Eagle Maung Maung - Jewish Girl Eva

The one who changed his life instantly

"Actually, my daughter, when this war is over, I will be the only one left in my family who will not die."

My mother told me the same thing when I was about to leave for the last time. My mother had told me that back then.

So, Eva, if you are still alive, don't forget to write down everything you have experienced. I need to write down how you lived during this war, and what hardships and joys your family and I have experienced, so that others can know. As your daughter, I must write down everything I have seen, every single thing I have seen, my daughter."

I can still hear those words my mother said. Yes. I remember them clearly. At that time, I stood motionless in the doorway, listening intently to her words.

But at that moment, I was no longer “me”. I was no longer the Jewish girl “Eva”. I was now the Ukrainian peasant girl “Katarina”, that’s right. I could leave this house as a Ukrainian peasant girl named “Katarina”. But with my original lineage and my original name, the Jewish girl named “Eva”, I couldn’t easily leave this house. Because at that time, the town of “Hrybenko” where we lived was already occupied by German troops.

As we all know, at this time the Germans were forcibly arresting all Jews and sending them to concentration camps to “cut off every last one.” So I, as a Jewish girl named Eva, had to disguise myself as a Ukrainian peasant girl named Katerina and plan to escape from this small town.

I have to say more. I am different from other Jewish girls. That is because my cheeks have been red since I was a little girl. Because of this special feature of my cheeks, whether I go to school, go to town for some business, or play in the street with my friends, everyone pays attention to me. Oh, not everyone. Everyone, both men and women, in the city, as soon as they see me, they immediately look at my red cheeks and say, "How cute is this girl?" Once, even Mr. Novits, the old man with glasses and glasses, looked down at me with his big hump and said, "Eva, my dear, your cheeks are so pretty. Look at them, they are so red. I think they are a real Ukrainian girl."

Now, with those rosy cheeks, the Jewish girl Eva, with her hair spread out and a long dress, like a real Ukrainian peasant girl, is wearing. My clothes and attire are like those of a peasant Ukrainian girl, and in my handbag, I have a fake national ID card and a fake certificate. That's right. I am not the Jewish girl Eva. Just like the Ukrainian peasant girl Katarina, who has changed from Eva's life overnight, Katarina will soon have to leave this house and all the people in this house behind and go to a new world where I can live for myself, alone, without a family.

To be honest, I was unhappy about leaving my parents like this, but I didn't want to leave and break the bond with them. Because my mother herself urged me to leave the house, and I myself couldn't do it. I understood very well that if I didn't go, my life could be in danger. So when I had to leave this house and family, I was able to calm myself down and be strong.

But after I left, I couldn't imagine that my parents would be waiting anxiously for me from home. Of course. In the past, if I didn't return home after dark with my male friends, my parents would stay up late and wait anxiously for me. This time, they wouldn't be waiting for me like this. Because they couldn't stay home for long after I left. It was almost certain that the German soldiers, who were hunting for all Jews like hounds, would come to this house one day and capture my parents. That's why I planned to sneak out of the house in disguise before the Germans came and captured our family.

This house is actually not our original home. The house we lived in was our father's. The house had a grocery store downstairs, and three rooms, a bathroom, and a toilet upstairs. My father bought a piece of land next to the township courthouse and saved up all the money he earned from opening a grocery store, so he built the house from one story to two stories. We lived like this until the summer of 1939, when Russian troops invaded the part of Poland where we live now, and they took over my father's house where he had opened a grocery store. Two years later, in the year I graduated from high school, the German troops came in and drove the Russians out. But we never got our house back. The Germans took over the house again.

When the first Russian troops arrived and took over our house, our family moved to the house of Mr. Blue Min Po, a close friend of my father, near St. Stephen's Cathedral. This is the house we live in now.

Blue Min Po's family is Jewish like us, and we are very close to my father, so our home and theirs are like a cozy home. And what makes us even closer is that Blue Min Po's daughter, Ella, coincidentally was born on the same day as me.

And since Ella's sister Freda was born in the same year as my sister Kuba, our two households became closer than a real family.

So, we four girls went to school together from a young age, played together, and lived together as a family of four. Ella and Freda's father, Mr. Blue Poe, was a wealthy man who had lived since the Bobo era. They also had a piano in their house. And they were the first to install a telephone in our little town of Harbin. When the radio came out, they were the first to buy one. Not only that, Ella and Freda were the first girls in our town to buy a bicycle. My sister Tuba and I were the second.

Well... I'll tell you what. My sister Touba was taken by the Germans from the Blue Poe family's house. She was there during the third search and seizure. It happened like this... The Germans took over our town three times and raided neighborhoods. That third time, while the German soldiers were still in the area, Touba was leaving the Blue Poe family's house to send her four Malay friends home. The four girls, Touba and Touba, joined the Germans and went with them all at once.

Because of this, we couldn't live in the city anymore, and we couldn't live in this house anymore, so we decided to escape. After the Germans took us away, what did we do for four or five days?