Theodore Odrach - Interviews

Audio

'The Chosen Ones: as told by Benny Blumenkranz', broadcast on WECS, Writers in the Attic, sponsored by Connecticut Review.

Listen to 'The Chosen Ones' by Theodore Odrach

   "Through the windows of our compartment the landscape passed quickly by; the train was coming from Augsburg and approached Nuremberg at high speed. Opposite me sat a young man with a tired Semitic face, slumping deep into his seat, snoring intermittently to the purring sound of the engine. Up on the ledge, directly above his head, lay an overstuffed suitcase, and I assumed he was some sort of salesman. He began to toss and turn, then slowly opening his eyes, asked in a loose German jargon how far we were from Nuremberg.
    "About half an hour," I replied.
    "Are you perhaps Polish?" he asked drowsily.
    "No, I'm from Czechoslovakia."
    A warm smile appeared on his face. "Ah, Czechoslovakia - Prague, Prague. Not in all my life have I seen as lovely a city as your Prague."
    At that moment the train came to a stop, numerous passengers boarded, then we continued on again.
    "I'm Benny Blumenkranz." He extended his hand, and sinking back in his seat, threw one leg over the other.
    "Pleased to meet you. I'm Igichek Dufek."
    As it turnedout my fellow-traveler was a Jew from Lodz and talked to me in Polish while I spoke Czech.
    "I really can't believe this war is over. What a nightmare it's been."
    "It's been hell, that's for sure," I agreed. "And the Jews got the worst end of it."
    "We've suffered all right. If you don't mind, Mr. Dufek, we Jews have a southern temperament, we like to talk, a bit too much sometimes, but we like to talk. Do you mind if I tell you a most incredible story?"