I Have Lived a Thousand Years Read Online Free PDF Page A

said, still smiling warmly.
    “Honor roll? Where?”
    “In the central corridor, on the wall. Under the picture of Horthy and the flag. I spotted your name in the girls’ column.”
    I blush again. “I didn’t know about the honor roll. They had never posted the names before.”
    “This year it’s different. This year there won’t be any yearbook. Posting takes the place of the yearbook.” He pauses. He is no longer smiling. “This year everything is different. No yearbook. No graduation. Nothing.” Then a cheerfulthought lights up his handsome, masculine features. “Well, not quite nothing. We received the honor scroll, didn’t we?”
    “You, too? Congratulations!” He is pleased with my enthusiasm. And I walk on air.
    We reach the front entrance of our house. We did not meet anyone. Nothing mars the perfect moments. Jancsi stretches out his hand. “Good luck. Will I see you again? I will be coming to Somorja every Thursday. To the library. In the afternoon. Perhaps I could see you there?” As he shakes my hand, his glance falls on the yellow star. All at once, his eyes hold unfathomable sadness. It astounds me. Then he averts his gaze from the star. I promise to meet him at the library next Thursday afternoon. But the glow is gone. Suddenly, I feel unbearably bruised. His sadness is too much to bear.

F AREWELL, O LD M R. S TERN
    SOMORJA, APRIL 5-APRIL 18, 1944
    I never saw Jancsi Novák again. On Wednesday morning the town crier announced that “Jews are forbidden under penalty of immediate arrest to have intercourse of any kind with Christians. Jews are forbidden under penalty of immediate arrest to greet, acknowledge greeting from, speak to, correspond with, deliver to, or receive objects from Christians. Christians are enjoined to observe the same. Jews are forbidden under penalty of immediate arrest to enter public places—theaters, cinemas, restaurants, cafes, schools, parks, the post office, city hall, or library. Christians are enjoined to inform on any Jew seen entering the aforementioned places.”
    We are virtually under house arrest. I dread meeting neighbors on the street. I walk stiffly, averting my gaze from every face in fear of breaking the law. What if I forget and say hello? Or respond to a friend’s hello? And what if ... we don’t forget? What then? Would we pass each other like strangers? But that’s not possible.
    It is. Our neighbors and friends pass us unacknowledged, unrecognized, unseen. The awkwardness I have feared never arose. Our Christian friends and neighbors seem to have no conflict in observing the restrictions. My sense of isolation is overwhelming.
    My God, have we been reduced to lifeless ghosts?
    Eight days later another drumbeat, another announcement. The one we have dreaded most.
    All Jews of Somorja are to be removed from the town and concentrated in a ghetto in another town—Nagymagyar, fourteen kilometers from here. In five days every Jewish family in Somorja must stand ready for deportation to the ghetto. Every Jewish family may take along to the ghetto personal possessions and one room of furniture. Everything else must be left behind, exactly as is. Keys must be delivered at police headquarters prior to departure.
    GHETTO! I had read about the ghetto, a horrible, horrible place. Jews lived in ghettos during the Dark Ages. My God, are we descending into the Dark Ages?
    Five more days. The weather has turned from late spring to early summer and the fragrance of violets fills the air. Five days of feverish packing. What to take? What to leave behind?
    The cock-feathered military police arrive and our belongings are laden on peasant carts under their surveillance. Foodstuffs, pieces of furniture, clothing, firewood. Mother supervises the operation. She organizes the proper packing of each cart, talks to the police, calms my father. Tension has converted him into a statue of stone. I am doubled up with an excruciating stomachache. Mommy’s sister, Aunt Serena,