Torch, Summer 1994

during the night, lined up Jews along the Danube shore and machine gunned them into the river. Two of my classmates floated away this way. Our house was harassed several times. Finally I told my mother that I could not take it any longer. So she asked "Where do you want to go?". I said "Let's go to Mary and Emit's house!" Through the heroic efforts of a young Swedish aristocrat, Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish government leased several houses in Budapest where they allowed some leaders with compassion and courage to bide Jews under the protection of the Swedish flag. Mary and Emit Hajos were such leaders hiding about 120 Jews. Mother worried about the journey through a territory which was off limits to Jews and also about how Mary will receive us after my having been a nuisance to her in our home as she tried to share about Christianity. "We'll just rip off the yellow star and don't worry about Mary," I said. We took off, trembling with fear of being caught. On the way, we stopped for a rest at 12 Torch the place where Mary used to live. Before we had left, a Hebrew Christian lady asked us if she could say a word of prayer for us. As she prayed, it was the first time I heard someone pray as if God would really care and really listen to details and be present there. My Jehovah, my God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was mighty and wonderful-but remote. We started out again and at one point the shelling became so bad that we ran for cover. We burst into a house, which to our horror turned out to be an Arrow Cross headquarters. About 30-40 of them swirled around us! Fortunately, one of them grabbed us and pushed both of us out the door, cursing and yelling. Soon after, we arrived at Mary's Swedish house and, as I expected, she greeted us with warmth. Only Mary ventured outside the house. Following the daily devotions she led, she took off wearing ski boots. When she returned her large knapsack was filled with moldy bread and partly rotted vegetables she collected from the floors and bins in neighborhood stores. We would take this stuff and with some effort made an evening meal from it. What impressed me was Mary 's joy and confidence going on these dangerous daily trips exposed to winter weather, constant shelling, and roving Nazis on the lookout for Jews. Yet I carefully avoided the devotions she led in the morning and at night. I did not want to hear about Jesus or any other god but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Eventually the shelling intensified and I was forced to move down to the basement where most people stayed for safety and where Mary led her devotions. I decided not to listen to Mary but I could not escape a few sentences here and there as she was the only activity in the dark place. It surprised me that Mary would say that "we Jews" didn't understand what the Old Testament said about Christ. I thought, "She was a Jew but now she is a Christian. How can you be a Jew and a Christian at the same time?" She would read things from the Old Testament showing that Christianity was not anti-Jewish- passages like Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Fat er, Prince of Peace." We had never believed in anything like the Son of God. I thought the virgin birth was clearly a myth, but Isaiah 7:14 says " ...Behold, a-virgin shall conceive, and bear a son..." Where would that child come from? I remembered all the Christmases with the charming Bethlehem scenes in the nice stores, and heard Mary read Micah 5:2, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting." And what kind of Savior was I expecting? I was expecting a Savior dressed in gold and armor on a white horse. But what does Zechariah 9:9 say?