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This is a story that one of my best friends wrote. it's extremely long, but it's amazing!
Love Rebbecca
This story is dedicated to my great grandmother and great grandfather, who lived a version of this story.
By Mayan Lazarovich
I step into my office room, and I start to write about my life. It will be a letter to a bunch of school kids in California. They want to know about my history, my life. The letter went like this:
My name is Rebecca Levi and this is my story…
Glaring into the night… “I won’t survive,” I thought to myself. The night air was so freezing my arm hairs stuck up, the night wind so bitter and cruel, it almost gave me frostbite. My lips were blue, my teeth were chattering, and I started to miss home…
“What in the world are you doing David?” I asked my older brother, panting heavily.
“We will be late for Shabbat dinner!!! And besides, you should be very careful in these streets.” David replied, dragging my best friend and I, trying to make us run.
“Why?” my best friend, Rachel, and I asked in unison.
“We are in GERMANY!!! Nazi officers are everywhere! Face it you girls are defenseless! ” He teased us as usual.
We stopped running for a second, just to catch our breath, and a Nazi officer tapped David on the shoulder. Neither of us understood what he said, and after every word he stopped to scowl at us. Then the officer hollered something, and David, once again, grabbed our wrists and ran, tugging us along. I was glad David knew how to speak German fluently. We learned at a Jewish private school, and we only spoke Hebrew and English. But in the eighth grade you learned how to speak German also.
When we got home, Rachel’s mother, my mother, and Rachel’s little brother were all sitting at the Shabbat dinner table. David quickly whispered to us not to say a word to our mothers, because it would only worry them. I hated it when he pretended to be the boss, but, if it were for mama and papa’s sake, I would do anything.
“I am very sorry we are late… it is all my fault.” I took the blame, being responsible, as usual.
“Well then, I am glad to see you are still alive.” Mama said sternly, sometimes she overreacted.
“Hi Rachee! What took you so long?” said Rachel’s baby brother, Benny, who awkwardly waddled over to her.
“ Hi Benny.” Rachel said, picking him up, and placing him on her side.
“Mommy was worried sick!!!” Benny said, glaring at her in disappointment.
Suddenly, Rachel’s and my father walked through the door. Chattering loudly, they sat down at the table, we said the prayer, lit the candles, sang songs, and started eating.
When Shabbat dinner was over, all of us, the children went into my room to play. About two hours later, everyone heard a knock on the door. Benny was asleep and the three of us, Rachel, David, and I were playing monopoly in my room. David was cheating; he found a way to cheat in everything. Then, Mama rushed upstairs and told us to wake up Benny, and to hide him under the bed. Then we had to hide ourselves under the bed, and we are not allowed to make a single sound. Rachel and I were so nervous, we could barely move and David had to wake up Benny. David loved Benny; he thought he was adorable, so he slid him under the bed very carefully, as if not to hurt him.
Once we were all under the bed, we heard loud footsteps climbing up the stairs. We heard mama say, “We don’t have any children, we only have the rooms because of our nieces and nephews. They visit all of the time.”
Then I heard a rough voice say, “I am checking. I have to ma’am. Hitler’s orders.”
We saw very shiny, black shoes. Benny was about to start crying, but David noticed quickly enough and covered his mouth and silently stroked his hair. Benny calmed down quickly. As much as I hated admitting it, I always believed David had a magic touch, so special, he didn’t even realize it. Then, we noticed big, fierce, growling, brown eyes peeking at us. Benny started crying.
“Get out from under the bed. NOW!!!” the eyes disappeared. The black shoes “clicked” together.
We rushed from under the bed. Benny refused to, but for his own good, David pulled him very hard to get him out. I heard mama sobbing in the back of the room and papa trying to get the officer to take him instead of us.
“I’ll take care of you folks later. As for the children, stand in a line from oldest to youngest.” The officer growled harshly. I saw my parent’s and Rachel’s parents in the back of the room, all of their faces red, and crying. Mostly our mother’s though. Our father’s didn’t cry, instead, they got mad. And I could tell that my dad wanted to punch that man in the face, and so did I.
Rachel, was the second youngest, the youngest being Benny. You could see the fright in her eyes. Her eyes, that were usually a deep, intense, blue, were now gray with fear and worry. And she was shaking, so hard; her black, thick, curls were now gray and vibrating. I could tell she was worried about being separated from her brother.
“You are coming with me.” The officer rudely remarked.
All of the parents were trying to grab us, keep us with them. David hugged all three of us, and for the first time in my life, pulling us close, and he said to mama and papa,
“I will take care of them. I will, if it is the last thing I do!!!!!!!” David was crying too. His arm outstretched hoping for mama and papa to grab it, they reached, but the officer slapped their arms. Was this my brother? Was this David? He was so protective and so strong. Who was this??? To this day, I still don’t know what came over him.
“I love you mama, I love you papa!!!” all four of us said together, yes, even Benny. We realized this would be a long journey.
Rachel scooped Benny up and he was sobbing uncontrollably. He was screaming “mama, papa, mama, papa,” over and over again, we realized there was very little chance he would remember them if we didn’t see them again. But, we always seemed to manage to believe we would see them again.
