“What are these?” Maaike asked, fingering the tarnished candlesticks.
“They’re silver candlesticks. They’ll be beautiful once we polish them.” Lena set them and the metal box aside and opened the photograph album. The first three pictures were loose, not glued to the page. She read the writing on the back, translating the German. “This is your mother, Miriam Leopold, and your father, Avraham Leopold. Look, here they are holding you when you were a tiny baby.”
Bep studied the pictures for a moment before reaching to turn the page.
“These are your grandparents,” Lena continued, reading the captions. “Your grandfather was a professor at the university, see?” She pointed to a photograph of a distinguished-looking man in academic regalia. “This is your mother’s home in Cologne, Germany.” It was a mansion, three stories tall with stately pillars in front, shaded by tall trees. “This is your mama when she was a little girl. She looks like you, don’t you think? Look, here she is on a holiday with her parents at Lake Konstanz.”
Bep seemed overwhelmed by it all as they paged through photographs of aunts and uncles and cousins. She hadn’t grasped the full meaning of the album yet. Between two of the pages, Lena found a sealed letter that Miriam had written to Bep. Lena set it aside, deciding to wait until Bep had more time to get to know the strangers in these photographs.
As they leafed through the album, Miriam slowly grew up and became a young woman, a solemn beauty with a shy smile and shining dark hair like Bep’s. In many of the pictures, she was holding a violin. By the time they reached the last page, Miriam was a slender young adult, seated at a dining table, surrounded by her parents and aunts and uncles and cousins. The table was spread with a white tablecloth, flowers, platters of food, and crystal glassware. “Look what’s in this picture . . . ,” Lena, said, pointing. In the center of the table, with flames gleaming brightly, were the silver candlesticks.
Tears filled Lena’s eyes at these glimpses of Miriam Leopold’s life. The album painted a picture of a gracious, genteel life, a loving family. But they were pictures of a world that had vanished in a whirlwind of flames and hatred.