We Were the Lucky Ones

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Part 2, Chapters 18-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary: “Mila and Felicia, Radom, German-Occupied Poland - May 1941”

As Mila is sewing in her workshop, she hears whispers that German soldiers are raiding the building. It has been over a month since occupying forces sealed Radom’s two Jewish ghettos. The soldiers forced all of Radom’s Jews living outside of the ghettos out of their homes. Many struggled to find places to live inside the ghettos, which others already overcrowded. The dreaded SS—Schutzstaffel—replaced the Wehrmacht soldiers. Mila’s friend Isaac is a member of the Jewish Police and has witnessed their brutality. Raids happen regularly in workplaces, as the SS comb the ghetto for those without work papers: “Most without papers—the elderly, the sick, and the very young—have already been deported” (135).

Mila has spent weeks trying to devise a plan to get Felicia to safety, while she waits for Halina to return from Lvov with money and forged papers. Nechuma has been able to buy a little food on the black market to supplement their inadequate rations, but their savings are almost gone. Mila and her parents are growing desperate, pinning their hopes on Halina coming back to get them out of the ghetto.

Now, Mila takes Felicia and puts her in a large paper sack, hidden among sewing materials. Mila instructs Felicia not to make a sound, to pretend to be a statue, just as they practiced. The urgency in her mother’s voice alarms her, and Felicia complies.

At first Felicia hears only the sewing machines, but suddenly there is a commotion, with men’s voices shouting and footsteps hurrying away. Felicia realizes that all the workers have left the room and she is afraid, but she holds still. Heavy boots walk through the room and stop right next to her. She hears the boot kick the paper sack beside her and wets herself with fear. Covering her face, she waits and hopes the men will leave.

Part 2, Chapter 19 Summary: “Halina and Adam, Lvov, Soviet-Occupied Poland - May 1941”

Halina dreams that Genek has escaped from wherever he is being held and that he is knocking on her door in Lvov. She wakes up and realizes that someone is actually knocking on the door. Adam wakes as well and says perhaps it is Franka at the door.

Halina and Adam married soon after she arrived in Lvov, and she insisted that they live together, though it was risky with Adam’s work for the Underground. Halina works as a technician’s assistant at a military hospital, and Adam works as a railroad engineer. Jews in Lvov have not been forced to live in a ghetto. Halina has been able to save a little money while Adam works on IDs for her family.

Now, a voice outside their apartment shouts that it is the NKVD, the Soviet secret police that took away Genek and Herta and likely Selim. The voice shouts Halina’s name and demands that she open the door. This is a shock, as they had expected the NKVD to come for Adam.

The officers at the door tell Halina she must come with them, as her supervisor needs her to donate blood. A Soviet officer has been injured and Halina is a match. As Halina gets dressed, Adam says he is coming with her, but she convinces him to stay at least a few hours.

At the hospital, many vials of blood are drawn from Halina’s arms. Afterwards, Halina walks home, dizzy from the loss of blood and her diminished physical state. Adam is relieved when she makes it home and puts her to bed.

Part 2, Chapter 20 Summary: “Addy, Casablanca, French-Occupied Morocco - June 20, 1941”

Addy and the other refugees have been ordered off the Alsina in Morocco, presumably for repairs, after having stayed docked in Dakar for five months. Most of the passengers’ visas to Brazil have expired, including Addy’s. The passengers who cannot afford hotel rooms are taken to a detention camp outside of town.

Addy is shocked at the conditions in the camp. After two days, he decides he cannot take it any longer and convinces the camp guard with a bribe to take him to the city for supplies. Addy is dropped off in Casablanca and told to return in an hour. Instead, he sets off to find Eliska and her mother. Madame Lowbeer reluctantly agrees to let Addy come back to their hotel with them while they wait for news of their fate.

The Moroccan authorities declare the Alsina an enemy ship and refuse to release it. The passengers are stranded in Casablanca, which is now under Vichy governance and no safer than France. There are ships still sailing for Brazil from Spain and Portugal, so Addy and the Lowbeers decide to travel to Cádiz, a port in western Spain. It will be a daunting journey, but Addy decides it is their only option, so he goes to arrange transportation to Tangier, the first leg of the trip.

In Tangier, Addy finds a fisherman to take them to Tarifa: “His skiff is small with a flat bottom and peeling blue paint—just inconspicuous enough, Addy hopes, to cross the Strait unnoticed, and just functional enough to bring them safely to Tarifa” (150).

Part 2, Chapter 21 Summary: “Jakob and Bella, Lvov, Soviet-Occupied Poland - July 1, 1941”

Before leaving Lvov, the NKVD murdered thousands of Polish and Ukrainian political prisoners, then blamed the murders on Jews. As a result, pro-German Ukrainian militias, along with the SS, killed Jews in the streets of Lvov by the thousands: “Lvov has come undone. The madness began at the end of June, shortly after Hitler’s surprise attack on the Soviet Union” (153). In hiding, Jakob, Bella, Halina, and Franka are living in their building’s basement and receive supplies from a Polish friend.

Bella is beside herself with worry, as she does not know Anna’s whereabouts. Adam is missing as well, after insisting on helping the Underground. Their Polish friend Piotr comes to the basement door with some food, and Jakob goes up to meet him. Jakob returns with a note that was found under Anna’s door, which reads: “They are taking us away. I think they are going to kill us” (154). Bella feels faint and wails in grief.

Part 2, Chapters 18-21 Analysis

These chapters continue to show how the Kurc family members struggle to survive and maintain some semblance of control over their lives, by any means possible. Mila has no choice but to leave Felicia, hidden in a sack, when German soldiers come to raid her workshop. It is a heartbreaking plan, leaving the toddler all alone in such danger, but Mila has no other options. Little Felicia barely comprehends what is happening to her, but she tries, with control far beyond what should be expected of such a young child, to remain silent and still: “Holding her breath, she wishes with every ounce of her two-and-a-half-year-old soul that the men will pass” (138).

When Halina is forced to donate blood to save the life of a Soviet officer, she keeps her face expressionless despite the pain of the blood draw: “She is a puppet to these men, but this at least—the strength conveyed in her expression—she can control” (143). Even in the face of these forces, it is important to Halina to maintain what little control over her situation that she can manage. Halina purposefully does not tell Adam about the large quantity of blood that had been taken from her because she knows that he would be upset by his inability to protect her and control their circumstances: “If Adam knew how much blood they’d taken out of her he’d be livid, and more livid still at his inability to stop it from happening” (144). Under the occupation, not even their blood is theirs.

Addy is stranded in Casablanca, living in a squalid refugee camp. He refuses to stay there and manages to dupe a guard into releasing him, using his natural charm: “He smiles, and then shrugs, as if he’s just offered up a generous favor—take it or leave it. After a moment’s pause, the guard acquiesces” (148). Addy once again shows himself to be in circumstances much better than those of his other family members, which allow him to use his wits to do what he needs to do.

With the theme of family at the fore, Bella feels like the war has completely turned her family members’ lives upside down. A pogrom against Jews has raged throughout Lvov, with thousands murdered in the streets. To her horror, Bella’s sister Anna cannot be found anywhere: “Again and again she imagines Anna’s beautiful body among those strewn in the streets—Piotr says he has to step over corpses just to reach their doorstep” (153). Bella tries to remain brave like Halina, but when Piotr brings news, she immediately senses that she does not want to hear it: “She is paralyzed by the notion that whatever her husband has, whatever he knows, will destroy her. That in a moment’s time, everything will change” (154). When she reads the note from Anna that confirms her fears, Bella feels as though the world has gone dark. For her, all control over life seems to have ended.