The Exile Book of Yiddish Women Writers by Frieda Johles Forman

Author:Frieda Johles Forman [Frieda Johles Forman, ed.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Exile Editions
Published: 2018-08-13T00:00:00+00:00

Doctor Marek Bloch stepped over the threshold. Narrow, cunning eyes measured him from head to foot. His face and hands were scratched and bloodied by stones and twigs. His clothes were crumpled and smeared with dust and dirt. The woman soon recognized in him the hunted Jew, and no longer addressed him with the formal “you” as she had until then. “It looks like you’re one of those the Germans are driving through this area in sealed wagons.”

He just nodded.

“This one night I won’t throw you out, but tomorrow morning very early, you have to leave. That’s all I need, that I should risk my head for hiding a Jew.”

She placed a small pillow on a wooden bench and threw down an old, frayed blanket. “Lie down right here to sleep.”

“Matka!” A girlish voice was heard from a half-darkened corner of the house. “Oh, give the stranger, ‘the gentleman,’ my blanket also. One is enough for me.”

“This is my daughter,” the woman’s stern voice softened with warm tenderness. “She’s not so healthy. She’s sickly. If you could only cure her for me. You mentioned something about being a doctor.”

“I will do the best I can, Madame. How shall I address you?”

“Madame Maria Wojtek,” she informed him, tight-lipped.

“Good, Madame Maria, we’ll see tomorrow.”

Each rustle of a branch, each bark of a dog tore into Doctor Bloch’s ears with a hundred-fold sharpness. Every time he heard a sound outside he lifted his head trying to grasp its meaning, ready to jump up from the bench and run, run into the dark night.

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