We Must Do Enough
Ray Goldberg
ו נ י
ד Dayenu
It Would Have Been Enough
In loving memory of my mother, Malka; and her parents Jechil( pronounced Yechiel) and Szejncia( Shayn-tse) Dobekirer.
Had my grandfather, as a soldier in the Polish army, clashed with German troops and merely survived, that would not have been enough.
Had he been put on a train as a prisoner of war, in an unlocked and unguarded rail car, and jumped off without serious injury, that would not have been enough.
Had friends and acquaintances hidden him during the day, enabling him to hide from the Germans and Russians pursuing him as a Labor Zionist leader, and enabling him to make his way home to Vilna during the night-time over a period of months, that, too, would not have been enough.
Had my grandmother and my mother( aged 5) traveled by train to Kovno to obtain transit visas from Japanese consul Sempo Sugihara( against orders, sacrificing his career) so that they could cross the Soviet Union into Japan, that, too, would not have been enough.
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