Eithne Massey - Tomi: Tomi Reichentals Holocaust Story

1. Part I
   The Farm
2. Part II
   The Hunt
3. Part III
   The Camp
4. Part IV
   The Return

T omi! The voices were full of laughter. It was Chava and Miki, coming nearer and nearer to his perch high in the tree. Tomi had gone higher than he ever had before, hoping the green leaves would hide him.

Tomi! We are coming! We can see you!

That was Lacos voice, deeper than the others. So he was there too. Laco was the oldest cousin, the leader of the group of eight who met every summer at Tomis house. He was sure they could not possibly see him, up so high with the green branches below. Not one of them had looked up.

Then Miki called out, Come out, come out, wherever you are! You cant hide from us! His older brothers voice was mocking.

But if I stay very still, thought Tomi, if I dont even allow myself to breathe, maybe they will go by and I will not be caught. The breeze swayed the branches gently, bringing with it the scent of hay. Through the branches he could see the wheat fields, just turning gold, and the black and white cows in the distance, their tails flicking lazily to keep off the flies. All part of his fathers farm.

Earlier that summer, Omama, his grandmother, had told him a story about a hidden treasure, buried deep in the earth. Afterwards, he had spent hours hunting for treasure in the fields. His father had come upon him digging beside the stream and asked him what he was up to. He smiled when Tomi told him. Look around you, my son. The land is all the treasure we need. The harvest fields are our gold. And there are diamonds in the wet grass when the sun lights it up in the morning!

Tomi laughed and said, I see what you mean, Apuko! And the cows eat up the diamonds, and they come out in the milk!

Im not sure our milk has diamonds in it, especially when you see the price we get for it. But we have enough to live on. And thats all we need. His father held out his hand for Tomi to take. They had walked home through the wheat fields with the dogs racing beside them.

Soon the wheat and barley would be harvested and milled. Later again, the tiny green apples all around him would turn red and be picked, stored over the winter in the apple-loft. Tomi loved that time of year.

He loved every time of the year, because each time brought new, good things, but his favourite time was spring-time, when the trees in the orchard were covered in blossom. He would lie in the new grass under the trees during the first long evenings and watch the white petals drift down like snow. Sometimes he could see the storks flying home across the sky to their nest in the old church tower.

We know where you are, Tomi, and were coming to get you! Chava had joined in with her older cousins, her voice high-pitched and excited. Chava got excited very easily. She lived in the city and was sometimes frightened by the animals on the farm. It made Tomi feel big and brave to explain to her that the cows were just curious when they came running across the fields to see her.

Tomi stayed as still as he could, hoping no one would look up. Now he could see Lacos, Mikis and Chavas heads beneath his perch Lacos dark, the tallest of the group, Chavas and Mikis lighter, like Tomis own blond hair.

Chavas long hair was braided up every morning by Aunt Margo, but today, after a morning spent climbing trees and crawling through haystacks, the braids had come down and were unravelling around her shoulders.

Now there was another voice calling it was Tomis mother, his anuka.

Children! Come to the summer house! Ice cream!

Ice cream! Tomi dropped from his branch, landing right in front of Laco and Miki and Chava, making them jump. They shrieked with laughter and raced towards the tiny wooden hut, where they crowded in around the table. Marika was there, dishing out home-made ice cream into their bowls, along with raspberries and strawberries and the first plums.

She had put a jar filled with wildflowers in the middle of the table. There were cornflowers and poppies, the bright blues and reds of her brightly coloured skirt and headscarf. Marika helped his mother in the house, and she was one of the kindest people Tomi knew.

Then Tomis mother appeared with the small sweet cakes that he loved so much. Anuka was taller than Marika, and her clothes were more quietly coloured and somehow different. But then his mother was a little different from the local women. Like Chava, she had been brought up in town and had only begun to live in the country after she married Tomis father, who had taken over the farm when his parents decided to set up a shop in the village.

Both Tomis parents were different in small ways from most of the villagers. They read more and were more interested in what went on in the world outside the village. They had a radio and listened to the news and to music almost every evening. Most people in the village did not have a radio, and no one else had a motorcycle. His fathers pride and joy, the cousins loved to have a go on it when they came to visit.

There were six of his cousins gathered around the table now: the boys, Laco, Bandy and Juraj, and the girls, Kati, Chava and Tikva. They came from the cities to visit. Every summer, the cousins came and ran wild on the farm, fishing in the little rivers, getting in the way of the harvesters when they decided to help and getting their feet so dirty that Marika would scold Tomi and Miki as she scrubbed them clean before bedtime. What children you are! I have never seen such dirt! You cannot be putting those feet in the clean sheets! Marika did all the washing and was very proud of the whiteness of her sheets, sheets that had to be scrubbed as hard as their feet.

Any more ice cream, Teta Judith? asked Laco. Tomis mother smiled and scooped some more out. You are all getting so tall! I dont know if its a good idea to feed you any more. You wont be able to fit on that bench the next time you come here. They all knew that Tomis mother was teasing; there was always plenty of good things in the farmhouse.