Summer Today I sole some bread from a lady in the street. She was running after me shouting, “Stop! Thief! “ This must be my name because everywhere I go, people are yelling this at me! I heard sirens today and thumping noises that sounded like distant thunder. I was running and running; when all of the sudden, a red headed boy, Uri, who was much larger than me, grabbed me and pulled me into a dark stable. In the stable there were other boys. They were smoking cigarettes. There was lots and lots of food piled in the corner. Uri told me these boys were there because the Jackboots( the men in the tall shiny black boots) were bombing the city. They laughed when I told them that I didn’t have a name. They called me a smelly Jew. I told them that I didn’t know what a Jew was. They asked me if I was gypsy, and I told them yes. Then we left,and Uri took me to an abandon barbershop.
Fall Uri and I usually go out late at night to look at the city on fire beyond the rooftops. The sirens always warned us when we were being bombed, but today the sirens are silent., so Uri and I stepped out into the street. There are twisted skeletons of streetcars and the shattered remains of buildings. People were running everywhere. They are all running the same direction. It was a race, so I ran too! As I was running, something hit me on the ear and I fell to the ground. I looked up and there was a Jackboot. He called me a Jew, but I told him I was not a Jew. Tanks rolled through the city. I invited one of the Jackboots to our place. Uri told me to stay away from the Jackboots, but I told him that they liked me! Uri gave me a name today. He told me my name was Misha Pilsudski. He told me I was born in Russia and all about my family. He said I was gypsy. I am so happy that I have a name and family. I met a girl today. When I was stealing tomatoes from a garden. Her name is Janina, she lives in a nice house with her family, and she invited me to her birthday party! Food is getting scarce.
Winter I went to Janina’s party today. You would not believe all the cookies and candy,and the huge cake that were at the party! There were grown all around the table and other girls in beautiful fancy dresses. A man lit a match, I thought the man was going to burn down the birthday cake, so I took the cake and ran! I felt bad about stealing the cake, so I stole another one and put in on Janina’s doorstep. On the streets there were men with torches, they were painting people yellow and painting stars on buildings. Uri told me to never go into a building with a star. Uri and I took bread to the orphans. I asked him what an orphan is. He said that it was someone without parents like him and I. I started starting two loaves of bread. I take one and leave it on Janina’s doorstep. She leaves me things too, but I never see her. Olek, one of the boys from the stable, told me about angels that help people. Enos another boy doesn’t believe in them. He says only the Jackboots have angels. I asked Uri if I wasn’t a Jackboot how I could believe in angels. He told me that I can believe in anything.
Summer Last night, we heard shouting and glass smashing above the basement room. Uri and barely have time to escape with our coats and shoes. Now we are moving from one place to another Uri has taught me to steal only as much as I need, always look like you know where you are going, and never tell them Sometimes when we are walking down the street, sometimes Uri pulls me inside a building. I went to Janina’s house today. She was not there. There was a Jackboot there. He asked if I was a Jew. I told him that I was a gypsy. He laughed and poured beer over my head. I wonder where Janina is.
Autumn Today the Jews of Warsaw are confined to a ghetto. I saw a mass of somber victims wearing white armbands with blue stars pass by in bizarre silence. Behind them, there is cheering and the sound of breaking glass. As the Jews left their homes, other people rushed greedily to claim their abandoned dwellings. I am not sure where they were going, so I went with this sad depressed crowd of people. I left the ghetto through a small hole in the stone wall that separates us from the other side to look for food.
Winter It is winter again, and the weather is frigid. I saw a boy lying out in the middle of the street. I asked He Uri about the boy's stupidity in choosing such an inappropriate sleeping place, but Uri told me that the boy was dead. The re are bodies all over covered with newspaper s like blankets.
Winter The long months of deprivation in the ghetto have taken their toll on Janina. She doesn’t wears bows in her hair or socks on her feet, and her shoes are muddy scraps. She cries a lot throw temper tantrums. She demands unreasonable things. She wants her mother make her favorite food, pickled eggs, but Mrs. Milgrom remains unresponsive on the mattress, facing the wall. I am still sneaking out and smuggling food.
