Fever Season by Eric Zweig Read Free Book Online Page B

1916
Michael Saifert (Signature of Recruit)
    With that you were in the army, as long as you were healthy enough to pass the physical.
    CERTIFICATE OF
MEDICAL EXAMINATION
    I have examined the above-named Recruit and find that he does not present any of the causes of rejection specified in the Regulations for Army Medical Services.
    He can see at the required distances with either eye; his heart and lungs are healthy; he has the free use of his joints and limbs, and he declares that he is not subject to fits of any description.
    I consider him fit for the Canadian
Over-Seas Expeditionary Force.
    Date: August 4 , 1916
James Duplacey (Medical Officer)
    DESCRIPTION OF RECRUIT ON
ENLISTMENT
    Age: 36 years 7 months
    Height: 5 ft 11 ins.
    Weight: 179 lbs.
    Complexion: Fair
    Eyes: Brown
    Hair: Dark Brown
    Religious Denomination
    Church of England_______________________________
    Presbyterian_____________________________________
    Methodist________________________________________
    Baptist or Congregationalist______________________
    Roman Catholic_____________________________________
    Jewish Yes _______________
    Other denominations____________________________________
(Denomination to be stated)
    â€œWe’re Jewish?” David asked when he read his father’s Certificate of Medical Examination. “Like Sammy’s family?”
    â€œYour mother and I aren’t religious people,” his father said. “That can happen when you grow up without your family.”
    â€œMom’s Jewish, too?”
    â€œNo. Her family was Protestant from the north of Ireland. Most of the Irish in Montreal are Catholics. She went to a Catholic church when she lived in the orphanage, but she never felt like she belonged there. She stopped going as soon as she was on her own.”
    â€œBut you’re Jewish?”
    â€œI’m Jewish,” his father said. “Or at least I was until I got to the Townships. There were no other Jews on the farm I worked at, and a fourteen-year-old boy can’t keep kosher all by himself. Besides, everyone else on the farm went to church on Sunday, and I was expected to do the same. No one ever thought to ask me what my religion was, but even if they had, I doubt I would have told them. I was already different enough. When I came to Montreal, I stopped going to church, but I still haven’t been back to synagogue since my family died.”
    David was quiet, hoping his father would explain. But he didn’t. Later, after his father left them for the war, David’s mother told him what she knew about her husband’s past. “He only told me the story once. It was shortly after we met. He lost his whole family in one night.”
    â€œWhat happened to them?” David asked.
    â€œIt was a pogrom,” his mother explained. “An attack on the Jews. It began as they were all leaving the synagogue one Friday night. No one in their village would ride on the Sabbath, so when they heard the horses they knew right away. People began to run. Your father was only thirteen, but he was big and strong. But no boy, no matter how strong, can fight against men on horseback. So he ran when he heard the hoofbeats. He left his parents behind with his little sister. They couldn’t get away …”
    David’s mother was close to tears, recalling the pain she’d seen on her husband’s face when he told her the story. “He didn’t see what happened, but he knew the men on horseback were swinging their clubs. He could hear the sound of broken glass, smell the smoke rising from the roofs they’d set on fire. It was the worst attack anyone in the village could remember. Maybe they’d only wanted to make trouble. Maybe they didn’t really mean for people to be killed. But a lot of people in the village died. There’s no way your father could have saved them. If he’d stayed with them, he probably would have been killed, too. Even though he