Shabbas Helper

Amsterdam 1930

    Jaap Penraat knew how to turn a challenge into an adventure. April had come to Amsterdam, making his route home from the market into a maze of vegetable carts and flower stalls. He had just five minutes to run through the course, holding a pickle in one hand and a bundle of eels in the other. Otherwise, his neighbors would be sitting in the dark. Nothing could stop him now. Except, perhaps, Mrs. Greenberg.

    "Jaapy!" called the neighbor lady. "Your poor mother's going hoarse from calling you! It's Friday, you know, and you're coming, right? But be quiet because Ira is having a gallstone and ..."

    Jaap nodded and raced onward. The sun was just sinking behind the rooftops when he ran through the kitchen door.

    "Well it is about time !" said Jaap's mother, taking the eels from him. "Mr. Mandelbaum was just here looking for you. You know they are on the dark side of the building. You'd better do their lights first."

    "I always do," said Jaap catching his breath. "I like Mr. Mandelbaum. He has the best stories. And the best cookies."

    For the Jewish families in Jaap's apartment building, the Sabbath began with the Friday sunset. They honored it by not working, not even flipping a light switch. Since Jaap wasn't Jewish, he could turn on the lights for his neighbors. They paid him in sweets and gave him an important-sounding title. He was their "Shabbas Goy." 

Blitzkrieg

May 10, 1940

    In the early hours of May 10,1940, the people of Holland were jolted from their beds by the roar of the Luftwaffe, the German air force, sweeping over the Dutch countryside. German paratroopers moved quickly to surround Holland and cut it off from the rest of Europe. The Germans had now perfected their technique of sudden attack. They called it Blitzkrieg - lightning war.

    In Amsterdam panic broke out on the streets. People rushed home, desperate to find a safe place when there no longer was one. They huddled by their radios and heard the news that bombs had destroyed Rotterdam. That night the announcement came that the Dutch army had surrendered.

    In the Penraats' living room Jaap's family sat motionless for a time. "What happens now?" asked Jaap's mother quietly.

The Tightening Grip

    By September of 1940 Hitler controlled all of Europe. The Nazis were now free to focus on their next agenda. They began by issuing registration forms to all government employees. Form A was to be filled out by non-Jews and Form B by Jews. Two months later all Jewish employees were fired from jobs in post offices, city halls, and schools, including the one where Eli Cardozo taught. 

The Yellow Star

May 1942

    For over a year the counterfeit ID cards saved hundreds from arrest, but one morning as Jaap biked into the Jewish quarter to drop off a batch with Eli, he saw that the Nazis had tightened their grip yet again. Sewn onto the jackets and coats of people around them were bright yellow stars, each with a single word written across it - "JEW." 

A New Plan

Autumn 1942

    I've been working on a new idea," Jaap said. "I heard about an underground group who was working with the Allies. They rescue downed British and American pilots and bring them to France. The French Underground takes them across the Pyrenees to Spain and then the Spanish get them down to Gibraltar, where they pick up a boat to England. Maybe we could set up our own line to get Jews out of here."