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Ruthie would be Proud

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The END

Sadly, yes, this is the end of my journey. Thank you to everyone who stuck with me during my adventure, your support meant the world to me and I can’t wait to share my next adventure with you guys. Till next time, so long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, adieu.

08/20/2030

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My Big Reveal

When I first began this adventure, Mahmoud told me not to bother with finding artifacts from his journey. Although I agreed not to, I did one thing secretly, hoping to surprise him.

If you guys remember correctly, Mahmoud had a sister, Hana. They gave her away to a family in the Mediterranean sea to ensure her safety. Sadly, Mahmoud’s family never found Hana again. Ruthie had also tried helping Mahmoud track her down but was out of luck.

About 4 months ago, I made a post on my main blog and posted about Hana and the Bishara family. I knew that it was a long shot as Hana’s name could’ve changed, but there was one thing that gave me hope. 

When Hana was given away, she was wearing a golden plated locket with a picture of her family inside. There was a high possibility that Hana still had the locket, so I tried it. I asked you all to help me track Hana down, but I lost hope. 

After two months, I got a call. If you guessed that it was Hana, you were right. One of her best friends read my blog and had seen the post. She automatically recognized the story and locket description and called Hana to let her know. Hana was thrilled and called me right away.

Hana asked me not to tell her long lost family right away and wanted me to help her surprise them. We waited two more months and the day finally came. 

Hana flew in from Monaco, and together, we drove to Mahmoud’s house. I called Mahmoud in advance and asked him to gather his entire family as I had something important to discuss with them. We parked in front of Mahmoud’s house and took a few deep breaths. As I started to get out of the car I realized that Hana wasn’t leaving. She was terrified, “what if my parents don’t recognize me”, “what if they don’t want me”, “what if they forgot about me”. I looked at her and reassured that her parents had never lost hope that they’d find her someday, and they never stopped loving her. 

Hana got out of the car and we walked up to the steps side by side. She reluctantly knocked on the door and Mahmoud’s mother opened the door. She froze. This is proof that even after 15 years, a mother can always recognize her daughter. Tears instantly started to pour from Fatima Bishara’s eyes, she grabbed her daughter in a tight hug and they both cried.

The reunion was the most emotional thing I had ever been through. Mahmoud and Waleed were so surprised to see baby Hana so big. Hana’s father rambled on about how he was so proud of who she had become and Mahmoud’s children met their aunty for the very first time.

I decided to leave the house to give them just a bit of privacy but I was stopped. The whole Bishara family wrapped their arms around me and wrapped me in the tightest hug. They thanked me for all I had done and let me know that I was now family too. 

No matter all the hardships my job puts me through, it’s times like these I live for; that’s when I know I have the best job in the world.

08/17/2030

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The Nameless Boat

When Isabel’s family and the Castillo’s fled to Miami, they had built a boat to get there. When the families reached Miami, they forgot about the boat and abandoned it. 

When I visited Miami to return the trumpet, which was supposed to be my last finding, Isabel asked me for a small favor. Years later, her family and Castillo’s wanted to see if I could somehow find the boat that took them on their long journey from Cuba to Miami. They wanted to keep the boat in their families for generations as a reminder of how lucky they were.

Isabel gave me a quick description of the small boat and I happily agreed; I began thinking of ideas right away. I had been lucky with the internet in terms of the Landau’s jewels, so I gave it another try. This time it would be even more complicated. My luck was no longer there as there were hundreds of boat and ship collectors living in Miami.

I tried finding someone who had been finding boats around the same time as Isabel’s family abandoned theirs. This narrowed the number of people from a few hundred, to just three. The three collectors had pictures of all the boats they had found on their websites for you to view beforehand. 

I scrolled through the websites for about an hour before finding something. One website had a picture of what looked like Isabel’s boat. It wasn’t in very good shape and it was hard to tell if it was theirs; but the giant head of damned Fidel Castro as the base of the boat gave it away. 

I noted the address of the boat shop and drove down as soon as I could. I explained my story to the man, however he wasn’t as empathetic as most of the other people. He demanded that I pay him at least $60,000 for the boat. I wasn’t sure what I could do; I didn’t want to just give up nor give in to his offer. 

