A Light in the Clouds

Margalith Esterhuizen

Margalith and her older sister, Dorica, grow up in a warm, close-knit family in Romania, but at a young age, the girls tragically lose their mother. Just as they are readjusting to a new family life, their childhood abruptly comes to a brutal end — Romania aligns itself with Nazi Germany and antisemitism boils over in their community. In 1941, Romanian soldiers force Margalith and her family from their home and send them on a devastating deportation march to the unknown. Crossing a river takes Margalith into Transnistria, a wretched land between borders, an expanse of thousands of kilometres containing more than a hundred ghettos and camps. This area, controlled by Romania, is where Jews like Margalith and her family are abandoned, left to die in desolation. A ghetto in the town of Murafa provides a bleak shelter where Margalith and her family struggle to keep starvation at bay until help arrives unexpectedly before war’s end. Her journey to freedom and a new homeland provides both opportunity and heartache, and Margalith finds A Light in the Clouds as she endures the darkness of her past to search out the bright future ahead.

Introduction by Gaëlle Fisher

At a Glance: Romania; Transnistria; Deportation; Death march; Postwar British Mandate Palestine; Israel; South Africa; Arrived in Canada in 1989

124 pages, including index

Recommended Ages: 14+

Language: English

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Read an excerpt

A Light in the Clouds

When Childhood Ended

In that fall of 1940, the dormant, underlying hatred of Jews — which no doubt had existed for countless years in the country — was exploding in Romania. A movement called the Iron Guard was expanding, whose members wore green uniforms and devoted their time to terrorizing helpless Jews. There was nothing now to hold them back; they were in their element, having the backing of the Romanian government. A period of lawlessness had begun; the police seemed to vanish or may very well have been part of the new movement. All we saw were these green-shirted individuals spreading terror everywhere they could.

Then, almost one year after the Soviet occupation, unbelievably and without any warning or loss of life, the scene abruptly changed. Overnight, the dreaded German and Romanian armies arrived, marching in ceremoniously. It was a show of threatening might when troops wearing high boots marched in. It is difficult to forget the sound of the German army — their rhythmic, clicking steps in unison as they marched, their endless tanks, a variety of heavy armaments parading through the main street for all to see. The intention was probably to intimidate the population. To me, it felt as though Germany was taking over the country, a part of their quest to control and occupy all of Eastern Europe. The Nazis and the other Axis powers, which included Romania, had pushed the Soviets out of Edineți and were invading the Soviet Union and Soviet-occupied areas.

The population did not welcome the German and Romanian armies. People stayed home, listening intently and nervously to news on radios in fear and horror of what was to come. My sister and I were not told much but we sensed awful changes that were taking place almost overnight. It was as if a huge dark cloak had descended, enveloping us in a sense of deep, grim foreboding. We heard adults whispering, and their conversation stopped when we entered a room, as parents do to protect their children’s innocence. We were young, but old enough to understand the implications of what was happening around us.

It was to be the end, the loss of everything we knew — home, stability, comfort, school and our peaceful existence, the normal family life we had started to get used to. Although we were still totally unaware of how tragically the situation would affect each one of us, for my sister and me, and countless others, the arrival of the Germans and Romanians heralded the brutal end of our childhood.

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About the author

Margalith Esterhuizen was born in Rădăuți, Romania, in 1927. In early 1944, Margalith was released from a ghetto in Transnistria, and in May 1945, she arrived in British Mandate Palestine (now Israel). There, she attended college, worked, and married and started a family. In 1954, Margalith and her husband, Bill, moved to South Africa, where he had grown up, to continue raising their family. Margalith worked in real estate, a field she continued in when she and Bill immigrated to Canada in 1989 to join their children. Margalith lives in Caledon, Ontario.

Dark, menacing, heavy rolling clouds gathered in the sky that fateful day in August 1941. It was as if even the heavens were sad and angry on the day we received orders for our evacuation.

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