For Such a Time (42 page)

D
ear Reader,

I hope you’ve enjoyed this story, a tale of redemption through faith and the power of God’s love, and how the Jewish people struggled against their monsters and finally won the day.

Sadly, it’s fiction. There was no “freedom train” to Przemysl. No Leo Molski to confront the Red Cross with true conditions in the ghetto. Only the suffering was real, the deprivation and hunger. I therefore feel honor-bound to the Jewish people and to all who suffered at the hands of Hitler’s machinations to tell the truth as I understand it.

The transit camp of Theresienstadt—or Terezin, in what is now the Czech Republic—did actually exist. Founded in 1780 by Emperor Joseph II in honor of his mother, Empress Maria Theresa, the fortressed city was used by the Germans as a transit camp for Auschwitz from November 24, 1941, until its liberation on May 9, 1945.

The Nazis proclaimed Theresienstadt a “Paradiesghetto” and coerced 140,000
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Jews from their homes. The new arrivals discovered not a resort city, as they had been promised, but a ghetto plagued by squalid, overcrowded living conditions, a lack of food and medicine, and much death and disease. Of
those who entered this walled town between November 1941 and April 1945, over 90,000 were sent to their deaths in Auschwitz-Berkenau and other extermination camps.
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Of those, 15,000 were children.
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And of those who remained, 33,500 died in the ghetto.
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The last transport left the ghetto on October 28, 1944.
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The terrible burden of filling the transports with the required number of victims was put upon the members of the Elder Council, the Jewish administrative body. With devilish baseness and cunning, the Nazis dictated the number of victims to be sent east, but placed the burden of selection on the Jews themselves, to select their own co-religionists, relatives, and friends. In the end, this unbearable responsibility destroyed the community leaders who were forced to make the selections.
6

I have also taken the liberty of altering history’s timeline to better suit my story purpose. Though the date of the Jewish celebration of Purim was Thursday, March 9, 1944, the all-important Red Cross visit didn’t actually occur until June 23 of that same year. It came about because the Danish government was anxious to see for itself the conditions of the ghetto after 466 Danish Jews were sent there beginning on October 5, 1943. After sufficient pressure, the Nazis agreed and began their
Verschönerung
, or “beautification program,” in late 1943 in preparation for the inspection. Because Theresienstadt housed so many prominent and well-known Jews—artists, musicians, and heroes of the First World War—the Nazis wanted to fool the world into thinking the Jews were being well treated.
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Unlike my fictional Red Cross delegation, who is not only surprised but enraged by the sight of Leo and his bedraggled followers, the real four-man Swiss-Danish team never encountered any such “unpresentables.” After a six-hour orchestrated tour given by the SS, they left the ghetto satisfied that all was in good order. They were unaware that many old and sick patients—including the insane and those pretending to be—had already been sent east to be gassed, along with hundreds of rag
gedy and emaciated children. The fresh, new children brought in for the inspection were killed after the Red Cross gave the ghetto a clean bill of health.
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Wolkenbrand or “Firecloud” is a code name I borrowed from Heinrich Himmler’s unsuccessful directive to annihilate the remaining prisoners at the concentration camp of Dachau prior to liberation.
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At Theresienstadt near the end of the war, the real commandant, an Austrian, SS Colonel Karl Rahm, was similarly ordered by Adolf Eichmann to set up gas chambers and get rid of any remaining Jews before the Russians arrived.

The gas was delivered and one of the buildings set up as a gas chamber, but because Rahm feared being tried as a war criminal for such actions, he abandoned the directive and escaped just prior to the camp’s liberation. He was captured after the war, and the Czech courts tried him and sentenced him to death. Meanwhile, the Russians found a raging typhus epidemic inside Theresienstadt, and although they did their best to help the sick inmates, many perished.
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There are other minor issues for which I’ve taken discretionary license. The fact that Terezin is quite a large city, while I attempted to give the ghetto a “small town” sense. The real commandant’s headquarters were located inside the fortress near the Marktplatz; I chose to place Aric von Schmidt’s home just outside the fortress to underscore his deliberate detachment from the Jews’ plight. I gave my protagonist, Hadassah, a prisoner identification number from Dachau, tattooed on the inside of her left arm above the wrist. Yet despite the perception that all Holocaust prisoners were given tattoos, it was only those prisoners of Auschwitz after 1941 who were branded in this way.
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Finally, I offer my heartfelt apologies if I have omitted any other material discrepancies that would seem germane to this story. Suffice it to say, we must never forget the Holocaust and the millions who suffered and died at Hitler’s hands, especially the children.

—KB

German
:

Achtung!
: Attention!

Anschluss
: Annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany, 1938; earlier attempts in 1933–34 failed.

Appell, Appellplatz
: Roll call. Assembly ground in a concentration or extermination camp where prisoners muster.

Arbeit Macht Frei
: “Work Makes You Free.” Nazi slogan that marked the entrances into many of the concentration camps.

Blockführer, Blockführerin
: SS rank, Block section leader, prisoner compound.

Das Schwarze Korps
:
The Black Corps
, official newspaper of the Nazi SS during WWII.

Einsatzgruppen
: SS-mobile task forces, usually for the purpose of “liquidation.”

Endoslung
: The Final Solution. Nazi plan to annihilate all Jewry in occupied Europe.

Ersatz
: Replacement. In the ghetto, ingredients substituted for real coffee.