Then I came up with a brilliant idea: I told the man that if he gave me the boat for free, I would write up a long article about him and his boat shop on my main blog. He instantly agreed. It’s funny how much 2.2 million followers and worldwide recognition can do for you. With the boat tied to my car (with a lot of struggling for almost 2 hours), I slowly drove down the roads of Miami, eager to return a piece of history to a family.

I arrived at their house and returned the boat to Isabel and the Castillo family. They shared many laughs and stories about the boat and we honored late Iván Castillo.I said my goodbyes and returned to Germany for my biggest surprise yet. Stay tuned :)

08/06/2030

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One Women's Trash Is Another Women's Treasure

I called Isabel earlier this week to see if she remembered anything distinctive about her trumpet. Turns out, her trumpet had the name “Isabel” engraved onto the side, which makes tracking it down so much easier. She also remembered the exact address of the fisherman’s house where she traded her trumpet 36 years ago. How convenient for me!

I booked a ticket to Cuba and was on my way. I followed the address Isabel provided me with and came upon an old beach house. I knocked on the door and was approached by a lady who looked about Isabel’s age. She seemed quite confused, wondering why I was here: I told her my story.

She told me that the fisherman who previously owned the beach house unfortunately moved to the US shortly after Isabel’s family left. Luckily for me, he left most of his belongings behind and the women living there told me she hadn’t gotten rid of his old things. This is probably the easiest search I have ever done.

Not to be rude or anything, but she was definitely what most people like to call a “hoarder”. I followed her down to a basement cluttered with mysterious items. She told me she didn’t recall ever seeing a trumpet but, if it was here, it would be among all her other junk.

There was so much junk; with that amount of junk, I could’ve built a second Eiffel Tower in her basement. I shouldn’t have said this is the easiest search I have ever done. But me being me, I took my chance and after searching for about three and a half hours; I struck gold. Well, brass actually. In my hands, I held an old tarnished brass trumpet with a small engraving on the side which read “Isabel”. This was it. This was Isabel’s long lost treasure. The women didn’t seem to care about it at all and let me take it.

I flew back to Miami and returned the trumpet to Isabel. She wasn’t the only one who got excited, her whole family was beyond eager to hear it be played after all these years. It was no surprise that it still played like a beauty. It was irreplaceable.

07/27/2030

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The Brass Beauty

“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” - Maya Angelou.

Music is a universal language. It’s something we can almost all connect to. Isabel loved music, especially playing the trumpet; It was a god-given gift and her passion.  

On page 12 of her diary, she writes about her love of music. She wrote about how she loved tagging along on trips to Havana to play her trumpet on a street corner. She never made much, but it never mattered. Her main goal was to make others happy.

Her trumpet was her most prized possession. Besides her family, it was all she loved. However, Isabel was selfless. Her family couldn’t leave Cuba unless they had gasoline. The only way to buy Gasoline was with money, which they didn’t have much of. She knew that her trumpet would be worth some money, so she sold it for gasoline. On page 29, she writes about the sacrifice that saved her family:

“She grabbed her trumpet, gave it one long, sad look, and ran out the back door.”

Even her family felt distraught about selling the trumpet. However, Isabel knew her trumpet was worth far less than her family’s happiness. On page 47, she writes about an exchange she had with her grandfather after selling the trumpet:

“But that trumpet was everything to you!” Lito said. “No, not everything, it wasn’t my mother and father, and you, Lito. I’ll get another one in the States.” 

When Isabel reached Miami with her family, her Uncle Guillermo gifted her with another trumpet. She ended up becoming a trumpet player for a famous Miami orchestra. Although she bought many trumpets as the years went by, her first trumpet has always been in her heart. That’s when I decided my next mission: to reunite her with the long-lost brass beauty.

07/17/2030

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A Story about Forgiveness

About a week after finding the Landau’s precious earrings and contacting the Bickenbach’s, I found myself on a plane to Canada with Ruthie’s children.

