Chapter 2

2
Russia

It was December 20, 1938 and Vera DeLaney had just finished packing Big Roy’s lunch. As Roy painfully slid into his black, wool, trench coat Vera handed him his hat and Decoware lunch pail. Gently removing a stray piece of dog hair from his shoulder, Vera reached up and kissed him good-by. Affection was never easy for Roy, and so barely responding to her kiss, he limped to the door and headed out into the frigid cold.
Vera always rose early, well before dawn. She liked getting up long before anyone else to enjoy the silence. She knew her day began as soon as Roy’s hobbling steps could be heard upstairs. Ever since the accident at work, Roy’s health had never been the same. Working an excavator one day, he took a bad turn causing the large machine to roll. The excavator landed on its side nearly crushing Roy to death. The impact broke nearly every bone on his left side, along with a punctured lung and a severe concussion. Roy has since recovered, but only if you consider recovery to include constant pain, feet and hands left with a permanent tingling sensation, frequent migraines and a noticeable limp. Being up in years never afforded Ray the opportunity of healing completely, so along with ruthless arthritis, he walked with a severe limp and used whisky as his choice tonic. It was the whisky Vera most worried about.
It was Monday and the children would need waking in about an hour. Vera’s quiet time was spent in the front room. In the center of the room sat a brand new, Cast Iron Wood Burning Stove. In the corner adjacent to the stove, sat a small end table housing her King James Bible and reading glasses, a rocking chair draped with one of her fine, hand sewn quilts, and the peaceful comfort she longed for. It was there she would savor her black coffee and toasted Irish Soda Bread. Through a large picture window, the room would eventually glow with sunlight. Beyond the window was an already bustling Erie Boulevard. In the silence of her morning, Vera always thanked her God for the beautiful boys, Edward and Roy, He had blessed her with, and she also thanked God for Big Roy. Starting her day any other way, she had often said, left her fragmented and spiritually befuddled.
Vera was not always of the Christian faith, but rather born in Russia and Jewish. Vera was born in 1876 during the rein of Alexander II, a man known for liberating the peasant population and compassionate toward the Jews living in his country. But, by the age of four, Vera’s parents had been gruesomely murdered by a Russian, anti-Semitic, underground society called The People’s Will.
Vera’s father, Denil Petrov, learned of this peasant run underground called The People’s Will, and their fierce anger toward Alexander II while taking a train from Moscow to Ryazan one day. Working in the banking industry, Denil spent a great deal of time in Moscow meeting with other bankers, and if given the chance would spend time with his Jewish brothers at the city synagogue. On the train that day Denil was exhausted from his long day of business dealings and decided to lie down in the far back seat to take a nap during his long trek home. While lying there, trying to sleep, a group of men entered the very box car Denil was resting in. The men chose that particular car for the apparent privacy. Little did they know, they were in the presence of a Jew and a Jew who felt beholden to Alexander II.
During their secretive conversation, The People’s Will spoke of their extreme hatred for Alexander II and the Jews living in their country. They were angry with Alexander II, because they believed his emancipation decree left them with no state representation, and all power still belonged to the government and to the wealthy. They believed his efforts to free them actually did them more harm. It infuriated them when it seemed Alexander II cosseted the Jews by implementing programs giving them an easier assimilation within Russia. By doing this, the Jews were beginning to prosper and began holding jobs of great prestige, such as Denil’s position in the banking industry. To The People’s Will, life was much better when Jews lived, as the Russian bigots would put it, “On the Settlement where they belonged!” The Pale of Settlement was what they referred to. A land between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, and what would one day be Ukraine. On these settlements, the Jews were forced to live a life very separate from their Christian neighbors and others. Jewish children on the Settlement were banned from school, their religion was strictly observed and they spoke Yiddish, not Russian or Polish. The conditions of the Settlement were far from livable. Most families were living below poverty level, had very little food, and lived in cramped quarters with several other family members. But this did not matter to those who hated the Jews. For The People’s Will, the Settlement was the closest answer aside from their complete removal from Russia.
On the train that day, Denil learned The People’s Will believed violence was the only way to bring about reform, with the ultimate goal of assassinating Alexander II. It was that day Denil did something so drastic it would lead him headlong to his death. Rising from his box car seat, Denil began to cajole the group of men, claiming to be one of them, a man bent on Alexander II destruction and eventual death. That day, Denil’s religion was concealed and replaced with radical anti-Semitism, and remarkably Denil’s true identity was wittingly masked for several months.
Russian law made it a crime to criticize the government, and so The People’s Will had been forced to rally in private. Denil joined The People’s Will underground posing as a sympathizer in hopes of finding out their exact plan on murdering Alexander II. During one such meeting, a new member of The People’s Will, Anatoli Foka, swore he recognized Denil from somewhere. Denil did his best to thwart the man’s memory of him, telling him he was mistaken and then as a means of distraction, with glaring rage, began to spew vulgar anti-Semitic parlance toward the direction of the new member and others standing with him. Soon, the other members began to laugh with Denil and pat him on the back. Their ears had been tickled by Denil’s evil vernacular toward the Jew.
