“Call it divine intervention, if you will, or maybe … let us say that the Jews have too many Ari Ben Canaans.”
Kitty returned to Gan Dafna the next day. She was surprised to find Jordana Ben Canaan awaiting her in her office. The redheaded sabra girl was ill at ease.
“What do you want, Jordana?” Kitty asked coolly. “I’m going to be very busy.”
“We learned what you did for Ari,” Jordana mumbled awkwardly, “and I want to tell you how grateful I am.”
“It seems that your intelligence system is getting information through again. I am sorry I had to delay my departure.”
Jordana blinked but did not answer.
“Don’t take this personally,” Kitty said; “I would have done the same for a wounded dog.”
Kitty made plans to leave. Then Dr. Lieberman induced her to remain an extra few weeks. Extra personnel had been brought in and needed training to handle a hundred more children who had been smuggled into the country by Aliyah Bet. Housing was being put up as quickly as possible. Many of the new children were in bad shape, having been in DP camps for more than two years.
Once more she made her travel plans. Soon there were but two days left before she and Karen were to depart from Gan Dafna and Palestine.
At the end of August in the year 1947 the UNSCOP announced its majority and minority plans from Geneva. Each of the plans called for partition into separate Arab and Jewish entities with Jerusalem to be an international territory. There was no doubt as to the moral issue, for the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine called for the immediate immigration of six thousand Jews a month from the DP camps in Europe and the resumption of land sales to Jews.
The Jews had begged that the Negev Desert be added to their state. The Arabs had millions of square miles of undeveloped wastelands. The Jews wanted this small piece of a few thousand square miles in the hope that they could redeem it. The United Nations committee agreed.
Weary from a half century of heartbreak and sellout, the Yishuv Central and World Zionists announced acceptance of the compromise. The partitioned area, even with the Negev Desert, was an abortion of a state. It was, in fact, three strips of territory linked together by narrow corridors, resembling a chain of sausages. The Arabs had three strips of territory, larger in area, also linked by corridors. The Jews lost their eternal city, Jerusalem. They kept the Sharon and the parts of the Galilee they had pulled out of swamplands. The Negev was wasteland. What was the use of fighting it further? It was a monstrosity but they accepted.
The Jews answered.
So did the Arabs. The partition would mean war, they said.
Despite the Arab threats, the UNSCOP resolved to present
the partition plan to the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York in mid-September.
Every last detail had been taken care of. Again it was the eve of departure for Kitty and for Karen. At dawn Bruce Sutherland would drive them to the Lydda airport, and in the evening they would fly out to Rome. The heavy trunks had already been shipped ahead by boat. The cottage was ready to be vacated.
Kitty sat at her desk in her office with the final folders to be put away into the files. All that she had to do was to put them in the cabinet, close the drawer, and walk out of the door-forever.
She opened the first folder and picked up the top paper and looked at her notes.
MINNA (SURNAME UNKNOWN), AGE 7. Minna was born in Auschwitz concentration camp. Neither of her parents is known. We presume she is Polish. She was smuggled into Palestine by Aliyah Bet around the first of the year. When she was brought to Gan Dafna she was physically very weak and sick and showed many disturbances …
ROBERT DUBUAY, AGE 16. French nationality. Robert was found at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British troops. Robert was thirteen years of age at the time and weighed fifty-eight pounds. The boy had previously been an eyewitness to the death of his mother, father, and a brother. A sister, who later was a suicide, had been forced into prostitution with German soldiers. Robert shows signs of hostility and …
SAMUEL KASNOWITZ, AGE 12. Estonian nationality. No known family survived. Samuel was hidden in the basement of a Christian family until he was forced to flee into a forest where he lived alone for two years …
ROBERTO PUCCELLI, AGE 12. Italian nationality. No known family survived. Liberated at Auschwitz. We found him permanently crippled in his right arm as a result of beatings …
MARCIA KLASK1N, AGE 13. Rumanian nationality. No known family. Found at Lachau …
HANS BELMAN, AGE 10. Dutch nationality. No known family. Found at Auschwitz. Hidden by Christians …
The files went on and on. “No survivors.”
“… this child has’ the dream so prevalent with those children at Auschwitz. She dreams she is packing a suitcase. This we know is a symbol of death, for suitcases were always
packed the night before inmates were transferred to the Birkenau gas chambers.”
“The dream of smelling smoke is symbolic of the smell of burning flesh from the crematoriums.”
Bedwetting.
Overt hostility.
Nightmares.
Belligerence.
Kitty looked at a copy of the letter she had once written to Harriet Saltzman.
My dear friend:
You have asked my opinion of the common denominator, and the reason we are able to get such quick recoveries and dynamic results from those children who are borderline psychopaths. Well, I think you know that answer far better than I. You gave it to me the first time I saw you in Jerusalem. The wonder drug is called “Eretz Israel.” The spirit is so strong here it seems unnatural. They desire only to live and fight for their country. I have never seen such energy or drive among adults, much less children …
Kitty Fremont closed the files.
She stood up and looked around the office for several moments, then quickly snapped off the light and closed the door behind her.
She stopped outside the building for a moment. Halfway up the hill toward Fort Esther she saw a campfire. The Gadna children, the ten-and twelve-and fourteen-year-old soldiers would be singing and dancing a hora.
She shined her flashlight on the ground and crossed the green. New trenches had been dug. Larger bomb shelters were being installed by the children’s houses.
The statue of Dafna stood its vigil.
“Shalom, Giveret Kitty,” a group of youngsters shrilled as they raced to the recreation hall.
She opened her cottage door. The suitcases were all lined up near the door and marked with tags. The room was denuded of the personal little touches that she and Karen had put into it.
“Karen. Are you here, dear?”
There was a note on the kitchen table.
Dear Kitty:
The gang wanted to have a farewell campfire. I won’t stay
out too late. Love.
Karen
Kitty lit a cigarette and paced the room restlessly. She closed the draperies to shut off the view of the lights on the valley floor. She found herself holding the curtains which her children had made for her. Ten of them had already left Gan Dafna to go to the Palmach, that sad little army of the Jews.
It was stifling inside. She walked to the porch. The air was scented with rose blooms. Kitty walked down the dirt path between the rows of cottages all set inside little lawns and hedges and trees. She came to the end of the path and started to go back but was attracted by the light in Dr. Lieberman’s cottage.
Poor old fellow, Kitty thought. Both his son and daughter had left the university and were in the Negev Brigade of the Palmach, so far away. She walked to the door and knocked. The housekeeper, as old and as quaint as Dr. Lieberman, led her to his study. The little hunchback was engrossed in translating some ancient Hebraic on a piece of pottery. A soft background of a Schumann symphony played on the radio. Dr. Lieberman looked up and saw Kitty and set his magnifying glass down.