Horst Cahn/Survivor

"We needed to get married a second time or the Germans would not allow us to reenter the American sector...Just after the war, the Germans told me to remove the pants from a dead soldier...I told them as a Cohan, or High Jewish Priest, I obeyed the ten commandments."
   Again we sit at table 5, and as usual, the last living survivor of a death march in Buna Camp says, "I want to tell you something." There is Lady Barbara, Gregorio, Abe, Thomas also at the Oak Cafe table. He spoke about his experiences inside death camp Auschwitz.
  "Look here George. See the scars on my leg. I was building parts of a bridge to bring liquid into our camp. A German soldier watched and screamed up to me. 'What do you think you are doing, getting a sun tan up there.' 
   "He shot me with his rifle and one bullet hit me here and entered there, just missing my ankle bone. I threw my wrench at him and hit his leg. He needed to go to the infirmary. I told the commandant the wrench had slipped out of my hand."
    Horst was in a mood to talk and slipped his fried chicken and rice plate to me. We all listened to the last living survivor of his barracks, called Buna.  
   "Some high school kids wished me to be a tour guide back to Auschwitz. I told them, after considerable thought, I had seen enough of it. Here is another scar on my ear where another German tried to kill me with his bayonet. I turned at the last second and it went through my ear. See." 
    Do you remember your first good meat with your Czechoslovakian wife? 
   "A farmer gave us some potatoes and peas. We saw a truck that carried canned goods. I stole a few cans of meat and made a hole for the potatoes. It is against our traditions to leave food. I buried it....speaking of food, I received my first job in Rochester, New York as a Chef in a Jewish restaurant. I worked five days a week but they paid for six. I observed the Jewish holidays just like my parents."
   I asked him about his parents. What were they like? 
  "Well," he always began his sentences with "well", They wished me to take violin lessons but I did not wish to hurt my shoulder. Their music was listening to me and my sister. He owned a office supply factory. His family had come from Cologne. They had no idea the resettlement camp the Germans took us to would take there lives the first day."
  "Like I told you George, I was happy they did not have to suffer in the camp. Nobody knew what went on inside these camps since nobody ever got out."
   Now Lady Barbara decided to play. Her entire family has musical talent. Her Mom had played the flute and she told me her mother's cousin was the first accepted American composer. She played the song the French so admired. 
   The lifts and taxis had arrived. They left and for me, I went to the computer room to write what you read-or at least I hope you can.