Near Kobilnik, German troops try to surround your unit. More experienced partisans, however, lead your escape to an island surrounded by muddy swamps through which you must wade, often in water up to your hips. You cut off branches and crawl across them so that you do not sink into the deepest water. Exhausted, you finally pull yourself onto the dry land of an island.
With a burst of humor, you call the island America.
It is wildly
overgrown with high grass and tall trees. On three sides you are surrounded
by the swamp. On the fourth is the lake of Narocz. The Germans will not
be able to penetrate your hideout.
The holiday of Chanukah falls during your stay on the island. To celebrate the festival, you collect nine containers — anything that will hold oil — and kindle the traditional lights. It makes you feel good to observe this ancient festival of freedom, and you are sure that your own liberation is on the way.
After the war, you decide that you want to be among Jewish people.
Since most of the Jews of Eastern Europe were killed by the Nazis, you
head for the city of Stettin where you learn that the former concentration
camp of Bergen-Belsen is now an exclusively-Jewish city.
You decide
to go there.