Alicia Summary Chapters 20-25 and Epilogue

Chapter 20 (May 1945):

Alicia heads to Lvov with Rivka by train. While in Lvov they miss their train getting tea and then head to Bielsko on a Russian truck with no possessions. There they are taken in by the Sharfs because they are also Jewish. Alicia meets two orphans from the concentration camp and decides to set up an orphanage and takes in 24 orphans aged 10-15. She is only 15 herself but 5'6" and very mature for her age.

Chapter 21 (June 1945):

Alicia is taken to Lodz to meet Tzivia who runs the Brecha, an organization which smuggles Jewish refuggees out of Europe to Palestine (Eretz Israel). Life is still dangerous for Jews in Europe as some Poles and other ethnic groups commit pogroms against Jews to eliminate the evidence of their cooperating with the Germans.

Chapter 22 (Summer 1945):

Alicia agrees to join Brecha when they promise to take care of her orphans. She leads four "transports" of Jews out of Eastern Europe. On the 4th transport she gives up her $8,000 to get to America and suffers terrible pain from where the SS officer kicked her.

Chapter 23 (Sept 1945):

Alicia is sent to a United Nations Displaced Person's Camp in the Austrian Alps to recover.

Chapter 24 (Summer 1946-Spring 1947):

Alicia is sent to school in Belgium. She has the opportunity to go to America but now thinks of Eretz Israel as her home.

Chapter 25 (March 1947)

Alicia gets on a ship to Palestine which is controlled by the British. She is stopped by the British and taken to a prisoner camp on the island of Cyprus. The British do not want more Jews coming to Palestine stirring up trouble with the Arab Palestinians.

Epilogue Alicia spends 8 months on Cyprus. In 1948 the United Nations voted to divide Palestine into two countries: Israel for the Jews and Palestine for the Arabs. Alicia goes to Israel and joins the Israeli freedom fighters. She meets her husband and goes by the name Ada to forget her painful past. In 1950 they get married and in 1952 they move to America. Her first son is a miracle and is born in 1959.