Page 17 of Villa of Secrets

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Naomi smiled at Dora’s honesty. The priest was right: her grandmother had been a very young sixteen-year-old. But this often happens when a girl is born into a houseful of boys. She recalled being around thirteen when she and Heleny learned how babies were made. At that time, Naomi had her first kiss. Costa and his friend had followed Naomi and Heleny for weeks. Eventually, one Saturday evening, she had allowed him to kiss her behind the church.

Rebecca was even younger when her curiosity arose, and although biology was newly taught in secondary school, her question was almost the same as Dora’s. She came stomping home and got Naomi on her own.

‘Naomi, Alexa says you can become pregnant from kissing boys. It’s not true, is it? She’s just saying that because Michalis wants to kiss me and she’s jealous.’ Naomi laughed and shook her head. ‘Well, how do babies get made, then?’ Rebecca persisted.

That had wiped the smile off Naomi’s face. She said Rebecca would learn everything in her biology class. Reading about Dora’s mother now, Naomi realised things hadn’t changed that much over the decades.

She remembered Costa taking the boys aside ‘for a quiet chat,’ when they were thirteen and fourteen. He came back flustered and red-faced. ‘They know more about sex than I do, Naomi!’

How she had laughed.

She got up, opened the kitchen cupboard, and ran her finger down his roster. The Royal Sapphire was heading for Piraeus, Athens’s port. Soon, he’d be home for winter and she couldn’t wait.

She returned to Bubba’s chair and the diary.

Until recently, I lived in Spartili Street, Paradissi Village, which is about fourteen kilometres along the coast from Rhodes Old Town, the capital of Rhodes. This island is very beautiful. Over the centuries, many nations have claimed it: Greeks, Venetians, Knights of Saint John, then the Turks, and now the Italians. My village, Paradissi, is the best one on the island because we have the most flowers.

Last month, we had to move from Paradissi, down to my father’s shop in the Jewish quarter of Rhodes Old Town because of an order from the Germans. Jewish people can only live in certain areas. Paradissi Village, where our home is, is allowed, but my aunts, uncles and cousins are living in our Paradissi house because they had to leave their homes in villages where Jews are no longer permitted.

Papa says it’s only temporary. Some people say Rome is liberated and the war is close to ending. Others claim Italy’s surrendered to the enemy, like they did in the last war, and we should be ashamed. I listen to everyone, but I don’t really understand the politics.

Although we’re Jewish, we didn’t have a problem with the Germans until now. However, some Jewish families left the Jewish quarter in Rhodes Town, and moved to the mountains because they’re afraid of bombing raids executed by the British.

The Juderia is near the city walls, in the area of the deep harbour. The British are trying to destroy this port, along with any German ships moored there. They often hit the Jewish quarter instead, and several houses have been bombed and our neighbours killed. One bomb landed on our shelter, and it was lucky we weren’t inside. Many of our friends died horribly and in excruciating pain. Crushed to death, or burned alive because of the British bombs. Everyone wishes they’d leave us in peace.

Mama wants to pack up and go. We were told of a fishing boat taking people to Turkey tomorrow night, but Papa says it’s too dangerous. The British do their bombing after dark and Papa says they don’t care who they hit as long as they frighten the Germans.

They frighten us all.

The last boatful of Jews departed in the night, but no one’s heard of it since. We wonder what happened. The moment war broke out, many of our friends set out for America, and others for Rhodesia.

Rhodes is Italian, it has been since the Great War. Until now, we Rhodians fought alongside the Germans against many European countries; but then we changed sides. Germany became our enemy. Now, people say Germany and the Axis are winning, and the conflict will soon be over. I get confused. Why did Italy join the British, whose bombs have been killing us in our beds? Germany’s our enemy now, and they occupy the island. The Germans were fine at first, apart from murdering all the Italian soldiers. But these past few weeks, things have become difficult. The Germans have changed.

I don’t like them much. They’re not as friendly as the Italians, and they can’t sing either.

Captain Vittorio, the Italian who ruled us, ran to hide in the mountains with his soldiers. The Nazis found them and took them to a hill overlooking Faliraki. Captain Vittorio and his men were offloaded from the truck, lined up, and shot in the head.

I’ve tried to imagine how it would feel to be shot in the head. Sometimes we hear distant shooting and wonder if it’s the Germans executing more people.

I know all this because now I’m sixteen my parents talk more openly in front of me. Papa says I should understand what’s happening in the world, but Mama claims I’m still too young. I don’t like to pick sides, but I believe Papa is right. How can I understand the situation and make decisions for myself, if I don’t know what’s going on in the world?

I’d better explain the situation in case, one day our – my and Curly Haired Boy’s great-grandchildren – get to read this. In 1912, Italy seized Rhodes from the Turks who they were at war with. After the 1914–18 war, Rhodes and the rest of the Dodecanese Islands were assigned to Italy. Some people speak Greek, some Italian, and many use both languages. The Jewish community speak Ladino, which is a sort of Spanish-Italian-Hebrew.

There is censorship here and, since last year when the Germans took over, we Jews are forbidden to have a wireless in the house. My father gets news of the outside world from his customers. People have heard whispers of atrocious happenings to Jews in distant countries, but everyone agrees such things would never happen here.

Monday, 17 July 1944

My father’s a tailor. His shop’s in the centre of Rhodes Old Town. I say his shop, but the building has been taken from us and given to the city for the duration of the war. I don’t believe Papa had any choice, but he won’t talk about it.

I started a new school when we moved to Papa’s shop in the Jewish quarter of Rhodes Old Town. It’s a school for Jewish children. We’re not allowed to attend the town school anymore, because of our religion. Mama said this was an ominous sign, but Papa said it was nothing to worry about. Mama gets worked up about everything. Our new school was busy at first, as there were over four thousand Jewish people in Rhodes, but half have left, and even more are waiting to have their applications for visas to other countries approved.

I wonder if we should leave too. It’s difficult trying to imagine starting a new life far away from home.

Chapter 9

Naomi closed the diary while she thought. This was written in 1944. Could the Jews of Rhodes really not have known the horrors that were happening in the concentration camps, the brutal extermination of Jews? Wouldn’t their Rabbi have warned people? She tried to imagine what life must have been like for the Jewish population of Rhodes in 1944: being forced to live only in certain areas; seeing their property confiscated; being forbidden to employ non-Jews. Their children were forbidden to attend normal schools; they couldn’t even keep a radio.