Horst Cahn's Story.

"The best days of my life were when I  lived inside Auschwitz. I didn't have to pay rent and the food was free. I also got to take a shower every day. Horst, as always, was probably joking. His satire on life was probably the reason he not only survived, but is the only one still living.  
  Yesterday I took a detour from my football story. I needed to meet my buddy Sam, the taxi man. He would be in court next month and we needed to talk strategy. 
   At the Motel Six  I woke up early and drove to the Carlsbad train station. I climbed aboard the  and climbed the six o'clock morning Coaster for San Diego. At the Santa Fe Station, I took a Green Line Trolley to the Convention Center and walked the three blocks to the new coffee shop. 
   I ordered a small hot chocolate and breakfast, consisting of pancakes, bacon, eggs and lots of grilled potato slices. We spoke about his impending case and he presented me with a free cell phone - which I somewhat resented since it interrupts my conversations with God. 
   I returned to the Convention Center and again took the Green Line this time to the Imperial Station, its last stop. Others took the Orange or Blue Line Trolleys. The Blue Line is heavily boarded with those going across the border to Mexico. 
   I found myself on the ninth floor of the new libraries ninth floor called the California Room. I found out more information about Schindler's Dad and also a print out of the transport ship that brought  Cahn to America. Usually I use the microfilms to clue me into the goings-on in San Diego during the depression. 
   Ancestry.Com soon found its way to my thumb drive. I became thrilled and fascinated. I not only found out about Schindler's Granddad but also my Grandfathers middle name was Jacob, the same as my other ones. And then I thought about looking up my buddy, Horst Cahn who just turned 89. And there it was: the manifest of the transport ship, General W.G. Haan. 
   Of course I wondered if the ship Haan was any relation to Cahn, but I guess not. Anyway, the ship had sailed from Bremerhaven on October 28th of 1951 and arrived in New York's Elise Island on November 7th of 1951. 
   On the passenger list were his family. Horst and his wife Elizabeth were 26 years old and there two sons were five and three. But something smelled fishy. If their birthdays were correct, in no way could Horst have arrived at that age. I will attack this the next time we eat. He did reveal a few things I didn't know. 
   'We were living in Munich, Germany after the war. My two kids Klaus and Bernard went to Hebrew school. One day, a kid asked my son if they believe in Santa Claus?" 
   "No, we have a Hanuka man."
   "I remember that we had a sponsor from Chicago. I did not wish to go where hoodlums and gangs swarmed the streets. I do remember that many travelers carried cardboard baggage that soon became waste paper during the voyage. A Jewish group got us a place in Rochester, New York" 
    I asked him more questions about how he had met his wife after the war. He corrected himself and told me he was really 16 when the Germans sent him to Auschwitz. 
    "In the Sudetenland, a German farmer took me in for a year or two. He introduced me to another one who he hid. She was half Jewish. He wanted me to have a friend."
     "A Jewish group moved us to Munich, Germany where I served as an interpreter. Of course I spoke German, Yiddish, Hebrew and also English. My kids went to Hebrew school and we lived in an apartment complex."
      I asked him about the time his commandant screamed at him for loafing and told him to work harder for his food. 
     "I threw a wrench at him and he put a rifle to my head. That was when I told him as a Jew, his son would die at the front if he had shot me"     
    
Horst now uses a walker-just to be safe. But anyone withing shouting distance must be careful, since he can hurt you with his words. He always tells me that I am crazy cause I never had a Mother. "Edith did you here that. His jokes and affection for the softer sex keeps Horst Alive and kicking. He still lives in his home of over 30 years in Cardiff. One Problem, His Rabbi does not like the fact he lives on Birmingham Street. It is the ham part he despises.