“In a time of favor I have answered you, in a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you...”¹

Another miracle, of the many G-d worked to preserve us during the Nazi days, occurred during our flight on a train. It was in the middle of January 1945, and bitterly cold, with much snow. We had left Breslau, my hometown in Silesia, Germany (now Poland), in great haste after two SS men had come to our door. We mingled with the trek of refugees fleeing from the approaching Russians, in hope of escape. 

How we got on this train is a major miracle. There was absolutely no room left, and this was the last train to leave the station. A barrier blocked any access to the train from the railroad platform, where frantic masses were shoving and pushing. Yet somehow the station master’s eyes were drawn to my fragile, beautiful mother. She stood there like a forlorn island in this tossing sea of human panic. The Lord must have moved this man’s heart with compassion, because he took my mother along with me, grandmother and grandmother’s sister (father wasn’t with us) amid screams of protest, and led her to the train. “I get you and yours on this train, if that’s the last thing I do,” he said. Then he shoved us through an open window into the laps of those inside. The window apparently was open because it was the only car of the whole train which was heated. 

The train was crossing the white blanket of a wide open field, when the rumbling noise of approaching airplanes could be heard. Then someone screamed, “Allied bombers!”, and the train loudly screeched to a  standstill. With naked horror the women and children in that train saw the three conductors flee across the white field towards a forest. The Allies were not all war heroes. They bombed everything, regardless if that were military or civilian places or people. They had bombed every train that moved, including those filled with refugees. For this reason most people fled by foot and trains stopped running. Apparently the bombers were approaching to bomb this train. 

There stood their train, like a big, black snake, visible from far in the brilliant white of the snow. Women and children screamed and wept, others prayed to G-d, to Jesus, to all sorts of saints. Mother only whispered, “O G-d, Holy One of Israel, G-d of my fathers, my G-d, help and protect us, I pray!” 
 

The Allied bombers flew right above the train. Four bombers rumbled to and fro, back and forth, above the train. But not a single bomb fell. It was as if they could not see the train. There was now utter quiet inside, not even a child cried. For a long time the bombers searched for the so strangely disappeared train. Then they left. 

“A miracle! A miracle!” the women whispered. Truly, it was a miracle! 

When the train pulled into “Marktredwitz”, a small town in the Fichtelgebirge of northern Bavaria, the station master there announced that the train would not continue for three days. Women and children poured out of the train. Mother, with me at her hand, and grandmother and aunt got out to stretch our legs, and to get some food. A young woman approached mother and said, “We have been waiting for you, to provide you with food and some much needed rest. Please, be our guest for these three days. We are Christians who serve the G-d of Israel.” A strange thing to say in those days in Germany. Mother was suddenly filled with great peace, and overcome by fatigue. She, grandmother and aunt, followed the young girl like zombies. 

When they entered the girl’s house there was a family standing by a table set with dishes and steaming hot food, and a pot of porridge in front of a highchair. Over by a wall stood a table with a baby bathtub. Mother’s face must have shown the utter astonishment, because the family smiled and offered them a welcome in the Name of the Lord. After mother had bathed me in that tub and we had all finished dinner, the lady of the house took mother upstairs. There were three beds freshly made, plus a baby bed. Mother broke into sobs, overwhelmed by this unforeseen, inexplicable provision. “Why?” she wanted to know. “Why us? How did you know us?” Then the family told the story: 

For three consecutive nights the Lord had given them a vision of a young woman with a small child, in the company of two older women. He instructed them on which day and at what time to go to the train station, where a train would pull in and stay for three days. On that train would be that young woman with the child and the two women companions. They were to care for them, feed them, and provide beds for them. They went to buy the baby tub, and the high chair and baby bed they brought down from the attic. Since the Lord had given them a specific time, the woman prepared the food and set the table ready for us when we arrived. Their young daughter had no difficulties in identifying my mother whom she immediately saw, walking towards her with me at her hand. Mother and I looked just as the Lord had shown them. Then, grandmother and aunt also walked up, and there were the two older women companions. 

When mother and grandmother heard that story, there was no end to their sobbing in relief. Even aunt, who wasn’t given to “mushiness”, had tears in her eyes. Then mother knew that G-d had kept us safely in His hands. And even while the world round about us fell apart, she no longer feared. Because now she knew for certain that G-d, who had kept us safe from the Nazi’s spying eyes until that day, was with us². 

Almost every Friday night when we’d sit around the table, my mother and grandmother would tell me these stories. Throughout my childhood, Shabbat after Shabbat (I did not know then that this was called “Shabbat”), I heard these tales. Maybe it is because of them that I yearned for G-d, even when I turned away from Him because I blamed Him for the Holocaust and the death of my beloved brother. After the Lord Yeshua showed Himself to me and I came to believe in Him as the Messiah of Israel, these stories were revived in my memory. They have been “a rod and a staff” to me ever since, because the Shepherd of Israel did not abandon us nor would He abandon me. For a truth, His faithfulness reaches to the heavens, and His miracles never cease. 

Therefore, to believe Him for the “repairing of the breach and the closing of the gap” by means of finding the family book of generations is a small thing in comparison to those miracles. Was that wedding band any easier to find than this book is? Was it any easier to hide a whole train from the sight of those Allied bombers? Was it any easier for complete strangers to know us and provide for us? No, because with G-d nothing is impossible. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is too difficult for Him. Therefore I thank and praise Him for restoring this book unto us, that our “sukkah” may be complete again, with not a single branch missing. Hallelujah!