Earrings in the Cellar: Growing Up In Ruined Worlds

One spring morning in the ghetto, my mother, sisters, and I went down the steps into the cellar. Mother was holding a long tube, which she had filled with the few pieces of jewelry she still had from her wedding. She looked at us, her daughters, and removed the earrings I loved so much. She dug a small hole in the ground, wrapped the tube in numerous layers of cloth, placed it in the earth, and we all joined in to cover the hole. "This is so you, my dear daughters, will have something to st...