All Comments on 'A Hanukkah Gift'

Are you planning another chapter?

You should publish this story where it can be better appreciated. Unfortunately, much of what is posted here is crap, and you are a good writer.

Seriously. You can write beautifully. Find a.... more rewarding? Venue for your work. Somewhere that might lead to an editor?

Terrific job! I especially like what you don't say about his likely fate since he's going to Normandy. Nice touch!

An absolutely beautiful story. Please continue.

Good story. He is a little chance for being prisoner of war. I read a german soldier who was prisoner of war in the USA and escaped from the prisoner camp in the USA. He got fake identity married an American woman and they have some children and Reagan administration gave him mercy.......

Well written and one of the nicest and most tender love stories ever on this site!

Thank You

Thanks for a wonderful story

Are you planning another chapter?

- Anonymous

"A Hanukkah Gift" came to me spontaneously many years ago when I woke up one night and could not get back to sleep. I have modified it slightly to fit the Holiday Season. I do not have the details for what follows, but I can give the general outline.

Private Hans Rickmers survived the Normandy invasion. Along with other survivors he retreated across France, badly out numbered, bombed from the air, and attacked from behind by French resistance units.

In Germany he was able to prevent several German women from being raped by Soviet soldiers. Then he was taken prisoner. However before he was sent to a Soviet prison camp, and probable death, Ruth wrote to the Soviet field commander in the area. He was a Ukrainian, and by happy coincidence, a Jew. Hans was released.

The German colonel who declined to punish Hans for helping Ruth escape to Spain surprised himself by surviving the war. He was the best man when the minister who make Ruth a counterfeit passport married Hans and Ruth in the medieval wooden church, which managed to survive allied bombing. .

The colonel joined the fledgling West German Army, retaining his rank as colonel, and eventually being promoted to General. After also serving in the West German Army and being promoted to sergeant, Hans joined a West German police unit that specialized in locating and arresting those who participated in the Holocaust.

For Mr. and Mrs. Hans Rickmers religion was more a matter of tradition and collective identity than a series of religious doctrines believed in dogmatically, so they practiced each other's religion. When their two children were old enough to make their decisions about religion, their son was Bar Mitzvahed, and the daughter was baptized and confirmed.

Currently Mr. and Mrs. Rickmers live in an assisted living facility in Israel, where they are visited by their children and grandchildren.

Beautiful please write more

Hate the politicians who order the sons, fathers, uncles, and brothers to war.

Hate the politicians who allow the daughters, mothers, aunts, and sisters to be abused, raped, and tormented during war.