Chapter Five: Sonia and Nathan, a Love story

The return to Portugal, the love story in Lisbon – the unforgettable honeymoon in Italy; 
A humane deed

Sonia was angry with her Father, because he had torn her away from her studies in Cuba before she could finish another school year and graduate from High School. But her anger did not last very long.  “During a long period, I missed Cuba very much, especially my friends, the liberty of life there, and it was difficult for me to return to Lisbon, mainly because of my studies, which had been cut off and now were in disorder, and I liked order. But I could not be angry for long with my Father, nor could I hate him.”

Anyway, it is a good thing that they returned to Lisbon, because— without Sonia knowing it yet – it was there she would meet Nathan Mucznik with whom she would add another link to the chain of generations, and in due time, he would come to fulfill  her dream of coming to Israel, the true homeland. 

The homeland that she had known till now – Portugal— was no longer the same country she had known four and a half years earlier. “During the first phase, until we moved to an apartment of our own in Lisbon, we lived in the house of one of my father’s partners in Cascais. I remember that what bothered me there very much, was that the toilets were outside the house. I had always said that Portugal was a hundred years behind the other countries of Europe in many aspects. For example, women did not usually sit alone in a café. When I had left, I was 12 years old, but when I returned to Lisbon, I was already a youngster, and was used to the freedom of Cuba, so this surprised me.”

When we returned to Lisbon, we also felt the rule of Salazar, who since 1932 was the Prime Minister and dictator. He established a new law in Portugal, which gave him unlimited authority. It was in fact, a Fascist government, though it did not use force and violence against citizens, as Spain, Italy and Germany did, but the secret police which Salazar established–the PIDE – suppressed every kind of opposition. As a fervent Catholic, Salazar announced that the Catholic religion was the official one and the only religion to be taught in schools. The “Estado Novo” the New State, which he founded, followed the principles of nationalism and Catholicism. These became compulsory in Portugal.

People were afraid of talking against the government in public places, because there were spies and informers everywhere. Our family doctor’s daughter, a 16year-old student, was heard talking against the government in school, and was jailed. It shocked me. Years later, Aunt Alice left with her husband for London, because he liked to chat and was heard once talking in a cafe against Salazar. When they fled, they left their baby daughter Lucinha with Nathan’s parents. Similarly, my sister Miriam’s husband, Carlos Veiga Pereira, a well-known newspaper man, had to flee to Paris.       

In 1968 Salazar had a stroke and President Americo Tomas *dismissed* him, but Marcelo Caetano, who replaced him, continued the dictatorial regime Salazar had begun. However, until Salazar’s death, all those around him and he as well, continued to consider him as the Prime Minister. Only after the “Revolution of the Carnations” – the non-violent revolution carried out by the young army officers in 1974 – did the Salazar regime and dictatorship end. Democratic reforms were adopted and people no longer feared to talk openly.

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Gradually, Jews in Portugal, as well as in the whole world, heard of the terrible horrors of World War II and of the Holocaust of the Jewish people.

The catastrophe also struck the Halpern family. Esther’s sister Pasha, was taken prisoner by Nazis and sent to Sobibor Concentration Camp in Poland. She had hidden her valuables in a metal box and had given it to her neighbor who buried it in his garden. When it was unearthed after the war, the box was bequeathed to her husband’s family. All our attempts to locate the Brecher family and learn about the contents in this box failed. In the city of Nogent-le-Rotrou, in France, where Pasha and her husband had lived, a commemorative slab with the names of those of its Jewish inhabitants who had also perished in the Holocaust was set up on the wall of the mairie (municipality). This was inaugurated in an official and impressive ceremony, attended by Ana and Miriam, my sisters, and several members of our family.

Recha, David’s sister, lost her daughter Bella and her husband, Dr. David Mohrer, who were sent to their deaths in Auschwitz. Their small daughters, Marianne and Giselle, were saved. Their story is worth telling.

Bella was born in 1915 in Hampstead, London. Her parents, Recha and Moshe Bernstein, moved with their daughter to Kremenchuk, Russia, where he founded a factory. After the 1917 Soviet Revolution the factory was nationalized, and Moshe became the overseer, instead of its owner; he decided to return with his family to London. In 1938, Bella’s parents sent her to Antwerp, Belgium, to stay at her Aunt Berthe’s. There she met the young Dr. David Mohrer and married him. In the summer of 1939, Recha sailed in the last ship that left England for Belgium, and tried in vain to convince her daughter to come with her husband to London. Their eldest daughter Marianne was born some months later, in September.

