Bubbe's Place: Stories

Who would save our babies?

I often thought about Hitler and me. How lucky I was to be born and to live in America. If I had lived in Europe, I would only have gone to school in the primary grades. In 1939 I was nine. When the war ended in 1945,1 was fifteen. I probably would have been sent to the camps. There I would have died in the gas chambers or from starvation and illness.

When I was a child my parents talked about the round up of Jews and their relocation to camps. We met some refugees, but they didn't say anything to a child. After the war, I was a young adult when all the secrets were exposed. But it was over and I thought that I was untouched. I wasn't. I remember when I was a young woman I would sit on the front stoop and rock my son in his carriage. I sat with my girl friends, Elaine and Lynne. They too were rocking their babies in their carriages. What did three young Jewish mothers discuss - not the cost of diapers, not the fashions. We talked, "What if... " We talked about Hitler and Europe. We made plans to save our babies should another Nazi leader appear. We talked about Anne Frank. We searched our memories for a Christian friend who would save our babies. We couldn't name one.