A Nice Young Man
by Denny Immergut
Joshua Eisen’s memory of his earliest years are vague fractured shadowy flashbacks. What he does know of those years are the bits, pieces and stories his parents and grandmother Zelda told him. Together they form the story of a refugee family fleeing the Nazis with their infant son. Their good fortune was that someone of great influence helped them get visas when the British government stopped issuing visas to Jews trying to leave Germany and Austria: this was just before the Holocaust began in earnest. That person was the Dean of St. Paul’s in London who pulled the strings that got the family out of Austria safely.
On the 3rd of September 1939 Joshua celebrated his first birthday in London with his parents. That same day France and England both declared war on Germany for having invaded Poland. A week later Josh’s father Wolfgang was on the Isle of Mann confined to a British internment camp because he was from Austria now a part of Germany. Mother and child were alone in London, they lived through the nightmare German bombing campaign against London. The boy’s first complete sentence in English was, “Mommy air raid.” As the bombings intensified, the government ordered women and children evacuated from London and resettled in the countryside for their safety. Hanna Joshua’s mother spoke very little about the bombings or their time spent living on the English countryside.
Wolfgang after almost two years of internment realized the only way for him to get out of the camp was to drop dead, wait for the war to end, or immigrate to America. Deciding his best option was immigrating he began a letter writing campaign to members of the American side of his family. Months passed before he got a response from one of his cousins Leo a postal clerk with a wife, two children and modest means. Leo and his wife Fanny agreed to sponsor the Eisen family. Sponsoring immigrants required the sponsor take financial responsibility for them as there would be no government support if they became indigent. With the help of the HIAS (Hebrew Immigration Aid Society) the family got approval to immigrate to the USA.
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Wolfgang after his release from the internment camp reunited with Hanna and Joshua: they left England on the passenger liner Samaria in a convoy headed for New York.
The Atlantic was stormy and the ever-present threat of German U-boats made the voyage unpleasant and stressful. In the mid Atlantic one of the ships in the convoy was attacked by a U-boat sank with all on board. Days later at the sight of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor a spontaneous wave of relief, joy, tears and celebration swept over everyone in the convoy. The refugees felt fortunate to have arrived safely and allowed haven in the United States of America. The Eisens left the ship on the 3rd of September 1941 Joshua’s birthday he was three years old.
The Golden Land America proved a hard place for the Wolfgang and Hanna. Their first home was a small apartment in a crumbling, vermin infested building that stood only a few yards away from the 3rd Avenue Elevated Train tracks. They could see the passengers in the trains as they rumbled past the windows of their apartment. The noise and vibrations from the trains and that of the trolleys running under the tracks of the El stressed them. They wanted to move but could not afford a higher rent than what they were already paying.
Wolfgang a teacher of English in Vienna started his working life in the America sweeping the floors of a factory. Hanna a skilled seamstress found work in a sweatshop as a piece worker. They were not alone in their immigrant poverty the lower East Side’s slums were home to poor Americans as well. After the United States entered the war, its’ economy improved dramatically. Jobs and opportunities in war time industries exploded exponentially. The USA came out from the poverty caused by the Great Depression of 1929. As the War progressed Wolfgang advanced from floor sweeper to production manager at the Norton Bomb Sight Factory. German names were not popular at this time so, Wolfgang changed his first name to William. Hanna also improved her work situation from piece worker to sample maker of military uniforms and apparel: she too changed her first name to Anna. With their increased income the family moved to a sunny apartment in Manhattan’s East Village. Some of their friends and neighbors that were doing well at war time jobs moved to the suburbs. Anna and William were urbanites that had lived in the city of Vienna until uprooted by the Nazi terror: they had set new roots in Manhattan the suburbs were not for them.