Anna's Christmas

Book excerpt: The Second World War is raging in Slovakia. The hostilities and the armed warfare are heightened to a fevers pitch. The Nazis are coming to select all of the remaining Jews living in Micholovce. Joseph Freier tells Anna and their four sons and daughter that they must escape immediately to the woods near Slovakia. This happens in August of 1944. They escape to the woods and travel deep into the woods. When they feel that they are safe, they build an underground bunker. Joseph was able to make arrangements with his former foreman, and they know that there will be deliveries of food. It is December of 1944, and the weather has been colder than in past years, and the Germans are in the area. Anna waits everyday for the weekly food delivery. On this particular day, she prayed to G-d and asked him to save her family and her from starvation. She hears the sounds of voices in the woods. She thinks that she is hearing things, but she soon realizes that people are out in the woods singing. At this moment, she didnt care if the people were Nazis or not; she simply had to have food. She called out. No one heard her. She moved toward the sound of the voices and called out again and again. A horse that was in the front of a sleigh heard her calls. The horses driver looked in the same direction and saw Anna. He came over to Anna with two other men. They were people from the nearby village. A priest had organized the people of the town to bake cakes and cook turkeys and bring other foods to the people in the woods, who were starving. It was Christmas night, and Anna had enough food to last for three weeks. Anna always remembered the goodness of the people of the town. Not only was she nourished and her family nourished, but their spirits for living and in trusting people was renewed.