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Full Description
During World War II, thousands of Moldovan Jews were imprisoned in the Obodovka ghetto, located in the Romanian-occupied part of Ukraine. Unlike the areas under German control where Jews faced systematic extermination, survival rates were marginally higher under Romanian occupation, as soldiers there did not pursue mass executions with bullets. Despite this, most of the ghetto's inhabitants succumbed to starvation and disease during the harsh first winter. Journalist Julie Masis captures this lesser-known chapter of the Holocaust through the memories of her grandfather Shlomo Masis, a survivor who lived to the remarkable age of 102. His recollections reveal stories of resilience, including how some Ukrainians aided the Jews in the ghetto. Masis also delves into a poignant family legend about a German medic who reportedly fell in love with her Jewish grandmother. This narrative sheds light on both the horrors and the unexpected human connections that emerged during one of history's darkest periods.
Contents
One hundred candles
Introduction
PART ONE: GRANDPA
How the war started
The rug that hung on the wall
Thrown out of a moving train
The Zguritsa pogrom
The fruit trees that grew along the roads
How my grandfather stole a shoe
The bird that wanted to be free
How the youngest brother died
The airport and the hospital
The selection
Villages at dusk
The frozen bodies
The Nazi who rode a motorcycle
Why did Haim come back?
The unlucky wedding
Barefoot in the snow
Grandpa wants to go outside
Two buckets of potatoes and a broken bottle
If they didn't have bread, they gave potatoes
Adam and Eve
How Grandpa saved his brother
Forced labor
How curiosity saved Grandpa
The collective farm
Not like Schindler
How I wore Grandpa's sweatpants
The partisans who dressed up as Nazis
Visitors at the nursing home
The soldiers with feathers
Never too old to dance
How Grandpa milled grain
Have a good year
PART TWO: GRANDMA
From Romania to the Soviet Union
The ticket to America
The uncle who sold bagels
Ten years for telling a joke
The truck that came too late
Expelled from Soroca
Vertujani
The frostbitten feet
The German wallet
A conversation
The stolen bread
The fake email
Retaliation
An unexpected meeting
A love story in the ghetto?
Did Grandpa know?
The Red Cross
How Tsilia met Shlomo
The couple who got married in the ghetto
How the ghetto was liberated
Romania's responsibility
How my grandparents got married
The bag that took the train
How Grandpa killed two Nazis
How the war ended
The drive home
PART THREE: GRANDDAUGHTER
How I was named
Odessa—"Keep moving, you are not a tree!"
On the road to Moldova
A visit to Zguritsa
Zguritsa before the war
The cow in the cemetery
The Roma capital of the world
Chisinau, the capital of Moldova
The trip to Obodovka
A Ukrainian classmate
The righteous among the nations
Back in Odessa
Chisinau in December
Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine
The synagogue of Orhei
Jewish prayers are closer to God's ears
Crosses as Holocaust monuments
Holocaust Street
Chisinau in the summer
PART FOUR: AFTER THE WAR
The famine of 1947
How a poor man visited a rich man
Potato diplomacy
The free cookies
Without his grandparents
How the horse died
Yahrzeit
Childhood games
The Blue Suit
Showing disrespect
The horse-pulled sleigh
Antisemitism
The man who wanted to make my father blind
The only man in Zguritsa who had a car
How a tobacco factory cured Grandpa
The antenna
The most important thing in life
The matchmaker
Grandma's letters
How my father got arrested in the cinema
How my father sent butter in the mail
The hospital on the way to America
How we came to America
How Grandpa got lost
Grandpa's trip to Israel
Why Grandpa didn't learn to drive
Why Grandpa didn't remarry
Grandpa's sunglasses
The upcoming birthday
How to communicate without words
The interview
The great-grandfather who had one leg
One hundred and a half
Language
Grandpa's lost address book
Romanian citizenship
Ancestors at a dinner party
Acknowledgements
