The Gestapo arrested Lily Dubois in 1944. They accused her of being a member of the French resistance. They interrogated her for two days, but in truth, she was not a spy or a resistance fighter and had nothing to tell them. However, that made little difference to the Nazis. They placed Lily on a train headed for the Treblinka work camp in Poland. One hundred people jammed into a wooden box car. The stench of sweat and despair hung heavy in the air. The enclosure felt like a suffocation chamber. In the morning, the weak and the old who perished were dumped next to the tracks. Periodic crying and moans often filled the putrid air when the prisoners realized the train headed into the morning sun. They rolled toward the horrors whispered about in the ghettoes.

Lily sat against a wall in the car, happy for the air that bled through the wooden slats. She often closed her eyes, not wanting to be haunted by the gaunt and hollow faces that loomed around her. The only toilet, a wooden bucket in the corner, which quickly overflowed. Overpowering smells of vomit, urine, and excrement permeated the car. Only two tiny glassless windows at the ends of the car allowed the odors to escape.

Yet amid this misery, Lily still held a flicker of defiance. She resolved not to accept the Nazis’ promise of “Work will set you free.” She would rather die than be a Nazi slave. The only food the passengers received was a mealy gruel given in the morning when the more able removed bodies from the train. Menacing dogs and screaming guards made victims feel powerless.

The second day of the trip, Lily began working with the point of her metal rat-tail comb to loosen a floor panel near the wall where she sat. It was a slim chance, but better than slavery and possibly death in the days ahead. Evening and the train rumbled through a forest. She waited for a timely moment. The rhythmic clickety-clack of the wheels, oddly calming, almost like a lullaby, until one realized that every click and clack brought a person closer to the horrors of a Nazi camp.

Just as Lily hoped, the train slowed down as it rounded a sharp bend. A burst of adrenaline fired her as she pried open the wooden floor panel. She eased through the opening and dropped to the ground between the tracks. She lay as flat as she could as iron wheels roared and train cars rushed by overhead. After the last car passed, she rolled down the embankment and into high waving grass. She stayed quiet until the sound of the train became a fading echo. The forest was scary at night, but Lily didn’t care, she was free.

She wandered in the dense woods. Hunger gnawed at her, and anxiety her constant companion. In her younger years, she had visited her uncle’s farm. Uncle Enos taught her about edible plants and berries, both of which she found in the forest.

 The day after her escape, she came upon a small, abandoned cabin. A misty drizzle had been falling most of the day. The cabin offered shelter even though a tree had fallen on it, causing a partial roof collapse. Inside, she found a few tools, matches, and firewood. She started a fire in the fireplace. In the kitchen she found canned goods, enough to sustain her for a few days.

The next morning, she discovered a road she thought might lead to farms or maybe a town. She had no papers, and she knew the Nazis would check everyone they encountered. She prayed she might find people willing to help. As she walked along the road, in the distance, she spotted a white farmhouse.

Lily had to take a chance. Her heart pounded, and her breathing was rapid as she raised her fist and knocked. A tall, older man took one look at her and pulled her inside. He and his wife knew they were risking their own safety. His wife offered her food and a place to hide overnight. The farmer told her about a network of resistance fighters operating in the area.

Lily followed the farmer’s directions and located the fighters. They were a group of rag-tag men and women and even some children who had lost loved ones to the Nazi brutes.

Lily joined the crew and learned to cause problems for the Wehrmacht. There were times of victory and of despair. But on May 8, 1945, they emerged victorious. The Germans unconditionally surrendered. Lily, the woman who dared to jump from a moving train and fought with the resistance, loved to tell her story to her grandchildren.