Sadly life is incredibly unpredictable. And soon dark clouds swept over Europe.

For in the late 1930's, the propaganda of the Nazi regime appealed to the German ethnic community, and decided who belonged where, from childhood onwards. Those who didn't fit in, such as the Jews, were ostracized and persecuted. Anyone who was a member of what the Nazis called the Jewish "race" was considered less than fully human. Hitler's goal was to create a nation that was Judenreuz —without Jews. The Nuremberg Laws in 1935 stripped Jews in Germany of their political rights and also banned marriage between Germans and Jews. Other decrees forbade or limited Jews from working in many types of professions and businesses.

Then after a prolonged period of economic stagnation, political dictatorship, and intense Nazi propaganda inside Austria, German troops entered the country on March 12, 1938. They received the enthusiastic support of most of the population.

Late the previous night Mr. Tauber had called to warn the Weinberg family that people were attacking anyone in the street who even 'looked' Jewish. People were being pulled from taxicabs and streetcars and beaten. There were shouts coming from the street.

Emmeline had attempted to look out the window but her mother, Romy, frantically pulled her back. The father, Isaiah, turned off the lights and ordered them to the back of the house.

There were trucks filled with men and there were swastika flags flying from the trucks as they drove. The family members still couldn't make out what they were shouting. Sophie could feel the building shaking, and her blood congealed when she heard what they were saying. They were screaming: 'KILL THE JEWS, KILL THE JEWS, KILL THE JEWS.'

Austria was incorporated into Germany the next day. It was a nightmare coming true.

Sophie didn't believe her younger siblings ever knew there was trouble brewing in their country. She knew those terrible people – those Nazis hated them and their parents not just for being Jewish, but for being a family with a mixed-race man and a white woman. The populace was told despicable lies that the Jewish people were the cause for all the word's problems. Disease, Poverty, Hunger, etc.

Already there were Juden verboten in several places and terrible bullies pushing around any Jewish person in sight. People who were friendly neighbors and shopkeepers only yesterday now proudly wear swastikas on their lapels and, when they pass you on the street, either make a nasty comment (but not loud enough so that you can hear what they are saying) or just look the other way as they walk on by. People are such cowards, really. At heart, people are cowards. Now they think they're better simply because they are not Jewish. It might not take long for Tannen and Emmeline to notice things were entirely right. First they couldn't go to their old school where their gentile schoolmates attended. Tannen had been chased off when he tried to greet one of his friends. Their mother refused to let them go their friends homes less and less and if they left with her for errands, she was strict about them staying by her side at all times.

The Nazis patrolled the streets constantly, and you can be picked up without warning and taken away at any time. There is no use trying to hide. They have the names and addresses of all the Jews in Vienna. There are rumors that any day now they are going to go from house to house and send us far, far away. There was talk among the Weinberg's friends, they heard of camps just for Jews. One boy's father returned from one of these camps but won't say anything about it because he doesn't want to be sent back. Other rumors were heard of how people of other races different than the perfect Aryans were ordered to clinics to be forcibly sterilized.

The Weinberg parents feared that any of their children would be next.

Isaiah has taken to pacing in the living room, ruminating. Romy is greatly worried, but she's too stubborn to let the circumstances break her. Her parents were safe, having remained in the States and were considering leaving for Palestine. She received a letter from them, who are pleading with Romy to send the children to America. But Romy is too afraid of separating the family.

Father said he will go where he's sent and deal with it alone if he must. But he doesn't want his children threatened.

Even if they could manage, there was still the matter of the affidavit and acquiring an immigrant visa. So many permissions for tickets for either a boat or train.

April 30th, 1938

The hurts of childhood and youth go very deep sometimes, and it was no different for Sophie in her adolescence.

For months she had endured the bitter torment of social ostracization from the luxuries of being a teenager: such as dates and outings. Even as a young woman Sophie was stagestruck. She wished to join the theater, but the place would always choose other stars. Particularly, white, gentile stars. And she was always discouraged by her peers in doing so.

