The
large steamship, the S. S. Washington, slowed down a bit; the waves seemed to
calm down as they beat against the ship’s sides. All at once Captain
Farnsworth’s deep melodious voice was heard over the loudspeaker and above the
howl of the foghorn: “All hands aboard. Ladies and gentlemen, we are nearing
the shores of the United States of America. To your left you will soon see the
Statue of Liberty, located on Liberty Island. It is one-hundred-fifty-two feet
in height and faces the ocean in the New York Harbor. For centuries men have
fought to be free. The Statue is the symbol of this freedom, a freedom for which
you have yearned, a freedom which you too will enjoy in America. The Statue was
created in France and brought to our shores. The inscription on the base of The
Lady, as she is sometimes called, is a reminder for what this beautiful country
stands and which is inscribed with a poem by a Jewish woman, Emma Lazarus:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Droozy
and her family rushed up the narrow ladder-like stairs to be on the top deck for
this, one of the greatest moments of their lives. The ship inched closer and
closer to what appeared to be a large figure in the distance. They could not yet
discern what it was they were seeing. As they came closer to this enormous
structure they saw what appeared to be a person, almost moving with the swaying
of the boat on the waves. From a distance it seemed that the statue had a wreath
around its head and was holding a torch in its outstretched right hand, its arm
reaching up to the sky. A
shudder ran through Droozy’s spine, a shudder of joy, a thrill! At last she
was free, away from the Nazi tyrants, from the cruel children who had pulled her
braids, stolen her red sugar rabbit, had called her dirty Jew; away from Herr
Kübler,
who had made her share her school bench with a tubercular child who coughed
blood; away from listening to the wicked voice of Adolf Hitler shouting vicious
lies about the Jewish people through loudspeakers; away from the park benches
which had painted on them: “Jews prohibited”; away from fear that was with
Droozy wherever she went. Soon
the big ship reached the shore of New York. In the distance the large
skyscrapers (enormously tall buildings) were seen. They looked almost as if they
were dressed in fog. Small boats came and ropes were tied from them to the SS
Washington to pull her all the way over against the land. Droozy
stood dazed on deck searching with her eyes to find her beloved Papa, whom she
had not seen in eighteen long months. She saw a mass of humanity, people
straining their necks, looking up at the ship to find their relatives. Suddenly
Droozy spotted her father. He was wearing his familiar hat and brown suit. He
had gotten much thinner than she remembered and his face looked careworn. As
soon as she could Droozy ran off the gangplank into Papa’s large arms. |
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