Abraham's Bloodline!: A Story of a Jewish Family at War

By Roger Bowen

Miriam is a survivor of the Holocaust. She flees Warsaw and joins the Jewish Partisans. At war's end, Miriam escapes to Palestine, where she meets Cobi.

Cobi is a native-born Palestinian who served in the British Army. Returning home, he wa

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookTrail Publishing
• Release date: Nov 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781637675915

Roger Bowen

Roger Bowen was brought up in Bewdley, a small town in Worcestershire, England. After leaving college, he worked in the city of Birmingham and later in London as a sales representative. Where he met his Israeli wife, they went to live in Israel, spending a total of five years there. He then emigrated to Australia and with three friends started a Real Estates business and has been living there for forty-five years. Heis now retired. He has and four children plus ten grandchildren six of them in Israel three in Australia and one in England. Roger is now married to his Dutch-born wife Edune and they have two dogs, Sam and Holly. This is Roger’s third book.

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Copyright © 2021 Roger Bowen

Paperback: 978-1-63767-590-8

Hardcover: 978-1-63767-592-2

eBook: 978-1-63767-591-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021922422

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction.

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Contents

Part One – Miriam’s Story

Chapter One: April 1941

Chapter Two: September 1941 Inside the Ghetto

Chapter Three: Miriam’s Family

Chapter Four: Planning Their Escape

Chapter Five: Escape from Warsaw

Chapter Six: Preparations

Chapter Seven: The Journey Begins

Chapter Eight: Oct/Nov 1941 – the Ochoza forest

Chapter Nine: November 1941 - Meeting the Partisans

Chapter Ten: December –1941 Love

Chapter Eleven: Betrayal

Chapter Twelve: January 1942 – Revenge

Chapter Thirteen: Journey to the Parczew Forest

Chapter Fourteen: The Russians

Chapter Fifteen: March 1942- April 1943- Fighting Back

Chapter Sixteen: April 1943 – August 1944 - Tragedy

Chapter Seventeen: August 1944 – May 1945 Onward to Victory

Chapter Eighteen: June 1945 – Safe at last

Chapter Nineteen: July 1945- November 1947

Chapter Twenty: Deggendorf

Part two – Cobi’s Story

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Battle for Kibbutz Dalia

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Battle

Chapter Twenty-Four: Parting

Chapter Twenty-Five: Yusuf Ben Omar

Chapter Twenty-Six: First meeting

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Battle of the Monastery of Notre Dame

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Confession of love

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Latrun

Chapter Thirty: Under fire

Chapter Thirty-One: The Battle of Latrun

Chapter Thirty-Two: Operation Burma Road

Chapter Thirty-Three: Building the road

Chapter Thirty-Four: Bethlehem Road Battle

Chapter Thirty-Five: Revelation

Chapter Thirty-Six: Hospital

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Marriage

Part Three

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Daniel and Ronen’s story

Chapter Thirty-Nine: War Clouds Gather

Chapter Forty: The Six Day War

Chapter Forty-One: Can This Be Love?

Chapter Forty-Two: Love Blossoms

Chapter Forty-Three: Ronen Joins the Army

Chapter Forty-Four: War Clouds Gather

Chapter Forty-Five: The War Erupts

Chapter Forty-Six: Ronen Comes to Grips with the Enemy

Chapter Forty-Seven: Rescue!

Chapter Forty-Eight: Safe At Last

Chapter Forty-Nine: Wedding Bells

Chapter Fifty: Conclusion

Author’s note

Growing up in a quiet English town in the Midlands, I knew very little about the Jews or Judaism. Israel was just a country somewhere in the Middle East. It was not until the six-day war erupted in 1967, that I learned it was a Jewish Homeland.

I had seen documentaries on television showing the horrific treatment of Jews by the Nazis and the tacit cooperation of other countries that if not aiding the Germans in the genocide stood by and watched the slaughter.

In 1971, while living in London, I met my Israeli wife and went to live in Israel. There, I converted to Judaism which may have caused Egypt and Syria to invade the country!

