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Part Three: The Volftsun Siblings 111 surrounded the Soviet position, creating a desperate situation. The Russian commander organized a team to break out of the German encirclement and get reinforcements. Because of her skills, Rosa was ordered to be the medical officer for this team of approximately 40 people during the dangerous mission. It was a dark, moonless night when the team le the encampment and made its way cautiously through the German lines. A firefight broke out. A number of men were killed or wounded before the team, protected by the dark, made its way outside the German perimeter. As a member of the advance party she reconnoitered the way back to the Red Army positions. German bombs rained on Rosa and her comrades om the sky, but she felt no fear. "We were too young to have a concept of mortality," she says. Rosa was wounded during the mission: agments of an exploding shell hurled shrapnel into her le knee. Luckily the wound was minor and she could walk. Later she operated on herself, taking the shrapnel out of her knee. Other members of the team were not so lucky. It was a long trek to the Russian positions through areas controlled by the German army. The team moved at night and rested during the day. At great risk to themselves, the local peasants provided food, shelter, and information. With enormous gratitude, Rosa remembers to this day the villagers who fed them, put them in their own beds, and warned them when the Germans were near. "Once our group entered the village of Borshchovo, near Tula," Rosa recalls, "the soldiers were accommodated by various host families." The next day Rosa woke up to alarming news. The night before, the Germans had raided the village of Misnoya. Rosa's hostess told her: "Your comrades have all le in the middle of the night ahead of a German search party. But don't you worry; we'll lead you to safety." Perhaps the Germans had been informed that Below: Rosa, Ina, and Manya in Moscow, 1951. Russian soldiers were there. In any case, Rosa's colleagues quickly gathered their belongings and escaped. By the time the news made it to the hut where Rosa was staying, it was too dangerous to leave, so Rosa was allowed to sleep. Rosa confesses that she is known as a night owl: "I go to bed late and I rise late; in fact, it is oen not easy to wake me up early in the morning." But at that time Rosa was all alone, behind enemy lines, and she had to find her unit, which was making its way towards the Russian line. Rosa knew her only chance was to make herself invisible to the Germans by dressing as an old Russian peasant woman. Since all the men of fighting age had been draed in to the Russian army, only women, old men, and children remained in the villages. She knew that nobody would pay attention to a bent-over, old woman, but the trick was not only to dress the part, but to act it too. Rosa was given an old quilted jacket, wrapped herself in a shawl so that only her eyes showed, and was fitted with a pair of lapti (homemade shoes fashioned om tree bark—a typical attribute of a Russian peasant) and handed a staff. The peasants instructed her how to walk like an old woman: head down and averting

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