The officer led us to a police car, and Benny would not stop screaming. The officer slapped him in the face, and that just made him cry more. The poor kid, he barely knew what was going on. We were driven to a train station that would eventually take us to a “camp.” David held on to us the whole time, and used that magic touch of his to calm down Benny. Rachel, Benny, and I would be dropped off separately than David, this was our stop, and David wouldn’t let go, and we wouldn’t leave, until the Nazi Officer from the camp came onto the bus and noticed we were supposed to get off right now. He grabbed us all by the wrists, but didn’t pull just yet. Before the officer pulled our wrists, David slipped a locket into my hand. It was the shape of a heart, and had, on one side, a picture of him, and on the other, a picture of mama and papa. The officer started pulling, he noticed I wouldn’t leave unless he pulled. I screamed on the top of my lungs, with tears flooding down my face,
“I LOVE YOU DAVID!!!!! AND I ALWAYS WILL!!!”
“I LOVE YOU REBECCA!!! WE WILL BE REUNITED DON’T YOU WORR”
The officer had already pulled me out of the bus, and shut the doors. I waved to David, and he waved back. We were both sobbing. I had never cried so much in my life, and when I finally cry so much, it was because I was being separated from my brother, who teased me and called me names. But that didn’t seem to matter anymore. He was my brother, and I loved him. The train started pulling away, and I grabbed Rachel’s hand, and Rachel grabbed Benny’s hand, and we chased the train. We chased it until the fence of the camp showed up in front of our faces. I was crying so hard I almost fell down; I kicked the fence frantically, hoping that it would break, but obviously, it didn’t, so I held Rachel’s hand again, and she hugged me, the longest hug ever known to human kind. I knew we would have to go through a lot. Then, Benny said,
“Rachee, I wanna go home.”
That pulled our triggers. We both cried, too many tears were shed that very second. And Rachel replied,
“I do too Benny, I do too.”
An officer came up to us, he said we had better get to our “house” because it was bedtime.
We realized Benny couldn’t sleep in the same room as us, so we went crazy. We HAD to find somebody we knew to watch him. We went to his “home” and I recognized one of the boys there. His name was Jacob Cohen. He had been in my fifth grade class this year.
“Jacob!!!”
“Are you in this house?” I asked, staring at the old, smelly, rusted number on the door, “Boy’s house 8563”
“Yes, why are you here?”
“Long story, anyway, you have to keep an eye out for Rachel’s little brother, Benny. Whenever he asks to see us, you MUST find a way to get him to us. Okay?”
“Sure…Rebecca?”
“Yes Jacob?”
“Are you scared?”
“Very much so.”
“That makes two of us.”
I stared at him for a while, deep into his eyes. I saw a frightened soul. Just like mine.
“Goodbye then.” I broke the silence.
“Goodbye.” Jacob’s face got teary, and he waved in silence. He started sobbing, but he was trying to hide it. Then I ran, and ran, and ran.
I ran back to my house, Girl’s house 5396. I was in the same house as Rachel. I wondered if there really were 5,396 houses for girls… I was in Auschwitz after all; my father had said it was the worst camp yet. This camp scared me horribly.
I walked into my house and there were at least twenty girls walking around. But, there were only about ten beds. Rachel came up to me and said that Benny had already left to go to his house. She said every girl had to share a bed. And I was to share with Rachel.
Nighttime was horrible. All the girls cried, while Eva, the oldest girl, who was sixteen, and her best friend, Marta, who was fifteen, tried to calm us down. They would stroke our hair and make up wonderful stories about unicorns and ponies. Even though it sounded babyish, they made it magical. I couldn’t help but think about David, were he was, and his “magic touch”. He would have calmed me down tonight. But the girls had done quite a good job also. My eyelids felt heavy all of a sudden, it took too much strength to keep them up, and so I let them down. Rachel’s body was squishing me. And then I felt something a little pointy in my pocket. I reached my hand into my pocket, and felt my locket. I tied it around my neck, and drifted to sleep….
That night I dreamed about Hitler. And about his cruel laws that he makes for the Jews, he said nastily,
“Jews are even less important than spiders!!!”
I saw a bunch of signs on restaurant doors that said,
“No Jews, or dogs” or “Kill the Jews”
There were nasty drawings of how ugly Jews were, and how handsome Germans were.
“Wake up Hun!” Marta gently said as shook me awake. I woke up and felt a sudden cramp, I hadn’t eaten since last night, around six o’clock, and now it was five AM, but I always had a midnight snack with my mother. Although it was a little more like a midnight feast. That was the time we talked. Just remembering my mother, made me twitch. I cried, again. This time, it felt like my eyes were going to fall out.
“We have breakfast for you, if you’d like it.”
“Yes please.” I answered politely.
She handed me stale bread, and a bowl of dirty water she said she had gathered from “drink time” I didn’t know what “drink time” was, but I figured I would find out.
I tried to bite into the bread, and I simply couldn’t. I saw Rachel in a corner of the small room, crying.
Marta said, “The older girls and boys get slightly better food, since we work more hours… I could save a piece of regular bread for you, or as close to regular as I can get, but just until you get used to your food. Okay?”
I nodded my head yes and said thank you to Marta. She smiled and walked away. I ran over to Rachel, and gave her a big hug. She told me she missed home terribly. I then, also started to cry. I missed mama, papa, and David. I clutched my locket to my chest, underneath my shirt. I was making sure it was still there, and it was. I took it out of my shirt and opened it up. I saw mama and papa’s faces, and I saw David’s smiling face, on picture day. I only noticed right then, that on the top of the locket, engraved, “To my sister, on her eleventh birthday” I read it over and over again. It never got old. Today was my birthday. I had forgotten!!! I was now eleven years old!!!
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
A whistle was blowing. I put the locket under my shirt again.
