HOW QUICKLY LIFE CHANGES!
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Two weeks ago today, I flew on an airplane with my mother to New York. We went to restaurants, museums, a Broadway play (West Side Story – it was fabulous) and my mother went to a 200-person wedding at Central Synagogue. We washed our hands, disinfected our airplane trays, and had a really great time.
Since then, the spread of the corona virus has led to all the above and so much more, being shuttered. Schools are virtual, synagogues are closed, Broadway is dark. People are asked to stay home. More and more people that I know are being tested for the virus because of direct contact and/or symptoms of a fever, sore throat, or a cough. The country is worried about the impossible number of patients who will need hospitalization in the coming months the deaths that we may be mourning.
It feels like the world is at war with an organism that we cannot even see. The organism has a very steep advantage.
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But, since my mind compares everything to the Holocaust and what Sam and Esther went through, I, of course, have been thinking about how, with lightning speed, lives can change, how we can be forced to leave where we are, forced to abide by a curfew (oh, this will be coming, I am sure), forced to completely change our lifestyle.
With the caveat that of course I know that WWII and the Holocaust is different from what we are experiencing now – here are some thoughts:
When the Germans attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 from the west and two weeks later the Soviet Union attacked from the east, people in Poland had no idea what was coming. But with lightning speed, the Nazis went from town to town, bombing, shooting, burning – taking over. Esther’s family lost their home in Stoczek, Poland, when the Nazi’s burned it down in the first few weeks of the war. They were homeless and terrified. They were in a state of shock and uncertainty, as they found shelter in a friend’s home. At first, their family separated, Esther’s two brothers crossed the new German-Soviet Border and took the train to Bialystok. Esther, her parents and her two other siblings, decided a week or so later to join the Wisznia brothers in Bialystok. Bialystok was a transformed city, whose population had doubled in a month. It was jam packed with Jewish refugees from the western side of Poland – fleeing.
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[photo: what uesd to be Stoczek town square where markets were held]
Just this description is enough to show how within weeks from the onset of the war, Esther’s family’s life was turned upside down, never to be the same again. We know it got much worse two years later when the Germans attacked the Soviet Union, but that is not my focus here and in September of 1939, the Wisznia family had no idea how much worse it would get. What I now understand more clearly is the speed with which the change came and how frightening it must have been.
Sam’s family was living in the tiny farming village of Bagatelle, Poland. Such a small place – just one road, farms and lots of cows. Very soon after the war began, Sam’s five siblings, all of whom were married by this time, decided to cross the border and head east to Slonim, where it was safer for Jews (for 2 years anyway). Sam stayed with his parents on the farm. Even before Sam and his parents were evicted by the Nazis, life had already radically changed. Their large family, some of whom lived within a stone’s throw from the Goldberg home, were gone, leaving a silence in their house and town that must have been deafening. Once Sam and his parents were kicked off the farm, they moved to the east side of the border and found a place to live. They lived in one room, rented from a woman who had the space. They had just moved from their large and comfortable farm home to one room in a stranger’s home – but they considered themselves lucky to have found a room to rent!
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[Shlomo in 6/2016 in Bagatele with a current resident (center) and our translator]
Life changed so quickly. I imagine they sat around their small table and looked at each other and said – I can’t believe how quickly our lives have changed. We don’t know what the future will bring, but for now, at least we have a roof over our head, food and we are safe. They didn’t know how much worse it would get over the next few weeks and years.
Sam and Esther were the only ones from their respective families to survivors the Holocaust. They carried on. They moved to America. They named their first two children for their murdered parents – Faiga Bracha and Shlomo Zelig – hoping their parents’ memory would be carried on through the next generation.
We are in a time of rapid change and uncertainty. We must stay in touch and support one other during this difficult time. If you live in Seattle and you need assistance of any kind or just want to hear a friendly voice, please send me a private message (info@karentreiger.com) and I will be there.
Wash your hands. My thoughts are with all of you.
