The book begins with a photograph of an identity card of the protagonist, her face familiar from the cover with her beautiful eyes, and an inscription below the identity card:-
"Inge “Sara” Katz, age 13. The Nazis added the middle name of “Sara” on all passports and other official papers to identify any woman as being Jewish."
If one had any questions about whether this is a novel, however much based on the truth of the era, this answers them. If any doubts, this silences them all.
And yet, despite the very real story of concentration camp survivors who lived through the horrors, it's also almost a fairy tale love story as well, with a good king and a beautiful princess, a rose garden and a very gallant handsome prince, and of course, the incredibly horrid bad wolves that nazis were, and the disgusting horrors that the concentration camps were that these survivors lived through.
................................................................................................
The first chapter begins the transition from a still safe life, albeit under nazi regime's antisemitism beginning to be enforced, towards a highly uncertain one where nazi goons ransack and destroy homes of Jews and take the men away. One good thing is the photographs of people, making it come alive.
After they'd returned home, cleared it of the signs of destruction, they waited for Carl, father of Inge, who did return after a month but very different from the strong and upright handsome man who'd been a distinguished WWI veteran. They visited his sister, Bertha, in Berlin, after his father's funeral, helping Bertha take their newly widowed mother from Bremen so Bertha could care for her, and Inge decided to stay on. Bertha was happy since her own children had been sent to Palestine. Inge began learning dressmaking at a class and made friends.
"Inge was genuinely coming to enjoy her new life in such a cosmopolitan city. Everything for the time being felt surprisingly normal and comfortable as she became increasingly at home in Berlin. Even when, after being there for nearly six months, there was an announcement on the radio that World War II had begun, it barely affected her. It was September 1939, and while she understood that this was a serious time for everyone, it actually meant very little to a 15-year-old like herself. Moreover, it didn’t seem real. Rarely did she see airplanes flying overhead or hear soldiers marching through the streets. There was nothing like that.
"It took nearly a half year following its outbreak that the local newspapers began to report the bombing of cities. Then Inge started to become increasingly anxious about what might happen were the Allied troops to bomb Berlin or Bremen. The war would then no longer be something distant, something happening elsewhere. One morning in particular, while she was in sewing class, she suddenly found herself worried about her family’s safety. She felt as if she were too far away from them. And, as if she’d had a premonition, when she returned home from her class that evening, she received an urgent call from her father. “Inge, it is time for you to come home,” was all he said to her in his deep and authoritative voice."
She was not unhappy about being with her parents again, but she'd felt closer to her dream of opening her own a relief in partnership with Ruthie when she was learning the trade in Berlin.
"In Berlin, she had felt so far away from reality, which is how Germany was planning to handle its “Jewish problem.”
"Upon returning to Bremen, Inge didn’t return to 33 Isarstrasse to live. Rather, her parents had been ordered to move to Legion-Condor-Strasse 1, to what had become known as Das Judenhaus (The Jewish House). This way, the Nazis decided, it would be easier for them to keep track of the Jews, that is, keeping them all in more concentrated locations. Inge’s family was housed on the first floor of a house that had once belonged to a cousin of Adolf Gruenberg (husband of Grandma Rosa). Days of comfortable and proper living were now gone. The three of them had to share just two rooms, one became their living room, and the other their bedroom, which had but one single bed. Inge had no option but to sleep on a chaise lounge at one end of her parents’ bed. Just across the hall from them was the Frank family: the husband, wife, their three sons, and the wife’s brother. At the far end of the floor was a single room where Frau Aronstein lived by herself. They all had to use a single bathroom."
"On the other two floors in the house there were separate kitchens, so thankfully, those residents didn’t add to the chaos when meals had to be prepared. On the second floor were the Jonas and Horowitz families, along with a second Horowitz family that had settled in with a niece. The third floor was occupied by the Hertz family, Frau Wortheimer and her two children, and a Jewish woman with her non-Jewish husband, Herr J. Lisiak. The Nazis had put this man in charge to monitor all the others and to report anything of note back to them. Inge, like everyone else, neither liked nor trusted this man.
"He would always, most suspiciously, need to work on the furnace in the kitchen during their mealtimes. As it turned out, Inge’s family would often receive special offerings from shopkeepers. It appeared to Inge that they did so because it upset them to see children denied the healthy food they needed. They would secretly add such items into Inge’s packages that she would then share with all the other families. Some of these merchants even left groceries for them on the doorstep. The man from the local fish store would also purposely place shopping bags in front of his door when he knew that any of the Katzes would be passing by on their way back from the synagogue. They would then have to take great care to conceal such additional foods that Jews were not permitted to purchase from Herr J. Lisiak.
