A Jewish Story. Sheldon Cohen

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СКАЧАТЬ immunization against Small Pox, Diphtheria, Pertussis (Whooping cough), and Tetanus. In addition, there was Rabies vaccine available for the occasional child bit by a rabid animal, and Typhoid vaccine as this disease was still a threat.

      She also did clinical nursing working under the direction of the attending doctors. This included taking vital signs and doing triage to determine the severity of the problem to prioritize the sicker children and occasional adult to the front of the line. Enjoying nursing practice as much as she did, it was a labor of love.

      The time came to take Emily and David to the gym to sign them up for swimming and gymnastics. Although they had passed by the facility, they had never entered, so they both viewed the visit with great anticipation.

      They visited the gymnastic section of the gym first. When David entered, his eyes opened wide. The first thing he noticed was that there was a long vault run. He breathed a sigh of relief because the Berlin gym where he practiced was too small to accommodate this event. All the standard gymnastic events were available for practice. He looked at his mother—a wide smile on his happy face. There were many gymnasts there varying in age from three to adult. Their skills were evident to a nervous David.

      The Russian gymnasts were the best in the world, so David was apprehensive and his mother could tell. “Don’t worry, David, you’ll show them a thing or two. My son is the best.”

      Ben had visited the gym when he made his trip to Minsk and had introduced himself to Coach Anatoli Stepchik. Stepchik appeared to be in his early thirties, but still looked like the typical gymnast: firm and fit with the muscular definition of a prepared anatomical specimen, each muscle well delineated from its neighbor.

      Leah approached him. “Good afternoon, Mr. Stepchik, my name is Leah Frohman. I hope you remember my husband, Ben, who spoke to you about six weeks ago. We’re the family who moved to Minsk from Germany, and my son David has been in gymnastics for eleven years. This is David, sir.”

      Coach Stepchik approached David with outstretched hand, “Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Frohman. Hello, David, your father told me all about you. I welcome you to our gym.”

      “Thank you, sir.”

      “My, you both speak such good Russian,” said the coach.

      “My husband and I were both born here,” answered Leah.

      “Oh, I see. Welcome back.” Turning to David, he said, “How old are you, David?”

      “I’m almost sixteen, sir.”

      “Good, David, do you want to show me what you can do?”

      An alarmed Leah said, “Oh, Mr. Stepchik, with all the moving that we’ve done, David hasn’t practiced for about three weeks.”

      David interjected as soon as the last word was out of his mother’s mouth. “I can show Mr. Stepchik some things, mother. I’ve been doing strength exercises almost every day by myself to keep in shape,” said David.

      Stepchik added, “If your mother’s worried, David. We can wait. There’s no hurry.”

      “Please mother. I’m pretty sure I’ll be ok. I won’t do anything tough, I promise.”

      Observing the pleading expression on her son’s face, Leah said, “Well, Mr. Stepchik, I don’t know much about gymnastics, but if David’s confident, I guess it’ll be okay.”

      David leaped up.

      “If it’s good with your mother, it’s fine with me,” said the coach. “Just do some simpler exercises. Pick your best stuff.”

      With his coach watching, David warmed up with some stretching exercises, ran in place and then did a short tumbling run followed by a stint on the pommel horse and parallel bars. He kipped up on the high bar and launched into a series of giant swings, then dismounted with a one and one half twisting somersault. It looked perfect to Leah. “Ten,” she shouted.

      The coach clapped his hands. “I like what I see, David, We’ll keep an eye on you for the first couple of weeks, but I’m pretty confident you’ll be on the senior team.”

      The smile on David’s face could have lit up the gym at night.

      “Let’s sign your son up, Mrs. Frohman. I look forward to working with him.”

      “Thank you, sir.”

      Emily had been sitting in complete silence, observing and showing patience, but smiling now because it was her turn; she could not wait to see the swimming pool.

      The twenty-five meter pool was in excellent shape. On both long ends of the pool, there were three levels of wooden benches for observers. The swimming coach was a young woman by the name of Tamara Shebrianovich. Like most swimmers, she was slim and supple with loose flexible muscles. She asked, “How long have you been swimming, Emily?”

      “Four years.”

      “Can you swim all the four strokes?”

      “Yes, I can, and I was going to start practicing the 100 meter medley,” said a wound-up Emily.

      “Very good, can you show me what you can do?”

      Emily looked at her momma who nodded her head.

      Emily dove in and did all four strokes, with the coach watching in rapt attention. Then she leaped out of the pool with a broad smile.

      The coach turned to Leah and said, “That’s very good, Mrs. Frohman. She shows promise at such a young age. It will be a pleasure to work with her.”

      When Emily heard the news, she let out a whoop and jumped backwards into the pool.

      Leah was ecstatic. As long as her children were happy, she was happy. She could not wait to share the good news with her husband. They were on the threshold of a happier life—and she thanked God.

      The last quarter of 1936 brought a personal peace to the Frohmans, but anxiety to most of the countries of the world. Since Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Party had assumed control of Germany, major European countries, as well as other world powers, embarked upon far-reaching diplomatic activity to form alliances to counter this new threat to world peace. Smaller countries were quick to declare neutrality, stating that their countries’ policies would remain independent of any great power. This was naiveté to the extreme, and they knew it, but that is about all a minor power could do. In the minds of many, there was no doubt that Hitler was preparing for war, and the announcement of Hitler’s four-year economic plan in October of 1936 did nothing to alleviate that concern.

      In the Same month, Germany and Italy announced the Rome-Berlin Axis. This would result in a close collaboration between Italy and Germany, something that the Italian leadership (Mussolini) avoided during the first three years of Hitler’s takeover of power, as he was fearful of Germany’s territorial goals.

      As Leah had surmised, when Italy invaded Abyssinia in October of 1935, the relationship with democratic countries of the world suffered. When Hitler and Mussolini aided the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War, that relationship with the democratic countries worsened. The strained relationship between Mussolini and the democracies prompted Italy’s rapprochement with Germany. Mussolini at first did not identify with Hitler’s anti-Semitism, but, as Germany’s СКАЧАТЬ