The Boy On The Wooden Box

In October 1944, Leon spends some interim time at the fearsome Gross-Rosen concentration camp, 175 miles northwest of Kraków. The prisoners fear that they will be exterminated there, but instead, the males are shipped off to Brünnlitz, Sudetenland, where Schindler has relocated his factory. The females have been diverted to Auschwitz, but Schindler bribes the Nazis to have them sent to his factory. As they arrive, Leon sees his mother and Pesza and experiences “a rare moment of total joy” (157).

Leon and his family work at Schindler’s factory for the next eight months of the war. As the Germans lose the war, food becomes scarce. Leon finds inventive ways of getting more to eat. From time to time, Schindler invites Leon up to his office, shares some friendly words, and gives him some bread which he then shares with his father and brother. After some time, Schindler has Leon transferred to the day shift, which is less physically demanding; Leyson credits this change with saving his life. Now early in 1945, the rest of the workers are nearing a point of exhaustion.

In April 1945, the Soviet army is closing in on the Germans, who begin to flee. The Nazi officials are ordered to kill all the Jewish workers at the factory, but Schindler thwarts this plan by transferring the officials away.