War Torn Love

by Londo, Jay M.

  With an inquisitive gaze, Poppa asked her, “Excuse me miss, but how long had you been here, at Tuliszkow?”

  “Two month and three days, and I had to say I absolutely hate it here, we have all been made prisoners in our own country, at the Nazi’s whim. The comportment with which the Germans treat the Jewish population, just for the fortune of being born Jewish. Before the Germans had invaded. I had my own home, I was happily married for five years, I had a little boy, he had such a good spirit about him, looked just like his father, and I was a schoolteacher.” She paused looking at her hands.”

  “But then since coming here, none of us had been barely been given enough to eat. There are no schools for the children, and no medical care, except the most basic, but there is no access to medicine. With-out-much food, and then the cold winter we just had, not enough clothing to stay warm, about a month ago a German soldier brutally - shot my husband in cold blood - when he had only been trying to get medicine for my ill son, who was suffering from pneumonia. Now they are both gone, taken away from me, I have no family left. The rest of my family passed on when the Germans first attacked. I have nothing to live for.”

  She started to wail!

  “Oh, I am sorry I do not mean to cry! I better get going, they’re expecting me back. I will be in trouble if I am any longer. I cannot afford to lose this job.”

  I tried to run after her, I did not want to leave it like that. “Wait up miss!” but she was not having any of it, I could hear the clank of the soles of her shoes as she ran down the stairs. I could hear her still crying - I glazed over the rail, and looked down…she was already two flights ahead of me. I did not want to, but I had to let her go.

  When I came back, Marym walked over and shut the door - I gave my sister a hug, I would imagine we both needed it. This whole experience seemed all so surreal. Poppa came over, and joined us. We had a group hug. Poppa was another I was awfully concerned about. He did not talk much after Momma died, he was still desperately morning Momma in the worst way, I just wished I could do something for him, to make him feel better, but he simply refused to talk to Marym or me about anything much, let alone his feelings.

  Marym commented, “You know that young lady, she looked so heartbroken, and troubled.”

  I knew what Marym had been thinking, I knew that look of Marym's all too well, because Momma had the same sort of look - but all the same, I knew my big sister had tried to put an optimistic spin on things, like she always did. I was grateful for that. Marym was just like Momma that way - I considered it quite a gift. Especially after what we all just found out about this horrible place - I was terrified - now suddenly getting this apartment was not such a big deal.

  She said, as her eyes lit up, "Can you guys believe for the first time in several long months we were actually going to be sleeping somewhere, where we could stay warm through the night. It’s not so bad is it? Come on, once we clean the apartment up from top to bottom, it will be quite pleasant - you’ll see.” Trying to be convincing, to my Poppa me, and my cousins. “Look we have three windows to look at; we’ll get both morning and afternoon sunlight, which will be pleasant. Oh and look, the windows open. Hey you can see a couple of trees.”

  Since we did not have anything to really unpack, the women of my family decided that they would begin cleaning the apartment, before anyone got comfortable. We cleaned up for several hours. Even the littlest had joined in, we tried making a game of it - Etka my cousin broke out in song. We sent the men to get our rations, as instructed.

  After concentrated effort of some pretty solid cleaning up the apartment, as a reward to ourselves, we were going to take advantage of the men being gone attending to other more pressing matters. Now that the tub was, clean. We began filling the tub with water. We found washrags and towels. Marym started boiling water for the tub, with the two pots that were left behind.

  The females in our little family were all going to have an opportunity to bathes, the first time in all so long. The men will have a turn when they get back, but that first day, let’s see it was Marym, Me, Abeila my niece, and cousin, Etka and then her two little boys Zelika, Aron, and two girls Sura, Sora, my other cousins wife, Gitla - they just were married a couple of weeks before the invasion. I know they wanted kids, but I think the war had put pay to that – Gitla was stois, but it broke her heart – she was so good with the children.

  The kids all received their baths first – the youngest four all in one tub. There was an awful lot of dirt to remove, I hardly recognized them afterwards, they looked so much better. We were all so dirty that we had to change the water out every two people. We also began washing the dirty clothing. Then once the kids all had a bath, we put them all down for a nap - they were exhausted.

  The men were gone. There were ten of us, which were going to need bathe, one at a time. One the children were done, I took some of the cooling water for Abelis and gave her a separate cool bath - I wanted to try to break her fever. I could not get the memory of that poor woman’s son getting sick – her warning that she was not able to obtain the needed medicine to take care of him. So, I thought of my own daughter, I was trying to break her fever. I was deathly worried. I hope I was just overreacting, and it was nothing more than a cold, that she would get over it in a couple of days. Abiela just needed rest. We had all had a couple of stressful days.

