Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz by Michael Bornstein & Debbie Bornstein Holinstat

Author:Michael Bornstein & Debbie Bornstein Holinstat [Bornstein, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 2017-03-07T05:00:00+00:00

18

VISITORS FOR RUTH

The convent in Częstochowa had become a beehive of activity in the late winter of 1944–45. The grounds were filled with children who were orphaned during the war. Inside, dozens of children studied science and religion in class or prayed at mass in the chapel. On the outdoor playground, girls dressed in hand-me-down wool swing coats played klasy, a game similar to hopscotch, and boys drew pictures with sticks in the dirt and chased one another. Their laughter filled the spaces where now-vanished SS soldiers had once shouted in the halls.

The city had officially been liberated by Russian troops, and only ten days earlier a visitor had arrived at the front steps of the convent. She was a tall, slender woman with long golden hair that fell to the middle of her back. She was invited into the Mother Superior’s office, where she explained that she hoped to adopt a child.

The woman had come from Switzerland, and for many years she and her husband had hoped to become parents. She began to cry as she explained it must not have been in God’s plan. But then she read news reports of the many children who had been orphaned here in Poland after their parents were killed at the hands of the SS, and her heart had pulled her to this convent.

The Mother Superior spent a long time speaking with this woman and found her to be sincere and honest in her desire to adopt. She brought the woman to the orphanage playground and told her that every child there needed a home.

The nun warned her, though, that the convent had a very strict rule. No child would be forced into an adoption. If a boy or girl wanted to leave with a family, they could. If they wanted to stay, the church would never turn its back on them. There were no exceptions to the rule.

After the woman watched and visited with the boys and girls at the orphanage for many hours, her eyes kept returning to one little girl with olive skin so warm it looked as though she had been basking in sunlight. There was little sunshine in the child’s smile, though. The hopeful mother-to-be decided if she could only bring this girl home, she could help her find the sunlight within and they could be a family.

The little girl’s name was Kristina. She was five years old, and her voice was every bit as lovely as her face. The woman told the Mother Superior she believed God had brought her here to this place, this convent, for a reason. She belonged with Kristina.

The head nun was elated. Kristina was such a sensitive, kind, and brilliant little girl. She would thrive in a good home, and this woman seemed like an ideal fit. But when the nuns told Kristina that the tall, golden-haired woman would be taking her home to Switzerland, the little girl screamed, “No! I won’t go.” She ran from the room shouting and wailing, “You’re not my mother! I won’t leave with this strange woman.

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