“It’s just as well that you gentle-folk should understand that from now on that’s how things will be done. Everything has been yours long enough, now let it be the people’s.”
“Don’t you suppose that those you call gentle-folk have risen from the people? To rise in the social scale one has to work, and it is worth working for. Only it is not often the work of a single life, but of several generations, till at last one reaches the goal. If from the start there is no possibility of getting on in the world, it will mean that industry, hard work and intelligence will be deprived of their reward. Would you work without a prospect of a pleasanter life?”
“No,” the man said hesitatingly. Then, as if angered by his own back-sliding, he said rudely: “They tell a different tale in the Unions.”
“The Jewish leaders....”
“Well, that’s true, they are Jews, every one of them,” he admitted grudgingly. “Whose fault is it? The gentle-folk’s, who would not mix with us. They never troubled about us, and left us to the Jews.”
“There you are right,” I rejoined, and he took off his cap when I got into the tram.
I came home feeling chilled, and met three men on the stair-case, two soldiers and one in civilian clothes. The maid who opened the door informed me that they had come to commandeer lodgings.
“Did you let them in? Why did you not tell them that we already had a certified lodger?”
“It was no good. They pushed me aside and came in. Poor, dear old lady. They were so rude to her. They went everywhere, looked at everything, and told her she would not be allowed more than two rooms.”
Naturally my mother was upset. A dentist with four children had put in a claim for three of our rooms with the common use of the kitchen and bathroom. If I remember rightly his name was Pollak and he had lived till then in the ghetto.