Ephraim used his strength and size to bully his way to the outer wall of the cattle car, where there were some gaps in the board slats. Here he and Miriam were able to at least get a minimum of fresh air. Using his muscular frame to protect Miriam from being crushed by the other prisoners, Ephraim held her close so her face was exposed to the openings and she was able to breathe fresh air.
“Take deep, slow breaths,” he urged.
They were held in the cars without any food or water or any opportunity to empty the latrine bucket. Many of the prisoners — for that is what they had become — relieved themselves where they stood. The stench of urine and feces was overpowering, and the crowded conditions meant that people were standing in their own foulness. They endured these conditions for three full days before they finally arrived at the Dachau concentration camp, and during that horrific time over thirty of their fellow victims died in that cattle car.
CHAPTER 3
After Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, those inmates who had survived Dachau were sent to Mauthausen in 1941 and then on to Auschwitz in 1942. Once again, they were exposed to the brutality of the Nazis. They spent several more days of hell in the filthy cattle cars as they were transported to the extermination camps, where most perished in the gas chambers or died from malnutrition and vicious beatings.
When Ephraim and Miriam stepped off the cattle car at Auschwitz–Birkenau, they were given a cursory examination by a snarling SS officer whose face they would never forget. He was screaming at all the victims, and as the soldiers under his command herded captives into two lines, Ephraim and Miriam were at least thankful they were not separated. They noted with trepidation that mothers and children were being sent to one line while husbands and fathers were kept in the same line as Ephraim and Miriam. The SS were enlisting the aid of huge, vicious German shepherd dogs to help separate and direct the prisoners into the respective lines. Some unfortunates among them were savagely bitten by the awful beasts for not moving fast enough or trying to stay with their spouses and children.
Risking a blow from a rifle butt, Ephraim whispered to Miriam, “The bastards are culling the young and weak. Miriam, you must stand tall and look strong.”
Once the transport had been emptied, the two lines were marched off. Ephraim and Miriam were led to the barracks that would be their hellish home for the next thirty months. The line of women and children with the old and weak went straight to the gas chambers. Ephraim didn’t say anything to Miriam, but he had watched as the Weissmans — who had managed to survive Dachau and Mauthausen — were brutally herded into the line that was sent to the gas chambers.
They were interviewed by an SS doctor, had their heads shaved, and then a number was tattooed on their left arms. Ephraim was given a lice-infested, striped pyjama-style uniform and a cap to wear, and Miriam was provided a shapeless grey dress. In their separate barracks, they were forced to sleep four persons to a bunk, which were stacked three high down each side of the room. There were separate communal latrines for men and women where they would have to sit. Beneath the bench was a trench which gathered the human waste and flowed it out to a noxious pit at both ends of the hut. There was no such item as toilet paper or water to cleanse oneself.
For Miriam, the indignity of having to perform her private business in open public was soul-destroying. During the day, the inmates were subjected to meaningless work, and on occasion, marched out of the camp to work in a factory or field. Daily beatings served to cull the weaker prisoners from the population.
The Lazaruses knew they had to be strong and that the other line of prisoners had gone straight to the gas chambers before the continuously belching ovens. The weaker inmates were eventually sent there. The food allowance was never more than a crust of stale and maggot-filled bread with an occasional bowl of greasy water masquerading as soup. Occasionally, a piece of turnip or potato would be included.
The psychological stress on both of them was almost insurmountable. Miriam and Ephraim tried to administer rudimentary medical care to the inmates around them. They did this at great risk and with no drugs or instruments.
On more than one occasion, Miriam was randomly selected to accompany two SS guards to their living quarters. When this occurred, Ephraim was petrified she would not return. Fortunately, she survived each time. Once having arrived at the centre, she was taken to the sleeping quarters of some of the officers. During one of these visits she was gang raped six times and one of the SS officers was particularly vicious and used his riding crop to assault her both vaginally and anally.
