How Doctor Lyubov Langman Died (Sorochitsy)
Lyubov Mikhailovna Langman, a gynecologist, lived in Sorochitsy. She was loved by the local people, and the peasant women concealed her from the Germans for a long time. Her eleven-year-old daughter was in hiding with her. While Langman was in the village of Mikhailiki, a midwife came to her and told her that the wife of the village elder was having difficulty delivering. Langman explained to the midwife what to do, but the condition of the mother got worse with every hour. Faithful to her duty, Langman went to the elder’s house and saved both mother and child. After that. the elder reported to the Germans that a Jewess was in his hut. The Germans took the woman and her daughter to shoot them. At first Langman begged them: “Don’t kill the child.’’ But then she clasped her daughter to herself and said: “Shoot! I don’t want her to live with you.’’ Both mother and daughter were shot.
THE BLACK BOOK
Prepared under the editorship of Ilya Ehrenburg & Vasily Grossman
Translated from the Russian by John Glad and James S. Levine