Train by Danny M. Cohen

Author:Danny M. Cohen [Cohen, Danny M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2015-08-01T23:00:00+00:00

Ruth

Ruth pushed through the crowd. The protestors were waving frantically at the windows. Even though they couldn’t hear one another, they still shouted the names of their loved ones. Then, like yesterday, all the faces disappeared.

“Mama!” Ruth called out. “Did you see them? Did you see Papa? Did you see Alexander?”

“We saw Alex,” Elise told her.

“Where?” Ruth shouted.

“The same window,” Mama said and pointed to the left of the building, three windows up. But the window was empty now.

This morning, when Ruth and Elise had arrived on Rosenstrasse, Mama had told them how she’d stayed awake all night and seen Alexander and Papa at the window, just after sunrise.

Ruth was about to cry. She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes with her fingers, and scrunched up her face to stop the tears. “I can’t believe I wasn’t here.” She’d chosen the wrong time to find a toilet. She’d been waiting in line inside the café up the street and missed the commotion. Ruth kept her eyes on the windows in the hope Alexander would make another appearance. Her thoughts led Ruth to Alexander’s treasure hunt. I need to find the woman’s place of birth.

“Elise, where were you born?”

“What?”

“Were you born here, in Berlin? And what about your mother?”

“Berlin. Both of us. Why?”

Ruth folded her arms and tapped her foot. There was a second unsolved riddle, too. “Rose petals, white piping, a reverse pickpocket,” she said out loud.

It was lunchtime now and the protest was strengthening. Some people had walked from Bahnhof Börse train station. The protestors were coming from all over the city. More women had approached the Nazi guards to ask for their keys. Most of the time, the guards returned with proof the women’s Jewish husbands were inside.

The crowd continued to grow. The church services were over and some of the women had brought along their friends and neighbors.

“Go home!” one of the guards shouted.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Mama whispered to Ruth.

They joined the crowd in a communal silent stare.

“Go home or we’ll shoot,” another soldier yelled.

Still, nobody moved. What was exciting to Ruth, but also frightening, was the sight of the soldiers on edge.

“It’ll take more than threats to get us to leave,” Mama said. “It’s Sunday. We have nowhere else to be.”

Without warning, the crowd was forced to stand back as trucks pulled up to the front of the Community Center.

“Look,” Ruth said.

Soldiers dragged Jewish people—yellow stars adorned their coats and shirts and dresses—into the building. That Jews were being brought here was no longer a secret. One Jewish man turned and waved at a young woman in the crowd. She waved and called at him until a Nazi soldier kicked the Jew hard and he disappeared into the building. The protestors gasped.

“This must be the building’s only entrance. Otherwise, they’d be taking them through another door,” Ruth said.

“You know what, Ruti? You’re right!” Mama clapped her hands at her daughter’s shrewd thinking.

Ruth beamed.

More tea was passed around. More protestors joined the crowd, watching the windows.

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