In all, I spent five years living in Israel and got to know the country and the people extremely well. My children and grandchildren are all Jewish and I am enormously proud of them.

I started writing this book when I was working at Tel Aviv University and on my return to Australia after a three-year absence forgot about it for several years. It was not until I was doing a writing course in Melbourne that I revived it again. Most of the incidents mentioned in the book are based on fact but have been altered by me to fit the story. I hope you get as much enjoyment reading it as I did writing it.

Roger Bowen

Metung Vic,

Australia

September 2017

Dedication

To my dear wife Edunefor her support and patience and being my sounding board for ideas. To my daughter Kerry and my sons Ilan and Tamir. My severest critics

Acknowlegements

The Arab-Israeli wars by Chaim Herzog for his clear descriptions of the battles fought from 1948 until 1973. His concise descriptions were invaluable.

A cup of Tears by Abraham Lewin, a diary kept by him of daily life in the Warsaw Ghetto. Sadly he was not to survive the Holocaust and died in Auschwitz

Fighting Back by Harold Werner, Most of the stories of the partisans came from his book. Harold himself was a partisan and describes a harrowing tale of life with them.

Wilpedia.. It is a wonderful source for any aspiring writer. I obtained valuable information from it, and lots of technical detail.

Map of Europe in 1939

Part One

Miriam’s Story

Chapter One

April 1941

Miriam alighted from the tram and began walking the short distance to her home. As she rounded the corner, she froze in horror, people were screaming and shouting. She saw her friend Rachel kneeling on the pavement crying. Two German soldiers roughly picked her up and slung her into the back of the truck. And then Mr. Feldman, who owned the delicatessen, still wearing his apron was frog marched out of his shop by two other soldiers and thrown aboard the truck. A crowd of silent onlookers had gathered, watching. Her first thought was for her family. She was about to rush forward when she felt someone grab her arm and hold her back. Looking around she saw it was Maria their maid.

‘No, no. Don’t go down there, Miriam. They have already taken your Mama and Papa There’s nothing you can do.’

‘I have to go to them’ Miriam shouted struggling to break free. ‘Let me go!’

‘No, Miriam.’ Maria said firmly. ‘There is nothing you can do, your Papa told me to stop you. You must come with me.’

Miriam was sobbing now.

‘Oh no,’ Miriam cried. ‘Is Danny with them?’ Referring to her younger brother.

‘I’m afraid so, he didn’t go to school today and was at home when the Germans came, they are rounding up all the Jewish residents.’

‘Where are they taking them?’

‘I heard one of the soldiers say they were being taken to the Ghetto.’

‘Oh my God,’ said Miriam.

The ghetto had been set up by the Germans in occupied Warsaw in November 1940 as a containment measure for the Jewish population.

‘Now, come on we must get away from here, people are beginning to stare.’

Maria dragged a reluctant Miriam off to the nearest tram stop and they caught a tram to Maria’s home in the outer western suburb of Wolomin

Miriam sat in stunned silence all the way, her mind racing, thinking of all the awful things that could happen. She had heard about conditions in the Ghetto, many people were dying, disease was rife, especially Typhus, but also other diseases and starvation.

Miriam was a shy, rather naïve eighteen-year-old student nurse, working at Warsaw’s general hospital. She came from a sheltered middle-class background. Her father was a well-known lawyer and her mother was a professor of linguistics at the university. They lived a comfortable life in a rambling old house in the suburb of Zaleski.

It had all changed when the Germans invaded Poland in September of 1939. At first, life went on much as usual, apart from the shortages of food and other commodities. Then the Germans began issuing decrees against the Jewish population. They must wear a yellow Star of David on their right breast; they were forbidden to gather in groups of more than six people; banned from public places and so it went on. The Germans made life very difficult.

