But as bad as it was, the worst was yet to come. On June 22nd, 1941, the Nazis, who up until that time had been collaborating with the Soviets, suddenly launched a blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union. As the NKVD and Commissars fled, a scorched earth policy was instituted in Soviet Ukraine. The NKVD tried to carry off everything that they could and burn what they couldn't — whole factories, food, machinery, equipment. But that wasn't enough for them. They didn't want to leave people behind who were not staunch Communists, so they arrested even more people. The NKVD would leave tractor engines running all night to muffle the screams of prisoners. As Danylo and his parents huddled in their hiding place, they could only imagine the horrors outside.
And so, as the Soviets slashed and burned and stole and retreated, they evacuated high ranking Communist officials to safety. They also evacuated many professionals whose skills could be of service to Stalin. Left behind to meet the Nazis were the anti-Communist Ukrainians who had somehow managed to survive. Also left behind were the old, the feeble, and the children. They were abandoned by the Soviets without food, without weapons, and without means of protecting themselves.
Danylo and his parents stayed hidden under the barn as long as they could. Even after they ran out of food, they were still afraid to come out. It wasn't until Danylo's mother became ill that he or his father even considered seeking food.
The horror of finding the body of his father amongst so many others that he knew was terrible, but the worst was still to come. When the Nazis arrived, people came out of hiding. Danylo's mother even greeted them with relief. How could the Nazis possibly be worse than the Soviets?
But the Nazis set up administrative offices in the same buildings that had been evacuated by the Soviets. And then they went from house to house and chose people to help them. Of Danylo, they asked that he be an auxiliary policeman, but he refused. They came the next day, and he refused again.
The next night, there was a tapping on their door, and when Danylo answered it, Kataryna stood there. Danylo was astonished to see his sister alive. "How can this be?" Danylo asked in wonder.
"I've joined the OUN — the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists," explained Kataryna. "When the time is right, we will fight the Nazis, but right now, we must let them think we're working with them."
"I can't work with them," declared Danylo. "They're no better than the Communists."
"You'll do what I say, brother, or I will shoot you myself."
Danylo was taken aback by this talk, but he noticed that as his sister made this statement, she drew a pistol from her jacket and she was pointing it to the dirt floor of the cottage.
"Take the job as an auxiliary policeman," Kataryna ordered. "You and others will infiltrate the Nazi administration to gain weapons and information. When the time is right, you will kill the Nazis and join us in the forests."
Danylo knew better than to argue.
The next day, he was issued an armband, a pistol and two bullets.
As the days passed, a putrid stench began to fill all of the administrative buildings that had been abandoned by the Soviets. Danylo and the other local boys with auxiliary police armbands were ordered to open up the basements of the buildings and locate the source of the stench. The doors had been padlocked from the outside and the locks had to be shot off or sawed through because the keys could not be found. When Danylo opened up the first door, he covered his mouth in horror at the sight that awaited him. Dozens of mutilated bodies were stacked on top of each other, rotting and maggot-ridden. The retreating Soviets had not been content to simply kill the Ukrainian resistance fighters who were left behind: they had tortured them beyond recognition. Although his father was dead, Danylo was thankful that he had merely been shot.
The Nazis saw this horrific tragedy as an opportunity to garner support. They ordered the bodies to be taken out of the dungeons and basements and lined up along the main street. Bodies were also found in the fields. It was hard to imagine how many people had been killed in those last days of Soviet occupation.
The mothers and the wives and the daughters came to identify their sons and husbands and brothers. Men and boys, too young or too old to fight, came to view the bodies too.
Husbands and sons and brothers and lovers and neighbours lay dead and mutilated in a row. The sight was too much to bear.
As the survivors grieved, a black-uniformed SS officer walked up and down the street, viewing the spectacle with satisfaction.
"You know who did this?" he whispered as he passed a grieving woman.
And then he marched out a group of Jews and half a dozen Communists who were too unimportant to have warranted evacuation with their comrades.
"It's these vermin who are to blame," said the officer.
One of the men shook his head fearfully, knowing what the officer was trying to do. "I did nothing," the man protested.
Then the officer turned to Danylo.
"I will leave it to you to punish these murderers."
Danylo stood there in shock. He looked at the mutilated corpses lined up in front of him and he looked at the grieving villagers. And then he looked at the pitiful group of scapegoats.
He knew that if he didn't mete out punishment, an SS officer with a fully loaded gun would be brought in. Plus he would blow his cover. But what could he do?
As he stood there trying to decide, the grieving villagers began to chant, "Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!"
"Get down on the ground," he ordered, pointing his pistol at the group.
The Nazi officer smiled with satisfaction when he saw that his orders were being carried out. He pulled out a gold pocket watch and noted that it was almost time for a nice hot cup of tea. He walked away, leaving the dirty work to the Ukrainian boy.
When Danylo saw through the corner of his eye that the officer was no longer watching him, he pointed his pistol to a tree beyond the people lying on the ground and a single shot rang out. The villagers, stunned by the noise, stopped their chanting. The men lying on the ground groaned in fear of what was to come.
Then Danylo said in a firm voice, "One hundred push-ups, now."
Danylo was startled from his memories by a light tapping at the bedroom door.
"May I come in?" A sliver of Kat's face was peering through a crack in the door.
Danylo took a deep breath to calm himself, and then he grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket and quickly wiped the tears from his face. He did not want Kat to see how sad he was.
"Come in, zolota zhabka," he said.
Kat pushed the door open with her shoulder and walked in. She was carrying a tray that held a steaming mug of tea and a grilled cheese sandwich. "I thought you might be hungry," she said. "Besides, you made me breakfast, so I figured I should make you lunch."
A sad smile formed on Danylo's lips. It was so kind of Kataryna to think of him, even though the last thing he wanted to do right now was to eat.
"Thank you," he said. "Set it down and I will eat it in a moment."
CHAPTER16
MR. VINCENT'S DESK was set in front of a magnificent old-fashioned bay window that looked upon the heavily treed Prince Arthur Street in all its autumn finery. He motioned for Danylo and Orysia to sit down in the deeply cushioned leather chairs that were placed before his desk. After a few pleasantries, he got down to business.
"You're probably wondering what sort of information the government has accumulated against you," Mr. Vincent said, looking at Danylo.
Mr. Vincent opened a thick file on his desk and then pulled out a pair of reading glasses from his pocket. "It says here that the RCMP visited your birth village of Orelets in Volhyn in 1992 and again in 1994 in order to interview the villagers about your activities during the war."