And as such, those years of repressing her sorrow and righteous anger had left Sophie worse than she'd initially thought. For one day all those emotions exploded right out without warning.

One summer afternoon, Sophie had come back from one of the places she could visit secretly. From around a corner she heard shouting. A group of those apes that call themselves Hitler's youth came along, shouting and calling awful insults to an old man with a grey beard, who dropped his briefcase full of papers. They told him to get down on his hands and knees and pick up the papers in the park too. And when he just stood there, shaking and confused, they started reaching into the trash can and they threw the garbage at him, but still the old man couldn't move. They closed in on him, they were going to beat him, but the old man didn't even cry out.

A group of little German schoolchildren came running up, and they stood there watching, as if it were an entertainment. Sophie just stood there, and then everything went black…

Next she knew, she was standing right in the street with the old man gaping at her, her right eye and both her knuckles aching and a hand on her shoulder. The schoolchildren who'd stopped to watch were running away and screaming, "Hilfe! Sie ist verrückt!" Or to be more precise: "Help! She's crazy!"

Bewildered, Sophie turned and was surprised to see Albert Silverstein holding her back gently. He was a studious young man she'd been seeing for the past year or so. With shoulder length brown hair, hazel eyes, and rather ahead of his time in many ways.

The leader of the thugs stared at him for a moment, as if trying to challenge him. Finally, though, he turned and gestured to his friends. "Come on, let's go," the boy said.

"Yes, go," Albert ordered, a fierce scowl on his face. "And don't let me see your faces in our neighborhood again!"

"Fool!" the man cried. "You'll see what happens to Jew-lovers soon enough! You'll see!"

With a mutinous glower, Albert began removing his hand from Sophie's shoulder. As if asking, 'Oh? Would you like me to set her loose on you again?'

The troublemakers yelped and ran away shouting curses. Sophie instantly hurried over to the old man, who gratefully took her hands as she helped him up.

"Thank you children," he said sadly. "But there are too many like them in the city nowadays."

Albert looked at Sophie and winced sympathetically, "And now look, you're going to get a black eye and you've also hurt your hand."

"You saw what they did," Sophie insisted even as she touched her swelling eye. "It wasn't right."

According to the testimony of both the old man and Albert, Sophie had flown into a passion and flung herself at the thugs screaming obscenities like a madwoman. She boxed one's ears and she was struck in the face when he lashed out. Then she hit another in the face – which was as painful for her as it was for the cad.

That was when Albert showed up and twisted the arm of one of the thugs behind his back and shoved him away.

They agreed to walk the old man home before Albert accompanied her back to the doorway of her home. No doubt her mother was going to give her the scolding of her life.

"When I see all those ships in books and movies, I'd like to go far away where no one else knows us. Perhaps to America."

"To the States? Things are getting messy there too." Albert replied grimly. "I don't want you to leave."

"That's kind, but you'd forget me like everyone else."

When Sophie returned home that afternoon, as expected her parents were shocked and worried, while her siblings kept asking details.

"Sophie! Are you alright?" Her mother had asked anxiously.

Sophie groaned touching the right side of her face. "Except for my pride, my eye and hands… yes."

"Good, then NEVER do that again!" Romy scolded, slapping the cold steak against the younger girls' swollen eye.

That evening she heard her parents saying she should've been going to dances and parties, but Sophie sighed. How can she think of such things when so much is changing faster than anyone can think?

She does so miss her old life. Roller skating with her schoolmates downtown, the theater clubs and the festivals. But nowadays it appears to be crime just to be an existing Jewish person.

July 6, 1938

When a girl's had an unhappy love affair, all of her horizons become gray, and sometimes it looks as if there'd never be happiness in life again. When Sophie first met Albert's sister Otilia, she was chilled to the bone. For she'd soon noticed the woman was a tight-lipped pretender, whose eyes could not hide the contempt she had for Sophie.

The younger woman usually tried not to pay her comments any mind but one day, when Sophie had gone to meet Albert and found only Otilia in the house, she made no effort to spare the girl.

"I will not beat around the bush! Albert went away to give me a chance to talk to you! He's alarmed at the way things are going between you!"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Then I will speak clearly: Albert has prestige and social position… and a way out for the family! But you're nothing but a halfblooded nobody!"

Sophie felt her heart sink. "So he's ashamed of me?"

"He even asked me to give you a generous amount if you agree to never see him again!"

Sophie felt tears welling up but she snapped back refusing to break down in front of this rude woman. "Don't bother! I'll spare you the trouble and the expense… I'm leaving!"

Although Sophie's heart was broken she was determined to someday find way to prove them and everyone whoever looked down on her people wrong. All she needed was an opportunity.

However there was one silver lining, the Weinberg family received the news that the grandparents and a family friend have sent the affidavit to the American officials. And finally those Nazi barbarians have given Isaiah they're our exit papers. However they still have no visas from the Americans.

November 8th, 1938.

For months, Albert never knew Sophie had come to visit him that day. He wondered why she avoided him if by chance they happened to be in the same street. His sister told him she'd asked for money but something felt off. That didn't sound like Sophie at all.

Then one day he'd come home early from work and walked in through the kitchen door, He'd always walked in that way because it was easier to put his bike away inside. Too many soldiers and Nazi supporters were around.

He'd gone for some water and he heard voices in the living room. Most likely his sister had a friend visiting while his parents were out. But then he heard she was making some less than savory comments about someone. It only took a few more sentences before he figured out Otilia was talking about Sophie!

Initially she'd called her a stupid little tart with no future. Albert had frozen in place when the conversation began escalating. What did they mean?

"I did it for his own good, I didn't want him mixed up with a half bred nobody who thinks herself the same as everyone. I tried to buy her off, but she had the nerve to be affronted!"

Albert took the chance to walk in. "Is that true?! Did you actually try to buy her off so that she'd stop seeing me?"

Otilia and her visitor froze. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough but not enough apparently! I didn't care who or what she was before, and I still don't!"

Otilia's face hardened, "She's not for you! Her father is dark skinned, she and her family will never make it! Just as ours will never escape this madness out there if you had married her!"

"You never did learn to live and let live!" Albert began shouting. "Now it's too late! There's no way her father will consent to giving me her a hand and most likely she won't have me anymore!"

"You think the Nazis would let us live in peace if we did? They'll come knocking at our door first chance they get! "

"Were still Jewish! They'd have targeted us either way. "I'm going to see her tomorrow and I'm NEVER speaking you again!"

But it didn't matter at the moment. After weeks of waiting the Weinbergs received their visas on November 8th, 1938. However, the spark of unhappiness in our country was fanned into a flame that would soon destroy their lives forever.

The following evening, the family had gathered for dinner talking of visiting America.

"Is it far?" asked Emmeline.

"Very much so." Isaiah nods.

"What's it like?" Tannen asks Sophie.

"It's lovely! I saw New York city for only a few hours. I could not even begin to tell you of all the things we saw there! You had to strain your eyes to see the tops of some of the taller buildings." Sophie tells him.

"What about the other places you saw?" Emmeline questions.

"There were miles and miles of sights in different places, you'd never be able to explore all of it." Sophie replied. "Zayde and Bubbe loved our peaceful visits to the parks in Northern Tarrytown the best. The forests there and in Gravesfield are so beautiful."

Outside there was the sound of shouting and an orange glare in the distance lighting up the night.

"What is that? Some gang's gotten drunk and starting a ruckus?" Romy wondered.

The children paid no mind to the worried look on their parents faces, the trip to America was too exciting. Tanne had always wanted to go ever since Sophie's road trip four years ago.

"So then soon we get to see America hooray!" cheered Emmeline.

Isaiah and Romy hurried to their children. "Stop! Stop that. We've got to get out of here. Now."

"But what about our…?" Tannen questioned.

"Now!"

"We need the visas!" Isaiah hurried to fetch them.

"Children, all of you get your coats, and keep away from the windows."

Right on cue, a brick shattered one of the windows making them scream in alarm. In their panicked fright, Romy had dropped one of the visas, which Sophie picked up. It was her own, she pocketed it.

For this evening and the next, the Jewish people were being attacked in full force. This event would come to be known as Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass — synagogues were set on fire, store windows were smashed and Jewish homes broken into in cities, towns and villages across the Third Reich.

The Weinbergs then smelled smoke and realized someone had thrown a torch inside the house and it was now burning. Already, Romy, Tannen and Emmeline had ran out. The Mother tightly holding on to her children's wrists, so that she wouldn't lose sight of them.

"The menorah!" Sophie suddenly cried and turned back to get it. She couldn't leave such and important piece of their family heritage behind.

"Sophie, no! That roof is going to fall!" Her father had tried to stop her, however she was as stubborn as her grandfather.

The man attempted to run in after his eldest daughter only to be suddenly pulled back by several men wearing armbands.

"Your house makes for good firewood!" One laughed.

The thugs held them forcing the remaining Weinberg family to watch as their house burned down with the eldest child still inside.

Or so they thought…

Coughing, Sophie had snatched up the menorah and was barely able to push her way out the back door just before the roof collapsed.

When she stumbled out, Sophie was met with a scene straight out of a horror story: The city looked to be on fire, but there were people attacking Jewish people and Jewish places being destroyed.

There were broken shop windows and shards of glass lying in the streets. And then we saw a shop where someone had painted the word 'Jew', and smeared on a star of David.

And as she ran searching for her family, it was same wherever she fled. Large numbers of ordinary people, including women, were involved in looting and plundering, picking up goods thrown out onto the street and benefiting from the expropriation of Jewish property. Both young and old turned out to humiliate Jews to gawk at smoldering synagogues and join the jeering crowds. While some were egged on by peer group pressure, many young people believed the Nazi view that the 'Jews are our misfortune' and that it was 'time to put them in their place.'

Sophie saw that some of the horrible attackers had utterly destroyed the synagogue, they'd taken out the prayer books, the prayer shawls, the Torah scrolls, everything they could get their hands on. They'd dumped them in a pile on the street and, laughing madly, trampling on them. . . . "Burn the Jews!" they kept chanting. "Burn the Jews!"

Then they spotted her and then they said, "There's another Jew! Let's throw her into the flames too!"

Horrified, the teenage girl shrieked and ran. She hid in the forest and climbed a tree, keeping dead still until she was sure no one was following her.

That night Jewish homes, schools, hospitals and more than 7,500 businesses were attacked and destroyed. Close to 100 Jews were killed, and some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps. Jewish shops had been smashed up and people brutally killed. Shop windows had been broken everywhere, and the words 'Jew' or 'Jewish pig' written in many places. Fire fighters and police stood by, instructed only to intervene if neighboring "Aryan" property were endangered.

Over the following days, adult male Jews were arrested and incarcerated in local jails and makeshift prisons, and some 30,000 were deported to concentration camps. Hundreds were killed; faced with devastation and total ruin, dozens committed suicide. It was clear that Germans and Austrians of Jewish descent had no future in their own homeland. Some managed to emigrate, abandoning property, family and friends; those left behind would later find themselves deported to the extermination camps in the east.

That was the last straw for her.

With no sign of her parents or any guarantee that they survived, she was going to get out of this got farlazn land of misery and iniquity, where people who had never in their lives done anything bad could no longer live and breathe, merely because they were born Jews. Where Jewish children were beaten by others their age, where they were insulted and had stones thrown at them, because they were Jewish children. The poison of persecution, cast like a terrible seed into the hearts and souls has now began to fester all around, and as a result destroyed everything she cherished.

As Sophie braved the aftermath, she had a new purpose: she must depart on a ship to America and find the Boiling Isles.

To be continued…

Author's note: Mind you, Sophie still has a long way to go before she returns to the Boiling Isles to start a new life, she still has other perils and challenges ahead.

To my unknown guest reviewer: Thnx for the review, but I have something else in mind for Sophie something BIG further on. As for the bullies, you'll just have to wait and see.

Will update soon as the next chapter's ready.