Their latest obscenity was the construction of a huge wall around the Jewish district of Warsaw, enclosing the original residents and resettling thousands of Jews from Poland, Germany, and other countries. It caused massive overcrowding as more and more people were crammed in. The wall was built by Jewish forced labour. The Germans had ordered the labourers to build the wall ten feet high in twenty-four hours. When the Jewish workers were unable to complete the task, they were lined up and every tenth one was shot.

. It made it so much easier for the Germans to have the Jews in one convenient place, where they could be put on cattle trucks and sent to Auschwitz or Treblinka concentration camps. Though, at the time no one knew this was the destination. Most people thought the Germans were going to resettle them in the east.

Miriam’s thoughts returned to her parents and her brother Danny. My God, how long could they last in that place? Her thoughts were confused and tumbling over themselves. What was to become of her? Where would she go? What would happen to Mama and Papa and Danny? It was so overwhelming that she let out a stifled sob.

Miriam had an inquisitive mind and did not look Jewish. With long flowing blonde hair, an oval face with a pert little nose and vivid blue eyes, a throwback to her Polish grandmother, apart from the Star of David on her coat she would easily have passed as a Christian Pole.

‘There, there dear, don’t upset yourself,’ said Maria. ‘We have to make a plan. The priority is to get you a new identity and a plausible story to back it up. I know. ‘You could be my niece staying with me from Kosalin and attending the hospital.’

‘That wouldn’t be plausible,’ sniffed Miriam. ‘How am I supposed to work at the hospital under an assumed name when everyone knows me?’

‘Oh yes, I forgot that. Alright then, let’s start with your identity. We have to get rid of that right away,’ she said pointing to the Star of David.

‘You can easily pass as a gentile, and we can continue with the story that you are my niece. Maybe you’ve come to Warsaw to look for work. Yes, that’s it. You could be looking for a job.’ Maria was starting to get excited as she expanded on the plan.

‘I know someone, who knows someone that can get you a new set of papers. We also have to think of a new name for you, any ideas?’

Miriam thought hard, ‘I think I would like the name of Krista. Yes, that’s it, Krista, I like that name.’

‘That’s a good Christian name. You will also have to learn the mass and the catechism, of the church though, in the case of someone questions you.’

Miriam nodded in agreement.

‘I’m afraid you will have to stay indoors for a while until you have got your new identity papers.’

Miriam nodded absently. She was still thinking of her family.

‘What about you?’ she asked.

‘What do you mean? What about me?’

‘Well, you know the penalty for harbouring a Jew, is death.’

‘Listen, dear, your Mama and Papa were very good to me, it’s the least I can do, besides which, if you learn your new identity off by heart and you’re careful, I don’t see it as much of a risk.’

Miriam quickly adjusted to her new life, she settled in with Maria and attended church with her every Sunday and learned by rote the Catholic Mass.

Meanwhile, she practised her new identity until she was word perfect; she learned to answer to the name Krista. Maria had described the town of Kosalin to her until she felt she had actually been there, she knew it so well. Her ‘parents’ lived a simple life, her father was called Stanislaus, her mother, Theresa. Theresa was Maria’s sister. They had a smallholding outside of the town and Krista had lived there all her life attending the local schools.

Her new identity would not pass close scrutiny, but it would suffice if she was stopped on the street.

Next was to find work. She was lucky enough to find a job as an assistant to the nurse, at a local GP’s surgery. At least, she thought ruefully she could continue her studies.

It was about five months later; when a chance conversation with a patient brought the feelings for her parents flooding back. He was attending the surgery for a broken arm and they were chatting together while she was setting his arm in plaster.

‘So, what do you do, Mr Gryzbowski?’

‘I have a flower stall in Zelaznej Bramy square near the Ghetto.’

‘Really?’ said Miriam, ‘that is interesting. Tell me, would you know how to find out if someone is in the Ghetto?’

‘Well, that depends on whom you want to contact,’ said Mr Gryzbowski, ‘I suppose the best place to ask would be the offices of the Judenrat, just inside the gates. That’s like a council; they run the Ghetto under the Germans and carry out their orders’. He finished by way of explanation.

