Regrowth: Seven Tales of Jewish Life Before, During, and After Nazi Occupation

Meyer Landshaft

✦ 197 ✦ Meyer Landshaft A Fragment (About a Second Case in the Occupied Poland of Today) 1 It was a few days after their arrival. . . . People were saying that the city commander had already informed representatives of the Jewish community that they had the responsibility to carry out commands and orders that would be issued specifically for the Jewish population. At Meyer Landshaft’s house, as in all Jewish homes, everyone was running around with their heads cut off. . . . Meyer Landshaft was a Polish-Jewish merchant—the silent type, well educated, and the son of the city’s righteous people. He was, that is, a keen mind, and also a pious man; this had never prevented him—either in youth or now, when he was already over fifty—from peering into religious works by Shadal, Reb Nachman, or Krochmal (or even non-Jewish authors he knew, such as Klopstock and Schiller).* That was Meyer Landshaft— *Schiller and Klopstock are classical German writers of the eighteenth century. The Jewish authors who are mentioned represent very different sensibilities. Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810) was a mystical thinker and the grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism. Shadal (Samuel David Luzzatto 198 ✦ der nister a tall man, with a broad, blond beard and blondish eyebrows above gray eyes, which looked out between his lashes like quiet lakes surrounded by willows. That was Meyer Landshaft, whose proper attire alone commanded those in his presence to behave more quietly than they did in their homes. Every time he appeared (coming in off the street, or in from another room), the party expecting him would even rise a little, on account of his dignified presence. That same Meyer Landshaft, in all kinds of situations—even in greatly straitened circumstances (like when a child was sick or there was some other worry at home)—never permitted a change on his face; his inner conviction wouldn’t allow him to doubt that a better outcome was certain, even in the worst difficulty. Now, that same Meyer Landshaft—after what the new authorities had done with the Jews of their own country (which people had read about in newspapers at some length)—and especially afterward, when they had started the war against Poland, and when people realized what had been done with the Polish Jews of the various cities and villages they had conquered and subjugated. . . . Now, since Meyer Landshaft (like many others) had not managed to leave when the enemy suddenly arrived before anyone could look around and figure out whether to stay or go. . . . Now, even Meyer Landshaft felt as if he had fallen into a trap. He started to abandon the habit he had always had of believing in the better outcome. . . . People saw it in his grayish eyes, which looked out from between his lashes like a violent storm that has disturbed still lakes surrounded by willows. People observed it in his uneasy, clipped replies whenever they asked him something (on days he came back from town, where nobody went to do business anymore but just tried to find out what was being said and mur- [1800–1865]) is known for his textual criticism of the Bible. Nachman Krochmal (1785–1840) was interested in bridging Jewish thought and contemporary German philosophy. meyer landshaft ✦ 199 mured about what everyone feared so greatly). . . . Even when asked by his wife, Khane-Gitl—who always went along with him in everything, held him in the highest honor, loved him and looked to him, ready to satisfy his every desire (even anticipating his wishes in advance). Even to her questions—“What are people saying? What’s the news in town?”—he would respond: “Nothing, nothing. . . . Nobody’s saying anything. There isn’t any news.” And then he would turn away. Not looking her in the eye, he would do things about the house—the kind that people do before they move out, or before going on a journey (when one is scattered and it’s uncertain what to prepare for). Now he acted in a manner that had never been his way. Before , whenever he wasn’t eating or busy with someone, people saw him with a holy book in his right hand, leaning the right side of his face forward and peering into it—a little shortsightedly —with his right eye. Now, no more. Now, no religious works crossed his mind. And whenever, from time...