I could sense how anxious they were; I didn’t blame them. This would be a very hard meeting. I can’t imagine how they felt knowing that they were about to meet the children of someone that caused their family a great deal of pain. Nevertheless, they were doing this for Ruthie. 

Once we landed in Canada, went through the terminal and collected our luggage, we were greeted by the Bickenbach family at the airport. It was a very tense introduction, but we made it work. The car ride to their house was a very silent one.

As we walked into the house, the silence finally broke; it was Otto’s youngest son. He began to cry and soon after, everyone in the house was in tears. The Bickenbach family began apologizing for their father's mistakes; hugs and kisses were now being exchanged, and soon, I was teary too.

It was the meeting of a lifetime. I left that house with three very happy people, a pair of priceless earrings and the gift of learning how to forgive.

07/08/2030

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The Livesaving jewels

I never intended on finding these. You could say that it was fate, or it was just pure luck. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you should be able to recognize these precious jewels. They saved a life, Ruthie’s life to be exact.

Diamond earrings from the 1940s aren’t exactly easy to find;  Ruthie was too young to even remember what they looked like, so I assumed it would be impossible. However, I didn’t find these earrings: they found me.  

As I was visiting Ruthie’s old home in Germany to return Bitsy, I had the chance to see her family portrait. This family portrait was one that her cousin had safely kept all those years ago. As I looked at the picture, I noticed that Rachel Landau appeared to be wearing these beautiful, white earrings. They didn’t look like any normal earrings; they were diamond earrings. They were beautiful and unique; who knew that those very earrings would end up saving a life?

As soon as I saw those earrings, my brain had an “Aha!” moment. Everything connected perfectly like a pair of interlocking hands; those were the same earrings that Rachel used to bribe the Nazis. The portrait gave me a clear image of these earrings, and finding them became my next mission. I took a quick picture and did an image search to see if anyone ever sold them. After hours and hours of research, I found nothing. I was almost ready to give up.

Then a random idea hit me like a snowball in an intense snowball fight; I decided to do some research on Nazi jewelry stores. I knew that it was a long shot, but perhaps something would come up. It shocked me; something did show up. It was a news article published by CBC earlier that year. I clicked on it right away.

The article was about a Nazi soldier, Otto Bickenbach, who once did a terrible thing. He gave a mother a choice to save only one of her children in return for her beautiful diamond earrings. I knew what story this was; it was the story of Josef, Ruthie and Rachel Landau. 

The article said that years later, the Nazi soldier had felt guilty for what he had done. He kept a journal too; it seems like it was a very common trend back then. He wrote that he wished that he could find the family he tore apart one day, hoping to return the diamond earrings and apologize for what he had done. He secretly kept the earrings in a small envelope at the back of his journal. When he died about 30 years ago, he had hidden the journal in his home. After so many years, his children found the journal and read about the story. They contacted CBC and published his story, hoping that the family lived and would come forward to collect the earrings. They didn’t post a picture of the earrings, but they described them. Oval-shaped diamonds surrounded by bronze colored flowers: It was a match!

I found the Bickenbach’s contact information, called them and asked them about the earrings. I told them what I was doing and shared the story of what happened to the Landau’s. They wanted me to fly to Canada where they later moved and retrieve the earrings, but I refused. I didn’t want to be the one who collected them; it had to be Ruthie’s children. 

I called Ruthie’s three children and told them the news; they were reluctant to face the Nazis children. Although they never faced their mothers hardships, the pain lived through them.. However, they also knew that their mother was magnanimous, so they finally agreed.

06/30/2030

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10 posts and the journey has barely begun!

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The not so white corduroy stuffed rabbit.

When Josef first described Bitsy, he described her as a

“white corduroy stuffed rabbit."

After deciding to find this bunny, I contacted Ruthie’s children to see if they knew the house she stayed at after her family was taken away. I was lucky to learn that they knew the address! However, I also learned that the woman who had looked after Ruthie had been dead for quite a few years now. That did not stop me. I packed up my things and booked a one-way ticket to Vornay, France.

