We Were the Lucky Ones

Every day, Halina goes to the Red Cross headquarters, to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society offices, and to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to check for news of their missing family members. There are also newspaper ads and radio stations devoted to helping survivors locate their families.

Halina found Franka’s name on a list published by the Central Committee of Jews in Poland. Franka and her family were sent to a camp called Majdanek and all but Franka’s father survived. Halina is trying to arrange for them to come to Łódź, but there are long waiting lists for Displaced Persons to receive assistance.

Halina has been disappointed with the lack of news at the Red Cross, but on this day, one of the volunteers rushes up to tell her that a telegram has arrived for her. It reads: “With Selim in Italy. Find us through Polish II Corps. Genek Kurc” (338). Halina cries tears of joy, and everyone in the office cheers.

Halina runs to the family apartments. Sol and Nechuma are concerned, and Mila enters the apartment asking what is happening. Halina says she has news and reads the telegram from Genek:

They hug in pairs, Sol and Nechuma, Mila and Felicia, Mila and Halina, Halina and Nechuma, and then huddle together as one, like a giant wheel, hands wrapped around waists and foreheads pressed up against one another’s, Felicia tucked somewhere in the middle (340).

Halina goes to tell Jakob at work. Mila is silent, making Felicia concerned. Nechuma asks Sol to take Felicia into the kitchen to make tea so that she can speak to Mila. Nechuma correctly guesses that Mila is overwhelmed because she didn’t expect Selim to be alive. Mila says that she accepted his death so that she could go on for Felicia, but now she feels that she should not have given up on him. Nechuma reassures her that Mila did what she had to do, and none of it matters now. Mila worries that Felicia has built up Selim in her mind so much that the reality of them seeing each other for the first time since Felicia was a baby may be too much.

Nechuma says that Mila should try not to worry about it, that she’s done enough worrying for a lifetime. Mila wonders if she is capable of living without constantly worrying and planning as she has since the war began: “What does it mean, she wonders, to live a day of her life without worry?” (341).

Halina sends a telegram back to Genek, asking when he and Selim will be discharged and telling him that there is still no word from Addy. The family sits with a map on the table, trying to decide where they should go next: “During the war, their options were fewer, the stakes higher, their mission singular” (342).

Sol is adamant that they should not stay in Poland. He has learned that his siblings, cousins, nieces, and nephews were all killed. He says that it is not safe for them to remain there, as Jews. They have heard stories of Jews facing violence upon returning to their hometowns. Nechuma agrees, even though it means leaving behind everything: “But, Nechuma reminds herself, those things are things of the past. Of a life that no longer exists” (343). History could repeat itself, and Poland could become unsafe again. Mila says that she wants Felicia to have a safe, normal life. Felicia is almost 7 and cannot remember a time before the persecution of Jews.

Jakob already told the family about his plans with Bella to move to the United States, where Bella has an uncle. They will stay in Poland until the baby comes, then go to where the last of Bella’s family lives, as Bella’s uncle has offered to sponsor them. Nechuma’s heart is heavy, but she knows they must accept. Jakob says that passenger ships are going to the US from Bremerhaven in northern Germany, so they will go there to try and secure visas after the baby is born.

Halina cannot believe that they would move to Germany, even temporarily. She tells Jakob, “I’d rather slit my throat than set foot into the belly of evil” (344). Jakob understands that she is just looking out for them, as she has during the entire war, so he quietly tells her that they must do whatever it takes to start their new life.

Halina says that the rest of them should go to Italy, to be with Genek and Selim, while they continue to search for Addy. Adam points out the best possible route to Italy, through places where there are Red Cross offices. Nechuma thinks about the journey ahead of them and how her family may begin to heal after the war’s devastation. She thinks of how miraculously lucky she is to have most of her children still with her, though her heart still feels incomplete without Addy.

Halina, Nechuma, Sol, Mila, and Felicia are making their way to Bari, Italy, where Genek told them to meet. The news of his slain family members has devastated Adam, who opted to stay behind in Łódź to save some money for them all. Halina realizes that he wants to stay behind to find some answers.

The Kurcs traveled via truck to Katowice, Poland, where Halina bribed a Red Army vehicle to smuggle them to Vienna. Vulnerable without travel papers, they could not risk capture in Czechoslovakia or Austria. They carried vodka and cigarettes to bribe soldiers at the checkpoints. Now they are in the Alps, preparing to hike over to Italy. Halina worries whether her parents and Felicia will make it, but she knows they have no choice but to push on.

Halina cannot sleep, as she is both worried about what is to come and excited at the thought of being reunited with Genek: “The idea of setting their minds to a future beyond the war is thrilling, intoxicating—it makes Halina’s heart race, just thinking about it” (349). Halina is also thinking about the fact that she might be pregnant. She tries to force herself to rest, to concentrate on getting the family safely to Italy.

The family is on a train to Bari. Mila cannot sleep, thinking about reuniting with Selim and wondering how she will be able to settle back into their traditional husband and wife roles: “It’s been just her and Felicia for so long, she’s not sure she’s ready yet to let someone else take the reins” (351). Mila worries about what Selim will think of Felicia, scarred both physically from the scurvy and emotionally from the war. She worries that the real Selim will not live up to Felicia’s years of imagining him as the perfect father.

Halina is sitting across the aisle, feeling ill. She is sure that she is pregnant and has not told anyone yet. She ponders how she will tell Adam: “I’ve just walked over the Alps, and I’m pregnant, she’ll say” (352). Halina is proud of her family, who made it over the mountains without a complaint. The guards at the last checkpoint took her cigarette bribes and let them through.

Once on Italian soil, they continued to walk, with no water and almost no food left. They finally came to a farmhouse, and the kind couple there fed them and let them sleep on the floor. Nechuma can speak some Italian, which she picked up from her trips to Milan to purchase fabric before the war.

Just before they reached the train station, the family met some American soldiers, one of whom spoke French: “They shook their heads in disbelief when Halina told them briefly of the unfathomable devastation in Warsaw and the path that she and her family had followed in order to flee their homeland and arrive safely in Italy” (353). One of the soldiers gave Felicia a Hershey bar. Another gave Halina a $5-bill, to help them on their journey.

The train has almost reached Bari. Mila thinks about how much her parents have aged and about how Felicia has suffered. She worries more about how Selim and Felicia will adapt to being together. Then Mila chastises herself for worrying so much: “It’s a blessing, she realizes, to soon be reunited with her husband, amid the inconceivable tragedy the war has left in its wake. Most would do anything to be in her position” (354). As the train pulls into the station, Mila prepares herself for the reunion with Selim.