Your new hiding place is inside a huge crate in a warehouse in the Bloemenmarket along the Herengracht. Dutch patriots and resistance members found it for you and helped you move there one dark, rainy night. There was little room in this packing box, and you must be absolutely quiet during the day, lest one of the workers becomes suspicious. Still, it is a hiding place, and you are determined to survive. And survive you do.
You are finally able to emerge into the world when Allied troops liberate
the Netherlands on May 6,1945. It is only then that you discover the full
extent of the disaster that has struck European Jewry. Six million dead?
You can hardly believe or comprehend. Why,
you think,
did God allow such a slaughter to take place?
For a very short
time, you cannot believe that God exists or that any God that exists
really cares about people.
The crisis in your faith is suddenly replaced by the determination that Hitler will never have the final victory. Jews have survived and will survive. You will make sure of that. With restored faith, you become a leading member of a liberal Jewish congregation in Amsterdam. With your enthusiasm, Jewish life in the Netherlands and throughout western Europe will have a future. That mission gives purpose to your life, and you are satisfied.
END