After about a week, I arrived. Finding the house was quite a mission; to get to the address, I needed to cross a big forest. After walking for about 5 minutes, I realized that I was walking in the forest where Josef and Rachel Landau were captured. It was painful knowing that the freedom of two innocent people was stripped in this very place.

After what seemed like an eternity, I reached the house. I didn’t know what to expect when I knocked on the door, but I was hoping for the best. An old, cheery woman opened the door and welcomed me with open arms. I told her my story and why I was at her hours; tears automatically came to her eyes. 

She told me that Ruthie was practically a sister to her. The woman who had rescued her was this woman’s mother. Ruthie and this woman, Claire, had practically grown up together. She was very welcoming, and I was very lucky that she knew exactly where the bunny was. She led me to an old, dusty attic where I immediately spotted a dirty, once white corduroy, stuffed bunny. She handed Bitsy to me; through Josef’s stories and tears in the bunny, you could tell that this bunny had been through a lot.

Seeing something I had read so much about got me emotional. I promised Claire I would keep her updated on my findings and we parted ways. Immediately after, I booked another ticket; this time, a one-way ticket to Berlin, Germany.

I returned the stuffed bunny to her real home, Ruthie’s youngest daughter. My first mission was officially successful.

06/15/2030

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Bitsy

The first artifact I want to search for is ‘Bitsy’, a stuffed bunny. 

Bitsy the Bunny was introduced early on in Josef’s journal. On page 18, he described his little sister Ruthie (Frau Rosenberg) and introduced Bitsy along with her:

“She wore a dark blue wool dress with a white sailor’s collar and carried her white corduroy stuffed rabbit, Bitsy, everywhere she went.” 

Bitsy was a very important part of Ruthie’s childhood. 

Bitsy was a comfort object for Ruthie, who didn’t understand much of what went on as she was too young. In my older posts, I mentioned Josef’s father’s deteriorating mental health because of the trauma he faced in the concentration camps. In Josef’s diary, he wrote a lot of his father’s tantrums. Interestingly, the first one he writes about on page 60, he also mentions how Ruthie used Bitsy to cope with the fear that her father’s anger brought her:

“In the corner of her bed, Ruthie buried her face in Bitsy’s ears and cried.” 

From what I can tell, Ruthie used Bitsy to suppress her loneliness and find a sense of belonging. Josef’s wrote about another one of his father’s tantrums on page 86, where once again, Ruthie immediately turned to her stuffed animal:

“Ruthie crouched in the corner, crying and hugging Bitsy”. 

From the diary entries, I can tell that Josef knew how much comfort Bitsy brought to Ruthie. On page 88, Josef wrote about leaving Ruthie alone with their unstable mother:

"He snatched up Bitsy and put the little stuffed bunny into Ruthie’s arms. “Stay here.” “Stay here with Mama and don’t leave the cabin. Understand?” "

Throughout Josef’s family’s journey, they carried very minimal things to move around more. However, one thing that they always kept was Bitsy. Even after a year after they left Germany, the Bunny was still with them.

On page 146, Josef wrote about the war starting again and how his family was on the run again. Josef described the things they carry:

“None of them carried suitcases anymore—those had been left behind long ago—but they all still wore their coats, even though it was the height of summer, his mother had insisted. The only thing any of them still carried was Bitsy, the little stuffed bunny Ruthie had never parted with. It was tucked tightly under Ruthie’s arm.”

Near the end of the journal entry, they were caught. Four Nazi guards stopped the family and demanded papers:

“Ruthie had her head down, crying, but she raised her little bunny’s right arm and said, “Heil Hitler!”.”

Ruthie had so much faith in her little bunny, she thought the bunny could save them all from even the worst. Unfortunately, it didn’t. That was the last time Josef mentioned Bitsy and the last entry in the diary; he never wrote about what went on in the camp. 

Although Josef never wrote about Bitsy ever again, we see the impact the stuffed bunny made in Mahmoud’s journal. 

In the last entry of Mahmoud’s journal, he wrote about Ruthie:

“From the pockets of her frock, she withdrew a little stuffed rabbit made of white corduroy and offered it to Waleed. His eyes lit up as he took it from her. “Frau Rosenberg made it herself. She’s a toy designer,” the translator explained”.

