Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 THREE DAYS EARLIER THE JEWISH GHETTO ESTIES, POLAND Max and his nine-year-old sister, Zena, walked along the dark and dirty street, ignoring the rat that skittered by. They hadn't eaten since last night's watery potato soup, and they were hoping to find something for supper. They had no money and nothing left to trade. But they weren't ready to give up. Suddenly two German soldiers appeared from around the corner, their boots clicking sharply on the stone sidewalk. Max and Zena jumped into the

第二章三天前犹太人聚居区，波兰马克斯和他九岁的妹妹泽娜走在又黑又脏的街道上，没有理睬从身边窜过的老鼠。 自从昨晚喝了水汪汪的土豆汤之后，他们就没有吃过东西，他们希望能找到晚饭吃的东西。 他们没有钱，也没有任何东西可以交易。 但他们还没准备好放弃。 突然，两个德国士兵从拐角处出现，他们的靴子在石头人行道上发出尖锐的咔哒声。 马克斯和泽娜跳了进去

gutter. Max wanted to curse these men, spit at them, chase them out of his town. But he stood quietly, eyes down, clenching his fists as he waited for the soldiers to pass. The men were Nazis, killer soldiers of Adolf Hitler, Germany's leader. Hitler had started a terrible war. He had sent his brutal armies to invade countries all over Europe. A year ago, Nazi soldiers marched into Esties, the Polish town where Max's family had lived for hundreds of years. The Nazis came with their tanks, their machine guns — and their hatred of Jewish people like Max and Zena. Hitler told hideous lies, blaming Jews for every problem in the world. In Esties, Nazi soldiers destroyed Jewish-owned businesses, including Papa's electrical repair shop. They set fire to the synagogue and ripped apart sacred Torah scrolls. They attacked Jewish people on the streets, including Dr. Latham, who had taken such good

排水沟。麦克斯想诅咒这些人，朝他们吐口水，把他们赶出他的小镇。 但他静静地站着，低着眼睛，握紧拳头，等待士兵们走过。 这些人是纳粹分子，是德国领导人阿道夫·希特勒的杀手。 希特勒发动了一场可怕的战争。 他曾派遣残暴的军队入侵欧洲各国。 一年前，纳粹士兵开进了埃斯蒂斯，马克斯一家几百年来居住的波兰小镇。 纳粹带着他们的坦克，机枪，还有他们对像马克思和泽娜这样的犹太人的仇恨。 希特勒说着可怕的谎言，把世界上的所有问题都归咎于犹太人。 在埃斯蒂，纳粹士兵摧毁了犹太人拥有的企业，包括爸爸的电气维修店。 他们放火烧了犹太教堂，撕毁了神圣的托拉卷轴。 他们袭击了街上的犹太人，包括Dr。 莱瑟姆，谁拿得这么好

care of Mama before she died. What had Dr. Latham done to deserve a beating? He had dared to look at the soldiers as he walked by them. Two months after the invasion, the Nazis forced all Jewish people to leave their homes. They all had to move to a ghetto — this bleak neighborhood of crumbling buildings on the edge of town. The ghetto was surrounded by a barbed wire fence, and patrolled by Nazi guards and policemen. It was like living in a jail. But the worst was to come. A month ago, in the middle of the night, policemen arrested Papa and dragged him away. They took dozens of other Jewish men, too. Nobody had any idea where they had been taken. But there were terrifying whispers — about gunshots echoing through the hills around the town, about locked trains that took Jewish people to prison camps. Some said that this was happening all around Europe. There were rumors that hundreds of

在妈妈死前照顾她。 莱瑟姆医生做了什么要挨打? 他从士兵身边走过时，竟敢看他们一眼。 入侵两个月后，纳粹强迫所有犹太人离开家园。 他们都不得不搬到一个贫民窟——这个荒凉的社区，在城镇的边缘，到处都是摇摇欲坠的建筑。 犹太人区被铁丝网包围，纳粹警卫和警察在周围巡逻。 就像住在监狱里一样。 但最糟糕的事情还在后头。 一个月前的一个深夜，警察逮捕了爸爸，把他拖走了。 他们还抓了几十个犹太男人。 没有人知道他们被带到哪里去了。 但可怕的窃窃私语——枪声在小镇周围的山上回荡，还有锁着的火车把犹太人送往战俘营。 有人说，这种情况在欧洲各地都在发生。 有传言说数百人