"Among the various tenants residing in the Judenhaus, Inge found that the most interesting one lived on the top floor. One could usually find her shuffling to and fro, with her frail body bent forward under the weight of the large hump protruding from her back. She would always have a deck of cards with her and told everyone to call her Tante Marta. Inge didn’t believe that that was really her name, but she liked her, and she even allowed her once to tell her a fortune using that deck of cards. “Aah…” she sighed mystically, as she laid out the cards before her. “A very good fortune, indeed,” she said, smiling kindly at Inge. “Plenty of money, and lots of love from a good family, and a good man, I see…”"
................................................................................................
Inge and Ruthie worked together again, although not at such a high fancy atelier as Frau Herbert's had been, but they were together.
"When she thought about those days, the sky, trees, and flowers in her memory appeared quite different than those around her now. Even though she was still living in the same part of Bremen, the sky never appeared to be as clear or as blue as it did in her memories of 33 Isarstrasse. Her recollections of playing in the front yard and on the street facing their home depicted her and the other children playing in crisp white or yellow linens. Now she sensed that everyone, including herself, were dressing in hues of navy, taupe, and gray. When she walked along the path to school or town, she remembered them as being tree-lined and covered with rose bushes, and there were flower boxes on the window ledges overflowing with begonias. But now all she saw were the thick cobblestones she stepped upon with caution, so as to avoid turning an ankle.
"However, it wasn’t long before the uncertainty she had been running away from no longer permitted her any illusions of normalcy. The latest instance of it was the Nazi decree that all Jews over the age of six must have a Gelben Stern, a cloth patch depicting the six-pointed, yellow Star of David sewn onto their clothing, with the word “JUDE” (Jew) appearing on it. After the initial shock, Inge, once more, regained her footing, along with her usual positive and can-do attitude. She decided it really didn’t bother her all that much to wear the star.
"While the Germans meant it to be a mark of shame and ostracism, Inge felt quite proud to have it adorn the side of her jackets on top of her heart. After all, wasn’t she a Jew? Not only had she always been proud of her heritage, she never even wished, much less pretended, to be anyone other than who she was. Besides, everyone within the community already knew who the Jews were, so she felt this way of identifying them to merely be a silly overstatement of the obvious.
"When she walked through the streets of Bremen or stood in the back of the trams, as Jews were no longer permitted either to sit or to be in the front, surprisingly, no one ever treated her with hostility or made her feel as if she were being isolated. In fact, she thought, that it made many of the non-Jews regard her with some compassion. When food was rationed for the Jews, there were even some shop owners who threw in something extra, sometimes even food Jews were forbidden to purchase. She couldn’t tell whether this was the case for everyone who wore the star, but it was what she experienced for the next several months.
"Even with all this, Inge thought, it was an existence she felt she could get used to. They had all, in fact, become quite adept at making the best of difficult situations. For example, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the number of people living in a single house, these young ones, along with others their age, used it as an opportunity to hold dances, which they were no longer allowed to attend at school. They would all go up to the third floor (Ruthie was included, of course), play records, and had a terrific few hours dancing to the music. Within those cramped quarters, they could forget for a little while that a hostile world existed just inches beyond them. Yes, Inge thought, this was not so bad at all."
"But she was not prepared for the night Ruthie came home with tears in her eyes."
"“Oh, Inge, I’m so frightened,” she began, as Inge took her cousin’s hand in her own. “We just received word that we are to collect our things and that we must go in two weeks.”
"“What do you mean ‘go’?” Inge pressed her. Was she going to be able to get to America after all? Oh, she would miss her terribly, but at least Inge could relax in the knowledge that she would be safe.
"“I don’t know where exactly,” Ruthie said, as she took a tissue out from her sleeve and dabbed at the tears falling from her eyes. “They are calling them the Sonderzuge (the special trains). All I know is that they are going to be sending us Jews ‘out east.’”"
................................................................................................
Ruthie's family and other relatives left, but Inge and her family were told to stay back. She saw them off at the station.
"The skies were overcast, and a harsh damp wind was blowing. Still, she stayed there, allowing all those Germans on the platform, those permitted the dignity of entering the Bremen train station through its main entrance, to continue pretending not to have seen what had just taken place—and to continue pretending not to know what was happening to these Jews."
Their departure took another few months.
"As they left, Inge didn’t look out of the window at the city of her birth that she sensed she was now leaving forever. There was no one left there to wave good-bye to, and Inge didn’t want to see the faces of all the non-Jews standing on the platform who pretended not to know what was happening to them. ... The date of their departure was July 24, 1942."
