Counting on America Second Edition: A Holocaust Memoir of Terror, Chutzpah, Romance, and Escape by Gary Reiner & Kurt Reiner & Michael Berenbaum

Author:Gary Reiner & Kurt Reiner & Michael Berenbaum [Reiner, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Authors Place Press
Published: 2020-04-27T22:00:00+00:00

Haschomer-Hazair Zionist Youth Card

All the while, our overall intention of plotting a getaway remained confidential as the situation was maneuvered to our advantage. Recently married, Hennie and I accepted an environment that permitted us to live together and exchange mutual support. From a pragmatic standpoint, I had been relieved of the agony of a return to Dachau and essentially provided temporary amnesty where we could safely devise our future plans.

Our initial decision to stay at the farm labor camp had presented a paradox between either remaining in Vienna at risk of return to Dachau, or laboring at Fischamend under the precarious circumstance of Nazi command. Fortunately, Fischamend did not place us at peril of intolerable living conditions. However, consent to Fischamend as a transient accommodation also meant we had to delay our escape to another country. Settling at the farm also put us at the mercy of a nation compelled by its new leadership to engage in the murder of its entire Jewish population. We accepted the parameters of a Nazi-controlled enterprise even though it was dangerous and bizarre to tolerate a harbor monitored by our enemy. Yet, with borders strictly regulated to prevent illegal emigration, Austria’s Jews everywhere were controlled by the Fatherland. Even those with visas faced difficulties. For example, Jews were prohibited from crossing into another country without supporting documents confirming all taxes had been paid. Proof was also required that all valuables had been conferred to the German authorities.

As noted, Fischamend gave Hennie and me the opportunity to stay together while we pursued immigration plans to other countries. In that respect, we gained valuable time to achieve our next transition. Further, despite the presence of uniformed Germans, we had unrestricted freedom to move to and from the farm. The conundrum (as a Jew) was that heedless travel within Austria’s borders threatened arrest for any anonymous reason.

As Hennie and I discovered, the drudgery within our new environment was more indulgent than anticipated. For the most part, tasks were routine and no less demanding than ordinary manual labor. Certainly, this was in contrast to latter periods of the Third Reich in which forced labor had the objective of attrition of mind and body. While I tended to plowing the fields by piloting an ox, Hennie worked in the kitchen preparing meals for the farmhands. To our advantage, her cooking responsibilities ensured our consumption of extra portions of bread. Daily demands also provided a functional diversion from the lurking domestic threats outside the protective umbrella of the farm.

Our prevailing fantasy, an unhampered journey to the United States or Argentina or Palestine, was contrived as a matter of self-protection from the harsh truth of overwhelming burdens. Illusion masked our situation and allowed it to evolve into an imaginary parable of wondrous sequels. The reality is we were contained within a habitat surrounded by hornets looking for any opportunity to sting. Fortunately, Fischamend and similar labor camps had not yet transitioned into human killing factories in support of the “Final Solution.”

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