In His Father's Footsteps Read online

  Jakob wanted a better job than janitor, but none had been offered. It only served to make him more determined to do well in the future, and make more money, so they wouldn’t be at Harry Rosen’s mercy forever. And he agreed with Fritz. Harry was using them as slave labor, but rather than bemoan their fate, it made Jakob eager to work toward a better job.

  He was silent when they took the subway to their apartment that night, and he helped Emmanuelle to get dinner ready. She was unskilled in the kitchen and he wasn’t much better. Her mother had done all their cooking, and a fleet of servants and a master chef had done his in Vienna.

  They ate some spaghetti and a tomato salad, and didn’t want much else. They had barely enough money to buy food. Emmanuelle was resigned to her assignment at the Rosen factory, but she could tell that Jakob was unhappy. He said he liked his supervisor, but hated the menial work he was doing. He had expected better opportunities in America, and greater challenges, which was why he had talked Emmanuelle into coming. He felt responsible now that it wasn’t what they’d hoped.

  “You’ll find something else, when we fulfill our obligation to them,” Emmanuelle encouraged him. They had signed a contract to work for Harry for a year, and he intended to hold them to it. He’d said as much when they met him. And it was obvious to Jakob that Harry had managed to kill two birds with one stone. He seemed like a generous man for sponsoring them, but was paying them and the other couple substandard wages, and using them to the fullest. They were willing to work hard, but Jakob wanted to look for better employment that used his skills as soon as possible. But for now, he would be cleaning toilets and whatever else was required of him for the next year.

  It was July and crushingly hot in the factory and offices, with no air-conditioning. And in August, they finally met Rachel Rosen, Harry’s wife. She treated Jakob and Emmanuelle with disdain. She was pretentious and overdressed, and looked at them as though they were lesser beings. It terrified Emmanuelle, who was afraid she’d have them fired, and then they would have no jobs and no apartment. She never felt secure, despite Jakob’s reassurance that the relief organization would help them if that happened. Emmanuelle trusted no one except Jakob, and she no longer believed in a kind destiny, or even a merciful God, after two years in the camp.

  But whatever happened, they had to stick it out for a year, and they were careful not to jeopardize their sponsorship. They were trapped, and kind and respectful to everyone at the factory. They did their jobs without complaint and were well liked by all.

  * * *

  —

  By the time they were approaching the one-year mark of their arrival and sponsorship by the Rosens, they were struggling financially, and could barely afford their food and minor expenses for the two of them. And they had a shock when they discovered that Emmanuelle was pregnant, which hadn’t been in their plans, far from it. They couldn’t afford a baby on the salaries they were making from Harry Rosen. And Emmanuelle was afraid to have children. What if it all happened again?

  She had continued to have stomach problems, and went to see a doctor at Jakob’s urging, and was told she was pregnant. An examination and a blood test had confirmed it. She was panicked when she told Jakob that night. He wanted children, although she didn’t, not for many years, until they could afford them. Jakob was worried about how they would support a baby, and thought of getting a second job at night. He tried to calm her fears to no avail. And two weeks later, she told him about an opportunity one of her coworkers had mentioned. Some of the other sewers were French and she chatted easily with them. The woman she spoke to told her that the wholesale jewelers and diamond merchants in the West Forties were always looking for runners, whom they used to deliver diamonds to other dealers or pick them up. It was a responsible job, not just as an errand boy. The runners had hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of precious stones in their hands daily. The job required that a runner be trustworthy, and he might learn the jewelry business in the process, which would be lucrative if he were paid commissions.

  The wholesalers used mostly young boys as runners, but Emmanuelle wondered if it was something Jakob could do instead of scrubbing floors and toilets at the factory. Their contract with Harry was almost over, and they were barely making enough money to take over the rent for their apartment, and now they had a baby coming.

