Page 257 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Reminiscences

country because of this incident, and we heard less depreciation of
American values afterward.
Papa was against the military, but something in his psychology
identified with it. His favorite song was “Two Grenadiers,” about
soldiers coming home from the Napoleonic wars. He was genuinely
saddened by the tragedies of Napoleon, a leader who he felt had
opened doors for the Jews. He also felt that way about Alexander,
who had been tolerant of Jews.
Papa had a problem with his sister’s family. Rivka had married in
the old country, and Papa had helped bring her husband, Moshe
Goldstein, to America. She then remained for a time an agunah or
married woman who is left behind and, unable to prove her husband
had died, cannot remarry. But he was alive, although he turned out to
be a dandy, with a gold tooth and a Malacca cane. Papa did not
approve of him. Finally, Papa paid the fare for Rivka and her children
to come over from Europe, around 1927. Our family ultimately
broke with hers, probably over money and lifestyle.
In 1939 a rescue organization asked Mama to take in a child from
Germany and keep him for a period of time. At first Papa was against
it. But when Johann Gunter Katzenstein arrived, he warmed up to
this thirteen-year-old boy—which is what Papa had always wanted.
And the child was needy: his father had died long before. Papa
dragged John on the truck route, gave him Hebrew lessons, and took
him down in the cellar where Papa had many projects going on all
the time. Later, when the boy’s mother and sister were brought out,
they all became family. For years, John would visit my parents, calling
them Father and Mother. When his own mother and sister died, it
was sad. John died in a plane crash.
After my mother died, and Papa had gone several times to the
cemetery where she was buried, he developed a liking for wandering
among the gravestones in cemeteries and reading the inscriptions. If
he saw a name he recognized, he would reminisce and speculate
about the person. I now realize, after reading his papers, that he was
quite aware of his “morose” (his term for melancholy) views. I didn’t
understand this when I was young; I thought he was a gloomy fun-
hating father. He supposed his attitude came from illnesses and
hardships—but his siblings were not so handicapped. His brothers
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