Rivka’s Rules

"Nevertheless, you must learn them," Rivka said. "See my number? It is lower than yours. Someone with a number like mine has been here a long time. We are survivors. We can tell you things. Read the numbers. My lower number tells you I can organize things."
"Organize?" Hannah shook her head. "What do you mean?"
"Organize," Rivka said. "As I have organized some shoes for you, and not wooden clogs, either. And sweaters. You will need them because the nights are cold still. And if you need medicines, though we have few of them, even in the hospital—and you do not want to go there if you can help it—you must find Sarah the Lubliner, J11177. She works in the sorting shed and sometimes she can organize ointments from the pockets of coats or valises. And sometimes pills. I think some bandages, too, though you can wear them only where no one can see or Sarah would be in trouble.

"And you must never go near that," Rivka said, turning suddenly and pointing way across the compound to a large wooden fence. There was a black handleless door. Beyond the fence loomed the smokestack. "We call that the door to Lilith's Cave, the cave of death's bride. If you go through that door, you do not come out again."

"But the most important thing for you to know is the midden," Rivka said.
"The garbage dump?" Shifre and Hannah asked together.
"Yes. Commandant Breuer is not supposed to allow children under fourteen in the camp. So whenever he comes to inspect things, the children have to disappear. What he does not see does not exist. The best hiding place is in the midden. None of the Germans go there. It is beneath them. Oh, they know the children are hiding in it, of course, but they pretend it is too dirty, too disgusting. So they do not look. Even Breuer really knows."