Dovid had tears in his eyes. “A hero?” He shook his head. “I am no storybook hero. I am a Jew.”
“Yes,” she said. “Yes.”
“And … I must stand up for my people.”
“Yes, we both must. We all must,” Eidel said. “Now, go and take a shower. Let’s go to bed and make love. I want you to hold me close tonight, Dovi.”
He nodded. Then he leaned over and kissed Eidel. “You know how much I love you?” he said.
“I think I know.” She smiled, her eyes welling up with tears.
Gently, he cupped her cheek and looked into her eyes. Then he got up and went to get ready for bed.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Dovid got up early to watch the sunrise. Only Buddy sat beside him, everyone else was asleep. He tiptoed into the bedrooms to see each of his children, kissing them softly so as not to wake them. He got dressed and stood over Eidel for a few minutes, watching her as she slept. The sun was just coming up, turning the sky a pale pink and purple. He marveled at how lovely she was in his eyes, even after so many years of marriage.
Perhaps she is even more beautiful now than she was when we first met, he thought, remembering the tenderness of their lovemaking the night before. She surprised him with her strength. When he’d decided to take on this mission, he’d been afraid that she would panic and need medication in order to cope. But she had held him and told him how proud she was of him.
Eidel, my darling, my love, you never stop surprising me.
Tenderly, he placed the softest of kisses on her lips. Then he went into the kitchen. There was no need to turn on the coffee percolator. It was noisy and he didn’t want to risk waking anyone. He boiled some water and downed a cup of instant coffee, patted Buddy’s head and walked quietly out of the house, careful to lock the door. Until the incidents with the Nazis had begun, no one in the small Chicago suburb ever locked their doors. But now, anything might happen and Dovid wanted to ensure his family would be safe.
This could be the last time I see this house, Dovid thought as he drove down the street to pick up Harry.
Harry was ready. He held a baseball bat as he stood outside waiting. Ida was beside him.
“You want a bat?” Harry asked.
Dovid nodded. “Yes. I suppose so.”
“I’ll be right back. I have another one. I’ll go and get it.” Harry went inside.
“I’m going over to your house, Dovi. I’ll wait for you and Harry there with Eidel and the kids.”
“Good idea. I know Eidel will be glad you came.”
“I hope I am wrong. But I am afraid that there is going to be bloodshed today,” Ida said. She looked old and tired in the morning light. Never, not in all the years that the two couples had been friends, had she looked like the survivor of a concentration camp in Dovid’s eyes. Today she did. Ida had never made a secret of her past. She’d always been open and honest, but her strength had always hidden the scars. Yet, as Dovid hugged her goodbye, he felt her incredible strength. It was there in her flaring anger. She was furious that Nazis had come to haunt her in America, and she was consumed with rage at what the survivors were being forced to do. But behind the fury, Dovid saw the bags from lack of sleep under her eyes. And he knew that she was masking a deep fear.
Harry came outside carrying another bat. He handed it to Dovid. The cool wood felt strange in Dovid’s hand.
Ida hugged Harry tightly, perhaps a little longer than usual. Then she straightened her spine, raised her chin, and smiled at Harry and Dovid.
“God be with you,” she said, as they got into Dovid’s car.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Ida and Eidel sat at the kitchen table with cups of coffee growing cold in front of them. The children awakened and came into the kitchen. They were not babies anymore and so it was impossible to hide the truth from them. Haley, who was the youngest, was already turning thirteen. The three of them had seen the news. They knew that the march was to take place today, and even though it was not in Skokie, their father and Harry would be attending. They’d heard the speech the previous year on television when Meir Kahane had held a rally where he said that every Jew must arm themselves with a .22 rifle.
“You want some breakfast?” Eidel asked. The three children shook their heads.
“You should eat something,” Ida said.
“No, thanks,” Mark said. Then the two girls echoed him. “No.”
“They can’t eat. I understand,” Ida said to Eidel. Eidel nodded.
“Maybe you want to go out and play, take your mind off of things?”
Again the children shook their heads. Haley began to cry softly. She laid her head on Mark’s shoulder. Abby petted Buddy. “Did Papa feed Buddy before he left?” she asked her mother in a small voice.
“Yes, and he let him out in the yard. But you could walk him if you want.”
“No, I’d just rather sit here.”
And so they sat for several hours. No one said much but they were all thinking the same thing. Would Papa and Harry ever return? Would they ever see them alive again?
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
After all the political efforts to acquire a permit on the part of Frank Collin, only twelve pitiful young men wearing Nazi uniforms showed up for the rally at Marquette Park. Behind them, they’d hung a poster of a swastika and an American flag.
When the bus of survivors arrived, Collin was standing on a podium ranting about Jews and free speech. Dovid kept his eye on the demonstrators as he walked down the stairs of the bus. It seemed to him that Collin looked like a foolish child doing an imitation of his idol, Adolf Hitler.
The survivors held their weapons high in the air. Although they were all men well over middle age, they charged forward towards the hated symbol of the swastika and ran at the men wearing the same uniform as the men who had killed their families so many years ago.
