I had the pleasure of speaking to several members of the Pickaway County Library Book Club. The meeting had been postponed by Covid for a year. One attendee participated via Skype from New York.
It was an honor to answer their questions about my story, “A story of war, deprivation, courage, perseverance, and triumph.” I experienced the deprivation part, but my parents demonstrated courage, and perseverance. It was their triumph. They overcame impossible odds. I was just a kid desperately trying to survive.
We were blessed to be able to come to America and live the American Dream.
Ohhhh! Noooo! I just had an awful shock. I saw victims of biblio-cide and book-butchery. Horrific!
In preparation for my presentation at Wheatberry Books, I had ordered printed copies of my memoir. The packer at the printing company obviously had a bad day. The books were packed so loosely that they could dance in the box. You do not want your books to be partying unsupervised.
But do not despair, the books at Wheatberry were treated well, are beautiful, and not abused. See you Saturday, 6 PM at Wheatberry Books, an independent bookstore.
I could not stop once I started reading and after the tears finally subsided at the end, I told my husband that he Must Read This Book !! The book is many things…a story of survival, a story of perseverance, a story of fighting for and making the absolute most of an opportunity, and the story of what this country has always stood for. It took me back to many similar stories I heard from my parents and grandparents about the struggles and sacrifices that made the USA a great nation…I just did not realize the extent to which it was not just American-born citizens who struggled and sacrificed to achieve that greatness. I would encourage everyone to read ‘Why Can’t Somebody Just Die Around Here?’ by Gerhard Maroscher, and then to ask every young person you know to read it also!! Well done, Mr. Maroscher!! Thank You!
Kim H.
Read more reviews – and get your own copy – on Amazon.com or get a signed copy here on this website!
Presentations followed by a book signing are always enjoyable. My presentation last Saturday at Das Kaffeehaus had a new twist!
I arrived a bit early. That gave me the opportunity to interact with several customers. They didn’t know about the presentation and couldn’t stay. But after an elevator pitch about my compelling story, everyone I talked to purchased a book! They left, and the official fun began.
If you would like to be so lucky to read what they are reading, you can visit Amazon.com or my website. The advantage of my website is that I sign and ship each book personally!
After WWII, seventy-five years ago, Mr. Massler saved my father’s life. Massler was a good and brave man. I often wondered what his fate was. Last year my question was answered. With this new information I was compelled to add a postscript to my memoir. The postscript follows:
Illuliu and Magda Massler
Postscript
The last story
Mom told me one last story on a Saturday afternoon. I had stopped by her assisted living apartment for one of my frequent visits. She was 82 and in failing health. She was sitting in her favorite easy chair beside the window. I pulled up a kitchen chair and we were talking. Mom appeared to remember something and unprompted, told me a story from her past. She told me about Mr. Massler. His story is found in chapters 2 and 7. Massler was Dad’s Jewish friend. They had been classmates at a Romanian prep school. Massler’s family owned one of the finest stores in Bistritz.
Many of Mom’s stories were corroborated by the documents my parents had saved and by research. This last story was not corroborated until 2020.
Good men. Courageous men.
The Romanian-Hungarian border was changed in 1940; we now lived in Hungary. The fascist Hungarian government treated Jews the same way the Nazis did. It was decreed that it was illegal to do business with Jews. Despite being an officer in the Hungarian army reserves, Dad continued to do business secretly with Massler at considerable risk to himself.
In May 1944, Dad left home to fight the Russians. Mom told me that Massler had been sent to a Nazi concentration camp. She said that Mr. Massler survived, returned to Bistritz, and was appointed the communist police commissioner.
Dad was released from a Russian POW camp on August 28, 1945. He returned home to the family farm, but his family was gone. He did not know where we were or if we had survived the war. The communist authorities had been conducting nighttime arrest raids since January 1945. They were arresting Transylvanian Saxons of working age and political opponents. All arrested Saxons were sent off to slave labor camps in Russia. Massler protected Dad by warning him of impending raids. Massler’s courage cannot be overstated.
Considering my father’s poor health, had he been arrested, he would not have survived the arduous train trip to a slave labor camp. His body would have been thrown out of the rail car without a burial. My brother and I would have grown up without our father. My brother would have missed him terribly. I would have had no memories of him.
Oppression and killing were back in full bloom, only now the communists were in charge.
I often wondered what Mr. Massler’s fate was. He was a good and courageous man. A true friend. A man of character.
Question answered
In January 2020, I posted a short version of the “Massler story” on my book’s Facebook page. About one month later I received a response, stating, “I am Mr. Massler’s daughter.” I was in shock. I was in an emotional state. Could this be true? Is it a scam?
It was not a scam. It was real. I had been contacted by Mr. Massler’s daughter. She responded to my post. We have been in email contact since then. For the first time, she heard the story of our fathers’ friendship and their noble actions. I then learned what had happened to the man who saved Dad’s life 75 years ago.
Mr. Massler’s daughter disclosed that he had been sent to a slave labor camp where he was terribly mistreated and severely beaten. He was liberated by the Soviets. While he was in the camp, his wife, Magda Mandel, his five-year-old daughter, Juli, his parents, his sister and niece were taken to Auschwitz and gassed. After his return to Romania, he remarried. His daughter from the second marriage is the one who contacted me. She was named after the daughter he had lost to the Nazis.
Mr. Massler became a communist. Eventually he was appointed the communist police commissioner. His daughter recalled that he had not been a dedicated communist.
In 1958 Illuliu Massler (I had not previously known his first name) immigrated to Israel and began a new life in a new country. Some of his extended family had moved to Germany and had a good life there, but he wanted nothing to do with Germans. Making a break from the past, he changed his children’s names to Hebrew names. He is survived by two daughters and four grandchildren. He lived to the age of 78 and was an exceptionally good father.
The daughter who contacted me was thrilled to hear of the goodness and kindness of her father and his part in my family’s story. I was humbled to give her my memoir. As we continued to exchange emails, she sent me a picture of her father. When I first saw the picture of the man who had saved my father’s life 75 years ago, I had tears in my eyes.
As his daughter told me, “The world can learn much from our fathers.”
The author (me) Gerhard Maroscher (left) and SAR chapter president Thom May (right).
I had the honor recently to speak to the Arthur St. Claire Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution in Chillicothe, Ohio. Due to Covid, this is the first in-person presentation and book signing in many months. Just like trees budding and daffodils shooting up is a sure sign of spring, I think this presentation is a sure sign that Covid will soon be behind us.
Today I did a Zoom presentation of my story to The Dublin, Ohio Rotary Club. Good discussion and questions afterward. Shown is me with my Zoom setup, and Lindy, a 4-month-old standard poodle, is getting Zoom training. She needs at a bit more training to Zoom on her own.
I appreciated the opportunity to tell my story on the UNcensored Podcast with Anne Livingston.
I felt this conversation was a vital one to have during such a deeply transformational time in our history because he has an external experience of what is happening in our country in a way those of us who were born here simply don’t have.
