The House that isn’t Home

By Leeya Bitton

Living in this house was like a dream. We got to roam around and enjoy, but one day our world flipped upside down, and we were forced into the walls. We have lived here since before I was born. We have so many family memories here. My first Hanukkah my Aba (dad) taught me how to spin a dreidel In the living room. My ima (mom) taught me how to make challah (bread) For Shabbat. This is where Yossi and Yom-Tov took their first steps. Then suddenly a woman named Addie and her husband Dolf moved in and took over our home. They liked us at first, but then they did not like mice of our kind. We heard rumors that they wanted us to move out, one way or another. When they had asked us to move out we told them our story and how important this place was to our heritage and that we could not move out. They would not listen to us and were planning on calling exterminators so we hid in the walls of our home. 

This forced us to live in difficult conditions because there was not much space, we did not have much access to food, we slept on the hard floor, and we were always in fear waiting for the exterminators. Then we discovered they had a dog once when we did not understand why something was scratching at the walls at all times. Once we had been discovered Addie had enough and she thought that we were dirty and gross so she called the exterminators to come take care of us. These exterminators were watching us at all times and made sure we could not leave our homes. My younger brothers were getting very hungry and Yom-Tov finally had enough and tried to sneak into the kitchen to get us some food. All of a sudden the exterminators caught him and put him in this cage and had horrible plans in place to hurt my brother. 

Once Addie realized that the exterminators were having a difficult time catching all of us she told the exterminators to break walls and do whatever is necessary to get us out. These actions alerted people in the area and worried them until Abbie told the neighbors what she and Dolf were trying to do to get us out. Those neighbors were upset, especially because the neighbors knew us and were wondering why we had disappeared. The neighbors had known our family for so long so they knew we were not what Addie and Dolf assumed. So the neighbors did not want anything bad to happen to us so they called Wildlife Control to come save us from Addie. Addie, Dolf, and the dog were forced out of the house and were in fear of what would happen to them after treating us so poorly. The wildlife control came into our house and took us to a safe place where we could live freely again. Wildlife control also helped us get our brother back and our family reunited together. We reunited in our new home and even though it was not in our family for generations it was our home because we had our family. 

In my story, I symbolize a Jewish family living through the holocaust. This story is about a mouse family. The mice represent a family that was affected by the holocaust by being forced to live in the walls of their house. Then some people moved into their house, Addie and Dolf. They represent Adolf Hitler trying to control everything and trying to force them out of their home. Addie and Dolf moved into their house with a dog that represents the Nazis being controlled by Hitler. As well as the exterminators they also represent the Nazis as they took orders to force them out of the house and hurt them. The neighbors represent Franklin D. Roosevelt who called in the wildlife to control the American military to set the Jewish people which are the mice free from the control of Hitler. After being set free they moved to a new home that represents Israel.

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Biography

My name is Leeya Bitton. I like hanging out with my friends out of school, and I am always working on my photography. I also enjoy architecture and aspire to be an architect.

Why did you choose to submit this category(s) of artwork/writing out of the many available category options?

I enjoy creating stories, but I do not always like to make real ones. Creating a myth story lets me use my imagination.

What motivated you to write this piece?

I am Jewish and I think it is good to spread awareness of the Holocaust