How serious this sounds,

how unlike Lisa,

who is full of fun.

The fun’s still there,

but the serious takes up more space,

and so Lisa gets right to the point,

which is:

We are Jews in Germany,

in Hitler’s Nazi Germany,

and the Nazis hate Jews

with a power so strong

we must match their hate

with will.

What is will?

It’s courage. It’s strength.

It’s seeing the Nazi hate everywhere—

signs in restaurants that say

JEWS UNWELCOME,

signs in stores,

JUDEN VERBOTEN,

no Jews on playgrounds,

no Jews in libraries.…

It’s feeling the Nazi hate

and laughing with your girlfriends anyway.

No Jews as Germans. Yes, this is a law!

And this is truly something

to laugh at.

Lisa’s family has been German forever—

generations of Jewish Germans,

speaking German,

playing German music,

reading German books.

Lisa’s family is more German than Adolf Hitler!

(He comes from Austria.)

But now—poof!—they are not German.

Now—abracadabra!—Jews are not Germans.

It is the law.

Jews are only Jews

and “pure” Germans are Aryans,

which is the special name

the Nazis made up for themselves.

Speaking of names,

here is another law:

No Jews with names that sound Aryan.

Like what—Adolf?

Will is power, Lisa writes.

Sometimes will is laughing at crazy rules

(quietly, privately,

for we wouldn’t want the Nazis to hear).

But sometimes—

will is tickets to leave Germany.

That’s what Lisa and her family have:

tickets for a big ship

to take them to America.

They leave in a few weeks.

Will is power.

But for me,

it is hard to have will.

It is hard to feel power

when a friend is leaving.