“All the new girls,” Eva yelled, “Just line up in height!!! Hurry up now come on! Come on, hurry up!”
I figured out we would be “inspected” every morning around 5:00 AM. The Nazi officer growled a couple words in German, and Eva mumbled the translation in Hebrew for Rachel and I. All he really told us was that we start working in now, and that the older girls get their breakfast now. Breakfast, I was starving! He took Lila, one of the girls that lived with us, by the hair, and pulled. Lila wasn’t in line correctly. She was supposed to be on the other side of Danielle. A couple seconds later we hear a scream of pure torture and terror. We waited for a long time. Lila never came back. I was devastated beyond words. But, I had to get on with life like every other girl did. The girls were used to these things.
Hopefully Marta would remember to bring me that bread. We had to clean the officers’ bathrooms, and then we had to go and wash all their dishes. They had a feast for every meal of the day. And after the dishes, we had “drink time.” The work was pure torture, we had to do all the officers’ work for them, and they hit some of the girls, very hard. They had marks on their backs that night; they were bleeding, swollen, and some even almost dying. During “drink time” they put us in old rusty wagons, with a small 2 by 2 foot window with three-inch wide bars on the window. The officers, some of the cruelest ones, sprayed a hose into the wagon, barely reaching any. I didn’t get one drop. Rachel was next to Benny who wanted water, so she pushed the people against the window away from her and cupped her hands, got three drips, and poured them into Benny’s mouth. Benny wanted more, but she said she couldn’t. He started crying. Rachel whispered to me,
“What have we done to them???”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.” I answered, deep in thought.
During the evening, Marta came to me and handed me a small piece of not-rock-hard bread. She told me that this was instead of regular dinner today. She also told me that we wouldn’t get lunch at this camp. I hugged her instead of saying thanks for the bread. She laughed a laugh of pity, and said, “No problem” I knew she was lying. It must have gotten her a lot of problems, but I was very grateful anyway.
The next morning breakfast was the same. It was stale, rock hard, bread, but I managed to bite into it that day. When the whistle blew, the officer said something in German, and Eva said we would be put in showers tomorrow, we would finally get to take showers!!! Rachel got excited, but I felt that something wasn’t right. I decided to tell Rachel. She agreed, and said we should run away, and take Benny. So we did, at midnight.
Before we left, Marta and Eva each gave Rachel and I two pieces of bread. They gathered enough water for perhaps two days, in a camp condition, which was barely any water, but we were still very glad. We hugged Marta and Eva and they wished us good luck. Marta gave us her extra sheet on her bed that she said would come in handy. I wondered what for, but I guessed I would figure out. We ran over to boy’s house 8,563. We opened the door and Benny was sleeping in the same bed as Jacob Cohen. I shook him awake and he wouldn’t budge. Rachel stepped up near him and whispered something in his ear. His eyes popped open and he got up slowly, and stretched his arms upward, hoping for Rachel to pick him up.
I said my farewells to Jacob, and he said,
“Rebecca, all along, you really have been my hero. Good luck.” This time he hugged me. I asked him if he wanted to come with us, and he said no. He didn’t want to come with us, and I thanked him for watching Benny. Lastly, we left.
All of the guards had gone to the other side of the camp, because other children had tried to escape, that was my guess anyway. Every one called Benny “The little digger” because of his super digging skills with his hands and feet and this was the one time I was glad for that. He started digging, and he got under the heavy fence. Rachel and I crawled under the fence; we were both bleeding from the fence’s metal that was old and prickly. It was barbed wire too. Right then, Rachel scooped Benny off the ground, kissed him on the cheek, and off we ran.
We hid in the woods for quite a while. The first night was the worst. It was the middle of the night; I got out of the makeshift lopsided tent we had made out of the bed sheet Marta gave us. I stepped out of the tent.
Glaring into the night… “I won’t survive,” I thought to myself. The night air was so freezing my arm hairs stuck up, the night wind so bitter and cruel, it almost gave me frostbite. My lips were blue, my teeth were chattering, and I started to miss home… I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t, I realized that crying wouldn’t help. No matter what I did, I still was not home, I still wasn’t with my family, and I still wasn’t near Marta and Eva, and their kind ways. I would have to survive many nights like these.
Rachel had just stepped out of the tent, with a light sweater that Eva had knit for her. I also had one, except Benny was sleeping with it on. Rachel sat down next to me, took off her sweater and handed it to me. I gratefully slipped it on. The itchy yarn felt sort of nice, just because I had the feeling that I had something warm on me. Rachel said, in a weak voice,
“Will we make it Rebecca? Will we survive? Will Benny?”
“Of course, if we have to fight to survive it, we will fight. If we have to make sacrifices, we will!” I was starting to get annoyed at Rachel’s question. “Yes. All of us will survive Rachel.”
I motioned to her to come back into the tent. She followed me, and we very quickly went to sleep.
I woke up to a small meow, from a kitten. Rachel must have heard it too, and since she was an animal lover, she immediately ran out of the tent, and saw the small kitten. It was almost starved, it could barely walk, and it actually fell down when it reached our tent. Rachel wailed,
“Oh!!! Such a poor baby!!!!! Are you okay??? Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”
She picked up the kitten and cradled it in her arms. Rachel cooed,
“I will name you Yaeli, that’s my mother’s name!” It was silent for a second, but Rachel calmed herself and started cooing again, “You are so adorable!!! Except, we have to fatten you up first!!!”