  I prayed as I bathed her and glanced down at her precious little face. I did not want anyone else knowing how worried I was - all this was just too much, especially after Marym lost her youngest, a little over a month ago. She has been extremely down in the dumps ever since, she cries herself to sleep every night. She will not talk to me about it; she is like Poppa and shutting her emotions down. So, I kept my worries to myself - I did not want to burden her even more.

  The men decided that they were going to go get a firsthand look around the Ghetto, see the lay of the land. They wanted to know what was really going on around here. Ultimately, their goal was to get their hands on some much needed food rations. For the survival of our family, and see if they could get their hands on an additional clothing, food and blankets - anything that we could use. The men were quite worried, but they were doing their best to keep it from us, the women. They would not come flat out and say it but you could see it in their faces.

  While out Poppa and the rest of the men wanted to make sure they got a job if obtainable. There is one thing you need to know about my Poppa, and Abram and the other men in the family - they were proud, they did not like handouts – and they liked working for what they received.

  Then finally, in the bathing order, it was at last my turn to get in the bath. I have to say this much, it was heavenly to finally take a bath, in warm water, and clean up. I had done the best I could in the last months with cold water. But, I had not been able to take a bath in so many months I probably stank something dreadfully. It was the longest I had ever gone without bathing, in my entire life. Marym came over and washed my hair, just like she used to do for me, before she got married. I could enjoy my bath - Abeila the dear was sound asleep safely tucked away under the covers, with two of her youngest cousins by this time, so I could just have the benefit of enjoying the bath to its fullest, other than my vastly empty stomach. Being able to take a bath – it made me feel sort of human once more. I was glad to get out of the wretched clothing. Gitla found some tea up in the cupboard, and boiled a pot for all of us.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Life in the Ghetto”

  When Poppa and the other men in the family had left us women all behind in the apartment, the men went convene with the Jewish council. That is what we heard here, how it was done. If you do not assemble with them then you will be given nothing. The Jewish council ran each Ghetto the Nazis had set up across Poland. The reasons for this, the Germans are strained to had to apportion fewer soldiers to accomplish the same job. Still not nearly, free, under the vigilant eyes of the Nazis hierarchy. Their own puppet council ran by mainly Rabbi’s, an
d prominent leaders from the Jewish community - a delicate balancing act, they had to mollify the Nazis, and well as look after the well-being of their own people, unable to make either completely happy.

  Our council ran the whole thing that happened in our Ghetto, including impossible undertaking of trying to appease the volatile Nazis - to keep them from melting out even harsher treatment to the citizens of our Ghetto home. The community was always doing its utmost to stave them off. The community oversaw the allocation and percentage of allotment of food, housing, jobs, and the policing of each person confined in the Ghetto. They were charged with some pretty difficult undertakings – though this was far from the normal circumstances to run a whole society.

  Poppa, and Abram and my cousins were utterly horror-struck with what they found out. They were surprised to see so much torment and suffering all around them – and told us later that they could not believe what they witnessed with their own eyes.

  My husband, Poppa and the other men got themselves and us signed up for work - of course put on a waiting list before coming back to the apartment, after standing in one line for hours. After which they were then given a voucher for food. Then once again, for a second time, extremely tired, they braved it out, standing in another lengthy line before they secure us a few provisions that we were entitled to.

  When the men returned, they showed us that they had acquired some necessities we needed. We all understood that we had still to face hard times. And we knew what they had gotten, would have to be stretched out. Coming home with a ten-pound bag of potatoes, some flour, and a few other staples, but the pickings was quite slim; the food they were handing out ran out rather quickly. They also managed to secure a couple arm full’s of firewood for the tiny stove. To us, the firewood virtually as valuable of food.

  It was not long after walking in through the front door that Abram - saw that I had taken a bath while he was gone; his eyes lit up when he spotted my wet hair. He excitedly strolled over to me desiring to presence me a kiss, but one whiff of him as he drew close to my nose. I put both my hands out to halt his advancement, realizing now I must have stunk as bad as him before my own bath, but I was clean now, and he was not. He smelt led horrible - I politely smiled then said,

  “Sweetie you know I normally love your kisses, normally I would adore hugging you, but you and I, well we will not be hugging, or kissing until you bathe Mr.!” He stared towards me once more, “Don’t you dare Mr. - you hear me, please stop do not tease me. Honey you stink!”

  He smiled back, “ok cutie, one look at you, you look so delicious. It will be hard but I think all worth waiting for I am sure!”

  I playfully smiled back, batted my eyes. “Oh you know I am! I will make it up to you.”

  Poppa, seeing we had a hot fire burning in the stove, a commented it was now putting out a good measure of heat, and continued to stoke it till, the fire slowly began heating the entire apartment up, I would not have to worry about shaking any longer, because I was so cold. It was amazing – the stove was taking the chill out of the place at last. The first time I had been warm in several months.