The bunny was a source of love and comfort for Ruthie. The diary entries come to show that because of Ruthie’s experiences with the bunny, that is perhaps where her inspiration for becoming a toy designer came from; she even made Waleed a bunny.

When Ruthie was taken in by the lovely French lady in France, she had Bitsy with her. But after everything she went through, Bitsy was no longer her focus. Later on, Ruthie told Mahmoud about Bitsy and wished she could find the bunny again. Sadly, she was never able to go back to France to retrieve the bunny. Although this wouldn’t exactly be much of a hunt, I really want to find Bitsy and return her to Ruthie’s children and grandchildren. Wish me luck!

06/02/2030

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Mahmoud

My final introduction is about a young man named Mahmoud Bishara. Mahmoud’s journey began when he was just 13 years old and living in Aleppo, Syria: a city once filled with laughter turned into a bloodbath. 15 years ago, the Syrian civil war emerged, causing Mahmoud’s family to live in fear every day. They could only pray they would see the light the next day. Mahmoud learned that the only way to survive was by being invisible; his parents, Fatima and Youssef, his 10-year-old brother, Waleed, and even his baby sister, Hana, all understood that.

The turning point in Mahmoud’s life came when his building got blown up by enemy soldiers and his family barely made it alive: that was the sign that they had no choice but to flee. Throughout their escape, Mahmoud’s family faced several obstacles. However, the worst of them was when his family’s boat capsized in the Mediterranean sea. Their life jackets they bought earlier turned out to be faulty, and they had to tread for their life. Although Mahmoud, his brother and father were able to stay above water, his mother struggled as she attempted to keep the baby above water to keep her alive. When a dinghy passed by them with no space for his family, Mahmoud begged them to take Hana and keep her safe. His mother knew if she tried to tread with Hana, they would both drown. Thankfully, the family in the dinghy agreed to take Hana and Mahmoud’s family were eventually rescued by a Greek coast guard ship. 

Eventually, they were sent to a detention center in Hungary, but that didn’t stop Mahmoud. He led his family and the other refugees out of the center and onto the streets, where they marched and protested for twelve hours until they reached the Austrian border. Because Mahmoud’s march gained so much media attention, his family and the other refugees were greeted at the border with food, water and medicine. 

After weeks of being on the road, Mahmoud’s family was finally offered refuge in Germany. They were hosted by a lovely old Jewish couple, Ruthie and Saul Rosenberg, and the rest is history.

Sadly, the family was never able to find Hana but still lived their lives in Germany.

05/20/2030

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Isabel

Isabel Fernandez was a sister to Mariano, a daughter to Geraldo and Teresa Fernandez, a granddaughter to Mariano Padron (Lito) and was the best friend of the Late Iván Castillo. She grew up in Havana, Cuba, under Fidel Castro’s administration, and in 1994, Isabel was on her way to escape. Isabel was a very talented musician since she was a kid; she used to play her trumpet on the streets of Cuba for others to listen to.

One day, when a police officer threatened her father, her family became very concerned about their safety. Shortly after, Fidel Castro announced: 

“We cannot continue guarding the borders of the United States while they send their CIA to instigate riots in Havana. That is when incidents like this occur, and the world calls the Cuban government cruel and inhumane. And so, until there is a speedy and efficient solution, we are suspending all obstacles so that those who wish to leave Cuba may do so legally, once and for all. We will not stand in their way.” 

Isabel and Iván’s family took this chance to escape the oppression and fled to Miami. The Castillo’s agreed to take the Fernandez family with them but had no gasoline to work the boat, their only mode of transportation. Being the selfless person she was, she sold her most prized possession to a fisherman for gasoline: her trumpet. Isabel’s family, Iván’s family (comprising Señor and Señora Castillo, and Luis, Iván’s older brother), and his girlfriend, Amara, hopped onto the boat. Having so many people on the boat made the journey much more difficult, especially since Isabel’s mother was almost nine-months pregnant. The families took turns hopping off the boat and cooling off. 

