his hand on Janina’s shoulder. “There are hundreds of thousands of people in Krakow,”
    he said, “with businesses to run and factories to operate. The Germans need those factories. They aren’t going to round us up or haul us off to work camps.
    They’ll take over our local government for awhile, until the British and the French jump into this thing. We’ll just have to sit tight and be patient.”
    She looked at him for a long time, and the fear slowly drained from her face.
    She dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief and stood up. “Thank you. I feel a little better now. Of course, you’re right.” She started back toward the