Perfectly
Seated to
Meet Your
Needs!
JOURNEY page 15
There is no better place to shop
for the perfect bar stool to suit
your needs!
Hundreds of quality bar and
counter stools to choose
from at the best prices and
selection of the year!
SALE
CASUAL & OUTDOOR FURNIWRE
Prices starting from $69
NOVI
48700 Grand River
348-0090
LIVONIA
29500 W. 6 Mile Rd.
522-9200
BIRMINGHAM
690 S. Woodward
644-1919
WINTER COLORS OF BENS I I ON.
WINTER 1992 Benetton and Sisley Collections.
Come see our exciting new collection at one of the two store locations in Metro Detroit.
BENETTON
at The Boardwalk
WEST BLOOMFIELD
Orchard Lake Road, South of Maple
737-3737
BENETTON
at Laurel Place Park
LIVONIA
1-275 at Six Mile Road
953-0500
brought her food and asked,
"What are you doing here?"
"I am all alone," Chana
replied, repeating the well-
rehearsed story her parents
had invented when they
gave their daughter her
false identity papers. "My
father was a communist; my
family was killed by the
Nazis."
And so Chana found a safe
place to stay.
She began studying at the
Catholic school. She prayed
Catholic prayers morning,
noon and evening. Slowly,
Chana began to find her
place in the quiet world of
the nuns.
One morning, the sisters
were in a state of excite-
ment. Someone was coming
from Cracow, they said.
"An important visitor," they
called him.
Chana was carrying
wafers, to be used in com-
munion, not long before the
visitor arrived. Underneath
the napkin she felt some-
thing quite unlike the soft
wafers. It was "something
cold and hard." She dropped
the tray. Out fell a pistol.
Catching sight of the
weapon, the local priest —
who had come to hear the
nuns' confession — ap-
proached Chana. "We
thought you were too young
to know," he said. "But now
I will tell you. Father Wo-
jtyla, who is coming today
from Crakow, and I, and
many of the nuns here are
members of the Polish
underground."
And then he told her,
"Now you will be a member
of our army. Do you agree to
join?"
Without hesitating, Chana
said, "Yes."
For months, Chana work-
ed as a courier for the Polish
underground. Whenever
Father Wojtyla visited from
Cracow, he stopped to speak
with Chana about her work.
In September 1944, the
Russian army approached
Warsaw. As war destroyed
the city, Chana moved with
the sisters to Zakopane,
Poland. There, with the help
of local villagers, they built
a new home. Soon after the
war ended, Chana prepared
to take her vows as a nun.
The ceremony, she recalls,
was much like a wedding.
She wore white and received
a "wedding band," signify-
ing her devotion to Jesus. By
June 1945, she was wearing
a habit.
Chana likely would have
remained a nun had it not
been for a chance encounter
on the streets of Zakopane. A
man approached her one
afternoon and said, "Hello,
Chana Avrutsky
you're Chana Mandelberger,
aren't you?"
"No! No!" she insisted.
"You're mistaken."
Certain her parents had
died long ago, Chana had
given up her Jewish identity
and grew to regard the
Catholic Church as her only
family. Who, she wondered,
was this stranger trying to
interrupt her new life?
"I want to tell you that
your mother is alive," the
man said. "I won't take you
to her, but you need to
return to her yourself. Take -
this money and think about
what I say. When you are
ready, you can reach me at
this address."
For an entire month
Chana worried. She was
afraid the stranger would
come get her, tell the Mother
Superior that she was really
Jewish, that she was a liar.
So she decided to go see her
mother and, once and for all,
break ties with her past. She
would explain to her mother
that she had a new life now.
Chana traveled by train,
where she began, for the
first time in years, to re-
member her lost family. But
it did little to prepare her for
seeing her mother again.
"It was very traumatic,"
Mrs. Avrutsky says. "When
I left her, my mother had
been a young woman — yes,
thin and drawn — but still
young and strong."
But Sarah had spent the
war years in a death camp.
And her anguish had left
wounds as deep as the
slashes of a knife.
"Now when I saw my
mother, I saw an old woman
with a cane," Mrs. Avrutsky
says. "She reached to hug
and kiss me, but I didn't
want it."
Chana ran from her
JOURNEY / page 18