Recap: When Hilda (Sarah’s mother) became pregnant with her third child, Max (Sarah’s father) decided that they had to flee Europe. He got a Cuban visa for his family, and the last step was to get boat tickets. Would they flee Europe successfully?
Finally, Max came home with boat tickets. However, something strange happened. On the departure day, they were not allowed on to the ship and were told that their places had already been taken! Only then did Max realize the businessman who sold him the boat tickets sold the tickets twice. He was just like the truck driver who took advantage of people in times of war! Max had no choice but to let his family watch the ship leave.
But Max was not discouraged. A few weeks later, in May 1941, he got the tickets again. This time the family boarded the ship smoothly, and 12 days after arriving in Cuba, Sarah’s sister Hadassah was born in Cuba!
For Max, Cuba was actually just a stopover to the United States, but the United States did not welcome Jews at that time. Max had no choice but to continue to stay in Cuba for four years until March 1945. It was also through the guarantee of his uncle Leo who lived in the United States that his family was finally granted entry to the United States.
Sarah grew up in the United States and joined the Bnei Akiva Jewish religious youth organization where she was inspired to have the idea of immigrating to Israel. Sarah came to Israel to work on the Kibbutz. A friend she knew from before became her husband and they got married on a kibbutz! After they got married, they went back to the United States to study and save money. 14 years later, Sarah returned to Israel as a mother of three children. The eldest, Yonah, was just 13 years old. Although he already had his Bar Mitzvah in New York, Sarah’s sister Hadassah, who already lived in Israel, insisted on making him the second Bar Mitzvah party in Israel. The family jokingly says that Jonah had his “Bar” in the United States and “Mitzvah” in Israel!
Now Sarah’s children are all grown up, she has 16 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren, all living in Israel, all proud of the family story.
Sarah wrote the book “Fleeing Europe” with her sister in 2004. When piecing together various stories, she saw the extraordinary perseverance and dedication of her parents. Without them, there would be no such beautiful lives and smiles of herself and her descendants.
But more importantly, it was God’s help. There were so many miracles in the process of escaping from Europe, if anything had gone wrong, the story would have ended. For example, after several weeks in Havana, Cuba, they heard that the ship they were supposed to take was hit by a German torpedo,all the passengers and crew sunk with the ship and never reached Cuba.
