“Wow,” said David. You’re right, he is nuts.”
“Well this nut runs a country, wants to conquer the world, and hates Jews, so where does that put us? That’s all I’m asking.”
“What kind of a weirdo thinks like that?” asked David.
Ben looked at his son who had a quizzical look on his face. He smiled and said, “That’s an excellent question, David. Do you want me to give you a medical analysis…or at least what I think about him and his warped mind?”
“Yeah, that would be good. I want to be a doctor like you, you know.”
“Okay, David, here’s what I think. Did you ever hear of the word narcissist?”
“Uhh, no.”
“Well, a narcissist is someone who has a personality disorder that gives one a feeling of great self-importance. They are preoccupied with themselves. They know it all. They know what’s best for everyone.”
“Well, that fits him alright,” shot back David.
“Yes, and it can get dangerous,” said Ben, “Because they create such a personality cult around themselves that the people are mesmerized. The narcissist is usually a great speaker and they can almost hypnotize their followers and give them hope. People become like putty in the hands of a pathological narcissist who tries to shape the world to his way of thinking. The bad news is that they can succeed. Their personality is so forceful that they will usually reach their final objective because they turn their admirers to their way of thinking. Power is all they are concerned about and it does not matter whom their reach for power affects. Everything in a narcissist’s life is about him and everything that is not about him and his goal is nothing.”
“That’s scary,” said David.
“Scary is not the word for it. Dangerous is a better word because this narcissist has the Jews in his bulls eye and his main goal is to rid the world of them!”
“I don’t know, dad, but I think all this is leading up to the fact that you’re about to tell me we’re leaving the country.”
“That’s right, David. Let me get your mother and Emily in here. I want us all to be part of this discussion now. Leah,” he called aloud.
“Yes,” she answered from the living room.
“Can you come in the kitchen? I’ve just been talking to David.”
“Be right there,” said Leah.
Leah Rozenovich Frohman was also a refugee from Russia arriving in Germany three years after her future husband. They both were one of the Eastern European Jewish refugees, or Ostjuden, (Eastern European Jews), whose families were fleeing the anti-Semitism of the Russian Czar. The Ostjuden, considered by the Nazis and even other Jews as inferior, would arrive in the early years of the twentieth century, but didn’t know that they would have to deal with a future political party, Nazis, whose newspaper, The Voelkisher Beobachter, would publish the following on March 10. 1920:
‘There are various views on the ultimate aim and task of the German-National (deutsch-voelkisch) movement regarding the Jews. One believes that so-called explanatory work is all that is needed; the next only wants to “eliminate” the Jewish spirit from the “cultural” field; a third only from the economy and a fourth has other aims again, and all the opinions become confused...
Quite apart from this we consider that it is much more urgent and necessary that the local groups should seek to operate first of all on their home ground and to sweep away Ostjuden and Jewish vermin in general with an iron broom....The Ostjuden must be got rid of without delay, and ruthless measures must be taken immediately against all other Jews. Such measures might be, for instance, the immediate removal of Jews from all Government employment, newspaper offices, theaters, cinemas, etc.; in short, the Jew must be deprived of all possibilities to continue to make his disastrous influence felt. In order that the unemployed Semites cannot secretly undermine us and agitate against us, they should be placed in collecting camps.... Voelkischer Beobachter, No. 20/34, March 10, 1920.’
Hitler and his cronies, long before they came to power, had their plans all prepared— including future concentration camps—and published them for all to see. But who would notice and believe it? Indeed, as early as 1920, during the very early development of the Nazi party, the first few Nazis would establish their creed and future vision for Germany—a Germany free of Jews.
Leah, with Emily trailing behind, entered the kitchen and joined the two men at the able. Eight-year-old Emily looked just like her mother, with black hair, large hazel colored eyes, and a smile that could light up a room. She was sensing the tension in the household for the last six months, clinged closer to her mother and smiled less.
“What have my two favorite men been talking about?” asked Leah.
Ben answered, “David and I were talking about what we plan to do about conditions in the country. We got to the part that we’re going to move.”
“Yeah, but we didn’t talk about where yet,” interjected David.
“That’s right,” said Ben. “I was getting to that, but wanted your mother to be here first. We’re going to live in Minsk in Byelorussia. Right now, Minsk is in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republic (USSR), or Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia and other neighboring countries organized together. Your mother was born in Byelorussia and I was born not too far from there in Northeast Poland under Russian control.”
“Well at least there is no more Czar there,” said David, “but what about anti-Semitism?”
“No matter where we would go around the world, we’ll find people who hate, but in the Soviet Union as it’s now called, it’s better than here in Germany where now anti-Semitism is government policy and getting worse all the time. The good news is that when I went to Minsk to take a medical course, I lined up a good job in a clinic and hospital there for your mother and me. And I found a nice gym with good gymnastic equipment and a twenty-five meter swimming pool. It looked as nice as anything here does. I feel we should live okay. Your mother and I speak perfect Russian, which is the language there, and you and Emily do pretty well with it too. In no time, at all you will both be experts. You know how much your mother knows about history and current events and she too feels that we have to leave Germany.”
“You smart kids understand Russian pretty well, so it’ll be a good idea if we talk Russian from now on, so we’ll all be better by the time we get there. We’ll be leaving in three weeks as soon as school is over before the summer.”
Emily sobbed, left her chair, sat on her mother’s lap, threw her arms around her mother’s neck and said, “Will we be able to swim, Momma?”
“You bet we will, Emily, and you know, you said you want to be a nurse like mommy. Well, daddy