Chance Encounter

Forward

In the American Jewish community there are thousands, perhaps millions of assimilated secular Jews who grew to their maturity in the period of World War II and the post war era.  They learned of the Holocaust, but emotionally buried the tragedy as a historical occurrence that impacted others, not them.   They supported Israel, gave money to Jewish causes, but buried any strong emotion concerning the deaths of the six million. 

On the other hand there were Germans who grew up during this period.  The Holocaust was something not to be mentioned or discussed and the popular notion was that the German populace were victims of the war.  The view was they were victims of Hitler, the Nazi party and the Allies who bombed the cities, killed their men and forced twenty years of reconstruction.  The rebuilding of the country was more important than the acceptance of either guilt or responsibility for the tragedy of the European war or its dirty secrets  was the popular attitude.  Some things were not to be spoken about.

This novel is about two men, an assimilated American Jew, and a successful post war German executive. This is their story.

Chapter 1:

 Newark, New Jersey

Pre War and the War – Georges Story

It was over 65 years ago, but I still remember the letters.  Each Monday, my grandmother would hand me three envelopes, two addressed to her brothers and one to her sister.  The address was to town with a strange name, “Ozarow” in the Kielce region of Poland, which didn’t mean much to a skinny 8-year-old kid who looked for every possible distraction on the way to school. My thoughts were on dodge ball and tag-you-are-it games played in the schoolyard and the marbles in my pocket.  Getting to the yard early assured me of being on the better teams playing before the first school bell. 

Grandma was Bella Wall, just past her 52^nd birthday and in the United States nineteen years. She was “Big Grandma” behind her back and Mama to her face.  Since my mother worked in the candy store with my father, I was often left in her care.  I felt I had the privilege of two mothers, both of whom loved and cared for me. She was “Big Grandma” dominating her household of my father, mother, me and an aunt who was born two years after she came to the US, and, of course Grandp