Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Yetta Keller and Isaac B. Singer

Following is a fragment of an interview with Yetta Keller, at the time an 80-year old Holocaust survivor.

"Do you know when I learned that G‑d exists?" Yetta asked one day.

Living in Poland amongst anti-Semitic peasants created many difficulties for the Jews. Yetta's sister had purchased a house shortly after her marriage, but was approached one day by a Polish neighbor, demanding that they vacate the home lest he murder the entire family. Yetta's sister refused. He made it clear that he expected the house to be empty upon his return from a nearby market.

Yetta then paused for a moment and said, "And do you know what happened? He came back with his head separated from his body."

Apparently, he had gotten into a drunken brawl and had his head cut off by another Pole.

"Then," Yetta continued, "I realized there is a G‑d in this world."

The only link to berets here, is the fact that Yetta Keller worked in a beret factory (I have to compromise sometimes), but her story is well worth reading.book cover of  A Day of Pleasure  by Isaac Bashevis Singer Actually, it reminded me so much of the short stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer - beautiful stories in all their sadness of a bygone era.

No comments:

Post a Comment