  Then it was the men turn at taking their own turns at bathing, while all the females retired to one of the two bedrooms, so the men would not had to be as modest around us as they cleaned themselves. We stayed in the bedroom tending to the kids until the men were finally done bathing. By this time, the kids were all asleep. Letting us know it was safe to venture out, we then we found them something to put on, they were not about to put their dirty clothed back on. Our next chore was washing their clothing. Boy did they stink! There was no fun in this daunting task! We had a line strung over the tub to dry the clothing. And thankfully it was situated close to the hot stove. We knew that by morning we would be able to wear our clothing once more.

  While we were hectically washing all the men’s clothing, Marym got busy making us up some soup and some unleavened bread to go along with it. As the soup boiled away on the stove, and the bread cooked, the smell began to build up and linger thickly throughout the small apartment. We all smelt it you could not help it, it was overpoweringly good smelling and such a wonderful thing. Our mouth was all by now watering. I was so at this point in time, I would had eaten just about anything to try quell my burning hunger. It got to the point where I could not focus on anything else, but the thought of eating. One by one, we all drew closer to the stove, observing the soup boiling away. It would be a stew - if she actually had more ingredients to put inside, like meat.

  I had been so busy washing clothing that I had not had a chance to check in on Abeila, being sick she was still in resting in bed, and quite warm. Once dinner was ready, concerned I went ahead and woke her up, my dear sweet Abeila able to get her to try eating. I knew I had to feed her something; she had not eaten anything in two days. The only way she would get well would be to eat. She soon went back to sleep shortly afterwards. Her little hand wrapped around a few of my fingers as she fell back into slumber, quickly snoring. Smiling as she slept. That was the first smile I had witnessed in her in the last couple of days. It was very touching seeing this.

  Abram and I turned out to be sleeping on the floor. It was not the comfortable bed either of us were probably looking for. Nothing at all like our old bed. All the same, considerably improvement after having to sleep on the cold-hard ground for the last couple of months. What we did do, we pulled apart the beds, pulling the box springs off, in order that most everyone was at least sleeping off the hard floor. The one thing that we had going for us, was we were going to be warm. To be warm while I slept, I could give up some comfort. Warmer than you know in the case of my husband and I.

  I guess Abram was not kidding about wanting to kiss me. Remarkably, to my own utter delight, something had gotten into him. When everyone else was asleep in the small room, he began playfully stroking me.

  With the door propped open, so the heat from the stove could filter on into the bedroom. Of course, this meant one thing in particular not working in our favor – we would have to be silent or everyone would know though, after months of close quarters, it did not bother me as badly.

  Abram started getting quite frisky with me. He had been a bit playful in which the way he glanced at me all evening. I was still quite asleep at the time when Abram had begun making his move. The only way available to be able to make love with one another, with our family always around at the time we desired to give that special attention to one another, we were forced to hold back, well when I say we, I actually refer to me. We just could not stop making love to each other. When I had suffered through more than a few nights without my husband’s loving touch, I grew a bit worked up, usually leading to some interesting quite amazing dreams. Dreams I woke up smiling from, and breathing hard.

  I needed an outlet to resolve my uncontrollable sexual thoughts I was experiencing just the touch of his hands gave me goose bumps, in a very special way. Until I married my husband, I had no idea what a touch of a man could mean, and now it would seem I could not get enough of him, I am not ashamed to say this. Therefore, you could surely see when he started kissing the side of my neck, brushing away my long hair. Which he knew drives me madly crazy, - he was not playing fair with me, but since the thought of the way he had been doting all over me during the evening, well the thought of that once asleep had began filtering into some might I say pretty erotic dreams. So you could certainly see when the attention of my husband started up, at first I had been imagining this was all still part of a dream. By the time he had gotten to me, well I was already experiencing a found wetness developing between my creamy thighs amplifying what was already going on. Though he is paying close attention to my neck, usually more than often than not drives me wild, and untamed with passion. He knows how to get me excited.

  I was still quietly sleepy, as this sudden interest dotting on me, had started up. My impatient husband not so satisfied I was not getting into it like I normally would; I was, but I pretended not to be, my reasoning beh
ind it, frankly I liked what he was doing to me, like was not a strong enough word. I wanted him to work for it. If I did, then he would go out of his way to satisfy me.

  He then started squeezing both breasts gently at first, probably as a way to pleasantly wake me. Then a couple of minutes afterward, as they started getting firm and hard, he started sucking on my nipple, back and forth with his lips, on each one, paying them both equal attention. It was not long afterwards that well one exciting activity led to another, even more intense passion erupting like a volcano erupting in the both of us. By now, he was on top of me - I was submissive to his dominance over me.