  Jakob was intrigued by the idea of the jewelry business, although he knew nothing about it, other than what he’d seen his mother and grandmothers wear before the war. At Emmanuelle’s urging, he began handing out his resume to all the jewelers in the diamond district during his lunchtime. The jewelry district was a few blocks north of the garment district where they worked. He skipped lunch to do it, and two weeks after he’d started, he got a call at home that night, and one of the jewelers where he’d left his resume asked him to come in the next day to talk to him during lunch.

  Jakob took his only suit with him to work the next day, and changed quickly at the time he normally had lunch, and walked the ten blocks to the jeweler’s address on Forty-Seventh Street. It was a small store with an unimpressive front, and when he went in, an older woman asked how she could help him, and went to get Israel Horowitz in the back, when Jakob said he had an appointment with him. His heart was pounding as he waited, and a moment later, a gray-haired man emerged from a locked doorway, and looked Jakob over appraisingly. The owner was in his sixties, and asked Jakob to come with him into the back room, after shaking hands with him. He had a heavy accent, which Jakob recognized as either Czech or Polish, but they spoke English to each other, and Jakob followed him, looking subdued. They walked into an office, and Israel Horowitz sat down at his desk. He had a serious face and kind eyes, and he looked at Jakob intently. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

  “Why do you want a job as a runner?” The jeweler finally broke the silence as Jakob gazed at him respectfully. “You’re old for that. We usually use fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boys, eighteen maybe. Our rabbi finds them for us. They draw less attention than a grown man walking around with diamonds in his pocket.”

  “I need a better paying job than the one I have,” Jakob said honestly.

  “What are you doing now?” Israel asked him. “You didn’t say on your resume.”

  “I’m an assistant janitor at a garment factory,” Jakob said without pretense or artifice. “I came here from Germany a year ago with my wife. The factory owner sponsored us through a relief organization.” The elderly man nodded and his blue eyes were intense as he stared at the younger man.

  “You were deported?” he asked gently.

  Jakob nodded. “Yes, from Vienna.”

  “And your family?” he asked in a respectful tone.

  “We all went together. They sent us to Bergen-Belsen first, and then we all went to Buchenwald.” Bergen-Belsen was a transit camp, where deportees were held and then sent to other camps. Jakob explained, “Buchenwald was one of the worst. It was a concentration camp, everyone was assigned to hard labor, as my wife and I were. They killed people constantly if they thought you didn’t work hard enough. Or they sent you to an extermination camp to be gassed. And many people died of starvation and disease,” Jakob said quietly.

  “And your family?” Israel asked.

  There was a heavy silence in the room as Jakob tried to quell his emotions when he answered.

  “I’m the only survivor. My grandparents, parents, and two younger sisters all died there. I have nothing to go back to in Vienna now, except bad memories.” There were tears in the older man’s eyes when he nodded. It was a story he had heard too often in the past year, since the war ended, about relatives and friends in Europe. Too many had waited too long to try and get out, and couldn’t, with tragic results.

  “My wife and I are from Warsaw. We came here twelve years ago, in 1934, when we saw what was coming. No one wanted to come with us. They didn’t believe that the Germans woul
d succeed at what they wanted to do. We lived in civilized countries, no one could imagine it. But those were barbaric times. My family owned the largest jewelry store in Warsaw, and we came here with very little and got a small start. None of my family survived the war. Everything there is gone now for us. Our relatives were sent to Auschwitz, some to Dachau. What did your father do before the war?” Israel asked with interest. He liked this plain-speaking, obviously well-educated, well-brought-up young man. Looking at him, it was difficult to believe he was only twenty-six. He was mature far beyond his years, and the salt-and-pepper hair was misleading. He looked at least thirty-five. But they had a common bond with the losses they had suffered. The main difference between them was that Jakob had been in the camps himself, while Israel had left in time and had lived out the war in New York.

  “My family owned a bank,” Jakob answered him, “which my great-grandfather started. It’s gone now of course. The Nazis took it right after the Anschluss, when, as you know, Germany annexed Austria, and occupied it, which they had said would be a peaceful move for the benefit of Austria. But soon after, all Jews were removed from their jobs and homes, and deported. And now our homes are gone too. Everything. I have nothing now.”

