After her mother’s passing, Aldona finds a tin filled with old letters from a prisoner at Ravensbrück, a women’s concentration camp in northern Germany. Amid the descriptions of daily deprivations and humiliations at the camp, she uncovers the heart-wrenching story of a small circle of women who risked their lives to hide a baby girl from the guards. Aldona is rocked to the core by this record of courage and sisterhood during one of the grimmest chapters of human history.

Martha Hall Kelly’s Naomi’s Gift is part of A Point in Time, a transporting collection of stories about the pivotal moments, past and present, that change lives. Read or listen to each immersive story in a single sitting.

Excerpt

Dear Baby,

So, here is the story I promised you: When we first arrived at this place, four months or so ago, everyone knew that the prisoners from the men’s camp had been working on something outside the gates near the lake, for we heard the constant rap of the hammers, and there was much speculation among the women of the block as to what was being built. It was a cold June, and as Ruth, Naomi, and I went back and forth from the lake to the house, carrying peat, our hands froze. But we got a close look at the men working there around the old painter’s shed. How interested we were in this project! Once the guard supervising us stopped to talk with her friend, the three of us stood and observed from afar.

“What do you think?” I asked Naomi, one eye out for the guard.

She watched the men on the roof hunched over their work hammering metal around the chimney, her soup cup swinging by a string from her jacket buttonhole. “They’re not even trying to keep it a secret. They’ve turned that old shed into a place to use their gas. Just making it bigger now.”

A chill went through me. She didn’t have to say what for. Ruth’s friend in the linen shop, the block where they issued uniforms, said the clothes came back from those transports wearing the sweet scent of gas.

Naomi turned and considered the brick house everyone knew was a crematorium, since the chimney there smoked day and night. “See how convenient it is to the ovens.”

Ruth walked away. “Don’t look at that,” she called over her shoulder, as my mother often did back home when we’d seen something upsetting, like a sick horse fallen in the street.

“No, we must look,” Naomi said to me, pulling me close. “And do everything we can not to be sent there. For I have a secret of my own.”

She took my hand and pressed it to her belly. Through her uniform shift I felt a small rise.

“Pregnant?” How strange that word sounded, spoken there.

She nodded. “On Dragobete Eve. I missed my period mid-April.”

“But none of us have periods here.”

“I’m going to have a baby, sister.”

“Codrin knew before me?”

“He’s the father, Zina. And you’re the second to know.”

“How did he act when you told him?”

“You cannot believe a man could be so happy.” She was lost in the idea of him for a moment, and then the pounding brought her back. “So, I’ll need your help. You know how I’ve longed for a child. I will not allow these terrible people to ruin that. They’ve taken enough from us already.”

“But what happens when the baby shows more? I can’t live without you—”

“It will be winter soon. They will issue uniform jackets. And let’s face it, we all look pregnant.”

I looked down at my own distended belly, swollen from lack of food. “True enough.”

“See?” Naomi asked. “We can hide it. Will you help?”

So many thoughts came at once. A baby! How thrilling to be an aunt. And how happy Mama and Papa will be. But the pounding of the nails drove the truth home. Though there are rumors every day that we are about to be liberated, it may still be a while, and we’ll need all our skills to keep a baby secret here.

I took Naomi’s hand. “Of course. I will do anything. When are you due?”

“From my calculations, October 29.” She smiled.

“Rosh Hashanah.” Something deep in me ached. “Even if we’re still here come October and can’t celebrate at synagogue with family, we will have this to celebrate.”

Naomi nodded and we hurried back to our task. I helped her carry the basket, not even feeling the cold. Warmed by just the idea of you.

Dragoste,

Aunt Zina

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Author Biography

Martha Hall Kelly is the bestselling author of Lilac Girls, Lost Roses, and Sunflower Sisters. Her writing has been praised as “fresh,” “compelling,” and “groundbreaking,” and her books have been instant New York Times bestsellers. Visit her website at www.marthahallkelly.com.