Man without a country

Title

Language

English

Source

Panorama 4 (7) July 1939

Year

1939

Subject

Jews

Short stories, Jewish

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

':!The poor JewMAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY A GAUNT, sad-eyed Jewish youth was telling his story to the passport inspector at Rotterdam, Holland. He was born in Bessarabia, he said. There had been a terrible pogrom. He and a few of his friends had escaped to Shanghai, China. It was hard for them to live there, and the boy, Yussel Pelsky, made up his mind to go to the United States without waiting for a quota visa. "For a hundred dollars," Brundy said, "I'll get you passage on a boat bound for Argentina. From there it will be easy for you to get into the United States." One hundred dollars! Yussel only just managed to get it together. But he did scrape it up, gave it to Brundy, said a broken good-bye to Rachel, his sweetheart. She would wait for him, she said, no matter how long. The captain looked curiously at the youth as Brundy brought him aboard. "You're always sending me weaklings!" he explained. Yussel asked, "Captain, you are sure that this boat, she go to Argentina?" 54 ''This boat, she go anywhere we steer her," the captain mocked. Brundy laughed too, and slipped away. Yussel wondered what was so funny. He found out as soon as the ship sailed. She was not bound for the Argentine but for Rotterdam. And Brundy had paid nothing. The slim young boy, who had never even been at sea before, had to work his passage. He was sick and miserable. And when the ship docked at Rotterdam the captain put him off. The passport inspector looked at him thoughtfully. He was sorry for the lad, but there was nothing he could do. "You can't stayin Holland," he said. "You've no passport." "Then what shall I do, Mr. Inspector ?" ''Ordinarily we'd ship you back to the country of your birth, but you were born in Bessarabia, which is no more. Roumania won't own you and China won't have you." "Then-where can I go?" Yussel stammered despairingly. "That's your problem. I only know that you can't stay here. PANORAMA ou ;ailor's visa expires m two ·.,ays. Y1 ., el pleaded desperately for more t ime. He had an uncle in the V 1ited States, he said. He know where he was, but if time he was sure he could · im. "His name, like mine, 1eg ,. . I will find him. I must Only let me try!" h~ , 1 inspector relented. "It's f·ery ilrregular, Mr. Pelsk:y, but I'll g ye you one month's additional sta t After that-" Th~ New York: City directory lists a~ i num . her of Pelsk:ys. In the fall ot ~30 a letter came to each of the n from Rotterdam. It was a hoa , most of them thought, a racket of some sort. After a casual I r suspicious glance, th . ey droppe d it into the wastebasket. That · s, aU but one. On · ~'Ul read the letter . ' thougiJ ~iplly " D ar iJr. Pelsky: il ; the. United States some 1za1e is living my only relative, arr l,tncle. His last name is Pe/sky, like my own. In Bessarabia he was known as Chaim Pellrky. If you are my uncle, then in the name of God, please help me. I am Yussel Pe/sky, whose mother and father were killed in the pogrom. I went to Shanghai .. He read on to the end of the pitiful letter. Turned back and looked at the date. It had arrived two weeks earlier, while he was away on a business trip. Already the months' grace was nearly up. He answered the letter immediately, but no further word came from Yussel Pelsk:y. He wrote to the immigration authorities at Rotterdam, but they could shed no light on the matter. Yussel Pelsky had disappeared the day before his month of grace was up. Perhaps, they suggested, he had stowed away on some ship, bound God knew where. Or, perhaps, he had found his uncle. And that was the last ever heard of Yussel Pelsk:y. And the man who had answered that cry for help knew that whatever had happened to him, he had not found his only living relative. For he was Yussel Pelsk:y's uncle.-.ddapted from the "Old Letters" Program, Mutual Broadcasting System. * * * 1939 SS

pages

54-55

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