However, during Iván’s turn, he became the victim of a shark attack. His leg practically ripped off and due to excessive blood loss he died. His death took a huge toll on Isabel, but she kept going to ensure her unborn baby brother would get the chance to live a better life.

As their boat approached Miami, they saw a coast guard ship. If the ship had reached them, they would automatically be sent back to Cuba which caused panic within the families. Later, Lito revealed that decades ago, he was a Cuban officer and prevented dozens of German families escaping the Holocaust from entering Havana (I later discovered that one of those families was Josef’s). Using his skills as an officer, Lito jumped off the boat to distract the coast guard ship. The families took their chance and paddled their way to shore.

Isabel’s little brother, Mariano, was born at the shore of Miami and they all made it safely to the US. Isabel and Mariano continue to live a happy life in Miami. In 2005, Lito immigrated to Miami to be with the rest of his family and to this day, they are all alive and doing better than they ever have.

05/15/2030

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5 posts! Having so much fun so far.

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Josef

I’d like to start my blog by sharing the story of one of the most selfless people I’ve ever heard about: Josef Landau.

Josef was the son of Aaron and Rachel Landau and the brother of Ruthie Rosenberg. His story begins in 1938, when he was just 12 years old and Jewish people like himself were being mistreated in Germany by the Nazi regime. On the night of November 10th, Josef lived through a traumatic period of history: Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht, also known as The Night Of Broken Glass, was the night when German Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property and many jews, including Josef’s father, were taken away in front of their loved ones.

6 months later, his father returned as an unfamiliar man after being tortured at the Dachau concentration camp. After his father’s return, Josef, his sister and mother boarded the St. Louis: a German ocean liner with Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany boarded to escape anti-Semitic persecution to Havana, Cuba.

During their travel on the St. Louis, Josef was looking forward to his bar mitzvah, a Jewish tradition marking the point where a 13-year boy enters adulthood. Adulthood was the only thing that excited him more than his long awaited freedom; but it wasn’t the bar mitzvah that would make him a man. His father’s mental health deteriorated because of the trauma from the concentration camp, so Josef had to take the role of his family’s protector. He had to take drastic measures such as threatening his father to ensure he could pass the medical inspection to be accepted in Cuba. 

On the St. Louis, Josef met Mariano Padron, a Cuban government officer whom I later discovered was Isabel’s grandfather. Mariano played a vital role in Josef’s life as he saved Josef’s father from committing suicide and took him to seek medical attention. When the St. Louis arrived in Cuba, the Cuban denied the passengers entry and the captain of the ship was considering sending them back to Germany. However, the passengers protested and St. Louis travelled to other countries where the Jewish families were being accepted. 

Josef’s family were accepted in France however, their freedom didn’t last. After 8 months in France, Germany invaded France, and his family was on the run again. One night, four German soldiers caught their family hiding and were going to send them to a concentration camp. Josef’s mother, Rachel, attempted to bribe the soldiers with a pair of diamond earrings that she stowed away in Ruthie’s jacket. The bribe didn’t work to her advantage; the soldiers however gave her the option of setting one child free. Josef already knew his mother would never make this decision, so he sacrificed himself to spare his little sister. The Nazis took him and his mother to a concentration camp where they were later killed. 

As we know, Ruthie lived: She lived because of Josef.

05/09/2030

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Introducing the Brave

Before I start sharing my ongoing journey adventure with you guys, I thought that it would only be fair to share the stories of Josef, Isabel and Mahmoud first. Hold onto your hats as I’m about to take you on their roller-coaster journeys.

05/06/2030

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The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. – Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

For the past few weeks, I have been researching the families of Mahmoud, Josef and Isabel. It's been taking me longer than I thought and finding these artifacts will be a great challenge; I ask you all to be patient with me. As I go on my adventure, I won’t always have the time or resources to make daily blog posts. I will carry my journal with me and log my daily findings; I will update you all whenever I can. 

Side Note: Be sure to check the bottom of each of my blog posts to see the actual time I wrote the entries

04/27/2030