The person appointed to take them to the train left at Hanover.
"“Auf Wiedersehen (German for goodbye, until we meet again), Herr Linnemann,” Inge called after him, still not fully comprehending the insidious role he had been playing. Only much later did she come to understand what he then said to her as he departed. He replied, smiling all the while, “If we ever do see each other again, you will find me hanging by my neck from one of Bremen’s lampposts.”
"“What an odd thing to say,” Inge thought."
So the Germans were quite aware they were committing crimes.
................................................................................................
Inge met someone from Czechoslovakia, Schmuel Berger, who began to court her, which not only brightened her life but seemed to hold promise of future, giving her sustenance and strength.
................................................................................................
"Hitler, to keep the peace with the Danes, fellow Aryans in his mind, decided to allow representatives of the Danish Red Cross along with a couple of others from Sweden and Switzerland to visit Theresienstadt to see for themselves whether all those incarcerated there were being treated humanely. Germany also did this to maintain its working relationship with the Swedes, so that it wouldn’t disrupt Germany’s ability to import ball bearings for the war effort. Thus, the Nazis permitted a contingent of the International Red Cross a brief visit to Theresienstadt."
"Before those selected to be part of this farce could briefly enjoy any of its benefits, something had to be done with all of the cremation remains stored in Theresienstadt. Once the mass graves outside Theresienstadt’s walls had been filled to capacity, the Nazis began to cremate the bodies of inmates and then store the ashes in boxes, each labeled with the name of the deceased. By the time of the scheduled Red Cross visit, so many had accumulated that the Nazis were fearful of their being detected. To avoid this, the Nazis issued an order for an assembly line of able-bodied elderly inmates to pass along these boxes of remains down to the river where they were dumped. When Frau Abt, a friend of Inge’s who was one of those on that line, was handed the box containing her husband’s ashes to be passed on for disposal, she burst into tears.
"There was not only the problem of too many of the dead to worry about, but too many of the living as well. During the month prior to the Red Cross visit, transports to the east also increased. Between seven and eight thousand were sent out, which, as far as the Nazis were concerned, would suffice to alleviate the problem."
"Not only were many older inmates recruited into the Germans’ effort to pull the wool over the Red Cross representatives’ eyes, children, too, were given a role. Those who were allowed outdoors during the visit were cleaned up and given fresh clothing to wear. They were permitted to play with toys in the pavilion, having been prepared beforehand for what they had to say when offered food by SS First Lieutenant Karl Rahm during the actual visit. When handed chocolate, they were to respond, “Uncle Rahm, the same dessert again? Why do we always have to get the same thing?” Likewise, when he offered sardine sandwiches for lunch, they were to say, “Uncle Rahm, sardines again?”"
"Inge, however, didn’t have as much trouble controlling herself. Each morning, she packed a small serving of bread smeared with some margarine and jam to take with her to the wooden barrack for lunch. She left the walls of the ghetto for her job on days when the Nazis were filming the propaganda film about the ghetto, Hitler Gives the Jews a City, which was made so that no one would ever believe that the Germans weren’t treating Jews well. The Germans forced Kurt Gerron, the famous Dutch Jewish filmmaker who had starred in My Blue Angel, to put it together. Once he completed the job, they sent him off on a transport to his death."
"The day after the Red Cross visit was her twentieth birthday."
Schmuel gave her a ring. She began to feel hope of future.
In September, he seemed downcast. When she asked, he told her he was going to be transported.
"The likelihood of her ever seeing him again was slim at best."
He gave her a wild rose, and a photo of himself, on the last evening.
................................................................................................
Schmuel was transported to Auschwitz Birkenau in the inhuman way nazis used cattle cars for the purpose.
"Shortly thereafter, he was told to wait near a section of the camp where women were being held, and to his great surprise and joy, he came upon four of his sisters whom he hadn’t seen in over six years. While he could barely recognize any of them, given the physical hardships they had endured, he was still thankful at having been reunited with them, even if that reunion didn’t last for long. Sadly, though, when he had asked about what had become of their parents, he received the awful news that they had been gassed immediately upon arriving at the camp. His mother was not yet fifty, and his father was under sixty. Also, his eighty-seven-year-old grandmother, her sister, and a number of other relatives and friends also perished— murdered—and that their bodies were disposed of via Auschwitz’s crematoria."
He was later transported elsewhere.
