Smuggled in Potato Sacks Fifty Stories of the Hidden Children of the Kaunas Ghetto

by Abramovich, Solomon; Zilberg, Yakov

• ISBN13: 9780853038146
• ISBN10: 0853038147
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-01-26
• Publisher: Vallentine Mitchell

Summary

About 5,000 children were imprisoned in the Kaunas Ghetto from 194144, of whom some 250300 were smuggled out of the ghetto, hidden by gentiles and survived. This book is a collective memory of events that happened to Kaunas Jewry during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania. It contains fifty stories of people who suffered through the Holocaust in their childhood in Kaunas. Most of the contributors are writing about their ordeal for the first time, after more then sixty years of silence. The stories cover the background of the families before the war, life in the Ghetto and the main tragic events that happened in Kaunas during three years of fascist regime in Lithuania. The memoirs describe how children were smuggled out of the ghetto and their experiences and feelings living with the gentiles who sheltered them.

Author Biography

Sir Martin Gilbert, Author of The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. ix
Foreword	p. xiii
Historical Introduction: The Origins of Lithuanian Jewry	p. 1
Born in the Ghetto
Right Meant Death, and Left, Life	p. 39
The Young Shoots of the Tree	p. 63
Keep Your Eyes Shut	p. 69
My Chance of Survival	p. 77
Left on the Porch	p. 83
If the Child Is Circumcised, He Will Be Saved	p. 91
Father Hoped for a Good Outcome	p. 101
A Red Dress with White Polka Dots	p. 103
Driven by Longing	p. 107
Living Proof of Defiance	p. 111
A Precious Plaid Blanket	p. 117
My Patriotic Song Did Not Help	p. 123
Trustworthy Neighbours	p. 127
Memoirs of the Actions
The Horror of the 'Big Action'	p. 133
The Ominous Sound of Cheerful Music	p. 141
We Would Even Have Given You to Gypsies	p. 145
We Grew Up Fast	p. 151
A History Never Discussed	p. 157
8,000 Rubels for Yehuda	p. 163
Places of Refuge
Scalded by Borscht	p. 173
Many Rescuers of One Little Girl	p. 179
A Childhood of Orphanages	p. 183
Will You Be My Mama?	p. 189
I Always Celebrate My Birthdays	p. 197
My Sister's Name was Ruth	p. 205
The Prayer of an Innocent Girl	p. 215
I Asked If It Was 'Safe' to Know Her	p. 219
From Darkness to Light	p. 231
In the Countryside
Letter to My Grandson Idan	p. 241
The Only Little Black Mouse	p. 247
Two Mina Steins	p. 253
Pesahl, a Wonderful Child	p. 261
Abandoned in the Forest	p. 265
My Playmates Were a Cat and a Hen	p. 267
Left with Mother's Handkerchief	p. 271
Smuggled in a Sack
Just Another Baby 'From the Train'	p. 283
A Pit beneath the Bed	p. 289
There's a Yellow Dog Running By	p. 297
The Potato-Sack Siblings	p. 301
Reunions and Lost Identities
The Tortuous Route to Israel	p. 315
I Did Not Want to Go Anymore	p. 325
The First Taste of Chocolate	p. 339
I Have Retained a Great Love of LIFE!	p. 343
Who Am I?	p. 349
I Don't Want Any More Mamas	p. 351
A Little Girl with Three Mothers	p. 359
Twenty-Six Years of Expectation	p. 365
Finally I Found My Roots	p. 371
I Pretended that I did not Know She Was My Aunt	p. 377
Kamochka, Come with Your Whole Family and I Will Shelter You Again	p. 383
References	p. 403
Index	p. 407
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