Miriam stopped bandaging his arm, ‘What, you mean anyone can just walk up and ask?’ Miriam was astonished.

‘No. Not anyone,’ chuckled Mr Gryzbowski. ‘You could hardly go in there if you were a Jew. Could you? They would keep you in there. Why do want to know anyway?’

‘Oh, nothing really, it was for my Aunt, she was wondering what had happened to her ex-employers. They were taken into the Ghetto a few months ago’

‘Hmmm, well I wouldn’t hold out much hope for them if they’ve gone in there. The people are starving to death. I haven’t been in myself, but I can see from the gates bodies on the pavements. The tram still runs through the Ghetto. People have told me of the sights they’ve seen, dead bodies and people begging for food as the tram goes past. Absolutely terrible.’

Miriam was silent for a minute; she decided to see for herself, she made further small to talk with Mr Gryzbowski until she had finished.

Before leaving that night, she asked the Doctor if she could have the morning off to attend to some pressing business. He consented and said not unkindly

‘I hope it isn’t anything serious Krista. Your parents are well I trust?’

‘Oh yes thank you, Doctor, they are fine. I just need a little time off to sort out some personal stuff for my aunt.’

‘Alright Krista, off you go.’ Said the Doctor not wishing to pry.

The next morning Miriam was up early and after a light breakfast caught the tram to the city. She couldn’t help noticing how glum everyone seemed. I suppose, she thought, it’s because people are finding it hard with the occupation, the shortages and the constant decrees coming from the German occupation administration. Miriam had read one of them at the tram stop:

‘Anyone caught supplying food or rendering assistance to Jews will be shot’ it said. Miriam shuddered at the memory. She got off the tram in Zelaznej Bramy square and walked slowly down Graniczma Street to the Ghetto gates. Most people, she noticed hurried past them as if they did not want to see. She walked a little quicker so as not to draw attention to herself and peered through the gate. The sight she saw sickened her. The street was thronged with people looking filthy and undernourished. Here and there she saw people lying on the pavement, she was unable to see if they were dead or alive, but people just stepped over them where they lay.

‘Oh my god’, she said silently to herself, ‘mama and papa, where are you?’

She turned around and walked back the way she had come. As she walked down Chloda Street, she noticed a wooden bridge that was thronged with people. The bridge connected the two ghettos, the Big Ghetto, and the Small Ghetto. She turned left into Zelana Street and past another gate into the Ghetto. She continued on, the street was deserted and as she walked slowly, to her astonishment she saw a boy about twelve years old suddenly appear outside the wall. He looked at her as she walked up and with a cheeky grin put his finger to his lips, before running off down the street. Examining the wall Miriam noticed a small hole through which the boy had obviously squeezed. As she stood there, another small head appeared in the hole, followed by a thin little body. The boy hadn’t seen her and was startled by her presence. ‘Don’t tell on me miss, please’ he pleaded looking at her with puppy dog eyes.

‘I won’t say anything, I promise,’ said Miriam. ‘But tell me, do you come and go often?’

The boy hesitated, reluctant to talk to her, ‘Yes miss, we all do, the boys I mean, anyone who can squeeze through the holes in the wall. We go searching for food and trade with the Goyim. Begging your pardon miss.’ As he realised she didn’t look Jewish and took her for an ordinary Pole.

‘That’s alright. What is your name?’

‘Dominik, miss,’ the boy said.

‘Well listen, Dominik, I need you do me a big favour.’ Dominik looked doubtful, ‘It’s all right, I am Jewish too, and my name is Miriam.’ Dominik looked at her in disbelief and said,’

‘You don’t look it.’

‘Well I am and I need you to help me. Could you check around in the Ghetto and see if you can find a family by the name of Kapinski, Joseph and Sarah and a boy called Danny, they’re my family.’ She held out a five zloty note. Dominik’s eyes widened,’

‘Yes, Miriam I will certainly try, but there are hundreds of thousands of people in the Ghetto, but I will ask around, though. But I can’t promise anything.’