  “Your wife too?”

  “She’s French, she also lost her family. We met in Buchenwald. She came here with me. Our employer sponsored both of us and another couple. It was difficult for them to do, but they knew someone on the War Refugee Board.”

  “And paid you next to nothing for a year, and treated you like slaves.” He had heard stories like it before. In some cases, sponsorship was not the charitable act it appeared.

  “We’re grateful to them anyway,” Jakob said politely. “Our contract is over in a month. We will have to pay rent for our apartment.” He hesitated for a moment, and didn’t want to sound pitiful, but Israel Horowitz had been honest and open with him, and he seemed like a sympathetic person. “And we have a baby on the way. I need a better job.” The jeweler nodded again and didn’t comment.

  “What do you know about diamonds?” he asked Jakob.

  “Nothing, except what I saw my mother and grandmothers wear, and I never paid much attention to their jewelry,” he said with a smile. “Everything I know is about finance and economics. I was preparing to work at the bank when I graduated from university.”

  “And they forced you to leave the university after the Anschluss?”

  Jakob nodded in response. “But I worked at our bank during holidays from school. I only had one term to go to finish my studies when I left.”

  Israel Horowitz nodded again, and looked pensive for a moment, and then back at Jakob, sitting across his desk.

  “I had a son your age. He died in the war. We became American citizens after we came here. David volunteered right after Pearl Harbor. My wife begged him not to. He was killed at Iwo Jima. We have no other children. She hasn’t been well since he died. She used to work in the store with me, but now she can’t. We have no other family now after what happened in Europe. I could use a young man like you to help me, if you care about this business. Do stones interest you at all? It’s a fascinating trade. I could teach you a great deal, if you want to learn. This could be a ‘mitzvah,’ a blessing, for both of us. What does your wife do?” He assumed that her background and education were similar to Jakob’s, which was not the case, although it didn’t matter to either of them, and Jakob had never loved and respected anyone as much in his life. She was a genteel, gracious person despite her simpler background.

  “She sews at the Rosen factory. She’s a seamstress. And I’m very sorry about your son.”

  Israel nodded in acknowledgment. “I hear Rosen runs a sweatshop. Maybe eventually, we could find her a job here. Most of my business is with other diamond wholesalers. We only sell to the trade. I have two diamond cutters who work for me, they came from Belgium and have been here for a long time. They’re very good at what they do. We’re well respected in the industry. How soon are you available?”

  “In four weeks,” he said, his heart pounding again with excitement. He didn’t know what Horowitz would pay him, but the opportunity sounded like a good one. He wanted to fulfill his contract with the Rosens to the letter. It seemed only fair and honorable. They had brought them to America after all, even if working and living conditions had not been ideal. Without them, he and Emmanuelle wouldn’t be in New York.

  Israel Horowitz stood up then and held out his hand. “You have a job then. I’ll start you as a runner, and you’ll have to learn the rest. There’s a lot to learn about this business, and I’ll teach you everything I can.”

  Jakob was overwhelmed with gratitude as they shook hands. He quoted a salary to Jakob then, which was double what the Rosens were paying him, and he would be able to pay rent for their small apartment now with ease, and buy better groceries. They needed to with Emmanuelle pregnant, she was still much too thin. He had filled out a little in the last year, but she had barely gained a few pounds. Her stomach gave her too much trouble to gain weight and she was sick now with the pregnancy, which worried him. He couldn’t wait to tell her about the job he had just gotten, with even a possibility for her one day. She was going to have to work after the baby was born, they couldn’t afford to give up her salary, although he wished she could stay home, but there was no way they could do that yet. Maybe one day. And in the meantime, they were going to try and find a babysitter in their neighborhood, who wouldn’t charge too much to watch the baby while Emmanuelle worked.

