The Swiss Courier: A Novel by Tricia Goyer & Mike Yorkey

Author:Tricia Goyer & Mike Yorkey [Goyer, Tricia & Yorkey, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: antique
Published: 2012-03-05T22:38:31+00:00

Dirty, lousy, without a cent;

But in a few years

They were well-to-do.

Today they dress very well;

Do not want to be Jews any more

So keep your eyes open and make a note:

Once a Jew, always a Jew!

He had always been a Jew? The thought failed to compute, just like incomplete theorems on a chalkboard. Joseph noted his reflection in the window. Hair: curly but brown, not black. Nose: fairly straight, certainly not a hooknose. Lips: neither puffy or protruding. Eyes: brown, but so was half the world.

Joseph turned back from the window and met the pastor’s gaze. “But how do you know? I don’t look Jewish.”

Pastor Leo shrugged his thin shoulders. “Hard to say. But you are circumcised, and that can’t be denied. Fortunate for you, your brown hair isn’t that curly. Your nose, while generous, could go either way. You don’t have the classic Jewish features, but neither do you look Aryan to me. Who’s to say what God’s chosen people should look like? I didn’t know some of my neighbors were Jewish until they affixed a yellow star to their coats. Even though they looked like any other Germans, they were still transported. I’m sure that we have people in our church with Jewish blood who’ve kept that information out of official hands, or they simply don’t know they’re Jewish—like you.”

“Well, if I am Jewish—which I am not—how would you know? How is it that you know more about me than I apparently know about myself?”

The pastor drew a long breath. “I’m not at liberty to tell you how we found out, but we did learn that you were adopted by Thomas and Eva Engel in 1918 when you were an infant.”

“Adopted?” Joseph pressed his fingers to his forehead. “That is unimaginable. Surely my parents would have told me.”

“Many adoptive parents are advised never to tell their children that they were adopted. In fact, I recommend this in my own counseling so that children do not experience the shame associated with the event.” Pastor Leo leaned forward, threading his fingers and lowering his voice. “And in your situation, your parents may have saved your life. It’s obvious that no one . . . neighbors, school officials, employers . . . knew that your real parents were Jewish—until now.”

Joseph returned to the chair and allowed the pastor’s direct words to sink in. He thought back to the few photographs of himself as an infant boy and realized that none of them included his mother or father—or rather the two people he’d always known as his mother and father.

He cleared his throat. “If what you’re saying is true, then what happened to my . . . real parents?”

“They died in the Spanish flu of 1918. You were an orphan until a Christian couple took you in and made you their own. The secret of your Jewry remained deeply buried until the Gestapo ferreted out the information a few days ago.”

Joseph struggled to mentally catch up to what he was hearing. “How did they find out?”

The pastor maintained a steady gaze.

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