Sacred Survivor

By John Kiss

Inspired by the life of a real World War II survivor, this remarkable novel reveals the power of unsung women to change history by saving but one soul

 

In an unknown land, at an unknown ti

• Language: English
• Publisher: YourBookTeam
• Release date: Mar 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869188366

Book preview

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART ONE

PART TWO

PHOTOGRAPHS

In loving memory of

Dr. Felix Zandman

1928-2011

PART ONE

Based on a true story

CHAPTER 1   

The bright light hurt his eyes.

This was a different light than the one he had always known. Back home, the light was softer, cooler. As the train approached Paris he looked through the window and noticed how bright the sky was.

He was no longer a boy. He was now a young man. His heart beat faster as the train approached Paris. He was far away from home. But then, ‘home’ was gone. Everything that used to be home was gone. The war had taken it all. In the past few weeks he finally understood that his mother, father and sister were never coming back. That his beloved grandmother was gone, and so was his grandfather, as well as each and every member of his extended family, dozens of them. Apart from one uncle, he had no family left.

The train slowed down as it entered the station. He saw many people on the platform, excitedly waiting for their loved ones.

No one was waiting for him.

He picked up his valise. He was hoping to start anew here. He was hoping to forget all that his eyes had seen. To forget the darkness.

He was hopeful. A new day was dawning.

CHAPTER 2   

Two years earlier he had run through the snowy forest at night. Finally, in the early morning he saw the house. He remembered this house well. In his childhood, before the war, the boy had spent many happy summer days in this small house and the cabins near it. His grandmother owned this place with all its cabins. She had entrusted its management to a woman who used to be, many years before, the family maid.

He looked at the house through the trees. It was dawn. He decided he’d wait. Soon the maid’s husband would set out for work. And their three teenage daughters would most likely go to school. Then he’d go and ask the maid to hide him. Just for the day. Then, at night, he’d run away. If she could only hide him for the day! The woods, where he was now, were not a safe place. Not if the soldiers came with their dogs.

He waited in the woods, trying to be as invisible as he could. It was snowing. He was cold.

Finally the house door opened.

He recognized the maid’s husband. A tall man. He walked outside. Soon the three daughters came out as well. Beautiful girls, especially the eldest. They walked toward the village together.

He kept waiting in the woods. Then, glancing right and left, he quickly ran toward the house.

He knocked on the door, looking constantly behind him.

CHAPTER 3   

Two years later, standing on the platform with his one valise, the young man breathed the air. The light was so bright he felt a little dizzy. This was Paris. He had dreamed of it. Throughout the time he had spent hiding, Paris was one of those dreamlike places in his mind. When he survived, he’d visit there.

If he would survive.

But he had. He really had. 

He longed to see the Eiffel Tower. He had seen so many pictures of it in his life. Once it had been the tallest building in the world. And it took an engineer to create it.

He wanted to be an engineer himself.

He walked out of the train station, with many people all around him. The language was different. He did not speak it.

Yet he was determined to eventually know it. He would do whatever it took.

Outside he saw people laughing, talking. So free. So careless... He blushed when he saw a couple kissing on a bench. Kissing. Out in the open. This was a strange place, he thought.

He liked it already.

He felt like a resurrected man, coming out of the grave.

He stepped onto the street, determined to find it. The Tower that was in his dreams.

CHAPTER 4   

Two years earlier, still looking frantically behind him, the boy knocked on the door again.  

The maid opened the door. My God! she gasped.

She hugged the boy, pushed him inside the house, and scanned the road and woods carefully. Then she closed the door behind her and locked it.

It was warm inside. The boy was relieved to be where it was warmer.

The maid took his hands in hers. My goodness, she exclaimed, you’re freezing!

Thank you for letting me in, he mumbled.

Oh, forget it! the maid said. "This is your home!"

He gulped. This was indeed a house that belonged to his grandmother, who had entrusted the cabins to the maid, her husband, and their five children.

The maid put a kettle on the gas. We must get you warm!

