Sincerely, Marketa - A Story of the Holocaust

Chapter Seven: Vienna, Austria - Summer, 1975

Though to completely different extents and within entirely different situations, both girls longed for a return to normalcy and familiarity in their upturned lives.

The Summerfields had been in Austria for just under a week. Their next door neighbours, a middle-aged couple, came by to welcome the family. They received a warm welcome from the neighbours on the other side as well, as well as those across the street. There were not very many children on their street, Heather quickly noticed. The family next door to them on the right had two young children, and the family across the street had a daughter who was one year older than Jennifer, but no one Heather's own age — except for Ricky, of course, but he didn't count. It was a little lonely. Okay, no, it was a lot lonely.

With each day that passed Heather missed her friends just a little bit more. They sent letters back and forth to each other, but the letters took a long time to reach their respective destinations, and it wasn't even close to actually being with her friends. She spent most of the days reading her books, listening to records, shooting hoops at the park by herself or sometimes with Ricky, practicing German and reading Marketa's diary, which was practicing German in itself. She wasn't feeling up to a lot of exploring yet, something which baffled her sister.

"What do you mean you don't want to go sight-seeing?! We're in Europe, for crying out loud!"

She did join in on the family trip to the University of Vienna where Dad had just begun working and he gave them a tour of part of the campus. She even got a little excited at the idea of her father working there.

"Theodor Herzl studied here," Jenn cried. "And Freud..."

Ricky just rolled his eyes. "Oh boy..."

Public transit was extremely efficient over here as Heather quickly discovered. She enjoyed taking the underground train, Die Untergrundbahn, or U-Bahn. Going down, down, down, the stairs — it felt like she would eventually reach the centre of the earth! It also reminded her of Toronto.

"Makes sense why people would hide on the platforms during bombing raids," Jennifer stated one day on their way to tour the city. Even Heather had to agree with this.

Vienna was incredibly beautiful, a perfectly picturesque city. It was exactly what she pictured when she thought 'European city'.

"Vienna is stunning," gushed Jenn. "Just stunning." She kept saying this, at least once a day, obviously still not fully believing they were really there.

"It's all just old to me," said Ricky with much less enthusiasm.

Jenn huffed. "Some people have no appreciation."

There was no doubt that it was a great city, however, it felt more like they were on an extended vacation, and not like this was their new home. Not yet. That was still going to take time.

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By mid-July, Heather could introduce herself and say her age, ask how someone was, say where she was from and where she lived, and say thank you and good-bye in German, a big accomplishment in her eyes.

"Hallo, Ich heiße Heather und Ich bin fünfzehn Jahre alt. Wie geht's es dir? Ich komme aus Kanada, Ich wohne in Österreich. Danke, Auf Wiedersehen."

"Hello, my name is Heather, and I am fifteen years old. How are you? I come from Canada, I live in Austria. Thank you, good-bye."

Proud with her accomplishment, she wrote a letter to her friends which said such things, the English translation beside it.

She was also becoming more comfortable with exploring the city on her own, especially when it came to transit.

The tug-of-war within her was still going strong, and while the homesickness was no less present, excitement at being in Austria was steadily settling in and growing, and perhaps more than she wanted to admit or allow herself to feel.

Slowly but surely, that sense of foreignness and unfamiliarity was slipping away. It still lingered, though definitely not as strong as before. So far, the most familiar thing in Austria was by far Marketa's diary. She felt comforted knowing she could always go back to it, that Marketa would be there, waiting for her, while, of course, not ignoring the intense subject matter. It was something that took her away from her scattered present and forced her to consider the history of the very place she was now in. It was interesting — shocking and unbelievable, but interesting. She was learning so much from this girl.

She had decided pretty much from the beginning to keep the hidden room a secret from her family, to keep it, well, hidden. At least for a little while, it would be something only she knew about. When she was thinking about it, her incredible discovery, the less she dwelled on missing her friends and being homesick, the less lonely she felt. She would stay up late into the night translating Marketa's diary, the end of each entry leaving her hanging, wanting to know more about this girl and her life. Just one more entry, she'd think, and then she would end up reading at least three, sometimes more. She couldn't put it down! Despite the upsetting context of Marketa's story, it was still laced with a sense of hope, Marketa hoping for the better, for a return to the way life had been. It made Heather feel very fortunate to have all that she did, and the things she took for granted. It really focused her attention on how lucky she was.

She was essentially reading Marketa Hoffmann's autobiography, her story in her own words, and, sad as it was, Heather found it inescapably intriguing. She felt like she was listening to Marketa's thoughts, and she could share hers with Marketa in return. And on top of that, it was all taking place in the very city she was now living in, only around forty years ago. The more of the diary she read, the closer to Marketa she felt. The further along she got, the more she felt like she knew Marketa as a person, as a friend even.

Maybe she had made one friend here.