My Bridges of Hope (28 page)

S
EPTEMBER
1945 I am back in school.

N
OVEMBER
1945 A stranger returns Daddy's coat.

D
ECEMBER
1945 I find out about
Briha
from Miki.

S
PRING
1946 Miki and Barishna leave for Palestine.

J
ULY
1, 1946 I leave with the boys' and girls' camps for the Tatras.

J
ULY
7, 1946 Frieda leaves the Tatras. I am left alone in charge of the girls' camp.

A
UGUST
11, 1946 The children and I escape
from the partisans in the Tatras.

S
EPTEMBER
1946 I enroll at the teachers' seminary in Bratislava.

M
ARCH
20, 1947 My brother leaves for America.

N
OVEMBER
29, 1947 The UN votes to partition Palestine and establish a Jewish State; Zionist youths dance in the Square.

D
ECEMBER
1947-M
ARCH
1949 My involvement in work for the
Briha.

F
EBRUARY
1948 The Communists take over the government of Czechoslovakia.

M
ARCH
1948 My attempt to enroll in the Haganah camp is rejected; I am appointed school headmistress.

S
EPTEMBER
10-22, 1948 My work in road construction above the Danube; I meet Vilo.

M
ARCH
8, 1949 Mommy and I are crossing the border to Vienna.

S
EPTEMBER
1949 We leave Vienna.

S
EPTEMBER
1949-O
CTOBER
1950 Mommy
and I are residents of Camp Feldafing.

O
CTOBER
1950—F
EBRUARY
1951 Mommy and I are residents of Camp Geretsried.

M
ARCH
19—30, 1951 Our last days in Germany.

A
PRIL
7, 1951 We arrive in New York.

Post-Holocaust Period:

Highlights of Chronology

M
AY
7, 1945 Germany surrenders. The war ends in Europe.

S
UMMER
1945 Displaced Persons Camps established in American and British Zones of Germany and Austria. President Harry Truman sends emissary, Earl Harrison, to visit D.P.s. His recommendation: 100,000 Jewish survivors be sent to Palestine immediately.

F
EBRUARY
1946 Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry recommends that a binational Jewish-Arab government be set up in Palestine.

N
OVEMBER
1945–O
CTOBER
1946 War crimes trials are held in Nuremberg, Germany.

A
PRIL
1947 General Assembly of the UN sets up eleven-nation board, the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), to deal with the Palestine impasse.

N
OVEMBER
29, 1947 General Assembly of the UN votes to partition Palestine and establish sovereign Jewish and Arab states; beginning of widespread Arab attacks.

F
EBRUARY
1948 Communists take over the government of Czechoslovakia.

M
AY
14, 1948 Ben-Gurion reads the Declaration of Independence of Israel; seven Arab armies invade the infant state; Israel wages war of independence.

1949 First Knesset opens; Chaim Weizmann becomes the first president of Israel; David Ben-Gurion elected the first prime minister; cease-fire agreements with Egypt, Lebanon, Transjordan, Syria; Israel becomes a member of the UN; 240,000 immigrants enter the country.

1951 Second Knesset is elected; tension on borders increases; mass immigration continues.

Affidavit
—a-fah-DAY-vit—a voluntary, sworn declaration in writing—L
ATIN

Briha
—BRI-ha—flight, or escape—H
EBREW

Bunker
—BUN-ker—underground barrack—O
LD
S
WEDISH

Burg
—BOORG—castle—G
ERMAN

CARE (Cooperative American Remittances Everywhere
)—nonprofit organization begun after World War II to send food and clothing overseas

Diaspora
—die-AS-pa-ra—the dispersion of the Jews outside their homeland—G
REEK

Eretz
—EH-retz—land-—H
EBREW

Fräulein
—FROY-line—Miss—G
ERMAN

Ghetto
—GE-toh—a part of a city or town where Jews were forced to live—I
TALIAN

Gymnasium
—jim-NAE-zee-um—classical secondary school—L
ATIN

Haganah
—ha-ga-NAH—defense, voluntary fighting units, later to become the Israel Defense Forces—H
EBREW

Halakhah
—ha-LAH-kha—Jewish law—H
EBREW

Hanukkah
—HAH-noo-kah—Jewish holiday (usually in December) celebrating the successful revolt against Greco-Syrian occupation and liberation of Judea from religious oppression—H
EBREW

Havera
—ha-VEH-rah—friend
if)—
H
EBREW

Kibbutz
—ki-BUHTS—collective settlement, commune—H
EBREW

Kuchen
—KOO-khin—a yeast-dough coffee cake—G
ERMAN

Maccabees
—MA-kuh-beez—Jewish patriots who led a successful revolt against the overwhelming might of the Greco-Syrian empire—H
EBREW

Mizrachi
—miz-RAH-khi—religious Zionist organization—H
EBREW

Nazdar
—NAH-zdahr—greeting—C
ZECH
and S
LOVAK

Nie nada
—NEE NAH-duh—“Nothing doing”—R
USSIAN

ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation and Training
)—network of vocational schools

Pan
—PAHN—Mr.—C
ZECH
and S
LOVAK

Pharaohs
—FAR-ohz—ancient Egyptian monarchs who enslaved the Jews—E
GYPTIAN

Prater
—PRAH-ter—famous Viennese amusement park

Raison d'être
—rae-ZONE de-TRE—reason for being, rationale for existing—F
RENCH

Riesenrad
—REE-zen-rahd—giant wheel—G
ERMAN

Schmaltz
—shmahltz—chicken fat—G
ERMAN
, Y
IDDISH

Shaliah
—shah-LE E -ah—emissary—H
EBREW

Sle
č
na
—SLECH-nah—Miss—C
ZECH
and S
LOVAK

Talmud
—TAL-mood—body of Jewish civil and religious law—H
EBREW

Torah
—TOHR-ah—the Pentateuch; the sacred text of Jewish law and teaching—H
EBREW

U
č
itel
—UCH-it-yel—teacher—C
ZECH
and S
LOVAK

UNO
—The United Nations Organization

USSR
—Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

White Papers
—decrees the British government issued restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine

Yeshivah
—yuh-SHEE-vuh—institution of Jewish learning—H
EBREW

L
IVIA
B
ITTON
-J
ACKSON
, born Elli L. Friedmann in Czechoslovakia, was thirteen when she, her mother, and her brother were taken to Auschwitz. They were liberated in 1945 and came to the United States on a refugee boat in 1951. She received a Ph.D. in Hebrew culture and Jewish history from New York University. Dr. Bitton-Jackson has been a professor of history at City University of New York for thirty-seven years. Her previous books include
Elli: Coming of Age in the Holocaust,
which received the Christopher Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, and the Jewish Heritage Award. Dr. Bitton-Jackson lives in Israel with her husband, children, and grandchildren.

About the photo on the front cover:

This picture was part of a family passport photo taken of Elli, her mother, and her brother in the winter of 1946. It was attached to an application form for an American visa. Elli proudly sports a permanent wave, a popular hairstyle at the time, and a hooded coat made by her mother from an army blanket. Although the American visa was not granted and her Czechoslovak passport has long lost its validity, the picture has remained in Elli's possession.