The house was quiet. Her toddler son and her baby girl must still be sleeping. He glanced at the small room across the kitchen. They were.

The boy shuddered at the thought of what might happen to them if their mother got caught for harboring him.

He looked through the kitchen window. He hurried to close the thick curtain. I promise, the boy whispered, that I will stay for only a day, one day, and then, at night, I’ll go.

Are you out of your mind? the maid exclaimed. You are family! She opened the pantry, took out a piece of bread and handed it to the boy.

He ate it as if he hadn’t in days.

He gulped it down quickly, and then shook his head. He realized that she was probably unaware of what danger she was putting her family in. If the soldiers find out, he mumbled, that you are hiding me... they will kill you, and your whole family!

She looked at him adamantly. Whatever happens to you, she smiled, will happen to us. You are a gift from heaven. I’ve been praying for your family. Her eyes became moist. Now sit down!

The kettle whistled. She poured a cup of tea for the boy and placed it on the table.

Thank you, he muttered, thank you.

The maid sat down. Now, your grandmother, how is she?

The boy shook his head. Did the maid not know? They took her, them, everyone, he whispered, to the trains.

The maid gasped, May God protect them all.

The boy didn’t know what to say.

Your grandmother, she said, what an angel she is! Many years ago, when I was pregnant with my second daughter, she was... she sighed. You see, my husband, he’s a good man...

The boy nodded, seeing how the maid struggled to find the right words.

But, she continued, sometimes, when he drinks too much, he can forget... you see?

The boy nodded.

And so, he was drunk then, and I was nearly due... and he... she searched for the words, he threw me out in the street. We lived in the city back then. I didn't have anywhere to go. Then I thought, your grandmother! She was always so kind to me!

The boy nodded.

It had already been years since I worked for your family, but I hoped she would remember me. Her eyes became moist again. It was midnight, and I knocked on her door. And your grandmother came and hugged me, you see?

The boy nodded. He drank the hot tea. It was so good.

She did not ask any questions, the maid said, her eyes watering. She hugged me and said, ‘Now now, everything will be all right, it is good that you came.’

The maid shook her head, She said it as if... as if she had been expecting me!

The boy nodded. Now that he felt warmer, fear crept in again. At any moment someone could knock on the door. Please, he said, I am afraid you don't understand what you are doing... Do you want me to go away now?

Nonsense! the maid exclaimed. I told you! You are here to stay!

The boy looked around the kitchen. What would happen if someone came? Where would he hide?

Seeing his fearful face, the maid said, Do not worry, dear! She unlocked and opened the main door. The boy hurried to hide behind the stove. He thought to himself that she was not careful enough.

Here, she said, carrying a tall ladder inside from the yard. She locked the door behind her. You can hide in the attic!

The attic? the boy asked. He looked up and saw a small door in the kitchen ceiling. The maid propped up the ladder and climbed it, opening the small door.

When she came down, the boy hurried up the ladder and saw a tiny attic. It was large enough for one person. Maybe two. He sighed a sigh of relief. This would do, for the time being.

He came down, still afraid to foster any hopes. But, will your husband...?

He will do as I tell him, she said. And besides, he will be glad to see you. Now, back then, your grandmother...

The boy nodded.

...Your grandmother took me in and laid me a bed. And the following day she took me to a hospital, at her own expense, mind you, and I stayed there and gave birth to my second daughter...

The boy nodded.

The maid sighed. Well, my husband terribly regretted drinking so much, and he convinced me to come back home. And I did. But, she raised her finger, I never forgot your grandmother’s warmth. And then, a few years ago, she asked me – me! – to take care of the vacation cabins! She is such a special lady!

The boy was about to say something, when they heard a knock on the door. The maid frowned.

The boy’s heart sank. He had already been discovered.

CHAPTER 5   

The young man walked through Paris. He was trying to take it all in. Everything was so vivacious. It was just like in the movies from before the war. No... better. It was better. People seemed not to know that there was a war, a great war, which had just ended. A dangerous war, a war, six years it had lasted. A war! The young man wanted to shout, ‘Don’t you know there was a war!’

