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Estherke

Can Purim be celebrated when Hitler's armies are approaching? A story from the days of
the Holocaust based on a story by Rachel Yaffe

nd
I was born in Hungary during the 2
world war, when Hitler had already

conquered vast parts of Europe and the

Jews feared their destiny. While still in
the hospital, a woman offered to take

me from my mother and to raise me as
a Christian, so I would stay alive. My

mother refused – she thought that a girl

who was born on Purim symbolizes the
Jewish People's victory against different

enemies, and therefore also named me

Esther-Malka (Queen Esther).

On my second birthday we were already living in a ghetto. Life in

the ghetto was a life of hunger, crowdedness, cold and fear. And
still, my parents decided to make my birthday special. My father

smuggled flower, dried fruit and sugar into the ghetto, and my
mother made Hamantaschen out of them. Out of a few leftovers

and simple things she made me a costume. In the evening many

people came over and listened when father read the Megillah. That
evening I truly was Queen Esther.

But the situation in the ghetto escalated. Every few days the
Germans caught Jews and put them on cattle trains. Those people

never returned. My parents thought and decided that it would be

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