One member, named Fedor, stated, “Any man with that much hatred for the Jews, is a friend of mine!” And with a laugh, urged the other members to rally around and make a plan for their next move to assassinate the king.
However, Anatoli, was not so easily convinced. Prior to joining The People’s Will, Anatoli spent several years in Moscow planning and plotting against the Jews. During the reign of Czar Nicholas I, Anatoli was a government agent for the “snatchers” (“khapers”). “Snatchers” were responsible for kidnapping young Jewish children for the Russian military. The intent was to kidnap the children during their formative years, thereby being able to mold them as they saw fit. Nicholas I did all he could in hopes of demoralizing the Jewish community. Nicholas I had been one of the most evil rulers in Russian, vehemently bent on Jewish destruction. While working as a “snatcher”, Anatoli spent a great deal of time watching synagogues in Moscow. He watched for men who entered with sons and it was rare if he ever forgot a face. Anatoli was sure Denil had been one to come and go in the Moscow synagogue. In fact, Anatoli believed it had been Denil he had seen rather recently with the synagogue’s Posek. (The job of the Posek is to decide legal issues within the Jewish community.) Anatoli was sure it had been Denil’s face he had seen, and it wasn’t long before he revealed all he knew to Fedor and the other members of The People’s Will. As a result, Denil was investigated, his true identity revealed and eventually followed.
A special meeting had been called by Fedor, and Denil was urged to participate. As soon as Denil stepped foot outside his home on July 21, 1880, two members of The People’s Will began to follow him. It wasn’t long before Denil noticed the tail, and knew he had been found out. Denil knew if he continued on to the meeting place he would be in greater danger, so he attempted to escape by running into a nearby ally where he hoped a fire escape ladder could lead him to safety. Once on the ladder, Denil heard the men below, so he turned around to face them. Before Denil had a chance to speak, a shot rang out and Denil Petrov was dead.
That evening, Denil failed to return home, and Vera’s mom, Bogdana, began to panic for their safety. She knew Denil’s dealings were very dangerous, and urged him on many occasions to stop and think of his family. He always told her the same thing, “I must fight, Bogdana! We cannot let The People’s Will kill Alexander II and in so doing, destroy all the good he has brought to the Jews!! If Alexander II dies, things will be far worse for Vera, for us! They will stop at nothing to destroy every Jew in Russia! I am doing this, Bogdana, for my family! If I do not succeed, there will never be a future for Jews in Russia, and more importantly, for Vera!”
It was 2:30 am and Bogdana sat still and wide awake in her small front room, praying Denil would walk in the door any minute. Denil always told Bogdana, “If I am not home by 2:00 am, know that something has happened to me, and you must do whatever is necessary to keep Vera safe.”
Bogdana knew before the sun came up, she needed to move, and if she was going to keep Vera safe, she needed to leave right away. Frightened beyond words, Bogdana bundled up Vera, and headed for the Catholic orphanage outside of town. In one of her conversations with Denil, he told Bogdana about the orphanage. The orphanage served as a front for an underground group intent on helping the Jews. Once she reached the orphanage, Bogdana knocked on the door, as soon as the door opened, Bogdana placed Vera in the arms of a nun. Pleading with the nun to ask no questions, Bogdana ran away. Vera began to scream for her mother, but Bogdana refused to be changed, she knew this was her daughter’s only chance at safety. The nun turned with Vera in her arms and entered the orphanage. Once Vera was safely inside, Bogdana set out to find Denil.
Bogdana risked checking their home one more time to see if Denil had returned. When the house was empty, Bogdana could not stop the tears. She cried, screaming out to the only God she knew, asking why? It was then, the Petrov door was busted in. Shouting with evil diatribe, four men from The People’s Will began to fire on Bogdana.
The orphanage was dreary having been built only with cinder blocks and very few windows, beds were lined up along each wall with only enough room to shimmy between sideways. Many of the children were sick or deformed in some way. In the frigid cold, unloving parents would simply drop them off at the door never waiting to see if they had been retrieved. The esthetics may have been dreary, but the nuns were warm and kind and desperate to help as many children and Jews as they could.
In the basement of the orphanage there was a crawl space, and the crawl space lead out into a tunnel. The tunnel wound in and above the ground and spread from the depths of Ryazan to the tunnels of Moscow. From Moscow, Jews were shifted and moved from place to place in the dead of night until safely guided to ships offering them freedom to America.
Thankfully, Denil was well connected and had made plans for his family in the unfortunate case he was captured or killed. The orphanage was given information of a relative living in Kazan who was to take care of his family if he was no longer able. They were given an address and a name, and it was up to them to find her and get them all to safety. So that is what the orphanage did.
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Rising before dawn had always been easy and natural for Vera, but not this particular
day. Instead, she felt tired and low. It had been a very humid summer, and too often her lungs paid the price with the asthma she suffered since childhood. The day’s newspaper called for more humidity and rain, a nasty cocktail sure to bring on the asthma Caroline feared and hated. Sitting in her corner of the room, she tried to put her health at the back of her thinking, and instead began praying for her small family.