Hajej m?j andílku hajej a spi,
Mum is rocking her baby.
mati?ka kolíbá dě?átko svy.
Lie, sleep sweet, little one,
Hajej dadej, nynej, malej,
Mum is rocking her baby.
Mati?ka kolíbá dě?átko svy.
Lie my little angel, lie and sleep,
Hajej m?j andílku hajej a spi,
Mum is rocking her baby.
mati?ka kolíbá dě?átko svy.
Lie, sleep sweet, little one,
Hajej dadej, nynej, malej,
Mum is rocking her baby.
Mati?ka kolíbá dě?átko svy.
When Mischka steps into the room, the tears flowing freely down his face, Livi takes Magda’s arm and the sisters leave husband and wife alone to welcome this precious child into their family.
*
As the months pass, Magda and Livi watch Karol grow from a tiny baby into a big baby, but Livi also watches her big sister ease into being part of a new family. Their uncle now has Irinka, who is adored by his children. What does Livi have? She is beginning to feel restless, but Magda has no desire to shake up their lives again.
It is an everyday act of racism, one of the many that have come to define the boundaries of their existence in Bratislava, which makes up Livi’s mind.
‘Chocolate! Can you believe it?’ Livi has just stormed into their apartment, rage painting her features. ‘I’ve just been abused for having the gall to buy some chocolate.’
‘What are you talking about, Livi?’ Magda asks.
‘Two anti-Semitic imbeciles came into the shop as I was handing over my money, and do you know what they said?’ Livi is pacing the floor.
‘I have no idea, Livi, what did they say?’
‘One of them looked down his nose at me, and it was a big nose, and in his stupid loud voice, so everyone in the shop could hear, he said, “Bloody Jew. Who do they think they are to eat good chocolate?”’
‘What did you do?’ Magda is calm; she doesn’t want to inflame Livi any further.
‘I put the chocolate down and left.’ Livi rounds on her sister. ‘I don’t want to live like this anymore. I want to be somewhere where I’m not abused because I’m a Jew, somewhere I can buy chocolate and not feel threatened.’
‘What are you saying?’ Magda asks, worry creeping into her voice.
‘Something needs to change, and I don’t think it will in Slovakia.’
Over the next few weeks, Livi talks to fellow survivors about leaving Slovakia. Now under communist rule, they receive little news about the situation in Palestine and the efforts to create a new state of Israel.
When Livi shares her frustrations with her friends, a few of the boys speak up and tell her they are leaving for Israel soon, when they have done their training with the Hachshara. She imagines living a life where her hard work will be fairly rewarded, where she won’t always be the last one chosen for office work because she’s a Jew, where she can believe that those around her want the same things for themselves as she does. In the end, she is surprised at how easy it was to make up her mind.
‘I want to join them,’ Livi tells her sisters one evening. She and Magda are in Mischka and Cibi’s apartment. Livi is bouncing Karol on her knee. ‘I want to join the Hachshara movement and then go to Israel. I want us all to go to Israel.’
‘That’s crazy talk,’ Magda explodes. ‘First of all, no one is allowed to leave this country – we’re all communists now, in case you didn’t know. Also, haven’t you heard what the British are doing to Jews who try to make it to Israel? They’re turning migrants right round and taking them straight back to refugee camps.’ The three sisters flinch at the word ‘camp’。 ‘They’ve even boarded the boats bound for Israel.’
This is true. Britain, fearing the loss of their position as the dominant power in the Middle East has no desire to aid the creation of a Jewish nation, which might provoke the Palestinians and thus jeopardise the British power base there.
‘I’ve done my research, Magda, thank you,’ says Livi, her mouth set in a straight line. ‘That’s what the training is for. Don’t you think our freedom is worth fighting for? We didn’t leave one prison only to find ourselves in another.’
Magda is silent.
‘Haven’t you had enough of Slovakia?’ Livi asks her sisters. ‘When was the last time you got a job lasting longer than a week, Magda? And you, Cibi, do you want to bring up your baby in a country which still seems to hate its Jews?’