Hakenkreuz
: Swastika
. Nazi symbol.

HitlerJugend
: Hitler Youth.
Paramilitary organization comprised of girls and boys, 10–18 years.

Kleine Festung
: Little Fortress. Small “punishment” garrison outside Theresienstadt.

Kristallnacht
: “Night of Broken Glass.” Nazis’ destruction of Jewish neighborhoods, November 1938.

Lagerführer
: Officer in charge of the prison compound.

Mischling
: Crossbreed. Term used by Nazis for those with mixed Aryan and Jewish blood.

Paradiesghetto
: “Paradise ghetto.” Theresienstadt was given this euphemism so as to lure thousands of Jews.

Pflanzengarten
: Botanical/vegetable garden.

Reichsführer
-SS: Head of the SS, a position held only by Heinrich Himmler.

Reichsmark
: German paper currency used from 1924–1948. Similar to the American dollar.

Sarah
: Term Nazis used for Jewesses.

Schrank
: Freestanding cupboard.

Schutzstaffel
: SS/Waffen-SS. Political/military group created by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Sonderkommandos
: A detachment of SS that policed occupied territory.

Sturmabteilung
: SA, “Brownshirts.” Paramilitary group within the Nazi Party.

Wehrmacht
: The German armed forces (Army, Navy, Air Force).

Jewish:

Adar
: Last month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year.

Hanukkah
: Jewish Festival of Lights.

Havdalah
: Jewish ceremony that marks the end of Shabbat or festival.

Ketuvim
: Third section of the Hebrew Bible.

Kiddush
: Blessing and prayer recited over wine on the eve of Shabbat or festival.

Mogen Dovid
: Star of David. Nazis required Jews to wear a gold star to identify their Jewry.

Nevi’im
: Second section of the Hebrew Bible.

Rosh Hashanah
: Jewish New Year.

Shabbat
: Jewish Sabbath.

Shtetl
: Small town or ghetto that is predominantly Jewish.

Sukkah
: Booth or temporary hut used in Feast of Booths (Sukkot).

Tallit
: Jewish prayer shawl.

Talmud
: Jewish book of tradition, instruction, and law.

Tanakh
: Hebrew Bible.

Torah
: First five books of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Pentateuch of the Christian Bible.

Traif
: Food that does not conform to Jewish dietary law. Forbidden.

Yarmulke
: Prayer cap.

1. When
   For
   Such a Time
   opens, Stella finds herself held captive at the chalet of Aric’s cousin in the German town of Dachau, not far from the concentration camp. After the war, many townspeople insisted they knew nothing of the Nazis’ activities at the camp. What do you think? Were they truly unaware? Or did their guilt make them blind? Could we find this weakness of human nature in the injustices that surround us today—in our neighborhoods, our cities, our country?
   
2. Who was your favorite secondary character in the story? Why?
   
3. As Stella is taken to Aric’s new post at Theresienstadt, she believes her people to be abandoned by God. Even now, the terrible inhumanity of the Holocaust remains incomprehensible; it is also difficult to reconcile with the will of a loving Father in heaven. If you were Stella, how would you come to terms with these events in your own faith? Do you think we can prevent the genocide still occurring in other parts of the world?
   
4. When Stella is directed by Captain Hermann to type up the train manifest for Auschwitz, she attempts to try and
   save a few by omitting random names from the list. A small gesture, but one that requires courage. Consider your own character. To what lengths would you go to save someone’s life? A child or another loved one? How about someone unknown to you?
   
5. Stella learns from Joseph that her uncle Morty is the sole Elder in the Judenrat and must decide who goes to Auschwitz. How would you cope in Morty’s place?
   
6. Aric was originally an officer in the Wehrmacht, specifically the German Army. Because of his injuries, he was discharged and then approached by Himmler to take charge of the camp at Theresienstadt. Later at the banquet, Stella is shocked to hear him—having witnessed Heydrich’s brutality at Babi Yar—disparage the Waffen-SS in front of his peers. Why then does he take the post of SS-Kommandant at Theresienstadt? Is he truly apathetic or does he feel he has no other choice? Is one better than the other?
   
7. When Aric learns of Wolkenbrand, his conscience begins to war with his sense of duty, especially when he considers what Stella will think of him. If the story events had not changed, do you believe he would have gone through with it or chosen some other option? What does it say about Aric’s character that he has taken under his wing three persons, each of whom, like Aric, is damaged in some way?
   
8. The Bible finds its way into Stella’s possession throughout the story, despite her repeated rejection. Finally, when she’s desperate and struggling to justify sending her people on the last death train before the Red Cross arrives, the Bible reappears to her. As she reads the words of John 3:16, she finally understands the depth of God’s love and knows what she must do. Can you share your own faith experience? Are you quick to accept the Bible’s teaching, or is it more of a process for you?
   
9. At the end of the story, Aric reunites with Stella, and though he’s helped save the lives of her people, he knows
   Germany is losing the war and that he must eventually answer to the world for his part in Hitler’s scheme. Morty assures him the Jewish people will speak out in his favor, but if the story were to continue, what do you imagine the eventual outcome might be?
   
10. Stella clings to her precious Bible throughout, and as she and Aric discuss the future, he is ready to reclaim his Christian faith. Do you think Aric and Stella’s faith journeys will continue? Why or why not? In what ways can they both continue to grow?
    
11. What particular event or detail in the story surprised you the most?