The Handkerchief Map by Kiri English-Hawke

Author:Kiri English-Hawke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: World War II, Nazis, Nazi Youth, Diary of Anne Frank, Holocaust, Jews, Jewish history
Publisher: IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd)
Published: 2014-04-14T04:00:00+00:00

SUSANNA

“Sh’erit ha-pletah”

(the surviving remnant)

Part Three: Dearest

Nowy Sacz (Poland)

September 22, 1939

Dearest,

Did you see them? They came when you were out getting more milk. They barged their way through as I blew out twenty-five candles. The ladies were dancing, the men were drinking, everyone was laughing. But they brought the silence. They sucked the life from the room and with one shot they killed us all, or so it seemed. Thank God we sent the children across the border to Hungary in May. They’ll never get back now. Maybe that will save them. I am still breathing, but I am breathing dirty air. How can this be, my husband?

Susanna.

* * *

Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp (Germany)

December 20, 1943

Dearest,

They transported us in a truck, the sort they use for cattle. That’s what we are to these people – cattle, non-humans, because none of us have a certificate of Non-Belonging to the Jewish race. We were brought up to be proud of our people and our past, not to disown them at the slightest inkling of trouble. No Jew did that when we were first born as a people, a religion. We have always been persecuted. But we will live on.

They shoved us into one room when we got to their camp. There are only twenty bunks. There are twenty-eight of us and forty already in there. It is more cramped than the ghetto and the in-between camp we occupied before here. Some of the women are sceptical about how there will be enough room – there are more women to come, we are told. Most shrug, but dearest, I think I understand. I look towards the wiser women and see they are thinking the same: we may not have been brought here to live on.

Did you get away?

Susanna.

Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp (Germany)

February 17, 1944

Dearest,

It has been so long since I have seen the world beyond the barbed wire fence, so long since there was a familiar face among the crowd. Too often people come and go; many do not last longer than a week. The camp is divided into many sections. There is just one woman and one child still alive who arrived in my section when I did. The woman’s name is Joelle; she is from Paris. Her husband was shot when they first arrived here and she has quickly become wise to the ways of the Nazis. She seems very mature for 21. The child is Clara. She is 12 and almost silent, but when she speaks it is words of wisdom. She observes so much, and seems to understand the many layers of truth. She came in with her mother, Hannah. Hannah is now gone. There are others here too who are kind and yet empty of hope.

Susanna.

Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp (Germany)

March 10, 1944

Dearest,

I’m not far from home in my heart, only in distance. You’re always on my mind but I can’t reach you. I don’t even know where you are and you may never read my letters, but I’m thinking of you and that’s all you need to know.

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