Page 225 - LEIBY

Chapter 29 225

nodded dutifully at frequent intervals and waited impatiently
for the professor to begin his dirge about Poland’s misfortune
in constantly being divided up between the neighboring states.
He knew that when the professor began on that subject, it
meant that he was nearing the end of his lecture…

His eyes darted around the long corridor looking for familiar
8 faces, as was his regular habit when he visited new places. He

spied someone he knew, sitting alone on a rickety iron chair,
waiting.

“Hey… it’s you…” Leiby didn’t know how to address the Jewish
detective from the farm, who was sitting and waiting patiently
for his turn to testify before the committee. “It’s you, the
Yevsektsia man from the farm.”

“My name is Max Berman,” the man replied coldly. “I’m a Pole
with Jewish origins.”

The look on his face conveyed aloofness and even animosity. He
had no desire to be in the place at all – he was a Pole, and the
fact that he had been born to Jewish parents was completely
insignificant as far as he was concerned. But Thaddeus, an
elderly Pole who worked for the historical committee, had
begged him to come in order to provide testimony about
a paroches that the committee had received. The name of the
community of Lechava was embroidered on the paroches, and
Max Berman was the only recorded member of the community
to have survived the war.

“Are you by any chance related to Ya’akov Berman?” the
professor inquired, looking Max up and down in interest.

“Who’s Ya’akov Berman?” Leiby asked.

“Ya’akov Berman is a Polish Jew, close friend of Stalin, and
the most powerful man in Poland,” the professor replied. “You
obviously don’t read the newspapers if you’ve never heard of
him.”

“Ya’akov Berman is a distant relative of mine,” Max answered.