The story begins with 14 year old Batya and her family pushing their belongings along a road away from their village in Russia. The village has just been burned down in a pogrom and her father believes they can eventually reach the Pale of Settlement and board a ship to America. Her mother knows better. They have no money for tickets for the ship. Upon reaching the Pale the family is offered temporary work at a tavern. They feel lucky. They finally have a roof over their heads and food to eat after weeks of travel.
While at the tavern, a wealthy Jewish man from America, Reb Moskowitz, passes through on his way to his home village to find a bride. When he sees Batya he falls in love and asks her father to marry her. Batya's father agrees to the marriage because Moskowitz is wealthy and can provide a wonderful life for his daughter. He is thinking, however, that the family can eventually join them in America. Batya does not want to marry him but goes along with the plan. To her surprise when they are about to board the ship for America Moskowitz leaves her with an assistant and stays in Russia. He has still not formally married her but has raped her twice because "he cannot resist such a beautiful bride." Of course, the assistant treats her the same while sailing for America. When the ship docks in Buenos Aires Batya realizes that she is in South America, not the country that she hoped to emigrate to. She quickly understands that she must live as a prostitute for Reb Moskowitz in order to survive. To resist meant torture and/or death by the powerful pimp association Zwi Migdal whose members included politicians and police officers.
The story was only graphic enough to get the point across to the reader what was happening to Batya and the other girls in her situation. It was not overly graphic sexually. The author added in characters from real life such as Baron Maurice de Hirsch who founded the Jewish Colonization Association in order to repatriate and educate Russian Jews. The pimp association, Zwi Migdal, actually existed in Buenos Aires. Members of Zwi Migdal would travel to Russia, Ukraine and other Eastern European countries to kidnap girls and force them into prostitution. Most of the girls ended up in Buenos Aires. If they tried to flee they were killed. Even if they stayed the life expectancy was no more than 10 years. These girls were kidnapped around age 14 and died by age 25. At 25 they were considered too old to prostitute and put out on the streets where they starved to death.
This book tells a not too well known part of Jewish history that occurred in the 1890s to 1910. It will be published next month on September 5, 2019. I highly recommend it. While it is a horrifying story, because it actually happened to approximately 150,000 - 200,000 girls I feel that we owe it to them to read their story.
