The girl also gets excited when she sees the young man. In an effort to express her feelings, she throws a red apple over the fence. For a soldier in those conditions, it means a life, a sign of hope and love, and he is happy. The young man takes the apple that the young girl held out. A bright light touched his darkness.
The next day, he can’t help but look beyond the fence, even though he thinks it’s crazy to even hope to see this young girl again. The young girl on the other side of the barbed wire wishes to see again the face that excited her so much. She comes running to the edge of the fence with the apple in her hand. Despite her blizzard and freezing weather, when the girl stretches the apple over the barbed wire, her heart is once again filled with warm feelings.
This scene is repeated over several days. They can’t wait to see each other, even if it’s just for a moment and just a few words. At the last of this momentary encounter, the young soldier with a sad face and a trembling voice said:
– Don’t bring me an apple tomorrow, I won’t be here. They’re sending me to another camp,” he says, and walks away too bitterly to go back and say goodbye.
From that day on, the image of that sweet girl comes to life in his eyes in his sad moments. His eyes, his words, his kindness, his purity, his shy facial expression… The young man’s entire family died in the war. The life he had known had vanished entirely, and only this one memory remained alive, continuing to give him hope.
In 1957 in the United States, two adults, both immigrants, who do not know each other, meet through their friends.
– Where were you during the war? asks the woman.
“I was in a concentration camp in Germany,” the man replies.
The woman dives away for a moment with a sweet smile, and then:
– I remember throwing an apple at a youth in a concentration camp. For a few days, we would talk and exchange glances with the soldier on the other side of the fence from the same place. Then he left. But I have never forgotten it. I always loved. I loved it a lot.
The man asks in surprise:
Did that youth ever say to you, “Don’t bring any more apples, because I’m being sent to another camp”?
The woman, in a very surprised tone, said:
– Yes. But how do you know that? she asks.
The man looks into the woman’s eyes.
“I was that young soldier. For years, I always thought, I always filled my dreams with the memories of those beautiful few days. Will you marry me?”
On Valentine’s Day 1996, on the set of the Oprah Vintfrey television show, the same man once again expressed his love for his wife of forty years in front of millions.