thousands of Jews had been taken away — and had never been heard from again. Max didn't know what to believe. All he knew was that each day, life seemed to get worse. He and Zena lived all alone now, in a small, dark room that stank of garbage. As life got harder and harder, Max thought of what his Aunt Hannah had said to him, just after the invasion. She'd put her hands on Max's shoulders, and looked at him with her glittering green eyes. "The Nazis want to take everything from us," she'd said in her clear and certain voice. "Do not let them take away your hope." Max looked around him now, at the woman limping past with tears in her eyes, at the ragged children slumped in the doorways. Finding hope in the ghetto was harder than finding food. Just then, Zena grabbed his arm. "Max, look!" she said, pointing at a little bird perched on the barbed wire fence at the end of an

成千上万的犹太人被带走，从此杳无音信。 麦克斯不知道该相信什么。 他只知道生活似乎一天比一天糟糕。 他和泽娜现在单独住在一间散发着垃圾味的小黑屋子里。 生活越来越艰难，马克斯想起了汉娜姨妈在入侵后对他说过的话。 她把手放在马克斯的肩膀上，用闪闪发光的绿眼睛看着他。 “纳粹想夺走我们的一切，”她用清晰而坚定的声音说。 “不要让他们夺走你的希望。” 马克斯环顾四周，看着那个女人一瘸一拐地走过，眼里含着泪水，看着那些衣衫褴褛的孩子们瘫倒在门口。 在犹太人区寻找希望比寻找食物更难。 就在这时，泽娜抓住了他的胳膊。 “麦克斯，你看!”她指着一只小鸟说，小鸟栖息在一条小路尽头的铁丝网上

alley. "It's a robin," Zena said. "Don't you know that robins are lucky birds?" Max arched an eyebrow at his sister. After all that had happened to them, did she really believe there was such a thing as a lucky bird? But then he glimpsed something else, just behind the bird: a raspberry bush, covered with bright red berries. Max stared, imagining the sweet fruit bursting in his mouth. Zena saw them, too. He and Zena rushed to the fence and dropped to their knees. They carefully stuck their arms between the wires, avoiding the razor-sharp barbs. They stretched their fingers, but couldn't reach a single berry. The bush was just a few inches too far away. Max looked around.

小巷。“是一只知更鸟，”泽娜说。 “难道你不知道知更鸟是幸运的鸟吗?”马克斯朝他妹妹扬起眉毛。 在他们身上发生了那么多事之后，她真的相信有幸运鸟这种东西吗? 但随后他瞥见了别的东西，就在鸟的后面:一丛覆盆子，上面长满了鲜红色的浆果。 麦克斯盯着看，想象着甜美的水果在他嘴里炸开。 泽娜也看见了。他和泽娜冲到栅栏前，跪了下来。 他们小心翼翼地把胳膊伸到电线之间，避开锋利的倒刺。 他们伸出手指，但一个浆果也够不着。 灌木丛离我们只有几英寸远。 马克斯环顾四周。

He could see no guards watching this area. And there was just enough space under the fence for Max to squeeze through. It was dangerous; anyone caught trying to leave the ghetto was arrested, or worse. But Max wasn't trying to escape. He would be outside the fence for just a minute or so. "I'll be quick," he said to Zena. "No," she said. Her blue eyes seemed to grab hold of him. With her blonde curls and round cheeks, people always said Zena looked like a doll. Sure — a doll made of steel. She was almost two years younger than Max, but he trusted her more than anyone else in the world.

他看不见看守这片区域的卫兵。 篱笆下刚好有足够的空间让麦克斯挤过去。 这很危险;任何试图离开犹太区的人都会被逮捕，或者更糟。 但麦克斯并没有试图逃跑。 他会在栅栏外待上一分钟左右。 “我会很快的，”他对泽娜说。 “不，”她说。她的蓝眼睛似乎抓住了他。 泽娜有着金色的卷发和圆润的脸颊，人们总是说她看起来像个洋娃娃。 当然——一个钢铁做的娃娃。 她几乎比马克斯小两岁，但他却比世界上任何人都更信任她。