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The
dark memory of a time when Rachel was truly alone
tempered the argument with her brother. A survivor of Auschwitz,
Rachel had hidden in the women's barracks on the day
the Nazis emptied the camp. After the Russian Army
liberated the camp, she had hitchhiked from Poland to
France, sleeping in fields and surviving on the
kindness of strangers. Months later, and with
indescribable joy, she arrived in liberated Paris and
waited with excited expectation for returning members
of the Gale family. While in Paris, Rachel had joined
hundreds of other Jews at the Hotel Lutetia, all
searching for news of loved ones separated by the
deportations. Notes were posted and bits of
information exchanged between concentration camp
survivors were eagerly pursued. Week after
interminable week, Rachel waited, unwilling to believe
that she was the only survivor of her family. Clinging
to what others called futile hope, she sat in the
lobby of the hotel, carefully examining each Jew with
interest, bombarding every newcomer with descriptions
of her parents and brothers. After a month, she
learned from eyewitnesses that her mother and father
had been sent to the crematoriums at Auschwitz.
Michel, her oldest brother, was last seen in a work
camp located on the perimeter of Auschwitz.
Abbi, Michel's Christian wife, made her feelings clear
when she refused Rachel's request for a place to stay.
During the long occupation of France, Abbi had come to
regret her marriage to a Jew. And Jacques? At the time
Rachel was deported from Drancy with her parents,
Jacques had been a resistance prisoner of the Gestapo
in France. The last known news of Joseph, Ester and
their child was that they were still living in the
Warsaw Ghetto during the Spring of 1942.
Rachel
was almost at the point of abandoning all hope and
accompany her insistent Jewish acquaintances to
Palestine, when she recognized a familiar figure
reading the posted notes at the hotel. Joseph had
returned! After a tearful reunion, Rachel joined her
brother and his wife on the journey to Palestine.
Europe was no longer safe for Jews.
Only
after arriving safely in Palestine, had they learned
of Jacques' fate.
With
a sad grimace, Rachel began to arrange food on the
serving trays.
The
house was soon filled with sounds of the celebration
of the night of the Shalom Zachar (welcome to
the male child). Regardless of the deterioration of
Jerusalem life, neighbors and friends of the Gale
family filled the house.
Ari
and Leah Jawor made a last-minute appearance. They
were delighted when Joseph asked them to be his new
son's god-parents. They began to excitedly discuss the
Brit Milah, the traditional ceremony held eight
days following the birth of a male child, where the
child is named and circumcised. Neither Ari nor Leah
knew the name chosen for the boy. Such information
would be held privately within the Gale family until
the Brit Milah, but they knew the infant would
be named for a departed member of Joseph and Ester's
family. Ashkenacic Jewish tradition taught that the
memory of the departed would guide the life of the
newborn, and due to the Holocaust, Joseph and Ester
Gale had numerous possibilities from which to select.
Suddenly,
there was loud applause. Rachel brought out three
bottles of red wine she had hidden away for the birth
of her brother's child. For the first time in months,
the kitchen table was loaded with food. Each guest had
generously contributed some bit of food they had
stowed away for a special occasion. There were cooked
beans and peas, some boiled potatoes and even a box of
fresh fruit. The fruit had been smuggled into the
beleaguered city by Ari Jawor. The precious fruit and
wine created more excitement than the birth of the
child. There was even a cake, dangerously tilted to
one side from the lack of certain ingredients.
While
swaying to the sound of the sonorous Hebrew singing,
Joseph gathered Michel in his arms, telling him,
"You are the light of my life! You are
perfection!" Joseph allowed Michel a sip of wine,
telling him, "My son! To life!"
A
big smile crossed Joseph's lips: new life meant Jewish
strength!
Ester
smiled the sweetest of smiles, watching her husband
delight in their eldest son. She leaned her head
against Joseph's shoulder and closed her eyes,
reminding herself of the wonderful reality that she
was the mother of two healthy sons.
The
cantor continued to lead the guests in song, and
everyone was smiling and happy, unwavering in their
resolve to enjoy the moment and forget about the
violence which was overtaking the small country they
now claimed as their own. When the sound of gunfire
erupted in the neighborhood, two of the men armed
themselves and went outside to guard the house. The
remaining guests raised their voices and sang even
louder, drowning out the chaos of Jerusalem,
portraying a perfect picture of people living in a
time of peace and harmony.
The
moment became bittersweet for Joseph. The scene around
him required all the restraint he possessed to
maintain his composure. Only a short while ago their
future had been intricately intertwined with large and
caring families. World War II brought deadly
consequences for those whom they loved, and more of
Joseph and Ester Gale's past had been lost than saved.
Now, too soon, they again found themselves fighting
for their lives and the lives of their two young
children.
Joseph
was fighting the urge to burst into laughter and to
cry out in anguish, both in the same instant. His eyes
teared with happiness at the safe birth of a son and
with sorrow at the thought of the loved ones who had
not lived to experience this cherished moment. Yet,
Joseph felt some small comfort from the knowledge that
the memory of Ester's most beloved brother, Daniel
Stern, a good man, a brave man, would now live through
their own son. Earlier in the day, Joseph and Ester
had made the decision to name their new son, Daniel.
Daniel Gale.
His
mood reached his wife, Ester, and she nodded. She
understood: although their sons carried the names of
those lost, they would never forget Joseph's brother
Michel, or her own brother, Daniel. Looking into
Joseph's face, she knew that her husband was seeing
another place and another time, and despite the
tremendous joy he felt from the birth of two healthy
sons, he remained desperately sad.
The
traditions of Jewish life called out for the large
families they had both lost at Treblinka and Auschwitz.
As scarred survivors of the Holocaust, Joseph and
Ester had never dreamed the day would come when there
would ever again be cause for celebration in their
lives, just as in the years before the Holocaust, they
never could have imagined the empty void which would
come to a culmination at their most significant family
events.
Joseph
and Ester Gale stood beside each other, hiding their
true thoughts, while singing and exchanging pleasant
conversation with their friends.
Their
guests would have been surprised if they had known
Joseph and Ester Gale saw no one standing before them,
no one at all.
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