“There’s nothing more we can do for him,” Mama whispered through her pain

Elka

It was only later, hours later, as we sat trying to choke down the cholent someone had decided to bring from the baker’s oven, that I could think about what had happened.

We were in the British police station. All of us. Every Jew who had survived. And someone had brought out the pots of cholent that were left to keep warm in the baker’s oven over Shabbos. Not that we could think about cholent. No. The sounds and images of the past few hours reverberated in our ears, and though we all ate, I don’t think anyone was thinking about the food.

I held Yisroel close, and tried to feed Leiba with my other hand.

“Here, Leiba,” I coaxed, trying to get her to open her mouth. She hadn’t eaten anything all day. “Open your mouth. It’s yummy and hot.”

“Mama,” she whined, pushing away the spoon. But she couldn’t have Mama right now. And what could I tell her? That Mama was lying in the next room, Dovid beside her, the two of them waiting for someone to come and finally take them to the hospital? That Mama, with her bleeding hands, couldn’t come to feed her?

I swallowed, hard. “Mama can’t come right now,” I said in what I hoped was a calm and reassuring voice, “Please eat. Cholent — you love cholent.” I tried to bring the spoon to her lips again, but she just pushed it away once more. “Miriam?” I looked over at my younger sister pleadingly.

Miriam had been in shock this whole time, staring into space and leaving me to take care of Leiba and Yisroel by myself. Ever since she had left the back room where we had been hiding and seen what had happened, she hadn’t said a word. When Mr. and Mrs. Haajib walked through the door, after we had thought it was all over, I had seen her body tremble. But still she did not make a sound. It turned out that they wanted to help us. It was they who got us here, to the British police station. Some bochurim from the yeshivah helped us get Mama and Dovid here, as well. And even Papa… no I would not think about that. I couldn’t think about that. Instead, I turned back to Leiba and tried to get her to eat some food.