I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree by Laura Hillman Read Free Book Online

if he didn’t exist.
    â€œI can’t blame you for ignoring me,” he persisted. “I behaved badly the morning you came to me for help. Please, forgive me.”
    â€œTry not to insult me again and I’ll forgive you,” I answered.
    â€œI want to help you and your family.”
    â€œHelp us? What is it you propose to do for us?”
    â€œThe ghetto will be liquidated any day now. Unless you go into hiding, you’ll be in big trouble.”
    â€œWe have no money, no connections. I wouldn’t know where to hide.”
    â€œThat is where I come in,” Eugen said. “I know of such places.”
    He told me that he had been thinking about me ever since the morning I ran out of his office and how he should have known I wasn’t that kind of girl. “Talk it over with your mother and let me know soon,” he said.
    â€œNo strings attached?” I asked before we parted. “You want nothing in return?”
    â€œYou have my word of honor.”
    Mama greeted me in the hallway. She had been anxiously waiting for me. “Why are youlate? Don’t you know how I worry when you and Selly don’t come home on time?”
    I explained about the liquidation of the ghetto and Eugen’s offer. “He also told me he would put each of us in a different hiding place. Can you accept that, Mama?”
    â€œDo I have a choice?”
    Our last night on Novotnastrasse was an emotional one. We huddled together, reminiscing about times past, talking about Papa and Wolfgang.
    I remember Mama holding a prayer book in her hand, reading psalms. Her tears covered the pages. I could barely hold back my own tears, wondering if we would see one another again.
    At the first sign of light we closed the door at Novotnastrasse 10, leaving our remaining possessions behind. Each went in a different direction. It was October 1942.

chapter eight
    Crawling through the narrow entrance of the tunnel wasn’t easy, but I managed it without bumping my head. Suddenly a man shining a flashlight into my face stopped me.
    â€œIt’s all right, you can let her in,” I heard Eugen say. “Mordechai saw to it that no one followed her.”
    Eugen had given me instructions on how to reach this hiding place. Getting here had been like an obstacle course. First I had to enter a house on Halinastrasse, making sure I wasn’t followed. The tunnel’s entrance was in the cellar of that house. After removing several cleverly concealed planks, I lowered myselfonto a narrow underground walkway, careful of every step. When I reached the end, I found myself near a garden fence. There I was met by a man who led me to the real tunnel. The precautions were necessary, Eugen explained, because of the many would-be informers walking around.
    While Eugen was busy directing other people into the tunnel, I was left to my own devices. It was extremely dark. More and more people came. I couldn’t see them, but I felt their presence. The silence was broken only by an occasional whisper.
    Hours passed. Eugen came once, shining a dim flashlight in my direction. He handed me a chocolate bar. It only took two bites to finish it. I had not tasted chocolate since I left home.
    There was nothing to do but wait. From above came screams and cries and shots being fired. Dogs barked, adding to our fear that we might be discovered. I recited all the Hebrew prayers I knew by heart.
    Hours later the noises stopped. We waited a long time before opening the entrance, fearing the silence might be a trick to get us out. A brisk wind whirled through streets dancing with discarded scarves and other articles left behind. Otherwise the ghetto was deserted.
    I immediately looked for Eugen, hoping to learn where he had hidden Mama and Selly. When I couldn’t find him, I set out on my own, looking into doorways and courtyards, going from house to house. I became lost in the inner ghetto, where one little street wound