‘Good, good,’ said Miriam, ‘now let’s meet here again next Tuesday at around 1 pm, it seems quieter then. In the meantime, I will try and get more information. Alright, Dominik?’

‘Yes, Miss. You can rely on me.’

Taking Miriam’s hand, he solemnly shook it. Feeling a sense of achievement, Miriam returned home to tell Maria what she had found out, now it was up to Maria to go to the Judenrat and try to obtain further details.

Chapter Two

September 1941 Inside the Ghetto

Instead of going to Mass on Sunday, they went instead to the Ghetto. Maria was petrified entering the gates, which were guarded by German soldiers. However, after checking her I.D. they waved her through and breathing a sigh of relief she entered the Judenrat offices. She was gone a long time and Miriam was worried, not only for Maria but also for herself. A group of German soldiers was staring at her with admiration and one was leering at her. He started walking toward her and said

‘Hello young miss, what are you doing here? This is no place for a lovely girl like you to be standing outside the Ghetto’

Miriam was terrified, ‘I’m waiting for a friend.’

I see the German replied, ‘Show me your papers.’

Miriam handed over her I D. card and waited nervously as the Soldier scrutinized it.

‘So Krista, where is your friend?’

‘She has gone into the Judenrat to find information about her ex-employers.’

‘She needn’t bother, if her employers were Jews, she is wasting her time, and they won’t be coming out of there anytime soon.’

She breathed a huge sigh of relief when she spotted Maria hurrying across the cobbled square and through the gates.

‘Here she comes now. Have you finished with me?’

‘Yes, you can go,’ he said disappointedly and walked over to rejoin his companions.

‘Come. Let’s get out of here,’ said Miriam. ‘Those soldiers are taking too much interest in me.’ Maria linked arms with her and they walked briskly to the tram stop. ‘Well, what did you find out?’ Miriam said impatiently.

‘I had to wait for ages in a queue, but then I got this nice young man so polite and helpful….’

‘Yes, yes, but WHAT did he say?’

‘Oh yes,’ Maria continued, ‘he actually knew of them especially your father. He is on the committee of the Judenrat. He gave me an address when they registered, but he said it couldn’t be guaranteed because so many new people have come in since’

Miriam was delirious with happiness; they were alive, now if she could only get to see them.

‘Did he say if they could receive mail?’

‘I forgot to ask him, though he did say the inmates were not allowed contact with people outside the Ghetto.’

She memorized the address and went to meet Dominik at the appointed time. She got there just before one and strolled down the street trying to behave naturally. A little after twenty past one she saw a tousled head appear. It was Dominik. He approached her with a sorrowful look on his face,

‘I couldn’t find anything out about them Miriam.’

‘Never mind, I’ve got some information for you. Now, how good is your memory?’

‘Excellent.’ Dominik answered

‘Good. Then I want you to remember this address and if you see my Papa give him this message. Miriam is alright and living with Maria and that I will see them soon. Got that? I don’t want you to write anything down in case you’re stopped by the police or Gestapo. Now repeat the address and message to me.’

Dominik dutifully recited the message and Miriam gave him another five zloty note.

‘Now one other thing, is there anywhere in this wall I can squeeze through?’

Dominik considered for a minute and said, ‘There is a part in Wolnosc Street that the smugglers use. I can meet you there if you like and guide you. It’s pretty well guarded on our side of the wall, we will have to be quick.’

‘Alright then, check it out your side and I will have a look my side,’ Miriam said. ‘We’ll meet here at the same time on Sunday, that’s my day off. I do hope you can find them for me, Dominik, it means an awful lot to me.’

‘Yes I know,’ said Dominik, ‘both my parents are dead.’

‘Oh. I’m so sorry to hear that,’ Miriam said, ‘what happened?’

‘It’s alright I’m used to it now, it was a long time ago, they were shot by the SS. When they attacked our village. I had better go, see you Sunday,’ he said quickly and disappeared through the hole in the wall.

Miriam waited impatiently for