KADDISHEL
A Life Reborn
wet floor, where the air was slightly better, although it smelled of urine, and our eyes shut of their own accord for a few minutes at a time. We had no way of knowing how much time had passed, but the next morning we heard some of our Christian “neighbors” break into our house and fight each other over our few possessions. It was terrifying when we heard them so close, tearing at our clothes. But it was more terrifying when it became quiet and we knew someone was in the house looking for us. There would be a faint whisper of movement in the house, and very quiet breathing, as some villager snuck around and strained for the slightest sound, hoping to flush out a family of Jews. We were paralyzed. From time to time, we heard outbursts of shooting and screams. We knew that we were not the only ones with hiding places, and we could hear the Ukrainians and Germans searching every house, looking for fake ceilings and other hiding places like ours. Every time they discovered a group, they shouted in triumph. We could hear them kicking and shoving their prey into the street, where they were either shot, right in front of their homes, or beaten and driven into the street and then shot. We could hear all this, the gasping, the kicking, the sobbing, the shooting, and then the silence. We knew that this was really the Final Solution. The police who were searching the houses for hidden Jews to kill were mostly Ukrainians, with Germans supervising and egging them on. That day, they came into our house and tapped all over the floors with the butts of their rifles to listen for the echo indi - cating a hollow space. We were desperate with fear, but our little basement was mostly under the yard of the house, and we were not discovered. Amongst the thirteen of us in the basement, there were two small babies. The babies became hungry and uncomfortable. At the critical moment when the police had come to search the house again, the babies started to whimper. We did not know what to do. If the babies cried out, we were certain to be found and killed. The
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