All that day, Rachel went about, fishing, in a creek that we had discovered when we went exploring, with a handmade pole that broke after two minutes. And whenever she caught something, she would throw it to me, and I would cook it in a fire. Then, I would give it to Benny, and he would feed it to Yaeli, the orange and white cat. She would gratefully eat it, and lick Benny a lot. She didn’t even know that Benny did none of the REAL work; he just fed it to her, and got all of the credit. By the time we were too tired to work anymore, Yaeli had fattened up quite a bit. She was licking Benny’s face nonstop, and he was LAUGHING nonstop. Rachel brought Yaeli and Benny into our lopsided tent, and they both took a long nap. Rachel and I were talking about how much we missed our homes, our warm beds, our warm, puffy, comforters, and most of all our family. I missed them so much. I especially missed David.
We were crying, starving, and almost dying of thirst. I hugged Rachel, and we sat like that for a long, long time.
After a trip to the stream with our kitten and Benny, we were all tired once again. I sat on the ground with Rachel. We were talking about all of our old friends, and how much they used to tease us about being too “girly.” That was the first time we laughed. Once we realized that it was the first time we laughed, we laughed more and more!
I felt a tap on my shoulder, and thought it was Benny; I picked up my head and saw David!!! I screamed as loud as I possibly could. My throat already felt sore, but I would scream until my lungs burst, run out of air, and faint! David picked Rachel and me up at the same time. He stared at me with a sparkle in his eye, and his mouth smiling all the way, you could see his huge dimples.
“How are you Hamudale?” (Which is cutie in Hebrew)
“I’m doing fine!!! Were did you go for so long? I thought I would never see you agai…” I fainted. Since I could barely talk before, it took all my strength away…
I woke up with David right above me, and I was under a blanket, and had a wet cloth on my forehead. Were did the cloth come from? Did the water come from the creek? David hugged me very tightly. I suddenly felt very homesick. It overcame me. I started crying, but not a horrid cry, I was already too used to crying to make it dramatic.
Then I lay down for quite a while. Every couple minutes, Rachel, Benny, David, or Yaeli came and checked on me. After I felt better, all of us went fishing.
I didn’t catch anything, but David caught us three fish, and surprisingly enough, Benny caught a huge fish. That night, we had a big supper. All thanks to David and Benny. Rachel and I stayed up all night, next to Yaeli, the kitten, talking about when we would see our parents again. We imagined, that after the war, we would own huge mansions, with six floors, and I would have four children, and Rachel would have two children. They would be the best of friends, and we would still be best friends. I would name my children, Talli, Libby, Nellie and the boy, who would be the youngest, would be named Ari. Rachel’s children would be named Yaeli, like her kitten, and her mother, and Nathan. We were laughing, and planning, and teasing each other. We would be neighbors, we decided, and we would visit our parents every weekend, with our children. When we finally got too tired to talk anymore, it was so late I couldn’t see her anymore.
We fell asleep, and when there was a lot of light outside, Yaeli was licking our faces, telling us in her own words, that she wanted us to wake up. I sat up, and saw that Rachel was still closing her eyes, so I shook her, still nothing. I shook her harder, and her eyes cracked open. She mumbled something, and she closed her eyes again. I left the tent to have breakfast, knowing that when she wanted to wake up, she would. About twenty minutes later, she woke up. She dragged herself out of the tent. Her eyes were gray, just like the day when the officer took us from my home. They were lifeless. And her hair, once again, was gray, but not vibrating this time. She could barely walk, she was stumbling, and then, she vomited. She fell to the ground, and started coughing. The three of us ran to her, Benny was crying wildly. David picked her up, and took the bucket of water we had next to our tent, cupped his hands and gathered water, and splashed her face.
She coughed uncontrollably, and, I will never forget, she fell on the floor and fainted. I picked up Benny as quickly as I could, we were both sobbing, and I ran, and ran, and ran, and ran. When I came back with Benny, he was sleeping in my arms. Rachel was in the tent, and David was resting near the big, hollow tree. Yaeli was resting her head on Rachel’s shoulder, and she was purring.
Rachel opened her eyes once again. I screamed for David. David came running, he sat next to Rachel and whispered, “You are going to make it, you are.”
Rachel tried to smile, but she couldn’t. I ran out of the tent so she wouldn’t see me weep. Again. When I felt ready to come back, Rachel was sitting up. She smiled the hugest smile I have ever seen. And she quietly whispered, “I will be okay.” It was my turn to smile. How dare I even think that Rachel would get hurt. She was too strong for that. Even though her eyes and hair were gray, I knew she would regain the brilliant color she once had.
That night, I caught the big fish. It wasn’t huge, but that was all we had. Even though I was starving 24/7, I was glad for all of the food we manage to have. The stream was a miracle, a miracle from God. Those things were the things that helped me believe in God during this nasty journey.
About three months later, it was Benny’s birthday. Every one knew that we would all have to get him a present. The problem was what could we buy as a present for a four year-old? So, when Benny was sleeping with Yaeli, we all went on a hunt through the woods. I decided to make him a crown of twigs, flowers, and pretty leaves. I was planning to make a 5 out of the twigs, and sew it onto the top of the crown with grass. Rachel was going to make him a slingshot from bendy twigs and little things that she made herself from berries. But David had the greatest present of all. He made Benny a tree-hideout, from his hollow tree. He also made a bunch of knick-knacks for him to play with inside of it.
The next day, it was Benny’s birthday. He woke up and yawned. Poor Benny, he didn’t even know what a birthday was, or when his was. Once we explained the present part, he shrieked of delight! I smiled. Then a frown appeared on his shiny little face.
