Defiant German, Defiant Jew: A Holocaust Memoir from inside the Third Reich (Holocaust Survivor Memoirs World War II Book 10) by Walter Leopold & Les Leopold

Author:Walter Leopold & Les Leopold [Leopold, Walter]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9789493056565
Publisher: Amsterdam Publishers
Published: 2020-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

26 We have become lonely again

As Walter tries to understand the culture and politics of the Vorarlberg region in the Austrian Alps, he travels as if a tourist behind enemy lines. He cherishes two fundamental purposes: the survival of his family and agitation against Hitler. More than ever, he wishes to be the revolutionary helping to undermine Hitler and lead these people to freedom. With his German Jewish eyes he sizes up the local residents and manages to turn a few people against Hitler through subversive gastronomy – reminding them in great detail of how well they once ate and lived.

But the most outstanding feature of his existence comes from breaking free from all racial discrimination. No longer perceived as a Jew, he gains access to the life denied to him since the Nazis took power, and before. Even without his title of Herr Doktor, he gains the respect of his co-workers, something he always believed is his due.

October 16, 1944

Yesterday we made our first excursion by train. The barometer was low as is usual here in Bludenz, but the clouds dissolved, soon clearing from the Rätikon and a warm summer sun threw light into the valley. Mockel greeted it with jubilation because it helped fulfil her wish to go on a train ride once again. In that, she is like her father, who was mad about train journeys like a hunting dog for stalking, and becomes excited even today when he sees the smoke of a locomotive. Not even the strain of our long journey, which is now a month back, could spoil this taste she has inherited, and already on the way to the station she showed her exuberance, wriggled with delight in her window seat as the electric locomotive started with its buzzing sound, and waved to everyone, even dogs and cows.

The mountain wall of the lower valley of the Ill River passed by, first the Hohe Frassen, then the Walser mountains. The view into the Walser valley opened up and the scenery changed in quick succession like a revolving stage, in which the Frassen stood a bit crooked and showed their narrow, north-facing, steeply falling center. They dominate the lower Ill Valley far into the distance, trembling next to the Arlberg snow in the reflection of the river, which thunders on, only to channel its way a little further on to Feldkirch through an arch in the rock, whereas the train runs into the station below the castle.

The drop of 100 meters brings a considerable rise in temperature, and a gentle breeze streams towards us from the Rhine valley. We hardly dared believe our eyes when we saw swallows swooping joyfully around, and we draped our coats over our arms.

Feldkirch is a charming little town, much more delightful than we remembered it from our last holiday 17 years ago. Modern, wide, villa-lined avenues alternate with alleys with half-timbered buildings; steep cliffs and charming hillocks look down on the old squares whose traditional atmosphere one can easily smell but describe only with difficulty.

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