Sokal's Story (Part V)

“And what with Benny Goodman?” I asked imperatively, seeing that already soon I had to leave for my train.

“I will abridge myself maximally,” Sokal began to speak quickly.

It was March of the year 1938. 

Leaving at Nina’s twenty thousand dollars, three thousand British pounds, five one hundred gram gold bars, the Browning and several small things, with the rest of his stuff he went on a long journey. 

First from Ljubljana to Trieste, then Udine, Milan and Zurich, where he stayed longer, placing in a bank safe the majority of the things saved from Vienna, mainly the paintings, jewelry and gold. 

Then Geneva and Paris, where he stayed more than a half year and toward the end he hit upon the murder committed by a young Grynszpan of an advisor at the German embassy, vom Rath, which was a pretext to organize throughout the German lands the infamous Kristallnacht. 

Sokal wanted to go to London, but even though at the consulate he showed a portion of the cash he had on hand, he did not get a British visa. 

So he turned in another direction: Nice, Monte Carlo, Marseille, again Trieste, Ljubljana, then Zagreb, Bucharest, Constanta, Budapest, Banska Bystrica, Smokovec. 

When the Germans began to occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia, for no treasure did he want to separate himself for half a year with his Polish passport; on his Polish Tatran Society credentials he left Smokovec for Zakopane, and then, already in a certain sense illegally, he came to Krakow. 

There he attempted in vain to convince his parents of a speedy departure from Poland to Palestine. In the middle of August he made it via Lwow, Zaleszcyki and Chernovstyona on a recon mission to Constanta, and then also to Burgas and Istanbul. 

There on 1 September he found out what had happened. Through Sofia, Belgrade and Zagreb he made it to Nina. Not far from the palatial Buszicz home he rented a not too large, respectable apartment, and because two of Nina’s three practicing dentists were mobilized, Sokal, despite not officially finishing his dentistry studies, began to practice for Nina. 

Relations with her were wonderful. She brought her entire family around to him and they took him in as one of their own. 

She was very attentive, proactive and caring. She helped him with everything. When she gave birth to her first child, Sokal gave him as a present, for a good beginning, a hundred gram gold bar, which with the help of the dentist drill he bore through it a hole and through the hole he pulled a gold chain, forming a sort of eccentric pendant. 

One thing almost from the beginning he didn’t like—that when they were alone, Nina pettingly called him “my poor little Jew.” 

Sokal never spoke out about it, and after a certain time even came to like this turn. News from Poland became rarer and more horrifying. 

When the Germans occupied France, Sokal knew that soon it would be the end of Europe, and when after some time unexpectedly they invaded Yugoslavia, he felt acutely as the noose began to tighten on his neck.