Many Russians sought to drive Jews from the country permanently by making their lives wretched. In the Russian Army, Jewish boys were assigned the least desirable tasks. Often, if they survived the perils of their assignments, if they survived the inadequate provisions supplied them, they were tortured or killed by their own comrades, the non-Jewish soldiers they served beside.
This climate drove thousands and thousands of families from their homelands—not just Jews, but many others as well. In search of a better life, those families sought sanctuary in countries across the globe. We, today, are the beneficiaries of their legacy of courage and determination.
Copyright © 1992 by Karen Hesse
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Poems from The Works of Alexander Pushkin by
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eISBN 9781466801325
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hesse, Karen.
Letters from Rifka / Karen Hesse.
Summary: In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family’s flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others emigrate to America.
[1. Emigration and immigration—Fiction. 2. Jews—Fiction. 3. Letters—Fiction.] I. Title
[Fic]—dc20 91-48007
First edition—1992