§ ≡ A section of The Pilot's Saga { Chapter 1.6 « Chapter 1.7 » Chapter 1.8 }
When the Germans stormed into Warsaw, they rounded up young men from the streets and put them to work doing whatever they required at the time. Initially, these work gangs were allowed to go home at night.
The Pilot's patrilineal great grandfather, Bernard Levine, was rounded up early on, and he spent a backbreaking day shoveling coal at an electric power plant. He was a master mechanic by trade, but to the Nazi invaders he was just another slave.
In the course of this exhausting day, another man in the work gang momentarily leaned on his shovel to take a breather. A German guard came over and whacked him with his club.The startled young man asked why he was hit, saying he was only taking a moment’s rest. The German then beat him methodically until his dead body stopped twitching. Having witnessed this craven brutality, Bernard continued shoveling coal as if his life depended on it.
That evening, Bernard told his older brothers that he and his wife, Sara, were getting out of Warsaw immediately, and he advised them to do the same. Only the young men were in danger, he thought. Presumably, no one would harm women, children, and the elderly.
The youngest brother was only fifteen, and it was the Levine Family’s consensus that he would be safe with the women and old folks. As a result of their gross underestimate of the evil presiding in Poland, the Levines, except for Lucky and his wife, perished with the millions.
When the Germans stormed into Warsaw, they rounded up young men from the streets and put them to work doing whatever they required at the time. Initially, these work gangs were allowed to go home at night.
The Pilot's patrilineal great grandfather, Bernard Levine, was rounded up early on, and he spent a backbreaking day shoveling coal at an electric power plant. He was a master mechanic by trade, but to the Nazi invaders he was just another slave.
In the course of this exhausting day, another man in the work gang momentarily leaned on his shovel to take a breather. A German guard came over and whacked him with his club.The startled young man asked why he was hit, saying he was only taking a moment’s rest. The German then beat him methodically until his dead body stopped twitching. Having witnessed this craven brutality, Bernard continued shoveling coal as if his life depended on it.
That evening, Bernard told his older brothers that he and his wife, Sara, were getting out of Warsaw immediately, and he advised them to do the same. Only the young men were in danger, he thought. Presumably, no one would harm women, children, and the elderly.
The youngest brother was only fifteen, and it was the Levine Family’s consensus that he would be safe with the women and old folks. As a result of their gross underestimate of the evil presiding in Poland, the Levines, except for Lucky and his wife, perished with the millions.
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