Re: [Cz-L] A personal experience

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Datum: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:20:07 +0200
Von: Danny and Sharon Alon <alonltd2_at_netvision.net.il>
An: Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu, \'CZERNOWITZ 2006
YAHOO LIST\' <czernowitz2006_at_yahoogroups.com>
Betreff: [czernowitz2006] A personal experience

> Hi All,
>
> I would like to share a personal experience I had earlier this week at the
> Internal Medicine ward where I work at the Meir General hospital in Kefar
> Sava. I entered room no. 10 during our morning rounds, and saw an elderly
> lady reading a German newspaper. The computer sheet stated that she was
> born
> in the former soviet union - a match that could only mean one thing. She
> then remarked something concerning the air conditioning, in German - and
> the
> accent was right. I asked her where she was born, and she started to
> mumble
> about today's Ukraine but insisted very firmly on being Austrian. "Well
> then, you are from Cz", I said. "Yes I am, I was born in Cz", she
> answered.
> "Have you ever heard of it?", she asked. "Well yes, I have," I answered,
> and
> then, having returned from Cz just recently, I continued - "and on which
> street in Cz exactly did you live?"
> At this point she stared at me, bewildered, and mumbled: "On the
> Rathausstrasse...". But I didn't give up - "Was it down the street, close
> to
> the Ringplatz, or a bit more upwards?"... At this point I had to confess
> and
> tell her about visiting the place myself recently.....
> What a feeling of intimacy.
> Danny
>
>

Hello, Renunion friends,
I also feel I must add another memory of such
"meetings": one day, about 12 years ago, in
Berlin I went shopping to buy some nice shoes for
an event which was to take place for the first
time there: the first Jewish Culture Festival.
The shop was empty, and I found nothing suitable,
so I was just leaving, when, at the entrance, I
saw a couple looking at shoes, and passing by, I
heard them speak an unusual but very familiar
German.
I came closer, looked at them and said, like
through a dream, looking at the woman:" are you
not Lya Koenig?" Yes, she said, very surprised,
and who
are you? I am Mocca/Martins®(my uncle from
Florida) niece. She and her husband,Herschale,
who is unfortunately dead now, came up to me,
embraced me and said something like :"how did you
know, etc. " I don¥t really know how I knew, I
had last seen Lya in Anna Frank in Romania in
1959, and not since, but I somehow knew it. They
had come to Berlin for the Jewish Festival, and
Zwi or Herschale was a good friend of my uncle.
This is the story, probably the Czernowitz accent
had attracted me and somehow my mind make the
connection with the Festival. But Lya has made
a wonderful sketch of this meeting, one should hear her tell it!!!
Gabriele
Received on 2006-07-13 19:41:28