Stephen Shooster the shop where he tested me. I did all the tasks he asked for. Before I was done, he said, “You have the job.” I worked there from 1959 to 1966. The staff was mostly Italian. We all got along well. I liked my job and felt good about what I was doing. 1966, I went into my own business, a luncheonette in the Bronx. I knew nothing about this business and my wife quickly became unhappy with the hours. 1970, I got a loan from my old friend, Isaac Goldman, another survivor from Grybow and I opened a Hallmark gifts and school supply store in Long Island. It was a small store, only 50 by 100 feet, but it did OK. Isaac was living in Baltimore at the time. I went to visit him, signed a simple loan, and he gave me $7,000 in cash. I paid back the loan and bought a house. 1976, I sold the business and my house. I was offered an opportunity to open a store in South Florida. They were selling custom-made, plastic products wholesale. They were imported from a Brazilian company called Dover. It was partially owned by Max Blauner. By this time, he was involved in all sorts of businesses in New York and doing very well. Things were going well for a couple of years when I was surprised one morning to receive a telex that informed me that the company was closing down. It was bankrupt. I was instantly unemployed. Working always had its ups and downs for me. Life in America was good. My wife and I found many of our friends were also survivors. We all had so much in common that the bonds were extraordinarily strong. I stumbled upon my old friend, Moshe Katz at a Bar Mitzvah. His leg was fully healed and had no visible limp. We have been in close touch ever since that day. He also lives in South Florida. When we met for the first time after many years, he told me a story. Moshe Katz, “I found myself at the bar getting a drink when I saw a man about my age who looked familiar. I walked over to him and started a conversation. We began to share stories of the war. Within about 30 seconds I realized this was Fritz. The same Fritz that escaped from Szebnie so many years ago! He was alive and well, living in the USA. After a few good cheers, Fritz told me what happened to him.” Fritz said he grew up around Szebnie and knew the mill operator before the war. He went on to say he made up a story to get the guard, Sargent Strybuc, to bring him there so that once he arrived, he would elude him and escape. The mill operator was out- wardly anti-Semitic to cover the fact that he was hiding 13 Jews. The night I escaped, the mill operator told Strybuc that when he would find me, he would bring me back to the camp. Instead, he took me to a hiding place where I stayed until the liberation. This is how I survived the rest of the war. Moshe was pleased to see his old cohort but then proceeded to admonish him ex-
256
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator