In this one night alone over 1,400 synagogues are destroyed. More than 400 Jews are beaten, shot, or driven to suicide. The Night of the Broken Glass was a dire warning for the impending fate of the Jews in Germany.

Most of the synagogues in Vienna were destroyed, burned in full view of fire departments and the public. Jewish businesses were also vandalized and ransacked. Thousands of Jews were arrested and deported to the Dachau or Buchenwald concentration camps. Jewish emigration increased dramatically in response to the German incorporation of Austria and to Kristallnacht.

Because the violence was nationwide, there was little hope of finding support or refuge elsewhere in Germany. The violence and expropriation of wealth encouraged many Jews in Germany to seek refuge in other countries.

Sophie knew she could not ever be safe so long as the Nazis were present… She hated them because it was all their fault the Jewish people and more were being hunted and treated as lesser beings.

And so the girl took what she could salvage from the ashes of her partially burned house and fled. She took only take the menorah, a diary and a couple of books. With a single goal in mind, she must depart for America as soon as she can.

Her survival avoiding the Nazis, reaching city to city in the wilderness was needless to say, nerve-racking. Avoiding street lamps and manmade roads as much as she could. She slept in the forest for many nights, eating nuts and berries as she could find them. Every moment, she was afraid of being found. She was like a frightened little animal, heeding nothing but the primitive urge of self-preservation.

Finally she happened to run into a group of people who were angry and unhappy with the Nazis' invasion, they agreed to help her and others that were fleeing the country.

With the guidance of refugees aided by the resistance, Sophie escaped to Berlin which took three entire days to reach. Having no money, Sophie worked for food and bed. She lived in perpetual fear that the Nazis would find and eliminate her as they had her family.

The woman aiding them helped by falsifying official visas and other documents. By that time in the middle of December, Sophie boarded a tramp steamer in Sweden that was setting sail for New York City.

There in the ship, she broke down, weeping for her family. And she wept. She wept for the loss of her family. For the oppression of her people. For the entire world that had been turned on it's ear.

Between 1938 and 1940, 117,000 Jews left Austria. Sophie never knew her family had survived the horrible night nor that Albert and his family would be among those captured and sent away to Dachau. Otilia and their father perished, leaving Albert and his mother as the only survivors that would leave for the States years later.

On December 23, 1938, the ship Sophie was on had reached America one chilly morning.

"America. Mutti. Vati. Tannen. Emmeline…" Sophie whispered. "I made it."

After an arduous sea voyage, immigrants arriving at Ellis Island were tagged with information from their ship's registry; they then waited on long lines for medical and legal inspections to determine if they were fit for entry into the United States.

Sophie had to wait in line and go through revision for hours. It was already enough of a miracle that she was not sent back. Every now and then she watched the faces of people, helplessly wanting them to transform into her parents or siblings.

Finally she reached her grandparents' home in New York. She could hardly wait to see them. "Zayde, Bubbe, I'm here!" she cried, knocking on the door and ringing the bell.

Much to her disappointment, nobody came to the door. She had a sinking feeling something was very wrong. Sophie went to peer into the window, which needed a good scrubbing, and saw that the small house was empty.

"They… They're gone." She said shakily. But to where?

When she asked around, the neighbors told her that the older couple had moved out after receiving distressing news from Austria, but not where they were headed.

Sophie was disheartened. They must've found out what happened to her family and decided to leave. She'd been in the city for the first seven months, going from one job to another, trying to scrimp and save until she had enough to find her destination. Somehow she had to get herself to Gravesfield, Connecticut.

It was the beginning of another long journey – at the place where she was able to get a job, she was just one unknown immigrant girl amongst many more. Social life? She was too single-minded in her goal and shied away, always looking over her shoulder. Most especially when she hears news of what was happening in Europe.

"They have been arresting Jews. Even women. Even little children."

She heard horrible stories from her coworkers and neighbors alike. There was talk of torture, arrests, concentration camps, and killings. Mass killings in unimaginably brutal ways.

"How can this go on?" "How can the world just sit by and do nothing?" Many Jewish immigrants groaned incredulously.

"Some people don't know," others said. "Or they don't want to know."

"I read a book about concentration camps . . . Hitler's plan. He calls it the 'final solution.'"

These news chilled Sophie to the bone. Was Albert or anyone she knew in one of those ghastly places? Were they…?

It was awful, but she had to continue. She had to live, for her family and for all those that could not. Eventually Sophie wandered out into the countryside. There were thousands much like herself. Refugees from all over the world who'd lost everything.

'Well I am the one who wanted her life to be more like some adventure story… yet here I am stuck wandering just like my ancestors did in the desert many centuries ago. There must be something more to life than this!' she thought as she rode out.

"I'll leave all this to yesterday and start a new life. And it 'll be happy with marriage and children and a bright future awaiting. It's got to be that way… it's got to!" she said firmly.

Why should the Jews have to be afraid to go places? Or give up their hopes and futures just because they don't fit into someone else's idea of a perfect place?

Well it's time she makes something of herself. So she traveled with just the sack full of her own possessions from town to town. Whenever the carnivals passed through, she learns a few tricks on the road from theatre magicians or stage hands dabbling in the new technology.

June 24, 1940

Sophie took the 8:50 am train to New Britain, Connecticut. There she had to walk several miles before she finally reaches Gravesfield. However for room and board, she worked for a withdrawn old woman who treated her kindly, Mrs. Mildred Stenson.

The following Summer days were full of restful contentment. Sophie had come to care for this reposeful, sad faced woman...they lived quietly. She had two servants, a cook, and a handyman who came each day. Although the old woman and the young refugee had long talks, neither revealed too much about ourselves...her duties were pleasant… Sophie walked with her... read to her, and talked.

"If I may, how did such an intelligent young lady end up alone here?" The older woman asked out of the blue. "You never get mail ...have you no friends? Of course my correspondence is limited to my monthly check from the bank which handles my trust fund...but you, you're still young with a life ahead of you."

"That's… a terribly long story."

Every evening Sophie kept her burlap bag packed in the event she had to run away to the house where she first found the Boiling Isles, one way or another. With the menorah, the diary, some clothes and a couple of books she'd managed to hold onto for so long.

"You're Jewish are you not? I've seen your lovely menorah." Mrs. Stenson stated not inquired.

Sophie nods. "I've always felt a deep connection with my mother's heritage, and the history of my people, and the struggles, accomplishments, and the culture."

"You're a proper young lady. Surely you…"

Sophie set her mouth into a grim line. "That's the problem. Austria had been full of good proper people from different homes and families. Men and women like our neighbors and countrymen. Men and women like my parents, who did what they could to live happily together with my siblings and I in the city… just to die in a fire caused by horrible mendacious people. I don't want that. I don't want to be a proper lady, I want to be a great one. I want to be Amelia Earhart, Marie Jean Valet and Sarah Bernhardt all rolled into one."

The old woman's face had softened. Her blood family lived in another city due to job opportunities while she remained behind, she couldn't imagine what this young girl was going through. Then she said. "Perhaps it doesn't mean much right now… I'd give quite a lot for your entire family to be here with you here right now. And whether it seems fair or not, it doesn't matter. Sometimes life isn't fair. It can be just like nature, loving and cruel all at once. It's a hard lesson for folks to learn and most people don't have to learn it this young. And as for becoming a fine woman like those you've named, that's all well and good, but you've still got to get yourself an education." The woman said gently, "I'll tell you what...take the afternoon off...go down to the park and relax."

She made another friend, Betty Ruhle. A young girl who lived across the street from Mrs. Stenson. Large hazel eyes and dark blonde hair, and quite ahead of her time despite her young age in many ways.

"Sophie, my dear... I've me grown very fond of you. I want you to be happy." Mrs. Stenson had gotten Sophie a nice star of David necklace as a belated birthday present. A gift the young woman would treasure greatly, for in some ways it brought her closer to her faith and her family.

Somehow they did it. Little by little, both the older woman and the young neighbor brought Sophie out of her sorrow. However there was another dark shadow that loomed nearby.

Perhaps Sophie might considered remaining on Earth with Mrs. Stenson if the neighbors were as accepting as her and Betty. If more people could've accepted the truth about her and her people's plight. But from the day she came to work for Mrs. Stenson, she knew some of the townsfolk were whispering malicious gossip behind her back… gossip which could sweep aside my precious right to happiness- and tranquility.

Ever since Betty started accompanying her and Mrs. Stenson, days later Sophie started getting awful letters. Of course she thought it was a joke at first and just threw the first three into the fireplace.

But they found out the day, Betty was visiting for the day. She'd gotten the mail and had absent-mindedly opened the letter in full view of them both.

"What are you still doing here, you, Chr…?" she read and nearly choked when she saw the horrible slur. "You don't belong here with normal people."

"What?" Betty was outraged, she took the letter from Sophie to read for herself. "Whoever wrote this has gotta be sick n the head."

Mrs. Stenson was stunned, she looked over the letter and scowled. "Oh, of all the cruel, insensitive malarkey…! "You've done nothing wrong. Sophie dear, don't you think for a minute that's how I feel! They're nothing but spiteful vipers!"

First it was the hateful letters. Next came one other incident that gave Sophie the chills. When she, Mrs. Stenson and the staff had returned to the house after a nice night at the fair, they were in for shock.

"Good heavens!" Mrs. Stenson's voice cried.

The house had paint on the front doors and the outside walls. Red paint specifically, writing with three K's and horrible messages scrawled on them.

"Who would do this?" The cook and handyman were alarmed.

The handyman offered to repaint, Mrs. Stenson told him not until the police checks it out the following morning. Betty arrived the next day and nearly dropped her basket when she saw the vandalism and the police at Mrs. Stenson's house.

"Why would someone do this? I haven't done anything." Sophie had asked after the police finished taking statements.

Mrs. Stenson was quiet for a moment. Her eyes looked sad. "We don't live in a perfect world, I'm afraid, and wars don't transform ideas overnight."

"I bet it was Adela, she got mad you're here for good and now's she's got it in for you." Betty scowled indignantly

It wouldn't be much of a surprise, the Herbert girl had been bullying both Betty and Sophie more subtly now, making nasty little remarks every now and then.

"This doesn't entirely seem like the work of some vain little diva." Mrs. Stenson said. "Now that I look carefully it might… but no. In this town and in this age?"

"What is it?"

"I'm partially inclined to suspect some insane scoundrels dressing themselves up in white sheets calling themselves the Ku Klux Klan had started stirring up trouble in the South, running amok by burning crosses and trying to scare people, mostly anyone with darker skin or anyone that doesn't fit the perfect white person ideal."

Sophie was appalled. She had left Austria to escape the persecution of the Nazis. And even here, there were bigoted and hateful people, people who would hurt and even kill just because someone seems different. She did her best to try and forget but couldn't. It kept happening. "I thought I'd escaped all this when I left Germany, but it never ends! I'm sick of it!"

Both Mrs. Stenson and Betty offered kind advice. Then the old lady one day took the two girls out for a walk into the town square, wanting to show them something.

"Look there. Do you see the statue of the two men?" Mrs. Stenson pointed. "What people fail to see is that it's a reminder of what happens when we let fear and spite take over. I should know my great-great-great aunt was lost to such notorious schemes."

Sophie looked at the statue of two historical figures located there. The first one had a hooked nose holding a book closely. The second had long hair tied back, with a cold expression to the face.

"Gravesfield was founded as one of the first English settlements in Connecticut." Betty explained. "That's what I learned."

"But who are they?" Sophie questioned.

Mrs. Stenson replied. "The Wittebane brothers. One was a lawyer defending innocent people from the nonsensical claims of witches, the other was a witch hunter. The Connecticut witch trials predated the infamous Salem Witch Trials by nearly thirty years."

"Witch hunter?" Sophie made a face.

"Yes, and frankly, those so-called witch trials were full baseless accusations by biased, spiteful people. Some of the victims weren't even witches at all. What's more, they disregarded all the mercy and kindness they were supposed to preach to their fellow man. Especially since most of them weren't too neighborly towards Jews, Quakers or other races."

Sophie gasped.

"Alright, that part I missed." Betty admits looking alarmed.

Mrs. Stenson continued. "They say the two brothers were then lured into another realm by a true witch, never to be seen again. Or some such ridiculous fiddle-faddle."

Betty nods grimly. "Yeah, my mom calls it fiddle-faddle and rot."

"The point is this is why we cannot let bullies push us around. Europe already has one madman in power, now we've got some charlatans running amok because they can't stand anything that doesn't into their idea of a perfect, normal world. Remember well girls, remember what happened to the victims"

"We do."

More than she knew.

There's light. Someone ought to turn it off, it's late… but the orange light was getting brighter.

That woke Sophie, she bolted in bed and hurried to the hallway where Mrs. Stenson was already putting on her bathrobe.

The orange glare was stronger now. What was causing it?

She looked outside and her jaw dropped. She saw at least twenty hooded figures in white, their arms up and standing in a full circle but in the middle was a burning cross! Who are they?

"Sophie away from the window!" Mrs. Stenson frantically pulled Sophie from the large window.

Already the neighbors were coming out to see what was going on. This caused the men in robes to scatter.

"We have to put the fire out before it reaches the house!" Someone cried.

"Dear Heaven! A cross burning here?! In Gravesfield?!"

Mrs. Stenson ushered Sophie to go back to bed while she dealt with the rest. But as the girl reached the door she saw another letter on the floor.

This one read: 'Still here?! Everyone knows the kind of person you are and no one likes you anyway, so get your stupid useless hide out. Your very presence is ruining this town's reputation.'

Sophie huffed, ripping the letter to pieces and throwing it away.

She might've chosen to persist if it was all poison pen letters and mere vandalism, it didn't go beyond that so long as Mrs. Stenson was present. But that was all about to change.

April 30, 1941

One stormy night Sophie was unaccompanied. Mrs. Stenson was out on a quick errand and Betty Ruhle had a family reunion dinner.

She was eating the goulash for dinner when something flickered across the table. Something reflected off the door glass and it wasn't the lamps.

Carefully she pulled aside the curtains and saw a parade of men carrying torches. It was the Klan. No chanting, nor talking was heard this time came from these angry men.

At once she turned off all the lights in house. Sophie could smell the smoke, even through the door. Three by three they came. Their white robes flashed in the torchlight as they moved. They separated, forming an uneven curve before the house. The front yard was filled with men.

From the top windows even in the dark she could see them carrying a buckets of dark liquids and bags from which white feathers toppled out… They were going to tar and feather her! She heard some people die from such form of torture!

Sophie had seen enough. This time she packed her things quickly. Her family's menorah, her books with her new and old diaries included, and the bags of random seeds she'd intended for the garden. She slipped on the necklace Mrs. Stenson had custom made for her. And she was out the back door but the wind made it slam shut!

Frightened, she hurried out towards the forest.

Sophie felt her pulse throbbing, its frantic pounding echoing in her neck and head, as she raced along the path. The back of her left hand swiftly swiped at her forehead to remove the sweat.

Run! Run! She knew she could not afford even one small mistake.

She just had to make it, had to find it. She was conscious of skimming the grass ever so lightly, of willing her feet to move forward.

She can hear her enemies pursuing, setting their traps. She feels them circling and searching, just like wolves waiting to take her life.

She crouched and waited for a moment. Her pursuers were close. She felt her breath coming hard. She tried to stop heaving. Quiet! she told herself. Quiet. Which way? Sophie looked out into the darkness at the unfamiliar terrain.

With one step, she tumbled over a small hill, tightly gripping her bag so that she wouldn't loose anything and when she looked up, hope swelled in her heart.

Just a few yards away, illuminated by a brief lighting flash, was the exact same shack where she'd found the Boiling Isles four years ago!

At once she ran towards the front door and practically threw herself inside.

There was a brief flash of white from the house at the same time as lightning flashed. So that the searching men didn't notice.

Sophie landed in what looked like a clearing in the middle of a forest. She held her bag in her arms tightly and opened her eyes. She made it!

At once she closed the portal door. She began to walk away, only to hurry back.

Can't let those horrible people follow her here. So she took the portal which was now in the shape of a bag in her hands. She dug a hole and buried it before walking determinedly into the forest.

"And I'm never going back!" She snapped as if daring any of those raving lunatics that tried to kill her and her people to try to follow her. "Never! NEVER!"

There's nothing left for her back there. The Nazis had taken her home, her family's freedom, their livelihood and were already hunting down the Jewish people as hounds would foxes. She'd reached America, but the war in Europe is getting closer and when she reached Gravesfield she'd run into detestable miscreants in robes trying to the same thing to her because of her parentage! She's had enough.

At last she was ready to begin her new life in the Titan's domain, in the Boiling Isles.

To be continued…

Authors note: And yes, I did my research those creeps were causing trouble in Connecticut albeit less than the 1800's. As for what I have planned for Sophie you'll have to wait and see. Especially since I look forward to those three new Owl house specials.