Branches Book

BRANCHES

England. I was not nearly as prepared as Emil had been and I was still waiting for my papers. We were to meet up in a few days in England, but then I fell seriously ill. Because I was a Jew, my landlord kicked me out. I can’t blame him, really. If he was known to be hiding Jews, he would be in great danger himself. While I recovered in hiding, my world spun out of control and everything was destroyed. The Nazis never stopped, they rounded up Jews left and right, from every nook and corner. After a few painful months, I was well enough to travel. I sneakily obtained the necessary papers, and met up with Emil in England, after several months apart. Our journey was eventless from there. We took a ship to the United States, and lived as well as any Jewish immigrant family could. The Jewish people are people, the same as everyone else. We have family, friends, and lovers. I went through life the same as everyone else. I had a quarter life crisis and angsty teenage years- only I had to flee my home because my people were being massacred. My husband was tortured and beaten. And we were the lucky ones. I distinctly remember my mom telling me about her grandfather being imprisoned for being a socialist Jew in Germany, and how he fled just in time with her grandmother. The story fascinated me, and it seemed like it could be a movie. Of course, I was young and I didn’t really understand the horror of the Holocaust, but the tale seemed heroic. I asked to hear it multiple times, but my mom didn’t know all the details. So, for this project, I decided to explore my family history a bit more and dive deeper into this story. I decided to write the tale from my great-grandmother’s perspective after it happened, as though she is telling her story to someone else many years later. There’s no doubt the Holocaust is a horrific period of time, and it will haunt the world for generations to come. However, I didn’t want to focus on that aspect of the genocide for my piece. My work is a little bit more lighthearted than many writings on the Holocaust. I think it is very important to remember that even the people who fled Germany were normal people. They dealt with the same things that all of us deal with every day. I decided to add some personality to the piece rather than just detailing the events that happened in a gruesome manner. I hope you enjoy it! Author’s Statement: Emma Stein

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