Page 16 - haggadah_2017.pub

A Pesach Story from the Holocaust ‐ Akiva Levy (11th Grade)

One woman lived with her family, in Nurnberg, in the years preceding World War II, until the Nazis invaded. In
1936, her parents took her, and her family, to Paris because her father was offered to be rabbi at a synagogue.
When the Nazis began bombing Paris, her mother fled with her and her three siblings on the last train before the
main onslaught as her father was drafted to join the army. Later, on another leg of their desperate journey, she
lost track of her family altogether and began to wander from village to village along with all the other lone chil-
dren all over.

One night, she decided to knock on the farmhouse door of what turned out to be a kind righteous gentile farmer.
He took her to his cellar to join another little girl. Eventually two boys and another girl joined them, none of
them admitting they were Jewish until several days later. Through the following winter, each morning a few
rays of light would poke into the two windows high on the wall, being their only eyes to the world outside. The
farmer had first lowered them into the cellar through those windows and he lowered a net, daily, with five mor-
sels of food and a bucket for their discharge.

One day, one of them noticed a streak of sunlight in blue sky and a few days later, another one saw blades of
grass. They had no way to keep track of time, but they understood that, if the weather was turning into spring,
Pesach must be approaching. Each of the children came from a different type of Jewish observance, but they
shared a strong desire to do something to celebrate Pesach. They then asked the farmer if he could lower them a
small amount of flour, water, a newspaper, and a match. Over the next couple of weeks they got them. Then,
they decided that in order fully enjoy Pesach they should change their clothing with one another and wear them
as if new. So they did; the two boys switching and the girls exchanging dresses. That night they baked their
matzah and had no clue what to do. They poured water into the flour and held the dough, with their bare hands,
over the burning newspaper on the floor. They made something which was like matzah but was enough for the
five of them. That night they celebrated Pesach. One of them said kiddush, by heart and another remembered the
Four Questions. They told a few stories of the Exodus that they remembered from their parents. They finally
managed to end off the seder with Chad Gadya. They had a Pesach to remember, with no festive food, silver
candlesticks or wine, but with only their desire to connect with G-d. They had a Pesach more profound than any
other they had known.

Asher Goldstein—1st grade