I'm No Hero by Henry Friedman

Author:Henry Friedman [Friedman, Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Jewish Studies
ISBN: 9780295801452
Google: v9cTCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2011-07-01T03:16:57+00:00

THERE WAS A meat shortage in Austria at the time and we seized the opportunity. I met a guy named Bernie whose father had been a butcher. We joined up with a fellow named Aaron, who was eighteen years older than I, and Issie, my previous partner.

Aaron, who came from a large, impoverished Jewish family, had been a communist before the war. When the Russians moved into his city in 1939, however, he became disillusioned and spoke out against the communists. He and his family were sent to Siberia to cut wood, which took all the rest of the communist doctrine out of Aaron. Bernie had survived by hiding in the forest with his father and a brother. One month before liberation, his father gave himself up to save his sons. There hadn't been enough food; they were living off roots the last few months. Moreover, the father, who had a chronic cough, didn't want to give away the hiding place of his children.

Issie and I specialized in rationed products and in money exchanges. We constantly had to shift from one commodity to another as our supply ran out. Aaron and Bernie had many contacts among the Austrians and Jews in camp. It seemed natural to pool our resources in order to get some meat into the camp. Meat was rationed to the Austrians, but the refugees in the camp could not get a ration card for it. Outside the camp, the price of meat was too high on the black market.

We found a farmer who agreed to sell us a cow illegally. Getting a truck out of the camp to pick up the cow was also illegal. Nevertheless, we found a Jewish driver who was willing. We picked up the cow and started back to camp, where we had to pass through a gate next to the barracks where the U.S. Army guards slept. We stopped the truck and got some people to push the truck through the gate and by the barracks.

Then came another trick—to keep the cow quiet while we unloaded it. We tied up its mouth and slid it down on boards. Then we needed a shochet, or butcher, to kill the cow in a kosher manner. By that point we had asked favors of so many people that nothing was going to be left for us. Six different people had claims on this one poor cow's liver. We had much more trouble with this transaction than it was worth.

We decided that any future cow killing would have to be done at the farmer's place, and we would sell the meat as non-kosher. When we arrived at the farmer's, he said it was up to us to kill the cow. It was only then that I learned Bernie did not know the first thing about killing, skinning, or butchering a cow. I had stupidly believed a butcher's son would have inherited his father's skill.

“Look,” we told the farmer. “We're Jewish. Our religious views prevent us from killing cows.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.