THE
GIRL WITH THE GOLD COINS
She was waiting for me at the entrance to the gallery. "Thank-you for
validating my life", she said. "Are you Second Generation?"
I asked. "No," she replied, "But I did not know that my
father was Jewish until I was an adolescent" .... and then she proceeded
to tell me her story.
Her father was an American, born In Prague. He became a career diplomat. In
the late '30's, people began to approach him, begging his assistance to help
them leave the country. He could do nothing. However, he agreed to take their
money and keep it for them until after the war. He drained the oil pan in
his car and hid all the gold coins that had been entrusted to him, then replaced
the oil. That was where they stayed for the duration of the war. After
the war, he went searching for all those who had given him their gold coins.
They were all dead.
When he died, his daughter inherited the gold coins. "People have suggested
that I melt down the gold,"
she told me. "But I can't. The souls of all those people are in those
coins." "You know, you ARE Second Generation,"
I told her. At first she denied it. But after I had returned to Austin, I
received a letter from her. " I feel like an abandoned child who has finally
found refuge," she wrote.
As I had experienced so often in the past - after speaking with children of
Survivors, I could not get her story out of my head. So, I did the painting
- 'girl with gold coins'.
Our brief conversation on that blustery cold night in Alma, Michigan has grown
into a friendship of mutual respect, admiration and love. This elegant, charming
woman bears the burden of her generation - the Second Generation. Her eyes
tell you that she carries the weight of the world on her shoulders.
This woman with a heart of gold and the spirit to match, has contributed as
much to my healing as I have to hers.
carolyn h. manosevitz
Snowmass Village, Colorado
20 July, 1999
carolyn
h. manosevitz studio
p.o. box 3705 basalt, co.81621
e-mail: chm888@carolynmanosevitz.com