“I WANT MY MAMMA AND PAPA! AND I WANT THEM NOW!!!!” Yes, it was a weird outbreak, but I knew why he wanted them. He remembered on his fourth birthday, his latest one, mamma and papa had hugged him, and spoiled him even more. And he wanted that. He wanted his parents.
Other than that little outburst, Benny’s birthday was cheerful. He loved David’s present so much! Him and David went into the tree hideout together after we ate lunch. So, Rachel and I went for a walk in the woods, maybe if we were lucky, we could find some berries. When we were walking, we saw an injured little blue jay on the dirt path we had made. His wing was broken. Rachel was determined to fix the little bird’s wing. I understood why, she was such a caring person. So we walked back to our tent, and she put the bird next to our tent. She named it berry. I never completely understood why, but I didn’t dare ask her. She had her own private reasons for everything.
The next day, Benny still wanted it to be his birthday, but we explained to him why he couldn’t have one every day. We saw how upset he was, so David offered to take him to the tree hideout. Benny agreed to it quickly and happily.
So when the two boys left, Rachel was feeding Berry something white, and sticky. I asked her if his wing was fixed, and she happily said it was not broken anymore. I smiled at her, and she smiled back. She said she was going to let berry go. I nodded my head yes, and she walked slowly away into the forest.
She didn’t want me to follow her, so I sneaked behind her without her knowing it. She sat on a tree stump, and she stroked her dear blue jay’s head. It sang it’s beautiful blue jay’s song for her. She giggled almost silently. I was glad she had some form of happiness in her life. She opened her hands, and she whispered into Berry’s body silently, “ Go, go free your self. Live life the way you want. Go back to your family, and your little birdie friends. Go now.” Slowly, and cautiously, the bird flapped its wings, and softly flew out of Rachel’s hands. When it departed from her, she softly cried, she sat there for a long time, trying to follow her dear friend in the sky. After what felt like hours, she got up, and started walking.
“Becky, I know you are there. It’s okay to come out.” Rachel delicately said.
I stepped out from behind the bushes. I silently giggled at her cleverness. But when I saw Rachel’s eyes, a pang of sorrow came over me. I hugged her for a long time. I then suggested that we should go back to our tent. Rachel agreed. We walked all the way back, talking about our life. I was being strong. She was being strong. ALL of us were being strong.
When we got back to the tent, we fell into a hushed sleep. Little did we know what was going to happen to us next…
About three months later, David told us that were we were hiding, was a very popular spot for all of the people that escaped from the camps. He said we have to build a secret shelter. Maybe a whole in the ground… We had to find a way to make an escape route. So that day we dig the deepest whole I had ever seen in my life! David put containers with water in it inside of it, and some fish, already cooked. Lastly, we covered the whole with a thin coating of grass. So it looks like it is solid ground.
After that, Rachel and I found a great little bush that grew non-poisonous berries on it. We picked them all, and put them in a handmade bowl made out of leaves with beautiful colors. That night we had a lot of berries.
Since Benny was five, and he had never gone to school, Rachel and I decided to teach him his ABC’s. He was a very bright child. He memorized his ABC’s and spelling basics in less than two hours. I knew, that if this war would be over soon enough, he would become very successful in life. I smiled at his clever spelling guesses. I just realized, that he was so much like Rachel it was chilling! If only I had realized it before! He and Rachel read at the same pace, everything!
TWO MONTHS LATER…
I woke up to the alarming sound of Benny’s howling. David shook Rebecca and me awake. Both of us were very groggy and disagreeable. He pulled us hard, and pushed us into the big ditch we dug earlier. I clutched on to David’s arm, as he pulled me all the way to the deep ditch. I heard loud whistles coming from the back of the forest. Benny screamed again. David tore the tent down, and put it in my hands. I clutched it with all of my strength. Once we were under the whole, we heard hard, tough, scary footsteps on the ground above us. Hopefully they wouldn’t step in our whole…
We heard whispering, “I’m so thirsty!” one of the officers said.
“We have to keep quiet, so none of those filthy Jews will here us.” Another whispered.
“Don’t you think we should get going, no one is here. At least, no one we know of.”
We then heard footsteps going farther and farther. All of a sudden, Benny screeched. We heard the footsteps running towards us again. David covered Benny’s mouth, and stroked his hair. That was somehow familiar because on that first night, the night when we got taken away from our parents, he did the same thing. I used to call it “a magic touch” but I was young and immature, and I don’t believe in magic anymore. Not anymore.
We waited there for hours, perhaps days, I don’t remember. All I remember is that we finished all of our food and water in only a fraction of the time. We were hungry and thirsty in a very short time.
When the evil officers finally left, we were in a hurry to get out of the torturous hole. At one point, all of us were so crowded, we couldn’t breathe. When David removed the grass coating, I leaped out of the hole and filled my lungs with all of the fresh air they could handle! Rachel became less cheery, depressed very easily, and she was constantly gloomy. She wasn’t Rachel. And I definitely knew that.
After Rachel got a little cheerier, she and I went on long walks in the woods. We talked quite a bit. We didn’t talk about things we used to. We only talked about if we were going to make it, if we were going to live long enough to see the war end. Would we? Rachel had been so scared of these things since the Nazi officers came to intrude on us. She got very worried about her parents, and where they were now. And so was I.
When we went back to our tent, it wasn’t much of a tent yet. David and Benny were trying to figure out how to make another tent from the sheet we took down so the officers couldn’t see any signs of human life. We had to help them build it. So we did. Yes, many times it fell down, but that was okay, I was with my friends and family, and that was all I wanted to be doing. Giggling and joking with them, about how I could’ve made the tent better than David. Oh, the memories.
