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rm»nnn mnn Claims Conference ^ T Conference on Jewish Material Claims m. JL Against Germany Claims Conference Holocaust Survivor Memoir Collection Access to the print and/or digital copies of memoirs in this collection is made possible by USHMM on behalf of, and with the support of, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Library respects the copyright and intellectual property rights associated with the materials in its collection. The Library holds the rights and permissions to put this material online. If you hold an active copyright to this work and would like to have your materials removed from the web please contact the USHMM Library by phone at 202-479-9717, or by email at [email protected]. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc. https://archive.org/details/robertslastwishe01bibe Robert's last wishes story of violence and devotion novel by Jacob Biber YS \1A fMi pool MUKDASH L'TZADEEKEY HUMOT HAOLAM DEDICATED TO THE RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE OF THE NATIONS «g WU ««g Mg «|j VL» Mg aBg Jg «J> Jg tag A w w *T% /T% w* /R *7+ /h w* w w During World War Two, when Nazi -Germany, a nation of ninety million, decided to annihilate the Jewish nation, then numbered eighteen million worldwide, managed over a period of six years, with the help of their collaborators of the countries the Germans occupied, brutally to murder six million Jewish people! Although, there were not very many Gentile people who dared to rescue intended victims, they did so at the risk of there own lives. They retained their humanity and came to be known as the Righteous Gentiles. They were the beacon that keeps the eternal flame of human dignity alive. To my opinion, these extraordinary people shall be remembered as a symbol of human greatness forever. They are the ones who inspired this work, which I proudly dedicate to them. Youn Lovers 1 The Reasons for Leaving 22 Love and Devotion 36 Resolving Difficulties 64 Robert and Kolia Join the Bandits 82 Love Victorious 92 Destruction and Survival 115 Mariska and the Partisans 133 The Vitory of Peace 148 West Germany, the American Zon 171 News in Ferenwald 188 Last Wishes 204 Chapter One Young Lovers In 1914, Since World War I was inflicting its brutal marks all over, the region where Saul Strauss lived was badly affected. Saul Strauss was less than fifty years old then. He was a tall, strong, handsome man with a dark-blond beard. He wore a black Chasidic hat, the style that all Jewish men wore at the time, and black attire, a sign of mourning which the religious Jews had worn since the loss of their homeland almost two millenniums earlier. He was a good and intensely religious man. With the help of his family, Saul attended to his small dairy farm and cattle dealing with ease. The farmers, and especially the large landowners, loved to deal with him for his honesty and fairness. Hrabia, or Count, Gondsowski, the owner of an immense estate, was especially fond of Saul and liked to do business with him. Whenever Saul went to the farms for business he would take his young son, Daniel, along. He was very proud of his son and wanted to teach him the cattle business, which earned him a better income than the farm. When Daniel was younger, his father had been his teacher but, when Daniel reached his Bar Mitzvah at thirteen, Saul gave up teaching him. Daniel continued to pursue his studies on his own, though. Daniel achieved excellence in both Talmudic and general studies. He also loved to learn other languages besides the Hebrew his father had taught him. When Daniel turned fifteen, he was tall and very handsome. He loved the farm work but was not enthusiastic about his father's cattle business. Daniel did not mention this because he did not want to disappoint his father so he continued to travel to the area farms with him. Of all the visits they made, Daniel loved the trips to the estate of Hrabia Gondsowski the most. The Strausses were early risers and a trip from their house to the Gondsowski estate took only about half an hour. After looking over the stock the Count wanted to sell, the Count, Saul, and Daniel sat outside in the flower garden in the front of the Count's large home. The Count talked very little about the transaction, but would go on about politics and the terrible war. There, Daniel would see the Hrabia's young daughter who appeared to be his age. She would come out and sit on a wicker chair near the entrance of the house wearing a light-colored summer dress. He knew her name was Viera, and that the Hrabias called her Vieretshka. Daniel also knew that she was their only daughter and that they had a son named Kolia, but he seldom came outdoors when Daniel was there with his father. Viera had a dark complexion and was very beautiful. To Daniel, she looked like an image from a fairy tale; like a princess from a novel he had read. Daniel liked to believe that the book she held in front of her was a story about a handsome prince. Every so often, as she sat, she glanced up at him from the book in her lap. When their eyes met, he quickly averted his, ashamed at himself for being so brazen as to look at a Hrabinka. Daniel did not know that Viera adored him and thought that he looked like a prince from a fairyland too. Actually, Viera did not go outside to read books every day; she did it only when she saw Daniel through the window, coming into the flower garden with his father. After a while, Viera had to go into the house and change for school. Although all schools were closed on account of the war, the Catholic nuns had a school for the 1