Two female guards dragged her back to her barracks, where Ephraim waited nervously for her to return. She bled for several days, progressively growing weaker each day. Ephraim’s assistance to other prisoners earned him and Miriam some sympathy, and several gave some of their meagre rations to Miriam to help her gain back some strength.
At the end of their second year, Ephraim and Miriam had survived. They had seen and heard the US Air Force fly over on their way to bomb the German forces on the Eastern Front, and everyone, including the guards, understood there was a big change coming in the direction of the war.
Many of the original guards had been sent to the Eastern Front to stem the Soviet forces advancing on Poland and Germany. Their replacements were mostly young boys in their teens or older men.
At the end of 1944, there was an influx of Hungarian prisoners, and from them Ephraim and Miriam heard that the Allies were relentlessly closing in on victory. The rumours of the Normandy landings were confirmed; the American and British forces were right on the western German border, poised to cross into the Fatherland. In the East, the massive Soviet Red Army had crushed the Germans at Stalingrad and were rolling the Nazis back across Russia and eastern Poland.
Rumours were confirmed that a huge tank engagement at Kursk had destroyed most of the German tank forces in the East. Then, in January of 1945, the SS removed many of the healthier prisoners and marched them back toward Germany to work in forced labour camps. Ephraim and Miriam were among this group and miraculously survived the 50-kilometre march in deep snow and freezing temperatures to Gliwice. Hundreds died from cold and malnutrition. Any prisoner that failed to stay on their feet was summarily shot by the guards. Some dared to try and run away into the forests that lined the road. The dogs either killed the prisoners or they were immediately shot on capture and left to die where they fell. Many these prisoners were the Hungarians, as they were the most recent arrivals and therefore had more strength and stamina.
CHAPTER 4
Haifa, Israel, May 1949
Ephraim and Miriam Lazarus looked out at the Port of Haifa. Along with hundreds of other Shoah survivors from the displaced persons camps of Europe, they were entering Palestine — now Israel — on a decrepit, rusting merchant ship that slowly made its way to the dockside. Several dozen expectant Israeli citizens lined the dock, anxious to reconnect with loved ones previously believed lost.
The Lazaruses were not happy about their lot in life. The conditions on the ancient freighter had been less than ideal. The latrines on board had been designed to accommodate perhaps twenty to thirty crewmen, yet there had been over four hundred passengers on board. There were limited water and rations available, and the Mediterranean Sea had not been kind. The seas were rough, and the sun had been beating down on the passengers during the four-day voyage from Bari, Italy. They had been sent by train down to Bari from the temporary DP camp where they had been staying near Padua in the North. The stench of vomit, urine, and feces inside the ship was horrendous from overflowing toilets and there were no maintenance crews to clean up the stinking mess. Ephraim and Miriam found a small covered area near the fantail of the ship and spent most of the journey there, trying to escape the noxious odours that emanated from every part of the ship.
“We should have considered America or Canada, perhaps even England, if this is any indication of where we are going,” Ephraim complained to his wife.
“You know
that wasn’t possible. The Canadian government was still keeping unofficial quotas on Jewish refugees and so were the English. We would probably have had to wait in that depressing DP camp another year or two.”
“But we could have tried. Your relatives in Kansas could have helped us gain admittance into the US.”
“Sure, Ephraim. They hardly know of us and getting admitted to the US is not easy. We don’t have any jobs or money, and they for sure wouldn’t want the financial burden. Israel is our best hope. It allows us the opportunity to get out of this cesspool of anti-Semitic Europe. Even now, after everyone knows what the Nazis did to the Jews during the Holocaust, the Europeans don’t like us or want us. Did you see the way the people in Bari sneered and insulted us as we went from the train station to the ship?”