The next three months went like that, until something happened. Something tragic happened that would end Rachel’s life…
BENNY WAS MISSING…
We searched all morning… we searched all night… we searched all the next morning… we searched all of the next night… no sign of Benny. No signs at all. Rachel didn’t talk to any one; Rachel didn’t make eye contact, or any contact with any one. She stopped talking to me about all of the things we used to talk about. All I knew was that I had to get Benny back. I had to get him back now. If I ever wanted Rachel to be happy again…
Benny had been gone for a week. Rachel was starving herself. She felt she had no reason to live. I wanted to get Benny. That night I decided to go searching again for him. I searched for hours, walking in circles helplessly. I spotted Benny’s tree hideout, the one David made for his birthday. I walked towards it, and sat in the opening.
“Ouchie!” I heard a tiny voice screech, from inside of the tree. I gasped louder than I ever have before.
“BENNY!!!” I screamed, “How could you do this to me? To us? To Rachel? HOW?”
“I’m, I’m, I’m sorry… I really am” Benny whispered, his voice shaky from crying.
“Take my hand Benny, let’s go!” I grabbed his wrist, and I pulled him all the way to our tent. I gave him a huge lecture about how bad he was, but how happy I was to find him.
Once we got to the tent, I shook David awake, and he saw Benny at my side, he started scolding Benny, but I told him that I already did enough of that on the way to the tent. David frowned, and told me we shouldn’t wake up Rachel, she wouldn’t get enough sleep if she saw Benny was back. But I didn’t want to. So once David went back to sleep, after the hugging and scolding and crying, I woke up Rachel silently. She opened her eyes slowly and frowned at me. I picked up Benny, and placed him near Rachel, she smiled for the first time in weeks, she giggled, and hugged Benny eternally. I told her how I found him, and she hugged me, she grinned, and mouthed, “THANK YOU.”
Benny then yelled, “RACHEE! I missed you sooooooooooooooo much!”
“I did too Benny, I did too…”
For the rest of the night Rachel slept with a smile on her face. I was happy I could finally restore Rachel’s happiness. I slept peacefully the rest of the night. I t was the first time in about a year that I had been even a little happy.
Before I knew it, we were three years into the war… I was fourteen, Rachel was thirteen, Benny was eight, believe it or not, David was sixteen, and Yaeli was already a grown cat! My life had been completely ruined, and it all started on that first day… I was ten, and Rachel was nine, it felt like that was such a long time ago.
Rachel was my lifelong companion, and Benny had turned into quite the professor, at age eight, he knew more about spelling than I did. He was very smart. And David, how happy I am that we had him around, he was the one who helped all of us survive.
Rachel and I were going through a walk in the woods, after we both had reached twelve, both of us had liked talking more and more, and we got mad easier at each other. I didn’t know why, but that is what happened, and I was used to it. So when we went talking, we mostly talked about what perfect man we would meet after the war was over. But we would only meet Jewish men, because the German’s had betrayed us. And we lived in this forest for three years, if it weren’t for God; we would probably be all dead.
This time, when we went for the walk, we heard twigs and leaves rustling behind us. We heard heavy breathing, and then running. I saw a young man’s face from behind the tree. I gasped.
“If any one is out there, come forward now.” Rachel bravely said. Yaeli, who lately followed Rachel around, hid in between my legs.
More leaves rustling behind us. I saw the face again. It seemed oddly familiar. It looked like…
“Jacob!!!” I screamed on the top of my lungs.
“Rebecca?” He quietly asked.
I giggled and pulled him out from behind the tree. He was still nervous, and I didn’t really know why. I asked him why he was here, and he said that the morning we were supposed to get on the trains, to take showers, he decided something wasn’t right, and he jumped off. He stayed in different woods for a while, but Nazi officers built a camp there, so he had to leave. He ran to our woods, without him knowing we lived here. And then, when he heard a couple of people talking, he wanted to see whom they were. And when he found out it was us, he was so happy, he could barely talk. I always thought that he had gone on a tougher journey then me, and I was probably right. I had David and Benny and Rachel. He had no one.
When he got to our tent, he was so filthy, Rachel and I had to take him down to the stream, and wash him off. When we left the stream, he went to take a bath. So we let him, and by the time he got back, it was already lunchtime! He was very tired, so he slept a lot. It was sort of like having a mini Benny.
“Rachee? Who is this guy? I think I remember him from somewhere.” Benny remarked.
“He is Jacob, he was the boy who had to share a bed with you in the ca… in the houses.” Rachel said. Rachel, David, and I agreed to each other we wouldn’t tell Benny anything that was going on outside of our safe little woods.
“What kind of house?” Benny asked.
“It’s not important right now! And don’t you dare EVER talk about it again! EVER!” Rachel screamed furiously. Yaeli came to Rachel, and licked her face softly. In human words, she wanted her to calm down.
We sat down like that for a long time. I wondered why Rachel got so emotional. I thought we got over that. But I knew that Rachel did that for Benny’s own good. But Benny was confused at his sweet, smiling sister, who had become this strict, scary, older sister. Jacob was still sleeping; I was guessing he would do a lot of that, for a long time. But I didn’t mind, he needed the rest if we were going to continue with our regular schedule.
