The Last Train by Rona Arato

The Last Train by Rona Arato

Author:Rona Arato
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUVENILE NONFICTION, History, Holocaust, Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Family, Siblings, Religion / Judaism
Publisher: Owlkids Books Inc.
Published: 2014-01-28T16:00:00+00:00


Every day new transports of prisoners arrived. Sickness and a disease called typhus spread through the camp and hundreds of people died. Food became scarcer. The women often sat together on their bunks, planning meals they would make when they returned home.

“I will make chicken soup floating with schmaltz,” said Aunt Bella. “What will you cook, Lenke?”

“I will make goulash with dumplings.”

“Ah, I make the best cholent. That is what I will bring,” said Sadie, a woman from another barrack who had come to visit.

Paul huddled in a corner of the bunk. All this talk of food made him hungry. It also made him sad because it reminded him of happier times in Karcag. Every Saturday there, Paul, Oscar, and their parents used to walk to the synagogue for Sabbath services. On the way home, the boys would stop at the bakery to retrieve the pot of cholent, the thick stew their mother left there on Friday evening so it could cook overnight in the baker’s oven. At home, they ate their meal, and then Apu and Anyu rested while the boys went outside to meet their friends. Paul thought about holidays at the synagogue, dinners with grandparents, cousins, and friends, and lazy summer days when he and Oscar would ride their bicycles to the Berek, the park with hot springs and a large public swimming pool, on the outskirts of town.

Paul turned to his mother. “Anyu, what does Apu look like?”

Anyu broke off her conversation. “What did you say?”

“I can’t remember what Apu looks like.”

His mother came over and wrapped her arms around him. “Your father is a handsome man. He has dark hair, like yours, and his eyes are blue, like Oscar’s.”

“I want to see him.”

“I do, too, my darling boy. Soon we will go home and we will all be together and life will be like it was before.”

Looking at his stick-thin mother and the other women, whittled by hunger to skin and bones, Paul wondered if Anyu was lying to him. He couldn’t believe that life would ever be good again.



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