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back to look at Joshua, I exhale, not even
22 realizing I’ve been holding my breath. “Anyway,” she says, “the
23 Nazi take everything from me. My family. My life. My coun
24 try. I don’t even sleep without the nightmares anymore.” She
25 pauses, and shakes her head, as if she’s thinking about them.
26 The nightmares. I know them so well, the way screams torture
27 you in the dark. Voices of your family crying for help you can
28S not give. My sister holding on to my hand with all her remain
29N ing strength. The sounds of gunshots breaking my ears.
“I’m very sorry,” Joshua says, “But I still don’t understand 01
how I can help you.” 02
“My boss is Nazi too,” she says. “And now after the war 03
and now that Anne Frank movie so popular, everybody know 04
you cannot be Nazi anymore. Not in America.” 05
I bite my lip, drowning in the mention of my sister’s name, 06
said correctly, in Bryda’s thick Polish accent. And then I won 07
der if Bryda has missed the articles in the paper about the 08
hatred against Jews in Philadelphia. And not just in 1954, but 09
even still, now, my eyes catch on something, all too often. 10
Swastikas painted on synagogues. This was the latest I’d 11
seen, a few weeks earlier. 12
“Your boss?” Joshua is saying now, and he frowns. 13
“Mr. Robertson,” she says. 14
“Robert Robertson?” Joshua raises his eyebrows. It is a 15
name I recognize. Robert Robertson is a prominent local 16
businessman who owns several clothing factories, and who 17
has once or twice brought some business to the firm. “I don’t 18
even think he’s German,” Joshua says kindly. I could not form 19
the words to speak, to tell him that not all anti-Semites are 20
German, even if I wanted to. 21
She shakes her head. “My friend, she nice Christian girl.” 22
“Like Miss Franklin here?” Joshua smiles in my direction, 23
and Bryda narrows her eyes at me, so I am forced to look away. 24
“Anyway,” she says. “She work same hours as me and make 25
two dollar more a week.” 26
“Has she worked there longer?” Joshua asks. 27
Bryda shakes her head again. “No, I work there two year S28
more than her.” N29
01 “And you think this is because you’re a Jew?” Joshua asks.
02 She nods. “All the Jews, we make less money. But every
03 one afraid to complain. President say there hard times. Who
04 else will hire us?”
05 “I’m sorry,” Joshua says. “That’s really awful.”
06 “You no be sorry, Mr. Rosenstein. You help me.” She
07 pauses. “My English, it not so good. So maybe I confuse you
08 little bit.”
09 “I think I’m understanding you,” Joshua says. “You want
10 your boss to pay you what he pays your friend.”
11 “I want him to pay, yes,” she says. “But not just money.
12 Understand what I say?”
13 “I understand,” Joshua says. But I wonder if he really does.
14 In German, the way to say it would be Jedem das Seine . But I
15 am not exactly sure what the right word would be in Ameri
16 can English.
17 Bryda sighs. “For so many years I suffer as Jew. Why I still
18 have to suffer, here, in America?”
19 Joshua nods slowly. “Well, on your own I’m not sure we
20 really have a case but . . .” He rubs his chin the way I’ve seen
21 his father, Ezra, who has a thick white beard, do. Only Josh
22 ua’s chin is smooth, like a boy’s. “If we get others. A group
23 litigation.”
24 Bryda frowns, clearly confused, but from my studying I
25 know exactly what a group litigation is. But I cannot speak,
26 even if I might want to. I am frozen, Bryda’s words about the
27 suffering of Jews echoing in my head.
28S “That means we’ll get other people from Robertson’s fac
29N tories, like you, to join in on the suit,” Joshua explains. “If we
have more people, we’ll have more power to fight.” He rubs 01
his chin again. “I’ll tell you what, let me talk this