AFTER WAR, THEIR `ONE DAY' CAME.Byline: Dennis McCarthy Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
The kid was down to 85 pounds, sick and weak, when he stood at attention in front of a concentration camp commandant sipping on schnapps schnapps n. pl. schnapps Any of various strong dry liquors, such as a strong Dutch gin. [German Schnaps, mouthful, schnapps, from Low German snaps, from and stroking a snarling snarl 1 v. snarled, snarl·ing, snarls v.intr. 1. To growl viciously while baring the teeth. 2. To speak angrily or threateningly. v.tr. German shepherd German shepherd, breed of large, muscular working dog perfected in Germany at the turn of the 20th cent. It stands about 25 in. (64 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 60 to 85 lb (27.2–38.5 kg). lying at his feet. It was the winter of 1943. ``What would you like me to play, Herr Commandant?'' the Jewish kid asked the Nazi officer. ``Play something from Schubert, you miserable dog,'' the commandant replied, throwing the kid one of three harmonicas he had on his desk. Henry Rosmarin, 17, felt his knees buckle. Schubert. It had been years since he had picked up a harmonica harmonica. 1 The simplest of the musical instruments employing free reeds, known also as the mouth organ or French harp. It was probably invented in 1829 by Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin, who called his instrument the Mundäoline. and played something as difficult as Schubert. And now his life depended on it. One bad note, one miscue mis·cue n. 1. Games A stroke in billiards that misses or just brushes the ball because of a slip of the cue. 2. A mistake. intr.v. mis·cued, mis·cu·ing, mis·cues 1. , and he would be nothing more than a human rag doll for that snarling German shepherd to tear into. The kid closed his eyes and thought of Jadzia. He put the beautiful, young face of his girlfriend in the center of his mind as he brought the harmonica to his lips. Then he played Schubert like he had never played Schubert before. She was standing at the top of the stairs in her mother's house the first time the kid saw her. The room was hot and crowded with adults clandestinely celebrating the high holidays of 1939. The Nazis who had overrun their small town on the Poland-Germany border had forbidden groups of more than 10 to congregate, but the 100 Jews who gathered inside this room had chosen to obey a higher authority. Quietly, they said their prayers from a Torah that had been smuggled smug·gle v. smug·gled, smug·gling, smug·gles v.tr. 1. To import or export without paying lawful customs charges or duties. 2. To bring in or take out illicitly or by stealth. out of a synagogue before the Nazis burned it to the ground. The kid's eyes wandered from the Torah to the girl at the top of the stairs. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. ``Come down, let's talk,'' the kid said, walking over to the stairs. The girl only giggled. ``Please,'' the kid implored her. She giggled again, but she came down. Her name was Jadzia, she said, and she was 12. His name was Henry, he said, and he had just turned 14. They would spend the next two years becoming best friends - taking long walks together and clandestinely dancing to Benny Goodman Noun 1. Benny Goodman - United States clarinetist who in 1934 formed a big band (including black as well as white musicians) and introduced a kind of jazz known as swing (1909-1986) Benjamin David Goodman, Goodman, King of Swing records snuck snuck v. Usage Problem A past tense and a past participle of sneak. See Usage Note at sneak. into their town. ``One day, when the war is over, we will go back to school, then get married,'' the kid told her. She called him a dreamer. ``Don't you know what the Nazis have planned for us?'' she asked. ``There will be no one day.'' The kid told her she was wrong, but three weeks later, the Nazis went through their town rounding up every Jewish family and sending them off to concentration camps. Jadzia and her family were sent to Auschwitz. Henry - separated from his parents, who would die in the camps - was sent to a work camp in Czechoslovakia, the first of seven camps he would be in during the next 2-1/2 years. ``We will meet back here one day,'' he told Jadzia before they were separated. ``I love you.'' She smiled and blew him a kiss. ``I love you, too,'' she said, trying to smile. But there was fear and despair in her eyes. When the kid finished playing Schubert on the harmonica, he held his breath, afraid to make eye contact with the camp commandant stroking the head of his dog. The Nazi officer hesitated, then reached behind him for a loaf of bread - about a week's ration of food for the Jews in the camp. He threw the bread at the kid. ``Here, eat, dog,'' he said. Then he told his orderly to get the kid a better job in the camp. He wound up working all day in the kitchen and playing the harmonica for the guards and officers at night. When the Russians liberated the camp in 1945, Henry Rosmarin made his way home. His ``one day'' had finally come. But had Jadzia's? ``She was not there when I got back to my town,'' Rosmarin said from his home in the West Valley on Friday, getting ready to pick up his wife at the beauty parlor. ``I went from town to town looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. her. Someone said they heard the typhoid typhoid or typhoid fever Acute infectious disease resembling typhus (and distinguished from it only in the 19th century). Salmonella typhi, usually ingested in food or water, multiplies in the intestinal wall and then enters the bloodstream, causing got her in the camps. I was devastated dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. . ``Then one night my cousin came to my apartment and told me to sit down so I wouldn't faint. I asked her what had happened. ``She had been getting off a street car when a girl had come up to her and asked if she was Jewish. When my cousin said yes, the girl asked her if she knew a boy named Henry. She had been looking for him. ``When I heard that, I ran downstairs, and Jadzia was standing there. We embraced and we cried. Then, we kissed. Our first kiss.'' Tonight at the Skirball Center, Temple Ner Maarav in Encino will be honoring all survivors of the Holocaust. There will also be a special celebration for a Valley couple celebrating 50 years of marriage. An old harmonica player named Henry, and his wife, Janet, who used to go by the name Jadzia. CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO (color) Holocaust survivors There are many famous Holocaust survivors who survived the Nazi genocides in Europe and went on to achievements of great fame and notability. Those listed here were, at the very least, residents of the parts of Europe occupied by the Axis powers during World War II who survived Janet and Henry Rosmarin live in Van Nuys. Evan Yee/Daily News |
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