Michael Zimmermann

How I Survived the Wars and Peace:
My Life in the Gulag

Afterword

VU ZIND MAINE ZIBEN GITEN YUREN ?

There is a ancient Hebrew legend which says that everybody in his or her lifetime will have seven consecutive good years. The above heavy print inscription is the transliterated Yiddish version of the Jew’s eternal wail: "Where are MY seven good years?"

Looking back at my first forty two years of life I cannot pinpoint any seven-year period which qualifies for that definition.

Early childhood? The turmoil of the Russian revolution, hunger, etc.

Childhood, adolescence, early manhood? Constant humiliation of being a second class citizen exposed to limitations and chicanery as a Jew in the country that was supposed to be my fatherland, but was not.

Wartime and misadventures in the Soviet Union? Judge by yourself.

Temporary exile in Austria? Not long enough to qualify for "seven".

Thus, we come to the period of life starting from my arrival on the American continent. You know it, dear reader, so form your own judgement

 

Montreal, November 9, 1995

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