"Schmuel had mixed feelings as he thought about his sisters still in Auschwitz. As the distance increased between himself from the inferno known as Auschwitz Birkenau with every rotation of the train’s wheels, he felt laden with a sense of guilt at having to leave the four of them there. True, he had no control over what was happening to him, but he believed that the camp was the true incarnation of hell on Earth. Now he had to endure forever the thought of the excruciating suffering that Rose, Gizi, Olga, and Elsa had to continue to endure, something he had no way to alleviate."
................................................................................................
Theresienstadt was liberated by Russians on 5th May, 1945.
"From November 24, 1941, until May 8, 1945, nearly 180,000 Jews were held prisoner there, and of the 88,323, whom the Germans transported to Auschwitz and other death or labor camps from there, fewer than 4,000 survived the war. In addition, another 34,000 died while still in Theresienstadt, mostly from contagious diseases, starvation, and exposure to the elements, or in the course of performing brutally hard labor."
Russians, shocked at the state of the inmates, fed them, and proceeded with health check and help.
"From the time the International Red Cross took over providing food, 430 liberated inmates in Theresienstadt died, and another 1,137 died during the following month, as a consequence of all the hardships they had suffered while imprisoned. That brought the total of those sent and perished in the ghetto to 35,088. Inge was struck that the horrors of the war still continued to take their toll even after the hostilities ceased. She couldn’t fathom when it all would end."
................................................................................................
Inge and her parents were among the last to leave Theresienstadt, but were finally transported to Bremen. The U.S. military visited the house they stayed st, and her host family as well as her parents encouraged her to accept attentions of one who was interested in her, Kurt Bird, a Viennese Jew; she wanted to wait for Schmuel, but they were unsure.
Schmuel escaped from the transport train from Dachau that inmates had been forced on by Ukrainian kapos and SS with dogs, the former beating the inmates and latter threatening to let loose dogs and then set fire, but then the transport train was strafed by allied planes, guards ran away, and Schmuel along with other inmates from the train escaped into woods. They wandered until they were fed and sheltered one day by the mayor and his wife in Unter-Igling, and were subsequently housed there at the command of U.S. military who arrived the next day. The mayor needed them to plead for his son. Schmuel and his fellow escaped, a Romanian Jew named Shlomo, were given new clothes by the military, and Schmuel saw how emaciated he was.
"Later that day, after the mayor had reported for a meeting with the Americans, he returned to his home greatly agitated. Some of the villagers also showed up soon after. The largest room in the house in fact filled up. Schmuel remained sitting, just outside the door, not to eavesdrop but to catch the late day’s sun. He heard shouts coming from within the room. “Somebody get a doctor! He’s having a heart attack!”
"The mayor had collapsed—although not from a heart attack. Probably a result of all that shock he had experienced that day. Schmuel had offered to help but was then informed by the Americans of what had transpired. The mayor, with others from the surrounding villages, had been ordered to witness the criminal devastation perpetrated by their fellow countrymen and then recount what he was shown to the rest of the population. The mayor had just returned to his home with others from that experience. Among the awful scenes were those of Schmuel’s Camp 4 as well as the derailed train he had been in."
"Schmuel found out that the SS hadn’t delivered empty threats to him and the other patients in the typhus barrack that night they were being moved. The SS had piled the innumerable dead along with those who had been ill onto a single, gigantic heap, doused it with gasoline, and then set the pile on fire. Schmuel hoped that, at the very least, they hadn’t released their dogs on those poor souls. He later learned that the SS commander of Camp 4 had shot himself in the neighboring village of Hurlach to avoid being captured. Such news annoyed Schmuel. It seemed a far too easy and merciful death considering how he and his fellow inmates had suffered."
................................................................................................
Inge accepted Kurt Bird's invitation to one evening at the U.S. military officer's club. She was unable to dance, however, or to feel happy there.
"The American soldiers had all invited pretty German women as their dates. As far as she could tell, none were Jewish women liberated from the camps. Only German women who had so recently been their enemies. It appalled her to see how quickly they could switch their allegiance. What had happened to all they had believed in? How many of those present had approved of, or actually participated in the murderous acts committed against Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Russians, cripples, or even their fellow Germans critical of the Nazis?
"These women, she thought, had too quickly discarded their former views. And for what? Cigarettes? Pantyhose? A more comfortable life in America? Inge was disgusted by what she was observing and sensed that she couldn’t enjoy an evening spent amongst them. Just thinking about it was making her upset. Being seen there with an American officer by these women might make them think that she, too, was one of them. Still, she felt that she had to remain at least for a little while so as not to disappoint or offend Kurt. They left early that evening, regardless. Inge vowed to herself that she would never return to the officers’ club.