Moshe passed away in 1941, and Recha remained alone, until one day an elderly lady, Mrs. Shneeorson, knocked on her door and asked to rent a room in her house. Recha didn’t want to rent a room, but was sorry for her and invited her to come in and drink a cup of tea with her. When she found out that her guest was a niece of the Rabbi Lubavischer, who had been very close to her parents’ family, Recha invited her to stay and live with her.

In the meantime, across the Channel, her granddaughters were saved by an act of mercy.

The second daughter of Bella and David Mohrer, Giselle, was born in November 1941, in Antwerp. Day by day, under the Nazi occupiers, life was becoming more difficult for Jews. In June 1942, David and Bella Mohrer decided to flee to Switzerland, where they had relatives. However, the man whom they had paid to enable them to cross the frontier from France, denounced them to the Germans, and they were caught and sent to Auschwitz. Marianne and Giselle, the two small baby girls, were saved thanks to the human feelings of Olga Saint-Blancat Baumgarter, a Protestant woman from Belfort, who served as Colonel in the Salvation Army.

The head of the Red Cross post in the French frontier told Olga about the Jewish family from Brussels, who had been caught by the Germans when trying to cross the frontier into Switzerland. This was the first time that a family with small children had been caught in this area. Marianne and Giselle were entrusted to the Red Cross, who were not prepared to take care of children. The chief of the post/station asked Olga if the Salvation Army could take care of them. Olga, who feared for the fate of the children, decided to care for them herself. The head of the Red Cross bribed the German guard of the detention place where David and Bella were held and he allowed the parents to take leave of their daughters. Olga promised them that she would care for them with devotion until they would come back and fetch them. Surprisingly, the Germans didn’t take the children away from her, and the French officer of the station destroyed the Mohrer family file, so that it would be impossible to find the whereabouts of the girls.

Olga Saint-Blancat, who continued to serve in the Salvation Army, took a baby sitter to care for the children while she was away. When the situation worsened, and the Germans threatened to kill anybody who helped Jews, Olga decided to send the girls and their caretaker to her mother who lived in the village of Badevel, and where everyone helped them. Her brother bought a cow, so that the girls would always have milk, and the caretaker made slippers which she sewed from old coats, and sold them to get some money for the household to buy food. Olga visited her mother and the girls every Monday, and brought them the food she managed to buy. The people of the village knew the story but kept quiet, though they were surrounded by Germans.

“Everybody in the village knew exactly who the girls were”, Olga said after the War. “I couldn’t lie, I relied on God’s protection. The girls were so sweet, and everyone loved them. Marianne called me “Mother”, my mother — “Grandmother”, the caretaker –“Aunt” and her brother— “Uncle Fritz”. Olga also cared for the sisters – Feiga (Zippora) and Simon Gershenfish, whose parents and brother had also been deported by the Nazis. These two girls were sent to boarding school and during their holidays went to stay with Olga’s mother in the village.

After the War, Recha after searching for some time, found her granddaughters and brought them home to London, where they lived modestly together with Mrs. Schneeorson. David Halpern, Recha’s devoted brother, as well as Armando, their youngest brother supported them financially throughout the years. Later, in 1959, Marianne Mohrer married Carlos Halpern, the youngest son of Armando, the youngest brother of Recha and David. In 24.03.1988, Yad Vashem recognized Olga Saint-Blancat Baumgarter as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations”.

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When we returned to Lisbon in 1945, Sonia tried to finish her studies in Liceu Dona Felipa de Lencastre. “There was a great gap in the studies: I hadn’t studied Portuguese literature, and I couldn’t, even after a year’s study, absorb all the missing material. Ana and I had private lessons at home and we somehow succeeded in passing the exams to complete our studies. I wanted to study Art, especially painting, but for some reason I could not enroll in the Art Institute and only studied as a free student. I realized that Art was what really interested me.”

In the meantime, Sonia helped her Father in his work; he had left his partners, and opened his own office. David imported diamonds and precious stones from Belgium and other countries, and sold them to shops. Sonia learned typing and worked as his secretary typing his business letters.

Since arriving in Portugal, the Halpern family drew close to the Jewish community. Many Jews had left Portugal for other countries after the end of World War II, but in spite of this, the community was active and united. David Halpern founded the ‘Centro’ for relations between Portugal and Eretz Israel, as a shelter for Jews. Whenever delegates came from Eretz Israel, with the aim of obtaining donations, he convinced his fellow members to donate generously. By then, Esther and David had many Jewish friends whom they invited to their home on Shabbat and holidays.

