by Libby Cone
This caused her to laugh even harder. The others entered the room. Marlene stopped her laughter when she saw Pauline’s tears. This was the first of many fragile days; one needed to tiptoe around Pauline, avoid tiring the sickly Lucille, keep Suzanne from worrying too much. Having gone through so much worse, these were joyful tasks.
At night by the fire they all held hands and listened to the wireless with its constant flow of good news. Lucille and Suzanne had found a cat that had somehow escaped being butchered (perhaps it had come on one of the ships) and proceeded to fatten it up. It took to sitting in Pauline’s lap, and she petted it hesitantly. Of course, they began to hear of those who were coming back, and those who were not. They had to deal with the bitterness of seeing the Bailiff knighted, the Aliens Officer still at his job. Healing would go on and on; for some it would never finish. History, like a wave, had picked them up and deposited them unceremoniously back on the sand; at least there was some comfort in recovering together.
SURNAME CHRISTIAN [sic] NAMES NATIONALITY
BERCU Hedy Roumanian. [Wanted for stealing petrol coupons and giving them to doctors, she disappeared in 1943, some say after faking her own suicide. Hidden by friends and helped by her lover, a German officer, she surfaced after the war and eventually married him and moved to Germany]
BLAMPIED
née VANABBE Marianne British (by marriage)(Dutch by birth) [survived the war in Jersey]
DAVIDSON Nathan Egyptian (by naturalisation) (Roumanian by birth) [died in St Saviour’s Mental Institution, 1944]
EMMANUEL Victor British (by naturalisation)(German by birth) [used as an interpreter/translator by the Nazis, constantly harassed, he committed suicide in April 1944]
FINKELSTEIN John Max Roumanian [singled out as a Roumanian Jew, transferred to Tittmoning, then to Buchenwald for two years, then to Theresienstadt, returned to Jersey 1946]
GOLDMAN Hyam British [retained by the Nazis on Jersey because of his beekeeping skills, he survived the war but committed suicide in 1950]
HURBAN
née BLOD Margaret German (formerly Austrian) [survived the war in Jersey]
JACOBS John British [slated for deportation, died of TB in 1944. After his death his family discovered he had been skipping doses of his TB medicine to remain ill so they would not be deported]
LLOYD
née SILVER Esther Pauline British [deported to Biberach in 1943, her husband won her release a year later, claiming she was not a Jew. Fortunately, the Nazis did not find her diary, in which she wrote of her intention to go back to ‘ … the religion that does help’]
SIMON Samuel Selig British [probably slated for deportation, but died in Jersey in November 1943]
STILL
née MARKS Ruby Ellen British [deported to Biberach; ?returned 1945?]
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book would never have come into being without the help of many people. In slightly different form, it was my thesis for a Master’s Degree in Jewish Studies from Gratz College. I never would have hatched the idea of a novel had it not been for the comments of my advisor, Professor Joseph Davis, who suggested I go beyond the usual non-fiction thesis. My thesis advisor, Professor Mike Steinlauf, provided much necessary midwifery. I humbly acknowledge all the faculty, full- and part-time, past and present, from Gratz, who helped me learn to tease out the agendas, puns and other delights to be found in Jewish texts. I wish to thank my husband, Thomas Borawski, for all his technical advice and his help in soldering the crystal radios I struggled to put together. I owe a huge debt to the wonderful personnel at the Jersey Heritage Trust, who put up with my varied requests and answered my panicky emails. Béatrice Beer was invaluable as a translator of Claude Cahun/Lucille Schwob’s prison notes, poems and letters. I am lucky to have friends, especially Karen Kumin, who are not afraid to give me advice and criticism; I thank them all warmly. I cannot thank Lynne Hatwell enough for believing in the potential of my book and seeing to it that it was noticed. Mary Morris, editor extraordinaire at Duckworth, had faith in my writing and worked tirelessly to see it published; I am eternally grateful to her.
Libby Cone