Epilogue

                Oskar and Beatrice Liepold stayed in Stockholm all their lives.  Oskar became a physician, and Beatrice worked as a teacher for young children.  They had one son, Kurt, born in 1947.  Oskar died of cancer in 1981.  He never went back to Judaism.

            A romance developed between Caleb Liepold and Gissela Dantziger.  They married in 1950 and moved to New York City shortly afterward.  There, they opened a bookstore, just as Gissela had predicted she would.  The retrieved books from the Youth Group’s library were held on display there for all to see.  Caleb and Gissela had four children, David, Danuta, Max, and Maria.  Caleb and his oldest son, David, still run the store.

            Cora Liepold and Victor Meyerhoff married in January of 1947 in Stockholm.  They moved to the United States a year later.  Shortly after the move, Cora became concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the first woman to ever hold the post.  Tory became a high school literature and speech teacher, despite the fact that English was not his primary language.  In 1951, he had a book published about his own experiences in the years of the Holocaust.  Gissela and Caleb’s store still carries it today.  In 1952, Hannah Meyerhoff was born, named for Cora’s mother.  Allen Meyerhoff was born four years later.

            Cora played in with the Philadelphia Orchestra as concertmaster until 1985, when she stepped down but continued as concertmaster emeritus.  She and Tory now live comfortably outside of Philadelphia, but make frequent visits to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington, DC, where Tory is a well-respected lecturer.

            During an interview at USHMM, Cora, aged sixty-nine, was asked what her greatest motivation was to live and survive during the Holocaust.  She looked over at an elderly Tory Meyerhoff and replied, “Now, I do think I’ve been asked that one before.  I remember I said my family, my friends, myself.  Then a very smart young gentleman told me that the Nazis could not put a law on our minds.  We had to be strong then and continue asking why.  And we have to be strong now.  We must do all we can to prevent such a tragedy from every happening again.  If we continue asking questions, we will ultimately find the answers we are searching for.”

Author’s Final Note: More Questions than Answers or as I affectionately call this novel, “Cora,” is exhausting, but I’ve never been more proud.  I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed reading it.  The characters and their personalities have been with me for so many years, they are almost a part of me.  I care deeply for them.

The master plan is the continue Cora, Victor, Caleb, and Gissela’s story in The House on Grevgatan which is available here at if you click on my author and read my other works.

Phantom Pain follows Cora’s older brother, Jonas, along his journey to Palestine in the years after the war.

Thanks everyone.  Don’t stop questioning things.  Good Music, A.