Young Jewish boys and girls, and Sonia among them, met every Shabbat afternoon in the large hall above the Synagogue. Menachem Diesendruck, the Rav who led the community from 1930 till 1955, when he moved to S. Paulo, Brazil, talked to them about the geography and history of Eretz Israel, as well as historical events in the years of the British Mandate, and taught them songs of Eretz Israel in Hebrew. “The message we received was that this was the land of the Jews, the only country where we could live without fear.” The Jewish youth went out together in the city and sometimes also in short excursions to the Sintra hills near Lisbon.

“We enjoyed these meetings very much, and we were very much in touch with each other. The youngsters of the community married among themselves.  I knew that I would marry a Jew.”

Nathan Mucznik was the happy young man. They met in the Saturday meetings in the hall above the Synagogue. Sonia did not accept Nathan’s courting easily, “Nathan was one year younger than myself, and this bothered me. But he didn’t give up, and he would fetch me from home and take me to meetings and bring me back home, and when our group went to the movies, would always sit beside me. Very soon, it became clear to all that we would be engaged.”

It was easy to fall in love with Nathan, a nice young man, who was open and friendly and always in a good mood. He loved to read, as I did, and he had an amazing knowledge. Nathan learned a lot on his own, and he was interested in what happened in the world – he admired Churchill very much – and he had an extraordinary memory. This impressed me very much. Moreover, he was very warm and romantic. He liked to buy me gifts, specially books. In later years, he would often buy me jewels, although I didn’t particularly enjoy wearing them, unlike my Mother who loved jewels which many years later, we, her three daughters, inherited.”

“Since then, I was in love with Nathan, and I felt that he was my twin soul. We shared a common, mutual language. We liked the same books, the same films, and we loved to go to the same concerts and the same operas, performed by European companies which came to Lisbon. It was a real love.”

“Nathan began to study Medicine at the Lisbon University, but when he attended the course of cutting up corpses, he gave up. By then, he was already interested in earning money, so that he would be able to raise a family. Consequently, he stopped his studies, and began to work with my Father. Gradually, my Father acknowledged Nathan’s commercial sense and his ability to create good relations with clients. He understood that he could rely on him and transfer more responsibilities to Nathan. Nathan was a very diligent young man; the clients and the suppliers all liked Nathan very much, and continued to ask about him, even after we had moved to Israel. Nathan was less of a Zionist than I, but with the years he was influenced by my enthusiasm. In our group we always spoke of our Aliyah; after our family had in fact, moved to Israel, Nathan laughed because the enthusiastic madrichim had remained in Portugal.

I don’t remember that Nathan proposed to me officially. Some months before our wedding, the eldest son of Rav Diesendruck was also married. Both he and his wife were part of our group. I dreamt of a small, intimate wedding, but my Father thought otherwise; he felt the need to invite the whole Jewish community.

On the 4^th of June 1952, about 500 guests came to the wedding of Sonia, David and Esther Halpern’s eldest daughter, with Nathan, the eldest son of Salomon and Helena Mucznik; the wedding celebrations lasted a whole day. The religious ceremony was performed in the Synagogue “Shaarei Tikvah”, and for this occasion, women and men were together in the hall. The bride’s trail,  as well as her dress of white lace, was held up by Liba and Esther, Nathan’s young sisters, who also spread flowers on the way to the chupah. After Rav Diesendruck wed Sonia and Nathan and declared them man and wife, everybody went to the ‘Jewish Centre’ to celebrate the big event with a lavish lunch. Esther Halpern together with the chef of the Jewish community, had planned for months the menu of this wedding, aiming to keep the rules of kashruth. The possibilities of this small community were limited; for example, they had to order kosher margarine from Paris. After lunch, everybody retired to rest. The family, including all the uncles, aunts and cousins were invited for a rich dinner. “I was very excited, I was a very happy bride; after the long day, I said that I felt as if a smile had been glued onto my face.”

Happy and tired, Sonia and Nathan left for their honeymoon in beautiful Sintra, known for its beautiful parks, palaces and houses, which has been declared by Unesco as a heritage site. Lord Byron who lived some time in Sintra, called it “a magnificent Paradise.”

Nathan and Sonia left this Paradise and three weeks later, in continuation of their honeymoon, they sailed, after saying good-by to their families, from the port of Lisbon, for Italy.