  Israel walked Jakob to the front of the store, and they shook hands again. Both men looked pleased, and Jakob was so excited about the job, he wanted to leap as he ran back to the factory. He was fifteen minutes late from lunch, the interview had taken a long time, but if they fired him at the factory now, he didn’t care. He had a wonderful new job! He couldn’t wait to tell Emmanuelle that night.

  His supervisor growled about his tardiness when he got back, and Jakob apologized and went straight to work, and finished on time. He didn’t see Emmanuelle until the end of the day when they left work together, and he told her all about the interview on the subway ride back to the apartment.

  “And he said he might have a job for you one day.” Jakob was beaming at her. This was a dream come true for them, with double the salary for him, just when they needed it most. But Emmanuelle looked worried as soon as he mentioned the job for her.

  “I don’t know anything about diamonds or jewelry. I only know about sewing. And it wouldn’t be smart for me to work for him. What if he gets angry at you and fires both of us? We’d be in a desperate situation.” She was anxious about everything now, and always imagined the worst case. She trusted nothing and no one, except him. The war had left her frightened that bad things would happen to them.

  “Why don’t you try to get a better sewing job then? You don’t have to stay at Rosen’s.” And he didn’t want her to. Her skills were too refined for the factory, and Jakob was convinced she’d be paid better somewhere else. They couldn’t pay her less, and Horowitz wasn’t wrong when he said Harry Rosen ran a sweatshop. He had saved them from Germany, but he hadn’t proven to be a kind man, and the deal had worked best for him.

  “No one’s going to hire me now that I’m pregnant. I have to stay until the baby.” It was due in December, and she hadn’t told the Rosens yet. She was three months pregnant, but it didn’t show, and as thin as she was, it probably wouldn’t for a long time. And sewing and sitting all day, she could work until the end of her pregnancy, although Jakob didn’t like the idea of it for her. The first few months had been rough and had added to her stomach problems from the camp.

  “Maybe after the baby is born, Mr. Horowitz can find you a job,” Jakob said hopefully. He could hardly wait to start. In only four weeks. He had to scrub and clean and haul garbage for another month, after that he would work looking like a gentleman and be treated like a huma
n being. It was a gift from God.

  They celebrated that night, with a simple dinner Jakob cooked for her, although she could hardly eat it. They were both happy, and he thanked her, since applying for a job with the wholesale diamond dealers had been her idea, and a good one. By nine o’clock, she was fast asleep in his arms. She had been exhausted ever since she’d gotten pregnant. It had put a big drain on her already delicate system.

  Her doctor had said that it would take years for her to recover from what she’d been through at the camp, if she ever did fully. Two years of starvation and brutality had taken a heavy toll on her, and Jakob’s experience there had marked him too, but he was stronger. His psyche had bounced back more readily in the past year. He had a positive attitude about life, which nothing had shaken, although he worried more than he used to. But Emmanuelle was tormented by her anxiety that something like what happened before could happen again.

  Jakob reassured her, but fear was her constant companion now. She even worried about the baby, that something would be wrong with it, or it would die before it was born, or it would be taken from them after. She had lost everyone she had loved, except Jakob, and her fears were focused on him too. There was nothing she could do to stop it.

  * * *

  —

  Two weeks after his meeting with Israel Horowitz, Jakob gave Harry Rosen notice. He took it badly, in the vein of “how dare you, after everything I’ve done for you!” He threatened not to let them keep the apartment, which was rent controlled and all they could afford at the moment, but finally he relented and said they could stay there for another year, as long as they paid their rent promptly, which Jakob fully intended to do. And Rosen was slightly mollified that Emmanuelle was staying, at the absurdly low rate he was paying her as one of his seamstresses. He was well aware of her talents, and preyed on their gratitude and sense of obligation to him for sponsoring them initially. Jakob warned him that Emmanuelle was pregnant and having the baby in December, and Harry said he expected her to work until the end of her pregnancy, and return to work two weeks after the birth.