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“I never treat anyone with discourtesy”
- Michigan State University Press
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Dorothy "I never treat anyone with Wiener discourtesy" ONE MAY WONDER HOW the future in the new South Mrica could be of much concern to Dorothy Wiener. This frail wisp of a woman lives in a seedy, run-down retirement hotel in Hill Brow, considered to be the most crimeridden suburb in the country. Originally developed to contain the burgeoning lower middle class, Hill Brow is unique among the Johannesburg suburbs because it contains almost no houses. Towering apartment buildings and residential hotels such as the Mimosa, where Dorothy Wiener lives, stand crunched together along narrow roads that parallel or lead to Pretoria Street. Pretoria Street reminds one of parts of New York's 42nd Street-gaudy signs beckon to adult entertainment, and bustling crowds push in and out ofshops full ofcheap goods. Fast-food stores offer Indian, Greek, Italian, Chinese, and the English staple: a selection of meat pies. Long before influx control ended in 1986, Hill Brow was what is known as a "gray spot." Blacks, mostly Mricans from the townships, flooded in to crowd the high-rises, which they share with working-class Afrikaners and a mixed assortment ofimmigrants. Totsis, now joined by squatters, live and sleep on the pavement. The elderly women in the retirement hotels feel threatened by these ill-clad boys who exist on a combination of intimidation, theft, and handouts from local merchants. Dorothy Wiener's purse was stolen three times as she made her way up the dark, narrow road, away from the Mimosa Hotel. Most of the permanent residents in this suburb ofJohannesburg are Jewish. The elderly women joined Dorothy in complaining about assaults en route to the nearby synagogue that was bombed in 1990. The bombing Dorothy attributed to rightwing Afrikaners reacting to the stress that, in one way or another, has affected so many in South Mrica in this period oftransition. Dorothy's life has not been a bed of roses, beginning with her birth in Eastern Europe. 77 DOROTHY WIENER "I was born in Lwow, Poland, in 1914. My father and mother were killed during World War I. I come from a very poor peasant family-really povertystricken . I remember that my eldest sister-I had three sisters and a brother. I stayed with my sister for awhile after my parents were killed and then she had to put me into an orphanage because she had a child of her own and they were very poor. "The South African jewry collected funds to allow two hundred Russian and two hundred Polish orphans to come to this country. Then the orphanage chose the strong children [to go to South Africa). I was strong then. Now I am deaf and I have got heart problems.... A gentleman from Cape Town by the name of Isaac Ochberg owned a ship. I remember being on the ship. I was terribly seasick. And terribly afraid. I had two little dresses, a pair of shoes, a jersey , two vests. I remember that. And we were treated as kindly as possible, but what could they do for us? "Ochberg brought us out to this country to Cape Town. I was eight at the time and I couldn't speak any English. There we were put into a house for awhile. Then we came to Johannesburg to Dornfontein to another house. I was put into Arcadia, which was Sir Lionel Phillips' home that was purchased by the orphanage. There these kind people came: they asked if they could possibly adopt a child." There are few survivors among this group ofJewish orphans who were brought to South Mrica in the early 1920s. One woman in Cape Town spoke of her now deceased husband, who was but three years old when he arrived in Cape Town on the Ochberg ship. Most, like Dorothy, were adopted and became integrated, mainly into the Jewish community in the country. "My late step-parents-God rest their soul-had a business, a drapery shop, and they adopted me. They took me to a school where I learned to speak under the tuition of Mr. and Mrs. Levinson. I learned to speak English, then I went to Yoeville [a suburb of Johannesburg) Government School. Then my parents moved to Durban and I went to a convent in Durban where I learned to play the piano and I got final honors. My parents wanted me to be a music teacher but I couldn't manage it. I got ill ... I had a nervous breakdown...