I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944

Three days earlier, in the Jewish ghetto of Esties, Poland, Max and Zena walk down a dark, filthy street. They are hungry and desperate: They haven’t eaten since the previous night, and they have no money, but they refuse to give up. Suddenly, two German soldiers appear, and the siblings quickly hide in a gutter. Max would like to hit them and chase them out of the town. The Nazis marched into Esties a year ago with their tanks, machine guns, and hatred. Hitler “told hideous lies, blaming Jews for every problem in the world” (5). The Nazis destroyed Jewish-owned businesses, including Max’s father’s shop. Two months after the invasion, they forced Jews into ghettos surrounded by barbed wire and Nazi guards. A month ago, they arrested Max’s father, Papa, and took him away. No one knows where, but there are rumors of prison camps. Alone with Zena in the ghetto, Max remembers Aunt Hannah’s words: “Do not let them take away your hope” (7).

Zena interrupts Max’s thoughts, grabbing his arm and pointing to a robin perched on the wire fence. She calls it a lucky bird, and Max notices a raspberry bush behind it. They rush to the fence, trying to reach the berries, but can’t. Max decides to squeeze under the fence despite Zena’s worry. He manages to grab a handful of berries. Suddenly, the robin flies away. Max turns to see a Nazi soldier looming over him. The soldier swings the rifle and smacks Max on the head.

The soldier marches Max along the road, away from the ghetto, toward the police station. A Nazi flag flies over the building, and Max is filled with terror. He is unsure of what the Nazis will do to him and terrified for Zena, left alone in the ghetto. He thinks back to happier times when he and Zena would play hide and seek with their father. The best days, however, were when Aunt Hannah joined in. Hannah is Papa’s sister, just 19 years old. She is unmarried and saving money to move to America, and she always felt like more of a friend than an aunt to Max. She had promised that they would go to America together, but “like everything else in Max’s world, the Nazis had shattered that dream” (12). Now, Max has no idea if Hannah is dead or alive. The last time he saw her was the night before they were forced into the ghetto, when she begged Papa to leave together. Papa refused, and Max felt as though Hannah had abandoned them without even saying goodbye. As they walk, Max hears a rustling sound coming from the bushes. Suddenly, Zena’s curly blonde head appears through the foliage. The soldier sees her and aims his rifle, ready to fire.

Max screams and throws himself at the soldier, knocking him down. The rifle flies out of his hand, and as it lands on a rock, it discharges, hitting the soldier in the leg. Stunned, Max watches the blood seep from the wound. The soldier crawls toward his rifle. Max grabs Zena’s hand, and they flee into the woods. They run without direction, but they don’t look back. The illustration on Page 19 shows the siblings running hand in hand through the trees. Eventually, Zena says she needs to rest, and Max decides they will hide in a nearby wheat field. Gasping for breath, they collapse in the grass. After a moment, Zena tells Max that they beat them. They are alive, not imprisoned or surrounded by barbed wire: “They’d fought their own battle against the Nazis. And they’d won” (20). For the first time, Max feels powerful.

Soon, however, Max goes back to worrying. They have no idea where to go. The Nazis have invaded every country around Poland, and no place is safe for Jews. It’s not just the German Nazis who wanted to harm them: Some people in Esties had sided with the Nazis. Max was shocked when even his friends began to discriminate against him, and when local police officers helped burn down the synagogue. His father had told him that people like that had small minds, suspicious of anything they didn’t understand.

Now, Zena rests her head on Max’s shoulder and falls asleep almost immediately. Max wraps his arm around her, holding her close, struggling to stay awake. Soon, he too falls asleep, and dreams of being together again with Zena, Papa, and Aunt Hannah. Suddenly, a man’s voice wakes him, ordering them to get up.