Ephraim and Miriam had somehow survived the hell of Auschwitz–Birkenau. Both were strong and in good health before they were rounded up. Ephraim had continued his love of fencing and horseback riding after he had graduated and physically was very fit. Miriam practised and taught yoga, and as a result was also healthy, fit, and strong. Both had a deep faith and made a commitment to each other to do whatever it took to survive. This was no more apparent than when they were marched in freezing, snowy conditions from Auschwitz to Gliwice some 50 kilometres back toward Germany in January 1945, where they were then put on trains back to the concentration camps in Austria and Germany. They were destined for Buchenwald when their train was shunted onto a siding to let the trains carrying Nazi troops fleeing the Russian Army get back to Germany. Eventually they were sent back to Mauthausen and worked as slave labourers in the factories set up around the camp.
The Americans arrived in May and the prisoners were liberated. Ephraim and Miriam knew their lot would lie in the West, so they somehow made their way west out of Austria before the borders closed and the Russians took over. They finally arrived in the Allied section of Germany. Here they spent almost three years recovering in a displaced persons camp. They had no desire to go back to Austria and Vienna. Both were shocked at the virulent anti-Semitism that had risen its ugly head in Vienna as soon as the Anschluss occurred. Neither could forget the look of sheer hatred on the face of a young Viennese policeman. He had once been a helpful, smiling, city beat cop, but when he aided the Germans in breaking down the door to their apartment, he was a violent, hateful, screaming anti-Semite.
Now in their late thirties, they wondered about their future in this new land. They stood at the deck railing of the rusted old freighter that had slowly limped across the Mediterranean Sea to bring them to Haifa. Ephraim and Miriam were in awe as they looked out at the green hills of Haifa and its surrounds. The stark contrasts of the land and many aromas of the Middle East — falafel, spices — the noise and energy of a new country, and the polyglot of different ethnic groups all held them entranced.
Hundreds of eager, searching faces lined the docks, seeking out loved ones thought lost in the horror of the Shoah. This caused Ephraim and Miriam a great deal of pain and sadness.
They had arrived in Haifa all alone, with no idea of where they were going or what they would do.
“You know full well we would have to wait another two or three years in that dreadfully depressing DP camp. Canada still has a strict quota on admitting Jewish refugees. The English are not our best of friends, particularly since they were basically chased out of Palestine by our fellow Jews.”
“Miriam, you know how irritated I become when you repeat yourself. I know all that, but at least we could have approached your relatives in Kansas to maybe sponsor us into the US.”
“No, Ephraim! They hardly know who we are, and we don’t have any financial means at all. Remember, we are lucky to be alive with the clothes on our backs. Just the way we had to leave Vienna on those stinking cattle cars. There is no way we could expect them to sponsor us and assume financial responsibility for us, two virtual strangers they have hardly ever heard from! No, my dear. We are here in Eretz Yisroel. We will enter this young country as thankful survivors and make the rest of our lives here. There will be no more discussion on what if we went here or there. We’re staying in Israel!”
Ephraim placed his arm around Miriam’s shoulder and hugged her to him, sighing, “My darling, Miriam. As always, you are right. You are so practical.”
They both committed to never forget the atrocities and dehumanization they had witnessed in the camps, but they also believed deeply that they had to move on with their lives.
CHAPTER 5
They were immediately shown to a temporary canteen, which served them an assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables with a selection of hot and cold drinks. This was a cornucopia they had not experienced since they left Vienna all those years ago.
Once fortified with some wonderful food, they began the admission process to Israel. It was a slow and gruelling process. They were first shuffled to a tent where officials from the Jewish Agency registered them. They were asked the details of where they were originally from, which camps they had been in, and how they had survived and arrived in Israel. This was traumatic for Ephraim and Miriam. After this interview they then went to another area where they lined up to await their turn at a table. There the interviewers wanted details of their families, and if possible where they may have been during the Shoah.
Ephraim provided as much information as he could, even though it was terribly painful to go into.
After all the documentation and forms were completed, the Lazaruses were directed to a large Nissen hut, where people from the Joint Commission served them another magnificent meal. There were salads, hot and cold dishes, and something they had not experienced since Vienna — real kosher food. It was the first time since they were dragged from their Vienna apartment all those years ago that they had the opportunity to select from an endless menu of delicious food. After their rescue from the camps and subsequent time in the DP camps, the food they experienced had been mostly bland and institutionalized. The offering on the dockside at Haifa was incredible.
