No Place I'd Rather Be by Cathy Lamb

Author:Cathy Lamb [Lamb, Cathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2017-07-04T04:00:00+00:00

January 1939

Munich, Germany

Esther Gobenko, great-grandmother of Olivia Martindale

Esther Gobenko held her husband, Alexander, as he stumbled, bleeding, through the back door of their Munich home at midnight.

Their home was freezing, as they could no longer afford heat. There were blank spaces on the walls where art used to hang. Armoires that held figurines now held nothing, the glass fronts broken. The Nazis had taken everything of value. They had thrown against the walls their Seder plate, the Shabbat candlesticks, the menorah, the Kiddush cups, and had stomped on her husband’s prayer shawl.

They had taken the jewelry Esther couldn’t hide. One had knocked her over with his fist when she told him she had no more jewelry. He had even ripped the wedding ring off her finger. She was not about to tell him where the rest of her jewelry was. It was all they had. They would sell it to survive.

The Nazis had also taken their department store, Esther and Alexander’s, and Boris’s Leather Goods, and they had forced the closure of Ida’s Bakery. She had drawn pictures of their businesses in the cookbook so her family would always remember them.

On Kristallnacht, on the ninth of November the previous year, the windows were broken and all of their businesses looted, then firebombed.

Her family was now living off hidden savings, as their bank accounts had been confiscated. Unbelievably, the Jews were told they had to pay for the damage incurred on Kristallnacht.

After Kristallnacht, the truth could no longer be denied: Jews had to leave Germany or die. Alexander’s parents, her dear Aizik and Raisel, were ill, and they knew they could not make the journey. “Go, son, leave,” they had begged Alexander months ago. “Now. Save Esther. Save Isaac, Gisela, and Renata. Go.” Her own parents, Ida and Boris, looking grief stricken but courageous, had told them the same thing, as they had told her brothers, Grigori and Solomon, “We love you. You must leave Germany. Save yourselves and your families.”

Alexander and she had not wanted to leave their parents, the thought was abhorrent, but they could get out now or they and their children could all die or disappear, as Esther’s brothers Moishe and Zino had disappeared. Moishe and Zino had spoken out against Hitler, now no one had heard from them in months. So many of their Jewish friends, doctors and professors, business owners and musicians, artists and writers, had also disappeared. Some had left Germany earlier, the Nazis stripping them of all their assets, including accounts, businesses, and artwork, before they escaped.

They soon found that they could not get visas, they could not get permission to travel as a family to any country. The paperwork, for them and for a sponsor in a new country, was extensive, near impossible. No country wanted more Jews, either. America had closed its doors. They were stuck, and they were terrified. They had waited too long. They had tried to wait until the German people came to their senses and kicked Hitler and his ghouls out.

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