Inside the Mind of Isadora


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Friday Fictioneers – Prinsoner Numbers

Last week, I wrote about Bobeshi Rivqah. If you’d like to catch-up click here. This story does stand alone. Ironically, the locked cages in the photograph had the same feel as the ones shown at the Florida Holocaust Museum in Tampa, Florida.

Mama, can I go outside?”

“Go! But, don’t go far.”

From my stoop, I watched Mrs.O’Doherty and Bobeshi Rivqah talking.

“Rivqah, you’re telling me they used the same numbers?”

“Yes, can you believe that?” 

Mrs.O’Doherty shook her head from side to side.

“They reused prisoner numbers from the dead; especially, is if they were moved to another camp,” Rivqah said. “Dehumanizing!” 

Slowly, I made my way towards them.

They were taking about something I’d wondered about.

“Why do you have numbers on your arm, Bobeshi?”

She hugged me and said, “One day, you’ll know kleyn meydl, one day.”

2019©Isadora DeLaVega

 

Genre: Historical

Word Count: 100

Photo Prompt:©JHardy

To join Rochelle and her Friday Fictioneers challenge

click here

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***** Stoop: a porch with steps in front of a house or other building.

***** Prisoner numbers in the system of German Nazi concentration camps. The prisoner numbers have become a synonym of dehumanization that struck the deportees of the concentration camp. These numbers were to serve efficient “management” of camps, performed by the SS teams. ©http://auschwitz.org/

***** kleyn meydl / קליין מיידל – little girl


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Friday Fictioneers – Bobeshi Rivqah

Bobeshi Rivqah lived with her son, Rabbi Gerwitz and his family, above the temple in Brooklyn, New York.

She enjoyed walking and talking with everyone in the neighborhood.

They all knew her as bobeshi. 

Retelling stories from her childhood at the Treblinka concentration camp, often, brought tears from those who listened.

Now, her health was failing; too ill to take walks.

Rabbi Gerwitz asked the congregation for prays for bobeshi. 

Stomach cancer took her before the test results came back.

The congregation overflowed into the street as the family sat shiva. 

Finally, Bobeshi Rivqah had found loving acceptance and peace. 

2019©Isadora DeLaVega

 

Genre: Historical

Word Count: 100

Photo Prompt:©RogerBultot

 

To join Rochelle and her Friday Fictioneers challenge

click here

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Rivqah / רִבְקָה – Rebbecca

Bobeshiבאָבעשי – Granny

Shiva / שִׁבְעָה – literally means seven. It is the week-long mourning period in Judaism.