Until the survivors arrived, the Nazis had been confident that they’d won a victory in being allowed to rally. But once they saw the charging, angry, armed men, they looked at their leader. Frank Collin’s face turned white with fear. He jumped down from the podium and ran as fast as he could. His gang of thugs galloped behind him. The survivors chased them until the Nazis had run too far away to be caught. Then the rabbi turned to the others and smiled.
“Nu? So, I would consider today a victory for us! They ran away like children. This is what happens when Jews are strong.”
The rest of the survivors cheered.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
Buddy was the first one to hear Dovid’s car as it turned the corner and began to come towards the house. She stood up and started barking.
“Papa!” Abby said. “It must be Papa and Uncle Harry.”
Ida and Eidel glanced at each other, both eager but afraid of what they were about to discover. Were their loved ones all right? There was no time to think. Soon, they would all know the truth.
It was a beautiful day in June. The sun was sparkling in a cloudless, Wedgewood blue sky.
Everyone ran outside.
The car stopped and with it, so did Eidel’s breath.
Then Dovid opened the door and got out of the car. Eidel fell into his arms and began to cry. Ida and Harry embraced tightly.
Dovid bent down and took all of his children into a bear hug.
“You did it, Papa. You fought against the Nazis and you made it back home. You always told us that you would do what you could to get rid of hate and prejudice. And you risked your life to do it, just like you always said you would,” Haley said.
“Hate and prejudice against any race or religion is wrong. If today teaches you anything, let it be that. Soon, your mother and I will be old and the battle to fight against hatred and intolerance will be on you three. Fight against it. Never back down,” Dovid said to the children.
“Thank God you’re both here, and you’re both all right,” Ida whispered. “Anything could have happened today.”
Harry kissed her.
> “But we knew that no matter what the consequences were, we had to go,” Dovid said.
“Nu, so tell us what happened?” Eidel asked.
“Come, let’s go inside. We’ll tell you all about it. Won’t we, Dovi?” Harry said.
“We certainly will…”
Coming Soon:
Another Generation The final book in the I Am Proud To Be A Jew Series
I Am Proud To Be A Jew Series
Book One: And… Who Is the Real Mother
Book Two: Secrets Revealed
Book Three: New Life, New Land
AUTHORS NOTE
First and foremost, I want to thank you for reading my novel, and for your continued interest in my work. From time to time I receive emails from my readers that contest the accuracy of my events. When you pick up a novel you are entering the authors world where sometimes we take artistic licensing and ask you to suspend disbelief. I always try to keep as true to history as possible, however sometimes there are discrepancies within my novels. This happens sometimes, to keep the drama of the story. Thank you for indulging me.
Many Blessings,
Roberta
Thank you for taking the time to read my novel. I always enjoy hearing from my readers. Your feelings about my work are very important to me. If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a short review on Amazon. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend. Also, please feel free to contact me via Facebook or at www.RobertaKagan.com. All emails are answered personally, and I would love to hear from you.
MORE BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
And…Who Is The Real Mother
Book One in the I Am Proud to be A Jew series
A young Jewish child is smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto. She is sent to live with a dear friend of her mother’s, Helen Dobinski. Helen is a Catholic woman living in Warsaw, who is willing to risk the safety of her own family in order to provide a home for this precious little girl. However, no one must find out that the Dobinski family is harboring a Jewish child or they could face severe punishment, even death. Keeping such a dangerous secret is treacherous like walking a tightrope. There are spies everywhere, and it is impossible to know who can be trusted.
Just how much fear and pain will one woman endure in order to save the life of an innocent child who is not her blood? And so, we must ask the question: “Who is the real mother? Is it the mother who gave birth to the child, or the mother who risked everything to raise her?”
Secrets Revealed
Book Two in the I am Proud To Be A Jew series
Hitler has surrendered. The Nazi flags, which once hung throughout the city, striking terror in the hearts of Polish citizens, have been torn down. It seems that Warsaw should be rejoicing in its new-found freedom. But Warsaw is not free. Instead it is occupied by the Soviet Union, held tightly in Stalin’s iron grip. Communist soldiers, in uniform, now control the city. Where once people feared the dreaded swastika, now they tremble at the sight of the hammer and sickle. It is a treacherous time. And, in the midst of all of this danger, Ela Dobinski, a girl with a secret that could change her life, is coming of age.
New Life, New Land
Book Three in the I Am Proud To Be A Jew series
Michal’s Destiny
Book one in the Michal’s Destiny series
Siberia, 1919.
In a Jewish settlement a young woman is about to embark upon her destiny. Her father has arranged a marriage for her and she must comply with his wishes. She has never seen her future husband and she knows nothing about him. Michal’s destiny lies in the hands of fate. On the night of her wedding she is terrified, but her mother assures her that she will be alright. Her mother explains that it is her duty to be a good wife, to give her husband children and always to obey him. However, although her mother and her mother’s mother before her had lived this way, this was not to be Michal’s destiny. Terrible circumstances would force Michal to leave her home and travel to the city of Berlin during the Weimar period, where she would see and experience things she could never have imagined. Having been a sheltered religious girl, she found herself lost and afraid, trying to survive in a world filled with contrasts. Weimar Berlin was a time in history when art and culture were exploding, but it was also a period of depravity and perversions. Fourteen tumultuous years passed before the tides began to turn for the young girl who had stood under the canopy and said “I do” to a perfect stranger. Michal was finally beginning to establish her life However, the year was 1933, and Michal was still living in Berlin. Little did she know that Adolf Hitler was about to be appointed Chancellor of Germany, and that would change everything forever.
