By Frida Goldberg, January 24, 2020 — I grew up in a Jewish family with five other siblings, and we were all very close. My parents came from Austria and so we would travel there to visit often. My one brother actually owned a drug store there and he did very well selling medicine to people. One day when he was working, during the time of the Holocaust, a German soldier came with orders to evacuate and kill all of the Jewish people in town. My brother watched as friends and neighbors were shot on the spot as he waited for his turn to be killed. When the German soldier stepped up to my brother, he looked at him and stalled. He said, “Do I know you?” My brother was so nervous he did not know what to say. The German soldier then realized that my brother had once provided him medicine for his family that he could not afford at the time. He explained this to my brother and then whispered, “You helped me once, so I must help you. Listen carefully, I will point my gun in the air, shoot it, and you will drop to the ground like you are dead. You will wait here until dark and then you will run for your life.” The soldier proceeded to do what he said he would, and my brother laid there next to the many dead until dark. He then ran for his life, and never forgot that day. He was saved. I guess it goes without saying that often ‘you get what you give.’