But people walked and talked and sat on benches and laughed, mothers with their children, sisters with their brothers. Families. For him it was all gone.

He shook his head. He must not think of that.

He looked around. More than he wanted to eat, more than he wanted to drink, more than anything – he wanted to see that Tower. He was disappointed he could not see it. Where was it? He thought it would be visible from everywhere. And yet, as he walked down the street from the train station, he could not see it. He finally asked an old man on a bench. But the old man didn't understand him. Finally the young man exclaimed, Eiffel! Eiffel!

The old man pointed in the opposite direction and the young man headed that way. After quite some time he reached a small river and walked over it on a bridge. It was then that he suddenly saw it. The Tower he had dreamed about.

He hastened his steps. Each stride took him closer. Each stride made the tower bigger and bigger. Finally, he arrived there after half an hour. A large garden surrounded it, with beautiful fountains. The Tower stood there, a steel structure so magnificent, so strong...

He felt his eyes becoming teary. How come he was here, alive, when so many others were...?

He shook his head, brushing that thought away. For so long, hiding in the maid’s house, he had dreamed of this moment.

He walked toward the tower. Many tourists were standing there, couples, families. Only he was alone. Each step he made toward the tower accelerated his excitement. He would not climb up now. He barely had any money. He had to use it sparingly. But he could still admire the tower. He walked under it, feeling its enormous height and grandeur. He advanced slowly, and then stood in the middle, surrounded by the four gigantic pillars on all sides. He remembered reading how the famous Eiffel had designed the tower, at the time the tallest man-made structure in the world, so that the wind would be able to flow through it freely. The wind, Eiffel had explained in that old article, was a powerful force, and obstructing its free flow could result in disaster. Therefore the structure was built in the form of thin strips laid horizontally and vertically one against the other, enabling the flow of wind through it.

No, the young man thought, no wind would bring it down. No matter how strong a storm might be.

He became a little dizzy as he looked up, trying to capture the magnificence of the tower. He so wanted to build something like this himself. And cars too. And ships. And airplanes. Everything. He wanted to gulp down the entire world.

He saw the sky between the steel lines of the tower. The bright blue sky. He wanted to feel optimistic. But he suddenly felt so alone. There, in the midst of all those people, he fell to his knees and cried.

CHAPTER 6   

The boy’s heart sank. There was another knock.

The maid neared the door and asked, Who is it?

A woman yelled, It’s me, your neighbor, silly one!

The maid hurried to tell the boy to go to the attic, but he was already in there, closing the attic door from the inside. She moved the ladder and opened the door.

The neighbor smiled. Are you alone?

Why, of course! the maid answered.

But I heard voices, the neighbor said, looking around the small house.

I was talking...to the children! the maid said, pointing at the other room.

The neighbor looked at the small room where the toddler and the baby were sleeping. She then gave the maid a long, painful stare. Don’t do anything silly, dear, she said.

What do you mean? the maid blushed.

The soldiers sent all the hat-wearers away. Yesterday. There was a great transport. They cleared out the segregated enclosure. The city is now clean of all those hat-wearers. Yet, she added in a whisper, some fled. The soldiers are looking for those cockroaches...

The maid said nothing.

The neighbor sat down. Aren’t you going to offer me some tea?

Of course, the maid said and boiled a fresh pot.

Above the kitchen, in the attic, the boy heard everything. He tried not to breathe, not to move.

The two women went on to gossip about some of the neighbors. Then, the neighbor whispered, The occupying army is very strong. They are advancing east... You are young and clueless. But don’t you do anything silly, you hear me?

What do you mean? the maid exclaimed.

The neighbor pointed at the ladder. What is that ladder doing there? she asked.  

I was, the maid said, fetching some potatoes.

From the attic? the neighbor said. Don’t you have a potato cellar outside?

Some mice were infesting them there, so I moved them to the attic, the maid said. And also, she said, rising, in this cold weather, I hate to go outside. So we store some up here!

The neighbor said nothing and got up as well. Well, I'll see you later, then.

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