| Len's uncle
Judah straightens out a mess in Bremen
I stayed in Berlin only two days, because I wanted to save money. I couldn’t afford to spend too much money. I had to go to Bremen. Bremen was my destination, because I took off on the ship, I sailed from Bremen. So, I went to Bremen, and I stopped at a hotel again.
And from the hotel, I had to go the the gasthaus, the gasthaus, that was built and maintained by German Jews, I think from the Jews of all of Germany, because Bremen was the only port that ships would take from, but it was a beautiful gasthaus. Beautiful rooms to sleep with beds for men, let’s say 8 in a room or 10 in a room, but there was a lot of space. There was a distance from one bed to another maybe as far, as much space as it would take for a bedroom in America. And they were beautifully made. There were girls working there, keeping it clean, every thing. And the food was wonderful.
After I had stayed a couple of days in the hotel, maybe 3 or 4 days, and I was told to wait two weeks for a ship. I had to live there two weeks. So, I thought I had better move over to the gasthaus. And I moved over. And there was another incident at the gasthaus, and I want to record it here. Very interesting.
The man in charge of the gasthaus was a Jew. He would come in once a day. He was in charge of maintaining it. I suppose he paid the help and so forth. But, he didn’t have his office there. He had his office maybe across the street or elsewhere, I don’t know. The immigrants that were waiting there for ships, some of them had waited about 4 weeks, 5 weeks, 6 weeks. It’s a long time. They told me that he’s a mischief [sic]. He’s one of the most vicious people they ever saw. He would always come and denounce them, and he would always call them “Farfluchte Ostjuden” “Cursed Eastern Jews.” They used that word farfluchte. It’s a terrible thing that a man should do that.
So, I... You’ll have to excuse me. This happened before I moved into the gasthaus. That happened on my second day in Berlin [sic] , when I was in Bremen, when I was still at the hotel. So, after I was told it by a whole group, it must have been about 25-30 people, they saw me, they thought I was God’s son or something like that, and they complained. Everybody told me something like that. I said, “Listen, my friends, I am an immigrant myself. Accept my advice. I am staying at a hotel. But we’ll straighten this matter out. You just let this man know when he comes, and he comes every day. One of them say [sic] that there is a correspondent from Warsaw, from the HaTsefira newspaper. He came to see how conditions are here.” That’s a fact.
And I went, I just went away. The next day I came again. I came, and he was waiting for me. The man was sitting in there where the immigrants were sitting and talking, a tall, very handsome man, with a pointed beard, a real German. He walked up to me. “Guten Morgen, mein Haar.”
I said “Morgen.” I said, “You know I’m Jewish, and I’m representing the HaTsefira.” He said, “Oh, I heard of the HaTsefira. Nahum Sokolow is the editor.”
I said, “Yes, yes, yes.” I said, “Do you know who the editor before him was?”
He says he knows, “Slonimsky.”
I said, “You are a very well informed person.” I said, “The reports have been reaching us that conditions in this home are not very favorable, so I was delegated to go and find out. After all, hundreds and hundreds and thousands of Jews are going through Bremen, and” I said, “they are all unfortunates, people who have suffered, people that are seeking a new life. They need comfort. They need consolation. So, we want to know whether things like that are actually happening.”
So, he says, “Oh no, no, no. Things like that never happen. We understand the situation, we understand conditions” and so on and so forth.
I said, “Well, I’ll tell you. I have decided to go from here to America. I have been delegated to go to America, also, to escort a group of immigrants on the boat Bremen, because that also has a bad reputation, and we want to find out how they are being treated on that trip.”
He says, “Go ahead. I think it’s a wonderful thought. I think it’s a wonderful thought.”
Now, I saw him only once again, and then I told him I was going to move into this house myself for some time in order to live with the immigrants. He told me, “This is wonderful. A man like you will give them a lot of encouragement, and they will be very happy seeing you.”
I said, “I hope so. I really have the hope. I really have the hope.” And we departed as very good friends. I never said a bad word to him. But there was no such treatment. While I was there, they were offered the best of food. I don’t know. Maybe after I had left, things had changed. But this is what happened. This is one of the incidents.
I wonder whether or not I could perform that way nowadays. I couldn’t. In those days I had courage. I don’t know.
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