Poland, a Green Land by Aharon Appelfeld

Author:Aharon Appelfeld [Appelfeld, Aharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2023-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

:::::::::::::::::::27:::::::::::::::::::

“Magda, I saw the tombstones,” Yaakov said as he entered the house.

“It shocks me every time.”

“I found the tombstone of my great-grandfather Itche Meir.”

“People still talk about him. They still say it’s a shame we don’t have an Itche Meir of our own.”

“At home they didn’t talk about him much. Or perhaps they did, and I didn’t hear it. I had the feeling my parents were hiding their lives from me. They were ashamed of what had happened to them; they didn’t want me to know. For my part, I didn’t insist they tell me. But it sometimes seemed that they were also proud of who they were and what they’d been through, although they refused, out of pride, to reveal exactly what that had been.”

Magda felt the pain hidden in this confession. “Children don’t understand their parents,” she said.

“They had been through hell, and I spoke to them as if they were normal people. All that time they carried inside them the fires of that hell. I found seventeen fragments of broken tombstones, and I want to bring them home.”

“What did the mayor say?”

“I made a mistake. I was too enthusiastic. I offered to pay to move the tombstones to Israel.”

“What was his reaction?”

“He kept calm. ‘I have to consult with the council members and authorities,’ he said. I felt he had the upper hand. I showed too much passion.”

“He’s a sharp trader.”

“I saw that, but I couldn’t contain myself.”

Yaakov had planned to go for a walk in the afternoon, but he felt tired, got into bed, and fell asleep.

In his dream he was with an army squadron in Szydowce, searching for terrorists. He had a map in his hand with paths and houses marked in red. The soldiers sat on the bank of the Stryniecz, and Yaakov described the route they would take. Then he quickly added, “Everything is different here.”

The soldiers marveled at the pure, clean water, gushing even in midsummer. As he spoke, Yaakov realized that his mission wasn’t catching terrorists but uprooting tombstones and taking them to the airport by truck. He was confused for a moment, but the soldiers knew what awaited them. They were happy to be in this green land, far from the glaring, barren hills.

Yaakov revealed that he’d already been there for two weeks and had studied the place inside and out, for this was the village where his parents and grandparents had been born and about which he’d heard so much in childhood. But hearing could not compare with seeing. “You should know,” he added, “that they locked up the women, the old people, and the children in the synagogue, keeping them without bread or water for many hours. Then they set the building on fire. They marched the men out of the village under heavy guard; after digging pits, the men were lined up and shot. This is the history of the Jews in this pastoral place.”

Then Yaakov changed his tone. “Soon it will be night,” he said, “and in the darkness, our forces will surround the town hall.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.