The Hidden Door
Would it still be there? As he dressed, he wondered if it
remained hidden after sixty years, in spite of the turmoil that had surrounded
it. Behind that door, if it still existed, were memories his mind tried so hard
to reconcile, but without success. He hoped its opening would end a lifetime of
debt he had been unable to repay.
His face contorted and his cheeks moistened. To repay them he
would have to relive events, painful events that tore at his being. It hurt.
Dear God, it hurt! Quickly, the back of his forearm rubbed across his eyes. It
would not do for his wife to see this. His face returned to normal as if the arm’s
movement buried his tortured emotions. Aaron sat still as his mind regained
control.
A sigh escaped his lips as he raised from the hotel bed and
his seventy two year old legs protested. Stiffly, he walked to an open window
that beckoned. Stretching beneath him, lay the city of his youth. Its current
prosperity and peacefulness belied the horrible things it had witnessed and its
people had experienced. He took a deep breath.
To Aaron, the air he breathed contained the suffering, the
happiness, the very souls of countless humans who had lived in this ancient city
and land; a place so steeped in the history of sword and sickle. He made his
journey for a communion with those souls. His body was old and it would resist
his efforts, but his spirit was stronger.
He would do this. He would do it for himself.
He would do it for them.
With this prologue to The Hidden Door, Aaron Hiemberg begins his
painful pilgrimage back 60 years into his youth, back to a time of terror when
life was a thing to cling to from one day to the next. He and fellow survivor
Lilyanna Goronavich return to Kiev to pay homage to those who saved them after
June 22, 1941, when Adolf Hitler unleashed his armies on the Soviet Union.
Following the launching of, "Barbarossa.," the surprise Nazi military
operation, came the largest and most horrible series of land battles in all
history. Millions died in the crucible of battle and the tyrannies
that followed.
"The Hidden Door" follows the lives of
individuals caught in the tragedy. Two families, the Goronavichs and the
Hiembergs, struggle to survive in the Kiev area of Ukraine. Their lives are
battered, as one ruthless corrupt system is replaced by one even more sadistic
and barbaric. German and Soviet soldiers involved in the war experience its
horrors and witness the unbelievable suffering inflicted by its aftermath.
Events in their lives are chronicled over a six-month period as their paths
converge at one of humanities most shameful events, the massacre at BabiYar.
They attempt to cope with the oppression, destruction, and death surrounding
them, fighting for their right to live, love and have hope for the future.
Their faith, their traditions, their belief in the human spirit is all they have
to help them endure. Evidence that they dare to hope is the love story of
Tatyanna and Rolf, the peasant girl and Wehrmacht soldier; it's the bones which
carry the story's flesh.
In the West, little is known of these events.
This novel provides the reader with knowledge and a sometimes frightening
insight into this period and place, the zenith of man's loss of his
humanity. Understanding what happened then is crucial in understanding
what is happening today. The Hidden Door chronicles historical events and timetables, military movements, regional and religious customs, even military
equipment from this conflict. All were carefully researched and are accurately
portrayed in the writing of this novel.
The author's inspiration for the book was an association he had
with two Ukrainians who weathered the inferno and told him stories of their
survival. Many of their agonizing
experiences are blended into the novel. The terror they suffered and
survived provide important lessons for today's reader.
"Open
Minds, Open Books"
Keana-eno-pa-watchee 