When every one was sleeping, I decided to go out to sit outside of the crowded, over heated, messy tent. I had to breathe. I walked all the way over to where Rachel had let berry go. It was a very comfortable stump. I sat on the stump and closed my eyes. I imagined everything that happened to us along this horrible war. I didn’t like what I saw, so I opened my eyes write away, and I looked into the night sky. It was pitch black, but I had sat here on many nights like these, and I could see some things. I saw a bird flapping its wings high above my head. I thought about how animals were so clueless about what was happening around them. All of a sudden, I saw Jacob’s face appear from behind the bush that I sat behind three years ago. I smiled, and motioned for him to come over. He did.
He whispered, “Rebecca, how did you… how did you survive three years here? How?”
I wiped my eyes; a couple of tears were inching down. “ I’m one of the lucky ones.” I whispered back.
He nodded his head and said, “ But Rebecca, I don’t think I am one of the lucky ones. I really don’t.”
I smiled, and that was all I needed to do. He understood that he was one of the lucky ones. But what we both didn’t understand was if we were so lucky, why did this war happen in the first place? But we never lost faith in our God. Never.
Rachel walked from behind me. She whispered delicately, “I knew I would find you here.”
All three of us smiled at the same time. Jacob even giggled and said, “I don’t understand why, but I won’t ask.”
“ So we won’t answer.” Rachel and I answered in unison. We giggled.
After a while Jacob left, and Rachel and I sat together and talked for a while. There were many things we didn’t quite understand about our life, like when we would get out of this war, and see our parents, who we hadn’t seen in about four years. We wondered what they would look like, where they would’ve been, and if they were even still alive. I was sure that my parents were alive. They were always so strong; no stupid officer could take that away from them. Then Benny came galloping into Rachel’s lap. We became a little cheerier.
After a long talk, we decided to go back to the tent; I could start to see some light coming out of the sky. Once we got to the tent, we were both really tired and slept the whole next day. When we woke up, we were so hyper we did twenty laps around our tent. (Which wasn’t very big, but we hated running.) And it was suppertime, and we had to go fishing. For the past four years this is all we ate: Fish and berries. (I was never going to eat fish or berries ever again after the war!)
We were four and a half months into the war, and we didn’t know how long there was left. Only another six months! No I was about fifteen and a half and Rachel was about fourteen and a half. Benny was nine and a half; he was almost as old as me when the war started. How he had grown. David, well, David was almost eighteen now. I didn’t want him to grow up, or leave me. In some ways I preferred to stay here forever. Wow. What was I thinking? Of course I wanted to leave as soon as possible!
Rachel got sick again, but it was twenty times worse than the last time she got that. She was so sick, she couldn’t breathe sometimes. She constantly vomited. Then, she coughed up blood, a lot of it. I knew that would be her last day, unless God gave us another miracle…
All day she coughed and vomited and coughed and coughed. Benny was so worried. He was no longer a baby. He was almost ten years old. He knew what was going on, and he wanted to stop it. And he wanted to stop it now.
No, God did not give us a miracle, Rachel died the next day. Her eyes were still wide open, but they were dark gray, almost black. We bawled for a very long time. Benny took it the hardest. After his sister’s death, he was never the same old cheerful Benny. Never again would that be him. Rachel’s death caused every one to be sad. Jacob was even sad, and cried a little. I was devastated, I could not pay my respects to her, I couldn’t even look at her.
Later that day, David came to me and softly said, “Rebecca, Becky, we will keep Rachel’s body and bury it when the war is over. I know you are taking this very hard, we all are, but we will get through this together.”
I hollered, “I do not need for us to get through it together, and SHE is not an IT! Just leave me alone! NOW!” I started blubbering. Tears were flooding out of my eyes uncontrollably. I couldn’t stop I wouldn’t stop. I missed Rachel.
Benny came to me, his face red and puffy from crying, “She’s gone for good, isn’t she Rebecca?”
“I’m afraid so Benny.” I said in a hushed voice, I had to be strong for Benny. I had to.
I grabbed Benny’s hand and led him to the river. I ordered to wash his face. He did as I told him too. Jacob was there, crying also. All three of us, Benny, Jacob, and I hugged for a long time. I didn’t know what else to do, or say. I didn’t know anything anymore.
I suddenly remembered how rude I had been to David, so when we finished hugging, I told Jacob to watch Benny at the stream, I had to do something. I ran up to the tent and hugged David. He nodded, as if saying he understood why I was being so emotional. I stepped into the tent and saw Rachel’s lifeless body. I quietly whispered,
“Rachel, you and I are still best friends, no matter what. No matter where we are or who we are with. I will see you in heaven one day.”
As I saw Rachel’s eyes, my heart sank. I realized she would be gone forever. I thought Rachel and I would be neighbors, and we would visit our families every weekend. And our kids were supposed to be the best of friends…just like us…
Months went by, all of us were depressed, and we couldn’t really help it. We put Rachel’s body in the hole. I made sure she was very comfortable there. And if she were alive, she wouldn’t have minded sitting there.
It was five months since Rachel had died, and I still wasn’t completely over it. I had to get on with my life, for the good of every one around me. I had already survived four years and 11 ½ months into the war. I could wait until the war finished, if it ever was.
One month later, I heard a loud voice screaming in Hebrew. I thought it was a dream… I had had many dreams like this, when some one came to save us from the woods. I opened my eyes and stepped out of the tent. It was a man with a uniform on. But it wasn’t a Nazi uniform it was something different.
“ The war is over!” the man said with huge dimples in each cheek.
I screamed with delight, “AHHHHHHH REALLY? REALLY?”
