Read Gertruda's Oath: A Child, a Promise, and a Heroic Escape During World War II Online
Authors: Ram Oren
Tags: #History, #Non-Fiction, #War, #Biography
Gertruda's Oath: A Child, a Promise, and a Heroic Escape During World War II (35 page)
A slight rustle went through the auditorium. The audience didn’t understand why she had chosen to read that passage on the evening of the Memorial Day. Elisheva looked at her daughter-in-law with tears in her eyes.
“You must be wondering why I chose to read that passage,” said Etti. “This passage had a deep meaning for the woman sitting here with us, Elisheva. Today, with her permission, I can reveal at long last that the SS officer mentioned here is Karl Rink, her father.”
EPILOGUE
Michael (Mike) Stolowitzky
, an energetic bon vivant, lives in New York and stays in close touch with hundreds of friends in Israel. He is married to Bea trice and has a son. Mike is active in world travel and was a recipient of the prestigious World Tourism Award in London in 2007. In the plot for Righteous Gentiles in the Kiryat Shaul cemetery he erected an impressive monument designed by an architect, and a few times a year he visits Gertruda’s grave. On his visits, he tends to sit at the grave and tell her all that is happening in his life.
Elisheva (Helga) Rink
, who lived in Kfar Giladi until her death, had two sons and twin daughters. Moshe Segelson moved to Israel in 1946 and soon visited her. She was moved to tears when
she heard his stories about her father. Elisheva died in September 2006 and left her body to science.
Pastor John Grauel
returned to the United States and settled in a small town in New Jersey. He often visited Israel. He died in 2003 and was buried in Jerusalem.
Captain Isaac (Ike) Aaronovitch
established a shipping company. He is retired and lives in Zikhron Ya’akov.
Yossi Hamburger (Harel)
, commander of the
Exodus
, went into private worldwide business in 1950. He lived in Tel Aviv and died in 2008 at the age of ninety.
The
Exodus
was towed to an abandoned pier in Haifa by the British. After the establishment of the State, preparations were begun to turn the ship into a museum, but an electrical short set fire to the ship, which was destroyed within a few hours.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Exodus in New Light
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Exodus
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(Lehapes Ben Adam). Masuot Publications, 2004.
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Destruction of Vilna
(Hurban Vilna). Tel Aviv: Publication of Beyt Lohamei Hagetaot and Kibbutz Hameuchad, 1987.
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Translation copyright © 2009 by Doubleday
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Doubleday Religion, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
DOUBLEDAY
and the DD colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in Hebrew in Israel as
Shevu’ah
by Keshet Publishing, Tel Aviv, in 2007. Copyright © 2007 by Keshet Publishing.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Oren, Ram.
[Shevu’ah. English]
Gertruda’s oath : a child, a promise, and a heroic escape during
World War II / Ram Oren; consultation by Michael Stolowitzky; translation
by Barbara Harshav. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-385-53056-9
1. Stolovitski, Mikha’el, 1936– 2. Jews—Poland—Biography. 3. Babilinskah, Gertrudah, 1902–1995. 4. Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust—Biography. 5. Holocaust survivors—Biography. 6. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Poland—Biography. 7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Germany—Biography. 8. World War, 1939–1945—Jews—Rescue—Poland. I. Title.
DS134.72.S76O7413 2009
940.53′18092—dc22
[B]
2008054444
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