Escaping the Nazis: Nikki Fled Belgium, Wandered, and Eventually Ended Up in Los Angeles

We asked readers to share their personal experiences with antisemitism. Here is what one wrote:
 
I was born in Antwerp, Belgium on July 1, 1932. Hitler invaded the country in May 1940. When the invasion began, we woke up one morning to the sound of booms. I remember running into my grandmother’s room and getting into her bed, terrified. She told me not to be afraid, that it was just thunder. Of course, it wasn’t thunder.
 
As soon as it became clear that the Nazis were coming, my mother said we were leaving the country. I’m not sure, but I think the invasion started on a Friday; by Monday we were on a train trying to get to Vichy in France.
 
My father’s brothers and their wives were supposed to meet us at the train station. When my father looked out the window, he saw his brothers running toward the train, but their wives weren’t with them. My uncles wanted us to get off the train and wait, but my parents refused. They said we would all meet up in Vichy.
 
A Belgian soldier who was on the train started speaking with us. My mother was blond, blue-eyed, and spoke the street version of Flemish, so he didn’t know we were Jews. He warned us not to go to Vichy because the city was surrendering to the Germans. Instead, he urged us to get off the train and come with him to his nearby village.
 
When we got off, someone who was on board recognized my mother and called out to her in Yiddish. The soldier immediately realized we were Jews and ran away, abandoning us.
 
— Nikki in Los Angeles
 
With many twists and turns to follow, they eventualy wound up in Bilbao, Spain. From there they were able to board a refugee ship and sail to Cuba. After a few years in Cuba, they moved to Brazil, then to Israel once the country was founded.
 
Once in Israel, Nikki served as a sargeant in the air force, got married and had two children. She, her husband and their chidlren then moved to America, then back and forth between Israel and New York. Nikki finally settled permanently in Los Angeles, where she has lived ever since.
 
She and her immediate family survived the Nazis, but many of their relatives and friends did not.

 
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