"The Paper Swan"B – March 1943

Lonny was just ten years old when they came for her.
She was still small enough to be carried, still young enough to believe that if she squeezed her eyes shut, she might open them at home again—with her paper dolls and the sound of Mama singing in the kitchen.

The night before she was taken away, Lonny sat quietly, folding one last paper swan from the edge of a torn bread wrapper. She named it “Freiheit”—which means freedom. Without saying anything, she slipped it into the pocket of her coat.

On the train to Auschwitz, she softly told stories to the little swan, as if it could carry her words to someone far away.
To someone who might still be safe.
To someone who might still remember her.

Lonny did not survive.
But many years later, a paper swan was found—flattened and yellowed—hidden between the floorboards of an old apartment in Berlin. It had once belonged to the Krotoschiner family.

In a child’s handwriting, just barely readable, were the words:
“Ich bin Lonny. Ich war hier. Bitte vergesst mich nicht.”
“I am Lonny. I was here. Please don’t forget me.”


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