“Yes ma’am.”
I woke up every one, and we all hugged each other for a long time. We had survived the longest journey, and most dangerous journey I had ever been on. But all I wanted to do at that point was go home. I really wanted to go back to everything as usual. We followed the man out of the woods and into open space. Then, that night we were to take a train back home to our little town in Germany. We were home. All four of us were overwhelmed with excitement; we couldn’t talk, move, or even scream. But how badly I wanted to! The only thing David could do was carry Rachel out of the hole and onto the train.
Rachel. If Rachel had survived only a couple more months, she would have lived to be free. She would finally be free, after all of those plans of our future, they would’ve worked out. But God always has the final decision. How was I to tell her parents this, if I even saw her parents ever again.
Where were my parents? Where they dead? Alive? Well? Sick? A lot of questions came to my head at once. I was so confused. Where would Jacob and Benny go? Where would David and I go if we couldn’t find our parents? What would happen to us? All I wanted to think of was that we were alive and well. Even though many more things could’ve happened to us during our journey, David protected us, and Rachel, was always by my side and ready to talk. How much I missed her.
When we got off of the train, all of us walked our way through our familiar streets of our little town. All of us had been from that town. When we reached my house, I was very scared of what I would see. And I was right to be scared. It was nothing but a few crisp and burned pieces of wood. I walked onto the pile that I used to call home. I sat down, but I didn’t cry. I already cried too much, and I was not about to start again.
David told me to get up; we had to get Rachel to her family. So I did. We ran to Rachel’s house, it wasn’t burned, it wasn’t destroyed, but it was abandoned. No trace of any one ever living in it. We put Rachel in her old bed, and I made sure she was tucked under the covers, so she wouldn’t be too cold.
After that, we all went walking in the streets, trying to find any one we knew that could help us find our parents. I saw Mr. And Mrs. Green that owned a shop down the street, I saw Ann and Benjamin Cohen, two elderly people who where our neighbors, and I also saw Sarah Rosenfield, a nice girl from my class. They were all crying. None of us found any of our parents, so we decided to just sit and rest for a while.
We sat on a bench that was about to fall apart, for a very long time, until I two older people, a man and a woman, who reminded me of my parents.
“MAMMA PAPA!” I screamed and ran towards them. I hugged them. When they turned around, I realized it wasn’t them. It was just two older people, who looked a little like my parents,
“I am so sorry, I really am.” I felt very embarrassed for doing that.
“It’s okay little girl, do you know who Sarah Rosenfield is?
“Yes, I just saw her. She went to the old synagogue I think.”
“Bless you, child.”
I went back to were the others were sitting. Benny giggled at me. I rolled my eyes as a smile appeared on my face. I giggled with him. I picked him up and hugged him. Then Jacob asked how my parents looked like, I gave him a brief description, and he smiled as he said, “Is that them right behind you?”
I turned around and saw mamma and papa’s grinning faces.
“I love you! Come here David! My how you two have grown. And my how you two stink!”
I laughed really loud, and hugged my parents for a long time. Then they whispered to David and I, “Who are those two young men?”
Once we had told them who they were, they went and hugged Benny, and Jacob too! But, when they asked where Rachel was, I turned my head around, and bit my lip. David explained to them the whole thing. They also bit their lips, and came to hug Benny and me. I missed Rachel too much to not talk about her, so I did.
When we were walking back to Rachel’s house, to find her body and bury it, we saw her parents at the doorway. Benny didn’t recognize them, so he stayed close to my side. As we walked closer to them, they recognized my parents and David, so they rushed to hug them. Once I told her parents who I was, who Jacob was, and who Benny was, they cried. Rachel’s dad scooped up Benny and suddenly remembered his other child.
“Where’s Rachel? Wait, is Rachel…No, not possibly! That can’t be!”
I nodded my head slowly as they began to weep. That caused me to weep also. They asked how, and I told David to tell them. She couldn’t face her best friend’s parents and tell them how their daughter had died so horribly. I buried my face into my arms, and didn’t talk for a very long time. I sat there until David finished explaining, and her parents started grieving. I couldn’t imagine the pain they would go through. Same with Benny he probably wouldn’t remember much of his wonderful sister. I was her best friend, but they were family.
After I brought them up to Rachel’s room and showed her to them, her mother started howling with tears. I was afraid she would flood the small room. Her father’s face was pale, and his lips were tightly sealed against one another, he looked so serious, as if this was one of his business meetings. He closed his eyes, there was a couple seconds of tension and silence, and then he screamed. He screamed a deep, frightening scream, it was more like a holler, and tears started rolling down his cheeks, he grasped Rachel’s mother, and they cried for a long time. I eyed Jacob and showed him a weak smile that was definitely not believable. He smiled the best he could and walked up to me. We stood together.
After Rachel’s parents had slightly calmed down, we went to my house and sat at the dining table, as if there really was going to be some of mama’s delicious food on the table waiting for us to eat it. But no such luck. I sat next to David and Jacob. I asked mama if I could be excused, and she nodded her head slowly. I gratefully left the depressed, lonely, little room. I sat on the gray, cold, ashy ground. I put my face in my hands, and stayed like that. All of a sudden I felt a comforting hand on my back. This hand rubbed my back, until all of the tension was gone. I looked up, and I saw Jacob. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. With that one special smile, and knowing that Mama and Papa were finally with me, I somehow knew everything would be okay.
 Silver Lemon Drop 003 IV · Sat Jun 07, 2008 @ 05:29pm · 1 Comments |
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