Spring I have been sneaking out through the wall every night stealing food for both the orphanage and my family to look for food. It is very dangerous. People would see me and yell, Don’t go, you will miss the resettlement.” Mrs. Milgrom lays on a matress in our room facing the wall. I think she is ill. I was excepted into the Milgrom family today, so I have a family now! I am Misha Milgrom., but I am starting to realize the tale of my Gypsy and family background Uri told me was a fantasy. Janina has started to leave the ghetto with me to look for food. I tell her that it is too dangerous, but she doesn’t listen. We have been raiding the Jackboot hotel, and some of the finest houses in Warsaw. Something strange happened tonight. At the Jackboot hotel, I saw Uri, dressed in fine clothes and busily emptying ashtrays into a trash can in the lobby.I called out to him, but he didn’t respond. Later he told me that he has a job in the hotel laundry and that I should never come to see him at the hotel again. Uri flung me out of the room and closed the door.
Summer Mrs. Milgrom died today. There are starving orphans appear in the courtyard, singing for food, but no one has anything to give them. I closed my eyes and dreamed about all the food that I use to have. Wagons filled with bodies are lined up at the gate of the cemetery. There is a man playing a pipe and marching in the street, calling to the children, "Come to the candy mountain. People are loading the train cars. They think that they are going to a better place, a resettlement. There is an old man shouting to them that there is no resettlement. There is no better place. Mr. Milgrom told Janina and that we need to run. When we get to the other side of the wall to run and never stop. He warned us not to come back.
Summer We didn’t listen to mr. Milgrom. We went over to the other side of the wall to steal food. When we returned, the no hole to get back to the ghetto. Janina started screaming for her father. We heard gun shots and the clanging screeching sound of the train cars. I figured out the the word resettlement the people have been promised it deportation! There were guards and barking dogs chasing us ! We ran through the people as Janina screamed for her father. Then the unthinkable happened, I lost her! Finally I saw her. She was in the arms of a Jackboot. She was kicking and screaming. I ran toward her. I saw arms go forward and she was flying though the air! She was flying like the seeds of a milkweed she had showed me one day. I tried to run to her, but the dogs wouldn’t let me. I felt a boot kick me, I was kicked and clubbed and flung against the wall. I looked up and saw that it was Uri. I cried, “Uri” and then the gun went off. My arm hurt, my ear hurt, everything hurt. The next thing I know I woke up in a ditch. My earlobe was missing. I scrambled up from the ditch. The ghetto was empty. There were no trains, no Jews, and the gate was closed. I walked down the empty tracks. I met a boy. He was dressed. He asked me where I was going. I told him to the ovens to find Janina. He gave me water and I continued to walk. I came upon a farmer. He took me to his home. He told me I must stay there and work for him.
Summer I woke up in a ditch. My earlobe was missing. I scrambled up from the ditch. The ghetto was empty. There were no trains, no Jews, and the gate was closed. I walked down the empty tracks. I met a boy. He was dressed. He asked me where I was going. I told him to the ovens to find Janina. He gave me water and I continued to walk. I came upon a farmer. He took me to his home. He told me I must stay there and work for him.
Summer Today the farmers wife untied me and told me to go. I had worked on the farm for three years. The war is over. I walked the tracks but not alone. Thousands walked the tracks with me but there were no Jackboots. I finally wound myself in Warsaw. There was still rubble but the bomb craters were gone. There was no wall between Warsaw and the ghetto. The world has returned to normal. I became a huckster, and so now I have enough to get me a ticket to America.
Fall I have a new name, Jack Milgrom. I have learned English, and now sell Miracle Vegetable Choppers in Atlantic City. I married a lady, Vivian, but the marriage didn’t last long. She couldn’t handle my oddness. I asked her if she was pregnant, but she just left.
Years Later I was working at Bag and go today when a lady came in. She introduced herself as my daughter. Her name is Katherine. She also introduced my granddaughter Wendy. She calls me “Poppynoodle”.