"Mikhail was a Soviet partisan, but his heart was kind. He was a deeply religious man, who always prayed after, or before if he could, he killed a man. I grew to trust him, after some time…and eventually I came to love him. As one loves a brother or a father. Since my separation from my parents, Mikhail was the closest thing I had to family. In 1939, we packed what few belongings we owned and retreated to Vilnius, Lithuania, which was under Soviet rule at the time. A year later, I found myself stepping through the gates of a Dominican convent in the cities’ suburbs, where I was to become a nun. The Mother Superior was a Sister Bertranda. I found the lifestyle to be simple and enjoyable. Mikhail often came to visit. However in 1941, Lithuania fell into Germany’s hands, and Mikhail traded his Soviet uniform for that of a peasant.

Sister Bertranda jumped in almost immediately to help the Jews and allowed seventeen members of Hashomer Hatzair, a local Zionist group, to hide in the convent’s walls. When my fellow nuns complained, Mother Superior threatened them with expulsion from the order. Mikhail joined the partisan group in the nearby forest, and occasionally I was allowed to accompany him. When the Jewish resistance began, we nuns took it upon ourselves to help the effort. We smuggled not only food into the ghettos, but guns and ammunition as well. I still remember sneaking into the ghetto to the home of Abba Kovner with my coat heavy with grenades. (She laughs bitterly)

But still, September of 1943 came. Mikhail was visiting the convent when the Germans came for him. Someone had spilled that he was a Soviet partisan."

"Shut up! SHUT UP! I don’t want to hear your lies! You’re just like the rest of them! I can’t believe I even began to—(Lets out a frustrated sound.)"

"You…you…TRAITOR! How dare—I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you!"