After dinner, the children went off to do their own thing while Ben and Leah, and Mikhail and Sonya viewed Mikhail’s grandmother’s beautiful and very old Jewish antiques including a collection of dreidles of all sizes, a kiddush cup, two menorahs, a set of candle sticks and four wine glasses and a wine bottle. They discussed each in turn.
“Those are absolutely exquisite,” said Leah, “and you’ve kept them in such good condition.”
“Thank you, I wouldn’t part with them for the world. They remind me so much of my grandparents,” said Mikhail.
“I know what you mean,” said Leah.
“When I told my sister that you were coming and that I would show you our grandparent’s things, she gave me something I would like to show you.” He took it out of a drawer and gave it to Leah. “I never even knew about it. She remembered packing it away years ago in her attic, so she gave it to me to add to what I already had and said I should ask you what it is. Neither one of us knows for sure.”
Leah held it and turned it eying every centimeter. “Oh, this is beautiful,” she said. “It’s called a Yad—that’s Hebrew for hand. When the Rabbi, or anyone, reads from the Torah, like we do on Sabbath, the reader can hold this and point to the part he is reading with the little hand and little index finger at the end of the long handle. It isn’t a requirement that one uses it, but the idea is that the Torah parchment is considered sacred and it doesn’t absorb the ink, so if the Torah is touched with the fingers, it could damage the letters. Look Ben, did you ever see such a beautiful Yad?”
“No. That is truly exquisite,” he said with genuine admiration.
“What is this chain at the end opposite the finger?” asked Mikhail.
“That’s what is used to hang it from the Torah for safekeeping after the Torah is read and covered up and put away until the next time.”
“Ah…that’s good to know,” said Mikhail. “Thank you so much. Now we know all about everything my grandmother left us. I showed this collection to someone years ago, without the Yad, and they wanted to buy it. But I will never sell it.”
“I wouldn’t either; never in a million years,” said Ben.
Mikhail added, “I was thinking that when Sonya and I are old we might donate it to a Jewish museum, so that people can always enjoy it.”
“That is a great idea and very thoughtful,” said Leah.
“Thanks for the information. I’ll tell my sister,” said Mikhail. “I have another question, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure, what is it,” said Ben.
“My guess would be that the condition for Jews was not good in Germany and that’s why you moved to Byelorussia.”
“Not good is an understatement,” said Ben. I believed our lives were in danger. Not only the Frohmans, but all the Jews of Germany; Hitler and his Nazi Party’s hatred knows no bounds.”
“You were wise to run from that madman. People who hate like that can never change. If they ever feel threatened, they’ll do whatever it takes to get rid of the threat. How did Hitler handle the threat from Roehm and his supporters in ‘34? It wasn’t a problem for him. He killed them…simple. That’s how dictators work. We have our own dictator here—Stalin.”
“Really? I know so little about him. In Germany all we read about is how great Hitler is,” said Ben, “Tell me something about Stalin.”
“Well, when Stalin was a young man and an early member of the Communist Party, the Czar put him in Siberia twice. When Lenin overthrew the Czar in 1917, Stalin became part of the organization. He was too clever, though. He took advantage of his position and built up a power base. When Lenin died, there was a fight for power between Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Well, you know who won that battle. Stalin’s in charge and Trotsky was clever enough to flee for his life. Nobody even knows where he is today. And if he’s smart, he’ll never show his face again—if he wants to live that is.”
“Dictators seem to be all alike, don’t they?” asked Ben.
“That’s the nature of the job. It’s kill or be killed the way I see it. Look what Stalin did with the Ukraine.”
“What’s your take on it?” asked Ben.
“Ukraine was one of the only parts of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that resisted Stalin’s collectivizing all the peasants. They like their own independence; they always have. Stalin said…no chance, so he made the peasants turn over most of the grain quota to the state. That’s why there was massive starvation there. Millions died.”
“You are giving me a real education, Mikhail, I appreciate this. He turned to Leah, and said, “I hope you’re taking this all in, Leah.”
“Yes, I am.”
“And I haven’t mentioned those who died in the Gulags, all to cement Stalin’s dynasty,” answered Mikhail. “And when he had finished, he turned on opposition within his own party. Talk about paranoia…he wrote the book on it. If you offered opposition to his leadership you disappeared.”
Ben turned to Leah and said, “Did you hear that, Leah; just what I said about Hitler. Paranoia and narcissism must be a trait of all dictators.”
“I don’t doubt it at all,” said Mikhail. “All they see is enemies ‘of the State.’ And ‘enemies of the State’ cannot live. They have a single minded purpose in life—power and control—that’s all they live for; it’s all that drives them. Nothing must get in the way. He’s getting rid of opposition as we speak.”
“Have you heard about Hitler’s Mein Kampf, Mikhail?” asked Ben.
“I heard about it, but I haven’t read it.”
“I read it about ten years ago. I got it from a friend of mine. I read it from the standpoint of his anti-Semitism, but he also talked about what he called the German need for Lebensraum, living space, and he meant the Soviet Union. On top of that, in his mind all Communists are Jews. In fact, he doesn’t talk about Jews separate from Communists. He refers to them as the Jewish-Communist menace. So with him hating Communism, and his opinion that his country needs more living space in the Soviet Union, what does Stalin think about that?”
“There were a few attacks on Hitler in the press, but beside that you don’t hear much about it. You’re right though, the conversations I have at work tell me that they view Hitler as a threat. You know that we helped Germany after World War I by setting up some military training sites for them in Russia, so they could dodge the Versailles Treaty, but when Germany signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Poland we terminated the German military training sites.”
“What did Hitler have to say about that?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure he wasn’t happy and it strained our relationship with him further. I do know that Litvinov who is the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and also a Jew, considers Hitler to be the greatest threat to the Soviet Union and he worries that we don’t have a strong enough military, so he’s trying to contain Germany by working with other countries and the League of Nations. This is a chess battle for the world.”
Ben laughed, “Poor Hitler. Doesn’t he know that the Russians are the greatest chess players in the world?”
Mikhail laughed. “Let’s hope he doesn’t have to find out. By the way, the Jews aren’t the only people Hitler would like to get rid of.”
“Well, in his Mein Kampf he wasn’t too keen on the Slavs,” said Ben.
“That’s it. He views the Slavs as all Central and Eastern Europeans, and he refers to them as the masses put on the earth to serve and obey.”
“Serve and obey him, I suppose,” said Ben.
That’s