Chapter 1 Karcag Hungary April 1944 Ma nishtana ha-laila ha-zeh mi-kol ha-lelot Why is this night different from all other nights This night is different because our fathers are not with us Paul listened to the familiar words of the Four Questions the heart of the Passover Seder This night is different because we are celebrating Passover without our fathers He looked around the synagogue social hall where women children and a few elderly men sat at tables draped with white cloth Paul thought of Passovers he and his older brother Oscar spent at their grandparents house when all his aunts uncles and cousins were still together But his father like other men in town had been taken away to some kind of work camp so his mother and some other women had organized this Seder to celebrate Passover the holiday of freedom And tonight as they recited prayers sang familiar melodies and ate matzo unleavened bread chicken soup and roast chicken they tried to forget for a few hours about the missing fathers brothers and grandfathers and this thing called war raging around them The next day the Germans marched into Karcag 13
Chapter 2 Oscar and Paul watched from a dusty street corner as trucks rumbled by Tall men with guns slung over their shoulders stepped past them Their faces were hard their eyes looked straight ahead Wide-eyed Paul munched on a piece of matzo as they passed Oscar who are they Paul asked Soldiers They look mean I don’t like them Oscar cupped Paul’s mouth Don’t let them hear you say that Why not Because they might get angry With his blue eyes and fair skin Oscar resembled their father while Paul’s black curly hair and brown eyes were like their mother’s Oscar bent down so that his head was level with his brother’s Don’t ask questions he said Just listen to me Yes Oscar sir Paul grinned But I still don’t like them Oscar sighed Paul was pretty smart but he liked to do things his own way As the older brother it was ten-year-old Oscar’s job to watch out for his five-year-old brother When their father left he put Oscar in charge of keeping Paul safe Apu told me to keep Paul out of fights and make sure he 14
doesn’t upset our mother So it’s my job to keep him out of trouble with the soldiers Suddenly a hand grasped Oscar’s shoulder He jumped Anyu You scared me Come home she said her voice trembling Come Now Oscar looked into his mother’s eyes and saw fear (cid:36)(cid:3)(cid:36)(cid:3)(cid:36) As they walked home Oscar looked sadly at his mother Fear was new to him He had lived his whole life in Karcag It was a small town and he knew every part of it from the muddy street where his family lived to the town square which was paved with cobblestones and surrounded by shops There was a Catholic Church a Protestant church and a synagogue He and Paul attended the Jewish school next to the synagogue On the surface everyone seemed to get along but Oscar knew from what he’d overheard that the Jews always felt like outsiders And that’s what our name means he thought His father had told him that Auslander was a German word that meant foreigner To the Hungarians we will always be Jews first and Hungarian second if at all his father had said I can only teach Jewish children and the Jewish doctor can only see Jewish patients But the others leave us alone and we leave them alone and that way we all get along Not anymore Oscar thought as he entered the house After seeing the raw fear in his mother’s eyes he was beginning to understand what his father had meant Anyu what’s wrong Oscar closed the door and faced his mother Her usually rosy cheeks were drained of color 15
