SPLINTERED HEARTS
THE CHILDRENS STORY: FRAGMENTED AND SHATTERED THEY STRUGGLE TO ESCAPE VIOLENT DEATHS
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Clothes, furniture and treasured possessions where being thrown from the second story window to the cheering neighborhood people standing below. They boldly ran up to the growing pile of the Meyer's family personal belongings and gathered up whatever they could carry. Among the house hold items were many treasured irreplaceable relics that had been passed from previous generations who had suffered and survived the harsh pogroms of Russia. The treasured brass candlesticks that had traveled so many miles, and celebrated innumerable Sabbaths in the Meyer family, were now laying in the dirty gutter, irreparably twisted and flattened. Sarah's stomach churned as one of the soldiers leaned out of a window and called attention to himself. He held a family picture high in the air with one hand and a knife in the other. It was unimaginable that another human being could be so twisted and hateful. The soldier called out "death to the Jews" as he slashed at the loving faces of Sarah's family. The crowd urged him on. David looked back to see horror in Sarah's eyes as silent tears streaked her cheeks. It was the contents of Sarah's own room that were now being dumped into the street. Her precious childhood dolls were scattered onto the rain soaked dirty pavement. The delicately hand made dresses and childhood fantasies of balls and courting were being torn apart by the nasty children fighting over them. The special pink holiday dress that she and mother had made themselves from the satin that Papa had worked so hard to purchase, worn on so many memorable occasions, for shabbat, for relatives weddings, oh, so many happy parties, was being ripped to shreds. So many fond memories, thrown into a fire that the storm troopers had started in the street. She gazed through tear filled eyes at the embers of that dress and her other beloved special possessions in their sky ward escape and momentarily visualized the many happy moments they represented. It was a brief glimpse backwards to happier times, memories and experiences lost forever. Sarah squeezed Josef closer when she saw what was about to happen next.
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About the Book
Not all of the children of Nazi Germany were taken to the death camps. Some eluded the forces that destined their parents to their demise. The drama of a Jewish family living in Berlin unfolds as Sarah, and her younger brother, Josef, are witness to the beating and arrest of their mother and father. Unable to understand the true intentions of the Final Solution, the children try in vein to follow the train transporting their parents. Forced separation sets each family member on paths with the same objective, survival. Through perilous encounters with the inhumanity of mankind and the destructive forces of nature, each must endure in a world indifferent to their plight. Sarah and Josef, unable to reunite with their parents, encounter other Jewish children determined not to surrender to the will of Nazi Germany. Befriended by Davey, a streetwise youth, Sarah and Josef are guided through the back roads of Germany in their effort to reach the safety of France. Encounters with staunch supporters of Hitler and some who were not enamored with this mad man's agenda cause even the most innocent to turn to murder. The loss of morals and an innate instinct to survive propels the children to fight back, to keep moving, and to survive.
About the Author
The author was born December 1943, the same week that tens of thousands of Jews were executed in Nazi dominated Europe. Paul Douglas extensively researched into the fate of these deserted children who sought escape from the deadly grasp of German soldiers. Soldiers who later pleaded that they were "only following orders." A history major at University of Southern California, Paul Douglas was a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the Honorary History Society. He was also awarded a doctorate in Pharmacy. Douglas supplemented his studies with numerous interviews of holocaust survivors, incorporating into his work, verified facts as well as "hear say" that lent actual support to the authenticity of their candid accounts. It was the personal tragedies of these people that captivated Douglas' curiosity as to what happened to the children who might have escaped the Nazi grasp. How did they survive? Would a normal life ever be theirs to pursue? What would happen today to our own children if such a tyranny were to replace the freedoms of today's America? Could the children of this era have the strength and courage to create a new life? Surely these questions have harbored in the minds of any parent in every era. However, the loss, shock, and aftermath of war particularly and tragically became apparent to all who loved freedom after September 2001. This novel is the first of two, in which the author utilizes such timely and historic information to enlighten readers on life as it existed for these "deserted" children.