In Memoriam Ernst Neumann (Arie Neeman)
"Homeland what great sons you have" – that’s a line from the Austrian national anthem. A great son of the city was Ernst Neumann. If he hadn’t been born into a Jewish family and emigrated in the last moment to Israel, but if he had lived his life in Austria and become a military attache here, perhaps roads and schools were named after him in Laa.
When I think of Arie Neeman – that was his name in Israel - various memories come up.
Life writes the most extraordinary stories. It was a photo that saved Ernst's life.
Ernst Neumann was a teenager when Austria became part of Hitler's Germany. Soon he realized that he could not stay there. His parents thought that nothing could happen to them because the father was a highly decorated veteran of the 1st World War. His parents should not survive the war. When they were deported, they were not asked for the heroic deeds of the father.
Ernst Neumann’s escape was a zigzag journey through Europe. When Hitler had not annexed the Czech Republic, political asylum in other European countries could not be found - he was sent back again and again.
One of the last stages of its flight was Prague. There he could join a group whose aim was to travel to Palestine. But before he could board any ship, he was arrested on the street and brought to the Gestapo headquarters, a place he only would leave by a miracle.
He had to empty his pockets, was questioned and hit. So the Nazi henchmen recognized the photo in Ernst’s pocket. It showed Ernst with his parents: the mother wearing the Austrian traditional dress (Dirndl), the father the uniform of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. When questioned who the people on the picture were, Ernst said that his father had served the Emperor and it was a fact that Jews were fighting in the monarchy’s army. The man probably let him go for nostalgic reasons, but warned him that he would not survive if he was taken in custody again.
When I think of the Ernst Neumann I remember that, although he immediately replied when I wrote him a letter, he was firmly convinced that he would never again visit the city of his youth. But then he came back even more than once - a big step after all these decades. A step he probably never would have taken, if I had not written to him. Perhaps it would have been that easy to convince people to come back from exile, if someone from the Austrian public would have asked after the war where all the displaced had remained.
"God will shoot a broom," a phrase that I only heard Mr Neumann use. He always used it when there was a current problem with a solution that seemed unattainable. Who can turn around the world? Maybe sometimes only God can. If you look at the state of the world and all the injustices that are committed, the question where the broom remains comes up today as well as during the lifetime of Ernst Neumann.