ref·u·gee

"Mama!" Josef cried, "Papa!" Towering shadows burst into the room, the air seemed to crackle around them like static from a radio. Josef tried to hide at the corner of his bed, but it was no use. Shadowy hands snatched for him, grabbed for him. He screamed even louder than that of his little brother, drowning him out. He kicked and flailed in a panic, but one of the shadows grabbed his ankle, and dragged him face first across his bed. He was so scared he wet himself, Josef clawed at his sheets, but the men where too strong. 

"No!" Josef cried, "No!"

The shadows threw him to the floor, another shadow picked up Mikel, and slapped him, "be quiet!" The shadow yelled, throwing Josef's younger brother to the floor beside him. The shock shut him up for a moment, but then He wailed again. "Hush, Mikel, Hush." Josef begged. He took him in his arms, and wrapped him in a protective hug. "Hush now."

They cowered together on the floor as the shadows picked up Mikels bed, and threw it against the wall crash! The bed broke into pieces. The shadows tore down pictures, family photos. Pulled drawers from their bureaus, and flung clothing everywhere. They broke lamps, and lightbulbs. Josef and Mikel clung to each other, terrified and wet faced with tears. The shadows grabbed them again, and pulled them into the living room, throwing them on the floor once more, and flicked on the overhead light. As Josef's eyes adjusted, he saw the seven strangers who had invaded their home. Some of them wore regular clothes; white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, grey slacks, brown wool caps, leather work boots. Most of them wore the brown shirts and swastika armbands Of The Strumabteilung, Adolf Hitlers 'Stormtroopers'

Josef's mother and father where there too, lying on the floor at the feet of the Brownshirts "Josef! Mikel!" Mama cried as she saw them. She lunged for her children, but one of the Nazis grabbed her nightgown and pulled her back.

"Aron Landau." One of the Brownshirts said to Josef's father, "you have continued to practice law, despite the fact Jews are forbidden to do so under the Civil Service Restoration Act Of 1933. For this crime against the German people, you will be taken into protective custody."

Josef looked at his father, panicked.

"This is all a miss understanding," Papa said, "if you just give me a chance to explain." The Brownshirt ignored Papa, and nodded to the two other men. Two of the Nazis yanked Josef's father to his feet, and dragged him to the door. "No!" Josef cried, he had to do something, he leaped to his feet, grabbed the arm of one of the men carrying his father, and tried to pull him off. Two more of the men jerked Josef away and held him as he fought against him. "Look at this one!" A Nazi pointe day to Josef, "the boy pissed himself!"

The Nazi's laughed at Josef's face, and made Josef red with shame. He struggled in the men's arms, trying to break free. "I'll be a man soon enough." Josef told them. "I'll be a man in six months and eleven days." The Nazis laughed again, "six months and eleven days!" The Brownshirt said, "not that he's been counting!" The Brownshirt suddenly turned serious, "perhaps your close to old enough to join your father at a concentration camp like your father here?" "No!" Mama cried, "no, my son is only twelve, he's just a boy, please don't." Mikel wrapped himself around Josef's leg, "don't take him! Don't take him!" The Brownshirt scowled at the noise, and gave the men carrying Aron Landau a dismissive wave. Josef watched as they took his father away to the sobs of his mother. And his brothers wail. "Don't be So quick to grown up boy." The Brownshirt told Josef, "we'll come for you soon enough."

The Nazis trashed the rest of Josef's house, breaking furniture and smashing plates, and tearing down curtains. They left as suddenly as they had come, and Josef his brother, and his mother huddled together on their knees in the middle of the room. At last, when they had cried all the tears they could, Rachel Landau led her children to her room, put her bed back together, and hugged her children close till morning.

The days to come, Josef learned his house wasn't the only place the Nazis invaded, other homes, and Jewish businesses and synagogues where all destroyed all over Germany, and tens of thousands of Jewish men where arrested and sent to concentration camps. They called it 'Kristallnacht' The Night Of Broken Glass. The Nazis didn't say it with words but it was clear: Josef and his family wasn't wanted in Germany anymore. But Josef, his mother and brother weren't going anywhere, not without Josef's father.

Mama spent weeks going from one government office to another, trying to find out where her husband was and how she could get him back, no one would say a word, and Josef's feared he might never see his father again. And then, six months after his father had been taken away, they got a Telegram, a Telegram from his father. He had been released from the concentration camp called 'Dacha,' but only on condition he'd leave the country within fourteen days.

Josef didn't want to leave Germany, Germany was his home. Where would they all go? How would they all survive together? But the Nazis had told them to get out of Germany twice now, but the Landau family wasn't going to wait around and see what would happen if they didn't.