Contents

»Don’t you want to attend to the story yourself?«
Brother Archivist and a bundle of letters

Roots in Warsaw
Birth during the First World War

A new world
Torgelow in Pomerania

In the lion's den
Rudi is born in Berlin

The deadly trap
Moving to Stettin

Deportation
»We come from Poland and know our destiny«

»Nobody wants them!«
Head over heels to Belgium

Temporary refuge
Marollen and Merksplas

»The end of the European turntable«
Belgium under German occupation

The snare tightens
The bloody trade of the SS

»Don’t tell anybody that your name’s Rachmil!«
The children ‘s rescue

The »Miracle«
Network of mercy

The Guardian Angel
The fateful encounter at St. Sixtus Monastery

»Where there’s room for seven children... «
The decision

»My name is Rudi and I’m hungry«
New home Flanders

Timbres and Harassments
Surviving under the occupying force

Lajas last journey
With the XXI. Convoy to Auschwitz

»Firepots from heaven«
No end of horror in sight

»We don’t have any coal for heating and we sleep on the ground«
Post-war misery

The hour of the bureaucrats
To whom does an orphaned Jewish child belong?

The past that doesn’t pass
Farewell of Flanders

Acknowledgements