I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree Read Online Free PDF Page A

acquaintances but was too scared to even nod to them. Older women, barely able to lift their suitcases, were told to carry them or leave them behind. I wanted to help but was not allowed to do so. Slowly, the line began to move. All suitcases had to be opened, and SA women rummaged through them to look for valuables. Mama was told to remove her gold wedding band. She had never taken the ring off before. Then it was my turn. The same woman who had ordered Mama to take off her band rummaged around my suitcase and removed a Tyrolean sweater, one of my favorites. She also took the antique silver bracelet I was wearing. It had been a present from my great-uncle NathanSchoenthal and was the only piece of jewelry I owned. I bit my lip to keep from crying out.
    More lines, more orders, more confusion followed. A strip search was ordered. The SA woman in charge was threatening. “Take your clothes off, damned Jewess! Make it fast, I don’t have all day. There are too many of you as it is.”
    I peeled off layer after layer of clothing with the greatest speed and stood naked, for the first time in my life, among strangers. I felt violated.
    â€œTell me where you hid your valuables. It will save time,” the SA woman snapped.
    When I told her politely that I had already handed over my bracelet, as I was told to do, she began a body search, examining every crevice. I had never been so disgraced.
    By the time all the body searches and other formalities we had to go through were over, it was afternoon. I was very hungry and cold. But I soon forgot my own discomfort when I heard a piercing cry coming from the men’s side of the hall. I was concerned for my brothers. Hadthey said or done something they shouldn’t have?
    Walking quickly as far as I dared to, I soon saw what was happening. An SA man was standing over a deportee and beating him relentlessly, dragging him around the straw-covered stall. I didn’t want to look, but the wailing was so pitiful that the man was impossible to ignore.
    â€œHear, O Israel,” the man cried. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
    It was that old familiar prayer, chanted on Shabbat and at holiday services . . . and sometimes before dying.
    The SA man continued to swing his club long after the man had fallen silent. Even from a distance I could tell he had been beaten to death. One of the orderlies was called.
    â€œOut of my sight with this dog. Take him away.”
    â€œGod, what have we done that you have forsaken us?” I uttered under my breath.

chapter five
    We had spent the entire day at the stock pen, and now it was evening. A voice over the loudspeaker told us to board the train through the back doors. Floodlights glared overhead as we were rushed onto the platform, ordered to move faster, faster . When I saw Wolfgang and Selly in the crowd, I walked toward them so we could board the train together.
    Mama found a seat on a bench; we sat on our suitcases. The last of the deportees had long been pushed inside, yet still the train didn’t move. Lights flickered on and off. I felt people and the walls closing in around me. Hours later,when windows and doors had been sealed and bars laid across them, the train jerked forward and back. One final shudder, and we were off into the unknown. Except for the sound of the turning wheels, there was total silence.
    Wolfgang and Selly sat together, knees drawn up, looking frightened. To calm myself, I closed my eyes, as though I were pulling shades down on the world.
    When streaks of morning light filtered into the compartment, I stood up and rubbed my cramped legs. Mama was way over on the other side of the compartment, and since I would have to step and crawl over people to get to her, I simply waved.
    After people started waking and we were able to move closer to one another, my brothers and I took a Thermos of tea and sandwiches from our knapsacks and had breakfast with Mama. Food