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“Are they people we know?”
“None of them were families from the St.Louis. They all came to Belgium as refugees before we did. But some of the men went to our synagogue.” He paused for a long moment, then said, “I have to fight back, Gisela. I’m going to start working with the Belgian Resistance.”
“Sam, no!” His words sent a chill through me that was colder than the December night.
“I may be out of touch with everyone at times, so I’ll need you to look after my mother and brothers for me while I’m gone.”
I gripped him tighter than ever. “Please don’t do it, Sam. Please don’t put your life in danger.”
“Our lives already are in danger. They could conscript me for forced labor anytime.”
“Your family needs you! I need you!”
He pulled me close and rested his cheek on my hair. “That’s who I’m doing this for, Gisela. For you and for my family. If we don’t start fighting back, none of us will survive. The Nazis are singling us out to destroy us. The sooner we start pushing them out of Belgium, the sooner we’ll all be safe again.”
“How long will you be away? Where will you stay? What will you be doing?”
“I can’t tell you any details because I don’t know them yet. The Resistance is still loosely organized right now. But I suppose we’ll be doing the usual things—collecting information about enemy movements and equipment and fortifications, then radioing it to the Allies in Britain. I speak some English, so I can help with that. Antwerp is an important seaport, and the Allies need to know about the defenses that the Nazis are constructing. The Resistance also rescues downed British pilots whenever they can, and I can help as an interpreter.” I could see his excitement at being able to do something to fight back. I would go crazy, too, if I didn’t have my nursing studies. But I didn’t want the man I loved to go underground and risk his life.
Three children who lived on the first floor came out of their apartment just then and started playing a game of tag on the steps, running up and down and jostling us as they passed. “We have no privacy anymore,” I lamented. “Remember our special place beneath the lifeboats on board the St.Louis? And now with you being gone... I don’t want us to grow apart.”
“That will never happen, Gisela. We may not be together as much as we’d like, and we may even become separated in the future—”
“God forbid!” I said, holding him tighter.
“But no matter what happens, our hearts are one. Your soul and mine are fused together, and nothing and no one will ever keep us apart.”
“My parents’ families have all been scattered,” I said, remembering my aunts and uncles, “and yours has been, too. That’s what I fear the most, Sam—that we’ll become separated and we won’t be able to find each other again. The world is such a huge place, and it seems like everywhere we turn for help, people hate us.”
He released me and took my face in his hands, our foreheads touching, his breath skimming my skin. “I’ll find you, Gisela. If it takes the rest of my life, I’ll find you. Let’s promise that we’ll never stop searching for each other. Promise?”
“I promise,” I whispered. Sam ignored the squealing children and sealed our pledge with a kiss.