A Family Shattered
Book two in the Michal’s Destiny Series
Taavi Margolis is arrested on Kristallnacht when he races out of his apartment to protect his daughter’s fiancée, Benny, who is being attacked and killed by a gang of Nazi thugs as they pillage and destroy the streets of a little Jewish neighborhood in Berlin. Taavi’s wife, Michal and their two daughters stare in horror through the window as Benny is savagely murdered. Then, they watch helplessly as the gang turns their attention to Taavi. They beat him with clubs until he is on his knees and bleeding on the pavement. When the police arrive, instead of arresting the perpetrators, they force Taavi into the back of a black automobile and take him away. Michal, pulls her daughters close to her. No one speaks but all three of them have the same unspoken questions. Will they ever see their beloved husband and Papa again? They realize, after tonight, the Anti-Semitism that is growing like a cancer all around them can no longer be ignored. Their future is uncertain. What will become of this family, what will become of the Jews? This is the story of the struggle of one Jewish family, to survive against the unfathomable threat of the Third Reich
Watch Over My Child
Book Three in the Michal’s Destiny Series
After her parents are arrested by the Nazi’s, twelve-year-old Gilde Margolis is sent away from her home, her sister, and everyone she knows and loves. Alone and afraid, Gilde boards a train through the Kinder-transport bound for Britain where she will stay with strangers, in London. Over the next seven years as Gilde is coming of age, the Nazi’s will grow in power and London will be thrust into a brutal war against Hitler. Severe rationing will be imposed upon the British, while air raids will instill terror, and bombs will all but destroy the city. Against all odds, and with no knowledge of what has happened to her family in Germany, Gilde will still keep a tiny flicker of hope buried deep in her heart, that someday she will be reunited with her loved ones.
Another Breath, Another Sunrise
Book Four. The Final Book in the Michal’s Destiny Series
1945. The Nazi’s surrendered. Hitler was dead. But, the Third Reich had already left a bloody footprint on the soul of the world.
The Margoils family and their friends Lotti and Lev Glassman were torn apart by Hitler’s hatred of the Jewish people. Now that the Reich has fallen, the survivors of the Margolis and Glassman family’s find themselves searching to reconnect with those they love.
Lotti Strombeck Glassman, was a German woman, living in Berlin. She had been a good friend to the Margolis family. Lotti had been married to Lev, a Jewish man, who was taken away by the Gestapo and never seen again. In 1945 the curtain came down on Hitler. Meanwhile, Stalin was pushing his army towards Germany’s capital city. They were an angry mob of Russian soldiers who were on their way to punish the Aryan race. They would take out all of their hatred for the Third Reich on the terrified women left behind in Berlin.
Alina Margolis escaped to America with her lover at the beginning of the war. Although she was not in Germany, she did not have an easy life. Alina struggled to make her way in a foreign land that did not welcome Jews or Jews of German decent.
At ten years old Gilde Margolis , along with a group of other children boarded a train out of Germany. They were headed for Britain on the Kindertransport. Alone and fright
ened, Gilde left everyone and everything she knew behind. But she was taken in by a family in London. However, London was in the throes of war. Bombs rained down on the city. Food, clothing, even bath water was rationed. As air raid sirens blared and buildings were turned to rubble, Gilde Margolis came of age. She learned to love, to sacrifice, but most of all to survive.
This is a story of ordinary people whose lives were shattered by the terrifying ambitions of Adolf Hitler… a mad man.
All My Love, Detrick
Book One in the All My Love,
Detrick Series
Detrick, a German boy, was born with every quality that the Nazis considered superior.This would ensure his future as a leader of Adolf Hitler’s coveted Aryan race. But on his seventh birthday, an unexpected event changed the course of his destiny forever. As the Nazis rose to power, Detrick was swept into a life filled with secrets, enemies, betrayals, alliances, and danger at every turn. However, in spite of the horrors and the terror surrounding him, Detrick would find a single flicker of light. He would discover the greatest gift of all, the gift of everlasting love.
You Are My Sunshine
Book two of the “All My Love, Detrick” series
Munich, Germany, 1941
A golden child is genetically engineered in the Nazi’s home for the Lebensborn. She is the daughter of a pure German mother and a member of Hitler’s SS elite. With those bloodlines, she is expected to become a perfect specimen of Hitler’s master race. But, as Germany begins to lose the war and the Third Reich begins to crumble, the plans for the children of the Lebensborn must drastically change. Alliances will be broken. Love and trust will be destroyed in an instant, secrets will rise to the surface, and people will prove that they are not as they seem. In a time when the dark evil forces of the Third Reich hung like a black umbrella of doom over Europe, a little girl will be forced into a world spiraling out of control, a world where the very people sworn to protect her cannot be trusted.
New Life, New Land Page 17
