I took two books out of the RYS library on the same day. They happened to be about the same topic – children who escaped from Germany right before the war – although one is fiction and one is non-fiction. I found them both riveting.
The topic is especially interesting to me, because both my parents came from Germany and managed to escape before World War II. My parents left with their parents and siblings, but they could have easily been the main characters in these books, who were alone.
Recently I read another book from the RYS library. This book deals with a completely different topic, a yeshiva bachur with mental illness, but it has a similar theme.
I loved the character development in all three books. Most people have many aspects to their personalities. In fiction, though, the characters are often one-dimensional: either very good and kind or truly evil. Not so in these books.
I also loved the themes: People can function well and do all the right things until the unexpected happens – also, that people do certain good deeds but at the same time behave in ways that are wrong and hurtful to others.
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Survivor without a Number by Ruth Kusmierski (Tfutza Publications, 2019)
In the beginning of this true story, author Ruth Kusmierski thanks Herr and Frau Steiger, the Christian family that took her in when she was only two years old and brought her up until her late teens. They actually saved her life as she was an orphan, her father and mother having died early in the war. Her father was killed, while her mother died of tuberculosis in 1941.
Ruth had no idea that she was Jewish for most of her childhood, and even when she found out, she had no idea what it meant to be Jewish. She describes her experiences in the home of Steigers very honestly. Although they saved her life, and she is grateful to them for that, life was difficult for her as a foster child, and she was often treated unkindly.
I finished the book in one evening, and for me, it brought to life the way individuals were affected by the war. We tend to think of the millions who were murdered or barely survived, but we do not think of the many people who were affected in other ways. What an amazing act of chesed it is to take in an orphan and bring her up, yet it is difficult to maintain that chesed for many years. Although the Steigers took in Ruth with the laudable intention of taking care of a child who was alone, they, especially Mrs. Steiger, treated her like a servant most of the time and not as a daughter in the family. In fact, their behavior was actually cruel. This book also shows the tragedy of the many Jewish children who were lost to our people because they were brought up by non-Jews and did not remember anything about their Jewish families.
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Ticket to Life by Esther Toker (Tfutza Publications, 2019)
Ticket to Life is a fictional story about Ida, who left Germany at the last minute on a Kindertransport, an organized rescue effort that brought children from Germany to England right before the War started. Her family was in denial and couldn’t believe that things would deteriorate so quickly. By the time they finally realized that they should leave the country, it was too late. Ida was the only one in her family who was able to leave because she was under 16 and managed to get onto the Kindertransport at the last minute, taking the place of another girl who did not show up. When Ida arrives in London, she is unsure of where to go and lands up with a family whom she does not know. The family thinks that she is their granddaughter, so Ida, afraid to tell them the truth, lives for six years pretending to be their granddaughter.
Although the couple is kind to their supposed granddaughter, we see many times when they are just human. They argue, they get upset, and they have misunderstandings with their family members. Despite it all, however, they develop a close relationship with Ida, thinking all the time that she is their granddaughter. The climax was exciting, and the description of the way the main characters deal with their discovery was moving and realistic.
Ida was sure that the right thing to do was to hide the fact that she was not the granddaughter of family with whom she is living, but later on, it is not so clear that that was the right thing to do. One lesson of the book is that not every problem has an absolute right or wrong answer. Sometimes, things that seem right turn out to be wrong and things that seem to be wrong turn out to be right. The other lesson learned is that things look easier in hindsight than they were while the situation was happening.
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Lemon in the Fog by Chaya Rochel Zimmerman (Menucha Publishers, 2020)
Although this book is about a completely different topic than the two books I described above, it has a similar theme. People can be functioning well and doing all the right things until the unexpected happens. Even parents, who only want the best for their children, are sometimes driven by societal pressure to act in a way that is not supportive.
Lemon in the Fog is a fictional story about a teenage boy in yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael who suddenly starts acting in a bizarre fashion. He is asked to leave the yeshiva because they suspect he is mentally ill. He goes home to the United States, but his family is also unable to figure out how to help him. Until now his parents have been reasonably good parents, but this situation is beyond their ability to cope. They are so scared of their son’s sudden mental illness that their only goal is to get him out of their family so he does not hurt the shidduchim of his siblings.
They send him to a rehab facility in Israel where the young man’s condition is stabilized with medication and therapy. But the finds, to his dismay, that although he is feeling better, almost normal, everyone from his former life is afraid of him and does not want him around. His old Rosh Hayeshiva does not allow him to come back to learn, and his family does not even tell him when his sister gets engaged and then married. It is as if they feel that it would be better for everyone if they ignore his existence. At one point he leaves the rehab facility and is actually homeless because the only yeshiva that will accept him is totally not the right place for him, and his parents do not want him to come home.
I am sure that the Rosh Hayeshiva and the parents thought they were doing the right thing by protecting their other students and their other children, but their views were colored by the society we live in, where the stigma against mental illness is pervasive. Good intentions are not always enough. The book was a satisfying read and gave a seemingly realistic glimpse into life with mental illness and our society’s hang-ups surrounding it. However, since it is fiction, it is possible that the author exaggerates the problems more than would be realistic in a particular situation.
I would like to thank both the RYS Library and the Rebbetzin Ruderman Memorial Library for being a source of reading material for our community.
