"anna"
by Michael Berger

“my yiddisha mama,” singer eddie fisher lamented, “she is as good as good can be.”             

It was still dark when i awoke.it was early sunday morning before daybreak.i heard dad and my two older brothers leave our apartment on their way to a semi-pro soccer match.this was normal for this time of the year.it was mid october,1951,and soccer was harry's passion.they had to travel on three buses from our location,the central west bronx,just off the grand concourse.zerega oval,where the game would be played was located on the other side of the borough,miles away and southeast from our street.we did not own a car. dad worked the other six days a week.he was a master craftsman,a furrier.the apartment was pitch black save for a small reflection off the far wall,down the hallway,near my parent's bedroom.sunday morning was mama's chance to get some rest,but a small light was on by their bedroom,was something wrong?

Television was very new to all of us.harry,and my older brothers,herb and paul,chipped in and bought an andrea.it had a small screen,black and white picture esconsced within a fine piece of furniture.the front had a rolled wooden cover on an attached panel which covered the screen when not in use. tv shows were broadcasted on only three channels,and most of the time nothing at all was programmed.all that was viewed was hissing noises followed by fuzzy lines both vertically and horizontally.still good shows appeared during prime time hours.i am six years old,and my name is michael berger.my favorite shows were davey crockett,"king of the wild frontier",and the lone ranger,with his trusted friend tonto,"kemosabe?" tonto was a real american indian!

A friend of my dads,also named harry,owned a grocery store on broadway,near 72nd street, in manhattan. they had an apartment around the corner.harry had all kinds of goodies in his shop.the last time my family visited, it was my birthday,harry the grocer had a special surprise for me.boy,oh boy! it was a coonskin cap,with a real coonskin tail attached to the rear of the cap,just like the one daniel boone wore on tv.it was too cool for words.i was so happy. my parents bought me a pair of shoes called hush puppies.sounds of silence with each step i walked,no one can hear me as i walked.i walked as silent as davey crockett did.when he hunted for game.it was too cool for words!

Daybreak was minutes away.light was just beginning to shine on a still darkened sky.the light reflected in the back hallway was still on.i better go see what is wrong.i got out of bed and put on my hush puppies,and before i forget,i also put on my coonskin cap.i proceeded onto a partially lit hallway walking slowly and croached foward moving toward the large back bedroom.the door in front of the room was slightly ajar.i quietly meandered to its opening and noticed a dark room with a small light lit where mama sleeps.she was in a sitting position crying, reading a letter close to her face.the letter itself was yellowed and seemed wavy with pock marks of past dried tears interfacing the paper itself.some of the ink,the words somewhat smeared vertically as stained ink spread into other written lines,from one line into others.still,she was able to reread the words over and over again,while crying with each word read.she  ,at times,spoke directly to the letter,in different languages,at different times.i got so sad,mama was in a lot of pain.

The grief she felt was more than i could understand.i wanted to save mama from the pain she was feeling.i did not know what to do.i did realize as young as i was not to disturb her,this was a set of private moments. i felt that she did not want this time interferred with,not even by her little boy. i quietly left.she never knew of my inadvertant intrusion. mama never knew i was there.later on, when i was much older,i asked her about her family,she mentioned to me the various letters she exchanged with her family members over the years including a last letter she would recieve in 1941 from her brother fred.a last letter written by him to her,and no further communication to be recieved by any member of her family ever again! why was that?

"harry,here is your hat,what's your hurry?" harry s. truman was still our president,in 1951.a very good man and able president who was impatient with any kind of crap or stall by governments which were dictatorships of one kind or another,be it fascism or communism,who still enslave their populations.he loved and valued our democracy,he wished the world a better place,a fairer place for all of its citizens! he helped form the united nations, headquarted in nyc, in 1945.he helped,via u.n. interaction in the development of the state of israel,in1948.where all the lost souls,still alive,of the jewish faith could find a permanent home,after the ravages of ww-2;the blatant anti-semetism,the death camps,the dispossesion of millions of jews,the millions who died of all faiths as a result of the war!!

Harry truman,who my dad harry loved and admired as our leader had a famous sign sitting on top of his desk,"the buck stops here",never shirked from his duty as a lead citizen of our great democracy! an example of his statemenship was the marshall plan,1945-7. he helped to rebuild western europe,and elsewhere.the cold war was evolving,as well as the  iron curtain pervading eastern europe.the fight for america now was to stop the expansion of the vile communistic control into otherwise democratic countries.the fight was on worldwide.we are presently at war in korea,1950-3,attempting to stem the tide of further expansions  by our new enemy,the communists,

Anna's favorite tv show was,"i remember mama", starring peggy wood, it was about a scandinavian turn of the 20th century immigrant family relocating in the san francisco area from their european homeland.these were poor but proud people wanting another chance in coming to america to find their"pursuit of happiness".these were good folks,knew the differences between right and wrong behavior,who wanted to eventuate into becoming new  u.s.citizens,and raise their families in an honest way to share in a better future for all involved! sometimes reflections of reality seem more real than reality itself. anna,from another culture,was very much like the tv show itself. she shared many of their values!

"katherine" never got the winter coat she so needed,because other needs of her family were greater and seemed more important to her.same with anna,her needs were secondary to any of the needs of anyone else in the family."katherine" never got the coat she so wanted and needed,nor did my mama,anna.the goodness and unselfishness these millions of women possessed.all immigrants.all wanting a better life for their families.all coming from elsewhere involving the locations of the world itself. all giving of themselves to improve the lives of their loved ones,the family was so important to them.these women fortified the backbone of their families.they fortified america itself.may god bless each and every one of them.may god bless anna for what she meant to me and everyone else who encountered her while she was alive! may her memory linger to each and all in terms of future generations she helped to  nurture!!

Postscript: my dad's family came slowly but painfully,one at a time,over many years,prior to ww-2. mama's family was different.only a handful came to america.most remained in rumania,their homeland.they were used to their way of life despite negative circumstances such as anti-semitism which they dealt with regardless of the impending gloom and doom upon their collective horizons with the advent of certain war. rumania was an ally of nazi-germany,both possessed fascist governments.both disreguarded sections of their populations.when the "final solution"evolved from the depths of depravity of sick fascist thinking; rumania's king michael,and his iron cross military readily put the program into a pogram killing as many as quickly as possible,in the process, mostly jewish towns such as bukavenia,were erased.not only were the people destroyed,their locations were razed to the ground.records  destroyed,nothing existed any longer.over 50 members of mama's family were alive prior to ww-2; only one survived in the aftermath and destruction resulting from the war!!.........fred's last letter to anna remained unanswered as the sweep of history occurred,unsolved and forgotten in time./mbb