NYNIAGAR-L Archives

From: "Vee L. Housman" <>
Subject: Rachel's Story
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 02:27:13 -0500

Dear Group,

The following is a three-part story that I wrote but never finished that was
to have been included in a book that I was determined to write about Niagara
Falls during World War II. Note: I never finished writing the book.

The story was based 99% upon an interview in 1994 that I had with Dr. Howard
Posner, DDS, who was a young Jewish boy who had arrived in Niagara Falls
with his parents in 1940 after their escape from Germany in 1939. Dr.
Posner told me many things that I didn't know about the Jews in Germany at
the time and about how the Jews in Niagara Falls took in the Jewish
immigrants.

Although I had named the little girl Rachel, she was in fact Howard Posner.
This was his story. Note: He died in 1995.

RACHEL'S STORY

The New Student

"Children, we have a new student in our class," the teacher said as she led
the shy girl into the fourth-grade classroom. "Her name is Rachel
Kellerman."

Ginny stared at the girl. Somehow she looked foreign. Her clothes didn't
look quite right. She looked like . . . well, she just looked different.

"Rachel's family are refugees who had to flee from Germany and I want all
of you to make her feel at home here."

Well, no wonder she looked foreign--she was. She was a German. But, wait
a minute. A German? One of the enemy? Something didn't seem quite right.
I wonder what she's doing here, Ginny thought.

The teacher led the girl to a vacant desk next to Ginny. Rachel quietly
sat down, averting her eyes from the stares. She sat with her head bowed,
not looking at anybody.

Ginny sensed that the girl was uneasy about being there and that she didn't
like being the center of attention. I'll have to let her know that I'm glad
she's sitting next to me. Maybe we could be friends, Ginny thought.

When the class was dismissed at noontime to go home for lunch, Ginny had to
run to catch up with Rachel who was walking with long strides as if she
couldn't get away fast enough. "Wait a minute, Rachel," Ginny said
breathlessly as she caught up with her.

Rachel looked around when she heard her name. She had a frightened look on
her face. It softened, though, when she saw that it was Ginny. She had
noticed Ginny in school.

"I just wanted to say hi to you. My name is Ginny."

"Oh, hello. I am pleased to meet you," Rachel said formally.

Ginny noticed how slowly Rachel said each word. It was as if she was
having difficulty finding the right words to use. Besides, she had a funny
way of pronouncing words.

Ginny fell into step with her. "Where do you live? Maybe we could walk
together."

"I live on Main Street above the barber shop," she said slowly as before.

"Swell. We're going in the same direction. Is it OK if I walk with you?"
Ginny really wasn't certain that she was welcome.

"I would like that," Rachel replied and Ginny noticed that she looked more
relaxed. She had even slowed her steps.

There had been a January thaw which had melted the snow and ice from the
sidewalks. It made walking pleasant and the two girls enjoyed the bright
sunshine. It almost felt like spring. Ginny had to remind herself, though,
that 1942 had only just begun and that spring was still months away.

"The teacher said that you're from Germany. Is that right?" Ginny asked.
She was still very curious about that.

"Yes, we are from a town by the name of Freyung. It is near the border of
Czechoslovakia."

That still didn't explain it. "The teacher said that you had to flee
Germany. Why?" Ginny was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Rachel stopped and looked straight into Ginny's eyes. With a deliberate
tone to her voice, she replied, "Because we are Jews." She studied Ginny's
face looking for any signs of prejudice in it as a result of what she had
just told her. All she could find was a look of puzzlement and raised
eyebrows.

"What does your religion have to do with it? Don't they like Jews in
Germany?" Ginny still didn't have a clue to the mystery.

"But, certainly you know what has been happening to the Jews in Germany."
She couldn't believe that Ginny wasn't aware of what had been going on since
1933.

"No. What happened?" Now, Ginny was beginning to get the feeling that
there might be more to the story than she realized.

"There is too much to tell you at one time. Besides, I'm almost home.
Maybe we could talk some more if you would like." Rachel was surprised that
she was feeling so at ease with Ginny. She wasn't used to being relaxed
with anyone outside her own family. It felt nice for a change.

"Oh, I'd like to know everything!" Ginny had the feeling that it would be
an exciting story. She was glad that Rachel seemed to want to be her
friend. "Do you want me to stop by on the way back to school this
afternoon? We could walk together again and maybe talk some more."

"Yes, I would like that." Rachel then thought to herself, I wonder if
Ginny could possibly grasp the meaning of what has happened. It's difficult
enough for me to understand it.

THIS IS WHAT HAD HAPPENED

Hitler founded the Nazi party and when he came to power on January 30,
1933, it was obvious from the beginning that one thing he was determined to
do was to rid Germany of all its Jews. He said that the poverty and hunger
that Germany was going through during the worldwide depression years was
because of the Jews.

Rachel never was able to figure out how the Jews could possibly be
responsible. Jews, for the most part, were just hard-working shopkeepers.

Rachel was born in 1931 and was too young to remember the routine lives her
parents led before 1933. Rachel could only remember what it was like since
Hitler changed everything.

The small city of Freyung was an ordinary German city with small shops
lining the main street. Her father, Otto Kellerman, had a men's clothing
store and most of the local men bought from him. But Hitler changed all of
that in the first few months of 1933. He decided that one of the ways to
run the Jews out of Germany was to shut down their businesses.

On the morning of April 1, Otto had just opened up his store for the day's
business when he heard a commotion outside. A dozen uniformed Nazi soldiers
were coming down the street carrying large posters instructing the German
people, "Defend Yourselves! Do not buy from Jews." Some of them carried
buckets of yellow paint. They had a list with them of which stores were
owned by Jews and they systematically went to each store and painted huge
yellow Jewish stars on the store fronts and paraded back and forth in front
of the stores with the posters.

When Otto saw them approaching his store, he knew there was nothing he
could do to stop them from doing the same thing to his own store. He knew
that if he tried to stop them, they might kill him. So he just stood back
and said nothing. He watched as they nailed up a sign above his door. It
read, "Jewish business!" He knew that it would stop anyone who was not a
Jew from buying anything from him anymore. He would lose the majority of
his customers.

And the same thing happened at the places of business of the Jewish doctors
and lawyers.

In May the Nazis publicly burned all books written by Jews and those books
they considered "un-German." People sang Nazi songs and cheered when the
books were thrown onto the fire. They cheered again when someone shouted
out, "Jewish intellectualism is dead!" What they meant by that was that
they felt that burning the intelligent writings of the Jews, was destroying
any evidence of the Jews' intelligence.

This thread:

• Rachel's Story by "Vee L. Housman" <>