Shayna's Diary

Chapter 3

The train rattled as it passed by the German border. It had taken a while but we had finally been able to get on a train unrecognized. Father and Mr. Bernay had been able to get forged copies of passports for his family so that it would be easier to flee undetected. My family had no problem with that because my family was not originally Jewish. We had become Jewish through my grandmother Deborah who married a Jewish man called Micah. But for some reason my grandfather's family had kept it secret that they were Jewish. This means that it was never recorded. The only thing that could harm us was if someone recognized us. For the Bernays though, it would be difficult.

Before leaving the city of Munich my mother had made me put on a wig to conceal my long brown hair. She could do nothing about my brown eyes though. She had done the same for Tamar and Freda. Mrs. Bernay and Marni didn't need wigs because they were both blond. They at least would be safe. I wish I could say the same for the rest of us. When Tamar asked why we had to wear the wigs I simply just told her the truth. I explained to her how a bad man named Hitler thought that being Jewish was bad so he was taking all the Jews away for a while. I told her he wanted to create a new race of people who looked like Marni, blond hair and blue eyes. I told her these people were called Aryans. "Why doesn't Hitler like us?" asked Freda. "We are not sure," my mother said. "All we know is that he doesn't like us and we should not get close to non-Jews for now.

The truth was we did know one reason as to why he was doing what he was doing. He and the rest of the German people seemed to think that we were the cause of the War to End All Wars. They believed that we were stealing their money and using it for ourselves. It wasn't that they didn't like us; it was that they had grown to hate us because of a false accusation. But we couldn't possibly tell that to an 8 year old.

I spent the rest of the ride in Nathaniel's arms. We spent it in complete silence. After the train, getting on the next train was the hardest part. We were not sure if the fake ids would work or not. Whether it was luck or God we did not know, but when we arrived at the station, there was a large commotion. There were many people at the station so it occupied the guards' time. We managed to buy tickets and though it took a long while, we finally got on board the train. Our first destination was France and then to America.