When the Nazis stormed into Lithuania on June 22, 1941, the fate of Lithuanian Jewry seemed sealed. The Jews of Lithuania were immediately rounded up and forced into ghettos they were told would protect them from the war. The Nazi regime, with the help of Lithuanian...
Hopping off the Inca Rail and leaping onto the cracked platform, the sun’s harsh rays mercilessly pierced my innocent eyes. I was suddenly smothered by a heavy blanket of pure heat that weighed me down like a lead anchor. After a mere five minutes, beads of sweat...
The air is sweet but there’s a dense filling that hangs between the lengthy gaps. It’s the first scent I smell when I step off the plane, my nine-year-old feet planting themselves in the place it all started. Although I was born in a Chinese immigrant family in the...
“They’re just a pair of white Converse,” my mother tells me. Behind her, I sulkily gaze out of the dusty car window, endeavoring to translate the Arabic billboards in an attempt to distract myself from the recent ill-fated event. She turns around in her seat to gaze...
The gondoliers in striped shirts and brimmed hats floating through the canals, the flocks of swarming pigeons in St. Mark’s Square, the tight, secluded streets, and the beautifully constructed bridges and archways… the beauty of Italy was overwhelming. Prior to...