"From that time forward, Inge would only attend the Saturday night dances sponsored by the Jewish Community Center run by the Jewish military chaplain, Manuel M. Poliakoff. They were held in what had been an enormous residence at 17 Osterdeich. ... Both survivors and Jewish military personnel would attend the Sabbath services. Weddings, after a while, were also held there, and eventually, a great number of them were performed. So many of the survivors were most anxious to marry and to return to more “normal” existences, and to leave the horrors of war as quickly as possible. Whenever there was a marriage taking place, everyone in the community was invited to join in the festivities with the newlyweds. Kurt, who was often away attending to military matters during the week, always made it a practice to be back by Saturday to accompany Inge to the various social events being held at the synagogue."
................................................................................................
Inge received a short letter from Schmuel to say he was coming, and although Kurt argued that it may not happen, she had to refuse his proposal when it was time for him to leave. Schmuel arrived after 1945 was over, and each immediately knew that the other had waited.
"Inge and Schmuel were married the following year on June 24, 1947. It was on her 23rd birthday. Inge did eventually make it to America, moving there with Schmuel (who formally changed his name to Sam) and their two daughters, Hanna and Ruthie. They settled in Flushing, New York. Their marriage lasted nearly 60 years until Schmuel’s passing in 2006. Over the years, Inge never gave up hope searching for her cousin, Ruthie Cohen, and the other members of her family. But it was to no avail. She learned that they had each been shot in Minsk a few days after Inge arrived in Theresienstadt. But being that there was no physical evidence, she never gave up all hope. Sam’s sisters and brother managed to survive, except for Moshe who died just before the liberation.
"Inge’s parents remained in Bremen where Carl restarted his business with the aid of an American program to assist Jews. In 1945, he re-established the Jewish Community Center of Bremen, and he was also instrumental in the establishment of the newly constructed Bremen synagogue in 1961. In August 1968, he became the president of the East-West German Commerce Association, a position he held until his death in 1972, at the age of seventy-three. Marianne then moved to the United States to be with Inge and lived to be 104 years old, also dying in 2006, just shortly after Sam.
"To their immense joy, Sam lived long enough to develop close relationships with his five grandchildren and to even meet his two great-grandchildren. Marianne, with her two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, also met her two great-great grandchildren. Both lived out their lives in good health and filled with warm friendships and close family ties. Inge, now 91-years- young, celebrated her milestone birthday surrounded by all those who love and cherish her. She has been an inspiration to everyone who knows her, and she has passed that quality of unconditional love on to her descendants for generations to come."
Inge received a short letter from Schmuel to say he was coming, and although Kurt argued that it may not happen, she had to refuse his proposal when it was time for him to leave. Schmuel arrived after 1945 was over, and each immediately knew that the other had waited.
"Inge and Schmuel were married the following year on June 24, 1947. It was on her 23rd birthday. Inge did eventually make it to America, moving there with Schmuel (who formally changed his name to Sam) and their two daughters, Hanna and Ruthie. They settled in Flushing, New York. Their marriage lasted nearly 60 years until Schmuel’s passing in 2006. Over the years, Inge never gave up hope searching for her cousin, Ruthie Cohen, and the other members of her family. But it was to no avail. She learned that they had each been shot in Minsk a few days after Inge arrived in Theresienstadt. But being that there was no physical evidence, she never gave up all hope. Sam’s sisters and brother managed to survive, except for Moshe who died just before the liberation.
"Inge’s parents remained in Bremen where Carl restarted his business with the aid of an American program to assist Jews. In 1945, he re-established the Jewish Community Center of Bremen, and he was also instrumental in the establishment of the newly constructed Bremen synagogue in 1961. In August 1968, he became the president of the East-West German Commerce Association, a position he held until his death in 1972, at the age of seventy-three. Marianne then moved to the United States to be with Inge and lived to be 104 years old, also dying in 2006, just shortly after Sam.
"To their immense joy, Sam lived long enough to develop close relationships with his five grandchildren and to even meet his two great-grandchildren. Marianne, with her two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, also met her two great-great grandchildren. Both lived out their lives in good health and filled with warm friendships and close family ties. Inge, now 91-years- young, celebrated her milestone birthday surrounded by all those who love and cherish her. She has been an inspiration to everyone who knows her, and she has passed that quality of unconditional love on to her descendants for generations to come."
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
................................................
................................................
January 16, 2020 - January 18, 2020.
................................................
January 16, 2020 - January 18, 2020.
................................................
................................................
................................................
