Every indexed document

he would stop at the post office in Tel Aviv to pick up letters

earning a regular paycheck to help support the collective.

and to plant a first orange grove and a small vineyard.

and two kibbutzim. One was called Ma’abarot. Next to it was Mishmar

though a year or two older than my father

was that with the accelerating activity of the Zionist

so my father enrolled in the Hebrew-language

when it was time for him to enter secondary

dry room in which to sleep. By the time Itzila brought them

forcing her to flee with them by train ahead of

the community had shrunk to only about 1

000 Jews who lived there had left for America in the great exodus

made his living as the village pharmacist. Many of the

though the only member of the Pushelat community

and the kibbutznik who fetched the mail was a quiet

he was frequently back in Poland training

along with her 13-year-old brother Itzik and her little sister Henya

the rest of her family found themselves inside

joining the anti-Nazi partisans. All three would survive the

that only now was her life truly beginning.