Lessons in the Ashes

In between my son David’s jazz dancing lesson and his ice-skating lesson, I took him to what is left of the Heroes and Legends comic book and card store for another lesson. One that no child should ever have to learn. But one with which Jewish children must live.

The smell of smoke was still in the air. Charred books and cards were piled up in front of the burned building. We walked along the side of the building, past the wall spray-painted with SS and swastika symbols. David just kept asking “Why?” Even if I had an answer I couldn’t have given it to him because of the lump in my throat.

In the back we were greeted by the Cohen-Rosses’ young daughter who offered us doughnuts. She told David that he could join the 10 or 15 other boys in searching through the fire- and water-damaged books and help himself to whatever he could find. “Are you sure?” David asked. Mrs. Cohen-Ross assured him that they wanted the children who supported the store to have whatever they could salvage from the pile.

A group of boys, some with blond hair and blue eyes, some black, some Hispanic, were going through the pile of wreckage. They were quiet and polite. Sometimes they would take a find over to Mr. Cohen-Ross because they thought he might still be able to use it. He always smiled and told them to keep it. You could see that there was a bond of friendship between them. They truly liked each other.

Even with the wall behind them painted with a swastika and the words “Die Jew,” even amidst the chaos that was once a family’s livelihood, there was sharing, there was friendship, there was hope. This was the real lesson to be learned.

TOBY RUTH LOVE, Thousand Oaks