But what I heard were terrible screams, I never heard anybody scream like this,
so I realized that they must be torturing her. They wanted her to submit, not to
resist and to tell them, to betray another fellow Jew. My mother was determined not to.
And after a long time screaming and screaming and screaming that was tearing my heart,
it became completely silent. And that's when my heart almost stopped beating,
because while she was screaming at least I had a sign that she's alive,
but after it got silent, I no longer knew whether my mother is still alive or not.
After what looked to me like an eternity, but actuality wasn't so long, the door swung open.
And two Gestapos, one was holding her under the armpit, the other the other armpit, dragging her across the floor.
She was beaten horribly and as they took her out, they took me in, that she should see.
And I didn't know if she's still conscious or not, and I looked at her and just with
her face she gave me a sign not to tell. At that moment, I couldn't understand, I was too young.
Why would she allow herself to to be so beaten and even maybe killed,
to protect a stranger practically? Kalfus was just an acquaintance, we just knew who he
is because I went to school there, and now too they take me in she's gonna let them beat me?
I couldn't understand, may she forgive me. And, but I knew that I have to, that this is
an important moment and I wasn't completely dumb and understood, started to realize maybe she must
have a good reason. So they took me in and I was next in line and waiting. From what I've later
found out when they beat my mother though it was severe was nothing in comparison how they beat her,
And I didn't say. I too was silent. I too would not betray somebody else because it's not menschlichkeit [being moral and honorable].
And that was my test too, so I didn't say. And after I was beaten, and they saw that neither my mother,
even though she heard me screaming, she didn't tell and I didn't tell. So I heard one of them
saying, 'Ich glaube nicht sie weiß,' that he doesn't believe that we know, and they let us go home.
I realized that that that was my mother's and my test of menschlichkeit [being moral and honorable]
and that was the first time I learned about spiritual resistance, that you don't have to
take just a gun that is something else, and this story affected me very much.