It was one miracle after another, because of God’s protection, the impossible became possible, giving their family a chance to be reborn.
前情提要:Max (Sarah的爸爸)和Hilda (Sarah的媽媽)在比利時與兩個女兒會面了,下一步就是護衛好家人,並且遠離有納粹的歐洲,但是要怎麼做呢? 當Max決定要讓全家人在一起,並且儘早離開納粹會到的地方,在比利時待了一年後,Max帶著家人搭火車到法國的一個天主教小村莊,當地的農民非常友善,看到這些可憐的猶太難民來到村莊,不但收容了他們,甚至神父憐憫這些可憐的人,即便他們抵達的那天是天主教傳統上不能夠吃肉的週五,還特別煮肉給他們吃!在戰爭時期提供肉給難民吃是個特別善良的行動,當然他們不知道猶太人不能吃豬肉,即便在患難時期猶太人也是不吃豬肉,所以大多找藉口推辭掉了。接下來Max一家和其他猶太家庭在這個小村莊的葡萄園做農活和居住,就連Sarah當時已經8歲的姊姊Susan也都有送午餐的工作。 好景不常,幾個月後來了一些法國警察,把所有的猶太男人都逮捕了。 Hilda和其他婦女到警察局去,用法文抗議說:「放我們的男人走!他們是清白的!他們在工作!」 這些法國警察或許只是照章行事,也搞不清楚為什麼要逮捕猶太男人,幾個小時後警察決定放人,而這是Hilda第二次把她的丈夫從監牢裡救出來。 而這也讓Max知道又必須離開了。 他們從法國又輾轉到不同地方,剛好在波爾多受到一個叫做索薩·門德斯(Aristides de Sousa Mendes)葡萄牙的外交官幫助,得到了進入葡萄牙的「生命」簽證。這個外交官很特別,在第二次大戰時間,他利用他的職位,發送生命簽證給正在逃離納粹德國的歐洲難民,作為天主教徒的他說:「我想與神同工,而不是跟敵對神的人童工。」但葡萄牙政府發現他不斷發送簽證後,撤銷他的職位。(1966年時以色列大屠殺紀念館Yad Vashem頒發「國際義人」的榮譽給這位外交官,感謝他在大屠殺時期冒著生命危險救了3萬人,其中有1萬名猶太人) 戰爭當時還沒有波及到葡萄牙,當Max因為有了葡萄牙簽證而帶全家逃到葡萄牙。Max一家花了2.5年從德國逃到葡萄牙,到了葡萄牙後,Hilda懷了第三胎,這讓Max更確定一定要趕快離開歐洲。他每天跑一個大使館,就為了可以拿到一張離開歐洲的簽證,因為所有的大使館都拒絕給他簽證。直到幾週後的一天,或許是因為他有當過鑽石切割的學徒,他在古巴大使館得到了簽證!只差船票一家人就能離開歐洲了! 他們真的就這樣全家人逃離歐洲了嗎? 圖:Sarah的古巴簽證 "Ep07 From Europe to Cuba" Previous story summary: Max (Sarah's father) and Hilda (Sarah's mother) reunited with their two daughters in Belgium. The next step was to protect the family and stay away…
前情提要:Max (Sarah的爸爸)從囚禁猶太人的監牢回到家裡,看見昔日擁有的商店被納粹摧毀了,女兒們也在比利時。Hilda (Sarah的媽媽)跟Max要決定下一步,他們什麼都沒有了,他們現在該怎麼做呢? 既然商店已經被納粹摧毀,而且兩個女兒又已經送去比利時,Max和Hilda決定要想盡辦法到比利時,他們打電話給親戚說他們會過去與他們會合,但猶太人當時要逃離德國幾乎是不可能的任務,親戚們並不抱著能順利見到他們的希望。 Max和Hilda打聽到有個走私販可以開卡車帶他們到比利時的邊境,但問題是,他們沒有車要怎麼從Dortmund到卡車司機在的城市就是一個問題了,因為根據紐倫堡法案,猶太人不准搭乘火車,所以他們該怎麼辦呢? 他們又打聽到可以偷偷躲在火車底下 (當時的火車跟鐵軌之間是有間隙的),因為納粹德國份子只會檢查在火車裡每個人的證件和車票。 所以,只要可以裝得若無其事地走進火車站,在趁沒有人看到的時候躲到火車底下,在火車開動前就掛好自己,火車開動的幾個小時都不要鬆手.... 說起來容易,但做起來一點都不輕鬆,除了不可能攜帶任何行李,手沒抓緊的話就死定了。 可是這是唯一的方法,為了能見到孩子,Max和Hilda真的完成了不可能的任務。 他們成功的到了靠近邊境的城市,找到了走私人口的卡車司機,談好了價格,然後就躲在卡車內木材和卡車座位之間那一點點的空間,除了他們以後,還有另外兩個猶太女孩,跟他們一起站在那個小小的空隙。 到了檢查站,納粹德國士兵要求卡車司機打開車門,因為要看有沒偷藏人在裡面。司機開了車門,納粹士兵只看到一堆木頭,但為了以防萬一,還是往裡面開了幾槍。這一定是奇蹟,他們四人竟然沒有人受傷。 卡車司機開離檢查站後,竟然跟四個乘客要求更多的錢,因為這個任務風險太高了,而且他的卡車還被損壞了,於是四個乘客只好乖乖再付額外一筆錢。但又過了一個檢查哨,卡車司機又多要一次錢,到了第三次,兩個猶太女生沒有錢可以給了,卡車司機就要她們滾。 Max其實不認識這兩個女生,他們在車上也沒有任何的交談(不可能發出聲音的),但他不可能見死不救。他做了一個很偉大的決定,其實也是一個很大行善的誡命(Mitzvah),他用他所剩不多的錢,幫這兩個女生付了卡車司機要求的賠償,救了她們免於被丟在路途上的命運。而終於,卡車過了邊境,抵達了比利時,卡車司機把這四個猶太人放在路邊後就離去。 當Max和Hilda出現在比利時親戚家時,大家都不敢相信他們成功了,相隔三個月,才兩歲的小Sarah看到父母出現時,先是沒有任何反應,後來突然意識到什麼了,就嚎啕大哭了起來,Sarah的姊姊Susan、Hilda以及比利時親戚們也都跟著哭了。 在那個歇斯底里的場景,Max悄悄在心裡做了兩個決定,一個是要儘早離開納粹會到的地方,而另一個則是他們全家人再也不會分開。 『Ep06 The Impossible Reunion 』Recap: Max (Sarah's father) returned home from prison (where Jews were arrested) and saw that the shop he owned had been destroyed by the Nazis. His daughters were sent to…
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