Hiding Edith by Kathy Kacer Page B

Would he drag her away? Shoot her? All of these thoughts raced through Edith’s mind as she faced this Nazi soldier. Then, suddenly, she knew what to say.
    “Edith is a French name.” Edith replied, staring the soldier squarely in the eye. “Haven’t you heard of Edith Piaf?” Edith Piaf was France’s most beloved singer. Her picture appeared in magazines and newspapers, and everyone knew her music.

    The soldier paused a moment and then chuckled. “Yes, of course. Very clever, little sparrow, just like Edith Piaf.” He tapped her lightly on the head and moved on.
    Edith closed her eyes tightly, trying to control her shaking. Surely the soldier must have sensed that she was Jewish but had chosen to ignore it. Perhaps her quick thinking had amused him. It had certainly saved her life.
    “Are you all right?” Edith opened her eyes to see Sarah staring at her.
    “Did you see what just happened?” Edith asked.
    Sarah nodded.
    That was twice that she had come close to being discovered, Edith thought, as she followed Sarah and the others out the door and back to their school. That added up to two very scary experiences. It was more than she could handle in two days. It was more than most people could manage in a lifetime.

CHAPTER 21
April 1944 Sarah’s Sadness
    For several days, Edith could not get the soldier out of her mind. She could still hear the creak of his boots, and smell the odor of stale cigarette smoke. Her dreams were filled with soldiers shouting questions at her as she crossed herself over and over with her left hand.
    Edith would awake confused and disoriented.
Where am I?
she wondered, lying in the dark.
Who am I?
she’d ask as she sat in school.
Did I tell the man delivering milk that my parents are dead? Where am I from? Where was I born?
And all the while, Mutti’s last words haunted Edith. “Remember who you are.”
Who am I,
Edith mused,
when every day I lie to the people around me?

    It was weeks before the pain of that day faded to a dull ache. Edith pushed it deep inside her, where others couldn’t see how much it hurt. That was the only way she knew to keep going. It was the first warm day in spring. Edith and Sarah had been at the school for seven months. How was it possible? Would they spend another winter in hiding?

    The girls were sitting on the school steps, listening to bombs exploding in the distance, like irregular muted thunder. One explosion, silence, then two louder blasts. These bomb blasts had become a regular occurrence.
    “Maybe the bombing’s a good thing,” said Sarah cautiously. “Maybe it means the war will be over soon.”
    Edith nodded. She knew that the Allied airplanes were closing in on Hitler’s armies.
    Several nights earlier, she and Sarah had been scrounging for food behind the kitchen and she had heard the voice of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the United States of America talking on the radio.
    “Until the victory that is now assured is won, the United States will persevere in its efforts to rescue the victims of brutality of the Nazis. This government will use all means at its command to aid the escape of all intended victims of the Nazis.”
    The president’s message was spoken in English, a language that Edith was learning here at the school. She did not understand every word that she heard, but some of them were clear. The president in his commanding authority had said,
“the victory that is now assured.”
That meant that he was confident that the United States and the Allies would defeat Hitler and his armies.
    “We have to hope it’s true,” Edith now said.
    Above their heads, the leaves of the ash trees whispered and swished in the warm breeze. Edith turned her face up to the sun.Among the dark green leaves she could see hundreds of butterflies, their wings tightly closed, clinging to the leaves and swaying in the gentle wind. As she watched, they began to flutter, opening and closing their bright orange wings streaked with bold