Items related to A Letter to My Children
From the Back Cover:
Survival. Hope. A common dream of escape and help other Jews escape. These are the themes that characterize A Letter to My Children. Written by Kalman Miller, this first-hand account offers a story of survival to future generations. In 1939, amidst Nazi and Soviet advances on Poland, a Jewish family is trying to escape from the Nazis. Father and son escape to the Russian side of Poland, and mother and daughter are supposed to follow. The plan does not succeed: father and son end up in a Soviet labor camp; mother and daughter will perish in an extermination camp. The young son, Kalman, after being released--his father would die in the camp--finds work in Soviet Central Asia with other Jewish refugees in the hope of reaching Palestine once the war is over. Miller later joins the Bricha, a Jewish organization smuggling Jews from Communist Europe to the West. Contemporary photographs and the author's account provide a view inside the operations and rescue missions of the Bricha along the borders of the future Iron Curtain. A Letter to My Children also follows the author and his wife to post-war France and tells the story of Jewish immigrant life in post-war America. A Letter to My Children is a letter to all of us.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
It was Friday, September 8. The German forces had already occupied Lodz. My father gave some money to one of my cousins. He and his fiancée and another cousin were to look for a wagon and a pair of horses. The fiancée's boyfriend was the expert since his parents had a large farm and an estate near Lvov. After a couple of hours they returned with a wagon and two horses. We loaded the wagon and the eight of us left Warsaw. The Poniatowski Bridge was bombed out so we used the older and smaller Kerbedzia Bridge. It looked like everyone was leaving town. Civilians, army, young and old, everyone was leaving; German planes were flying overhead. There were explosions everywhere. There was terrible panic. Children and women were crying and screaming. Army units were also leaving the city. They too were running scared.
At night we stopped in a small village. We slept in a small hotel. The next morning the cousins left us and took the wagon and horses and continued south to Lvov. My father didn't want to take care of the horses and have the extra burden and responsibility. He made arrangements with a peasant and he was supposed to drive us to the next town. As we were riding, German planes were flying overhead and spraying the road with machine gun fire. We ran into the field for cover. Our parents covered us with their bodies. Bullets were flying all around us. There were many people killed on the road and in the field. There were dead horses and dogs everywhere. They were dropping small bombs on the road. The machine gun bullets hit the ground and lifted dust. It looked like a screen. This happened three or four times a day. It was very scary. G-d was good to us. We were spared.
We reached the next village on foot. It was evening. We had a meal at a peasant's house and continued marching. My parents decided to continue at night. It was safer in the dark. We weren't exposed to air attacks. In the morning we stopped in a village and ate and rested in the woods. We heard the planes and bombing but the machine guns were not aimed at us. Toward the evening we continued, and at midnight we reached Brest. We crossed the River Bug on a primitive bridge. We reached a large fortress surrounded by a deep ditch. It was so steep that it was very difficult for my parents to climb. My father was getting very tired. My mother was trying not to show her weakness, I am sure of that. After leaving Brest, my father stopped an army truck and asked the driver to please take us to the next town. An officer sitting next to the driver told my father that for 1,000 zlotys they would take us. My father gave him the money. They helped us get on the truck and we were on our way. The truck was loaded with rifles; we sat on top of them. All the time we heard bombing and planes flying. There appeared to be a battle going on in the city we just left. The officer told my father that for Brest the Germans would have to fight. They will never be able to cross the river. That made us feel good. We were on the safe side. After an hour's ride we arrived in Kobryn.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherHats Off Books
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 1587360152
- ISBN 13 9781587360152
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages130
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