yesterday at my work.
As many of you know, I work at Wal-Mart here in Longmont and I was at my register when these three people came up to check out. The older lady among them was in a wheelchair and she asked me in a distinctly German accent "What millimeter is your pistol?"
I responded that what she was seeing was my box knife in a holster on my belt.
She said "I used to have a millimeter pistol but I threw it away."
I said, jokingly, "Why didn't you give it to me?"
She answered "That was a long time ago and it was against the law for me to have a pistol."
I asked "Are you Jewish?"
She said "Yes."
We all had a discussion on the perils of being a Jew in Germany and how the mere possession of a spent shell casing could send a Jew to jail.
She said "I threw it in the river because they would come to our houses and search us. There was one who started going down here (indicating her breasts) and I told him 'If you go any farther I will slap up your face and you can shoot me on the spot!' and he stopped."
She said that if you were on the street and you failed to give the Nazi salute when a Nazi group paraded by that someone would "grab your arm and push it into the air".
She told me that she escaped to France initially but didn't say where she went next.
I told her of a lady I met in Hollywood, CA who told me my wife that she had been a member of the Berlin symphony orchestra and had played a command performance for Adolph Hitler. She also told us "He was not a man whose commands you ignore."
I told her that I have few heroes but that among those few I number Mordechai Anielewicz. She, at first, didn't know the name but when I told her he was the leader of the ZOB in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising she brightened and said "Oh, yes, I know who you mean."
After they left the next customer, who had been listening, said "She's lucky to be alive" to which I answered "It is always interesting to hear from those who lived that piece of history."
Maybe this is in the wrong forum but I just wanted to tell you guys this story.
As many of you know, I work at Wal-Mart here in Longmont and I was at my register when these three people came up to check out. The older lady among them was in a wheelchair and she asked me in a distinctly German accent "What millimeter is your pistol?"
I responded that what she was seeing was my box knife in a holster on my belt.
She said "I used to have a millimeter pistol but I threw it away."
I said, jokingly, "Why didn't you give it to me?"
She answered "That was a long time ago and it was against the law for me to have a pistol."
I asked "Are you Jewish?"
She said "Yes."
We all had a discussion on the perils of being a Jew in Germany and how the mere possession of a spent shell casing could send a Jew to jail.
She said "I threw it in the river because they would come to our houses and search us. There was one who started going down here (indicating her breasts) and I told him 'If you go any farther I will slap up your face and you can shoot me on the spot!' and he stopped."
She said that if you were on the street and you failed to give the Nazi salute when a Nazi group paraded by that someone would "grab your arm and push it into the air".
She told me that she escaped to France initially but didn't say where she went next.
I told her of a lady I met in Hollywood, CA who told me my wife that she had been a member of the Berlin symphony orchestra and had played a command performance for Adolph Hitler. She also told us "He was not a man whose commands you ignore."
I told her that I have few heroes but that among those few I number Mordechai Anielewicz. She, at first, didn't know the name but when I told her he was the leader of the ZOB in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising she brightened and said "Oh, yes, I know who you mean."
After they left the next customer, who had been listening, said "She's lucky to be alive" to which I answered "It is always interesting to hear from those who lived that piece of history."
Maybe this is in the wrong forum but I just wanted to tell you guys this story.