Karolina's Twins (Liam Taggart & Catherine Lockhart #3)

by Ronald H. Balson

One by one, the stools were kicked out from under the prisoners.” “And you saw it happen?” Liam said. Lena nodded. “That, I did. And heard it. And felt it.” “How awful,” Catherine said, and placed her hand over her mouth. “Seven more were hung in the same fashion in 1942. Although I have not seen it, a monument to the seven martyrs has now been erected in Chrzanów.

Kaddish?’ I said to Yossi. My tone mocked him. ‘To whom? To the absent God?’ My voice was rising. ‘Do you think someone’s listening when you chant Kaddish? Face it, Yossi, if there’s a God, he’s long ago checked out of this hotel. Where is he when they’re torturing us? Where is God Almighty when pious people are slaughtered? Where is…’ “‘Stop!’ he commanded. He grabbed my arms. ‘You are a Jew. They cannot take that from you. The Nazis can take away your house, they can take away your bread, they can even take your body, but they cannot take away who you are. The Nazis seek to kill us physically and spiritually. I may not be able to stop them from killing me physically, but I am in control of my spirituality. I, and I alone, will decide when to say Kaddish, when to welcome the Sabbath, when to dance on Simchat Torah. Your father, your mother and your little brother—they were all Jews. Nazi Germany, with all its might, attacked their Jewishness, but it did not win. It did not rob them of their faith. The Nazis cannot win as long as we remain Jews. Do you understand?’

I didn’t think I could do it again—get close to somebody and have her ripped out of my life. I didn’t think I could give away another piece of my heart. But you know what, I was wrong. The heart regenerates. It always manufactures another piece to give away. “Auschwitz

Throughout the summer, trains pulled in and new arrivals were marched straight to the gas chambers. The crematoriums ran twenty-four hours a day. Auschwitz-Birkenau at its peak was killing two thousand an hour.