The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) by Christoph Fischer Read Free Book Online

Egon usually read a book by the window or in the winter on a bench by the oven. He didn’t make much fuss about his sister or his nephew. He loved his sisters in his own way but he wished he had a brother with whom he could share his more scientific interests or with whom he could have pursued more manly pastimes. His sisters were a disappointment in these areas and, in his opinion, they fussed too much about everything. They usually talked too much as well.
    At school Egon had found it difficult to socialize. When the family moved to Bratislava , all three children had been admitted to the German school. Greta had found it easiest to make new friends there because of her good looks. She also had only two years left at school when they moved and found the girls her age surprisingly mature and reasonable compared to some of the girls at her school in the countryside. Wilma, only a year younger than her sister, found friends through association with Greta. Her class mates knew that she had the protection of her older sister's friends and left her alone - even during her last year when Greta had already left the school. Egon on the other hand was the youngest and had to spend four long years at the school. He was not a great athlete and unfortunately in his age group, that had been the only way to earn the respect of his class mates. He was considered odd and had it not been for his excellent grasp of science and his willingness to let other boys copy his homework, he would have probably ended up having a much harder time. There was an unspoken truce between him and his class mates that allowed him to exist quietly without being picked on, but to strike up a proper friendship with anyone was not on the cards.
    While they still live d out in the province, Egon had developed a strong bond with a Jewish boy named Daniel and after his mother had died in 1918 of the Spanish flu, had spent a lot of time with Daniel’s family after. Egon had been impressed by the philosophical approach which Daniel and his family had to death. This was only the beginning of further spiritual inspiration Egon received from his friend and gradually Egon had developed a surprisingly strong sense of being Jewish. He felt he could never tell his grief stricken father or sisters about it, who seemed to be coping fine without religious guidance. On Jonah’s instructions, Egon attended the Protestant religious education classes at the German school - just like his sisters - and he was immediately intimidated by the obvious anti-Jewish teachings and sentiments in these classes. He was mortified that he should be found out and this further added to his difficulty in making friends.
    When Jonah and his parents had lived in the shtetl in the Ukraine , they always used to light the Sabbath candles, a habit that the weaver had carried on, more out of a sense of tradition rather than out of actual belief, when he had moved into the Trnava province. The Weissensteiner family had moved there before the big waves of Jewish immigration and were accepted as just another Ukrainian family. When the big mass exodus of Jews expelled from the Russians happened, many of those who arrived in Slovakia were orthodox and very noticeable; the anti-Semitic sentiment began to grow.
    Wanting a better life for his family and not being discriminated against as he had seen happening to the new arrivals in Trnava, Jonah decided to hide his already only lukewarm faith completely when he arrived in Bratislava. Since he and his family were coming from a Slovak province and not from Russia directly, they were never questioned when they called themselves Protestants and with their language being assimilated too, they found themselves easily separated from the Jewish community. As they were not living in a Jewish quarter, Jonah had to abandon some of the traditions like lightning the Sabbath candles - very much to Egon's regret. The Jewish community however did notice them all the same.