After their meal, they were processed to another tent and tables, where Ephraim and Miriam were told that they were now citizens of Israel. Since they had no family or relatives living in the country and both were still recovering, they had no thoughts about where to go or what to do next.
Miriam turned to Ephraim, “Thank goodness we are off that stinking ship. It will be weeks before I get the odours of urine, vomit, and human waste out of my nostrils.”
The Joint Commission people who interviewed and registered them were kind and understanding. One of the Joint officers, Ariel Glucksman, was an astute and caring woman. Ariel had been born and raised in New York City and had made Aliya to Israel immediately after nationhood was declared in 1948. She was a typical brash, extroverted New Yorker from Brooklyn. Something in Ephraim’s eyes and bearing drew Ariel to this tall, strong man. The fierce attachment that Miriam and Ephraim showed for each other suggested that they were a very special couple.
“It’s Miriam, right?”
“Yes. Yes, Miriam Lazarus, and this is my husband, Ephraim.”
“Hi, I’m Ariel. Ariel Glucksman. I made Aliya (emigration to Israel) right after Independence, and I live and work on Kibbutz Yagur, not far from here.”
After she completed their registration, Ariel suggested they accompany her to Yagur. Since they had no relatives or friends in Israel, they could at least get grounded there and begin their lives again instead of being shuffled from one settlement camp to another while getting fully processed.
CHAPTER 6
With Ariel’s help, Ephraim and Miriam began their first days in Israel at Kibbutz Yagur, some five miles east of Haifa.
Yagur was one of the oldest and most well-established kibbutzim in Israel. Soon, they both realized that after all the terrible experiences they had endured, the simple life on Yagur was for them.
Ariel was one of the most popular persons at Yagur and she adopted Ephraim and Miriam as if they were her own famil
y. The Lazaruses were both special people and Ariel was quickly drawn into a deep friendship with Miriam. Miriam’s genteel toughness and Ariel’s brash New York style were such opposites that somehow they attracted each other in a unique way. They quickly became inseparable. Ariel gave guidance and encouragement to her new friends as they settled into their new home.
When Ariel agreed to marry a true Sabra, Yitzhak Blum, most of the whole kibbutz was invited to the wedding, and Ephraim and Miriam were treated like family.
On account of the mentoring and genuine love that Ariel and now Yitzhak showed to Ephraim and Miriam, the two couples became solidly integrated members of the kibbutz. The genuine feeling of inclusiveness and acceptance buoyed the Lazaruses in no small way.
Every Friday night, the Lazaruses and the Blums shared a table and celebrated the Sabbath. For Miriam, it was always a special moment. Nothing moved her more than helping Ariel light the Sabbath candles and say the blessing over the candles. It recalled similar celebrations long ago at her parents’ and grandparents’ homes in Vienna.
At Ariel’s suggestion, Ephraim began working in the orchards. This was hard physical labour, but Ephraim thrived on it. At one Shabbat dinner, he said, “When Ariel told me she thought a complete change would be good for me, I had no idea how soul-lifting and stimulating working in the outdoors would be. Frankly, picking fruit and pruning trees has healed my soul.” This was from a former urban-dweller who had never set foot in an orchard in his previous life. The healthy outdoor environment and abundance of healthy food agreed with Ephraim, allowing him to regain his mental and physical health.
Kibbutz Yagur was recognized as one of the major growers of fruit in Israel. Ever since its founding in 1922, Yagur had been a central part of the history of Palestine and then Israel. In 1946, the British Army raided the kibbutz and uncovered a large arms cache that was used by the Haganah in their fight against the Mandate occupation. It was this discovery — and their inability to counter the other efforts of the Irgun and the Haganah — that convinced the British government in Westminster that their struggle to hold on to the Mandate was doomed, and the sooner they removed themselves from Palestine, the better.
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