Memories of Teddy Rausch: Teddy's Life Story as told in 2020

Buenos Aires, July 2020

The extended quarantine imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic turned out to be a blessing in disguise with regard to giving me the opportunity to spend enough time so as to reconstruct my father’s past by way of audiotaping these coffee table chats. His life was epic in many ways, but above all, what transpires in this transcription is an amazing resilience, integrity, tenderness, and good-natured stance that was his lifetime hallmark. I can proudly assert that Daddy has been praised and admired by whomever has met him. Hard working, very much set on his preferred ways (yes…. I mean stubborn), yet warm and generously giving in outstanding ways. His care provided to our mother along the extended years of her relentless decline are admirable. Even more so is his recollection of so many concepts, facts and details of this extended life. Tenaciously self-sufficient to this day (weeks away from his 101^st birthday), I am only grateful life has given me the opportunity to access and share the contents of this quasi- trance state that opened up the heart and memory my father. Always quiet and reserved, only in the later years has he become more talkative and emotional.

I am fortunate to have had him, not only as a role model, but also as a loving company, always caring, concerned and looking after his loved ones. I will miss you so much, Daddy dear…. Cecile

Teddy Rausch, was born in Zolkiew, formerly Poland, currently Ukraine, on 09/17/1919. His birth certificate and documents disappeared when his duffle bag was stolen from the tent during the war in Europe.

His father, Abraham, born in 1888, was presumed coming from the same town. Paternal grandfather was a Torah scholar. His mother Ida (Jutta) Astman, (1895) came from a more upcoming family, who lived in the area for many generations, and whose father was one of 12 sons. Ida had a better education and spoke Polish, German, Russian and Yiddish. She used to help out in her uncle´s office, who was THE town notary.

Teddy had four siblings: Bernard born in 1911, moved to Paris in 1934 and left Europe in 1939 (died in Buenos Aires at the age of 94); Jenta, born 1910 and married to Kalman Satz, an orthodox Jew, also a furrier from a nearby town. They subsequently moved to Paris and then Belgium; had 1 daughter Yaffa, and they all died in Auschwitz (family deported from Malines, Belgium in 1944). Henock (Henri) born June 12/1914 father of Clairette, married to Tanya (French religious Jew) in 1938 and deported to Auschwitz in 1942 where he was murdered on August 27. For Clairette’s recounting of their trajectory and details of his life and imprisonment in France see Henri Rausch's story. Tzivie, the youngest, born in 1920, was shot and murdered in the nearby woods of Zolkiew, along with their parents.

Daddy, what was going on when you came into the world?

I and my little sister were born when my father came back from the First World War. He was left with shrapnel in his head. It was never removed because the doctors said it was not worth risking an operation of the brain. Sometimes he used to complain of a bother in his head, but he was a strong man. During that war he fought for the Austrian-Hungarian empire. At that time Poland was occupied by Austria.

I went to a regular public school, but at the age of three started attending a Jeder (Hebrew school) across the street from his home. The town was populated mostly by Jews, and the gentiles lived in the suburbs. Antisemitism was promulgated mainly by the three churches of Zolkiew: the Ukrainian was Catholic Orthodox; the big church was of Polish Christians and a little one form the Jesuits Christians, you know, those that settled in Paraguay. Their church was spick and span; it was like at the end of the street, near a pharmacy.

The three churches were located near each other and behind them there were big gardens. On Saturday night, after Sabbath, we would go downhill on our sleighs and land on those gardens. I used to know my way around every single street in town; I remember every corner. It was a beautiful town with magnificent parks and we would walk the fields to the mountains. When the lakes were frozen, we used to go ice skating.

In the summer we laid there under the big trees and certain days they would send down water that had melted from the ice they kept in the reserve during the winter. We would carry fresh water to the house in two buckets because we had no supply of fresh water. Sometimes we paid for someone to carry it.

How far was that from your home?

It was only a couple of blocks away from our house.

Who did that work?

We did it, my father, my brothers, I. We would fill up a big barrel in our hall and keep it cool in the shade. When we wanted to take a bath, we would heat some water and fill the tin that was used to wash laundry. Friday, they had the Turkish bath I used to go to with my father, whenever he took me. There was a big pool, similar to a mikvah.

Ha Ha! No wonder you always liked the Turkish bath so much… And, who was you father’s favorite child?

I don’t know. Neither my father nor mother had a favorite child. My mother was very educated and able to teach her children. My father was educated in Jewish religion and tradition. He would walk over to the to small temple where the elderly used to go during the winter -it was heated- and he would join them there and talk about the wars. Europe was constantly at war and they would analyze and criticize what was being done.

What was Zolkiew like?

There was a military regiment in our town, and on holidays they used to make a parade past the porches. Otherwise the farmers came and would sit outside the arches of the porches and sell their goods; we used to buy live chicken, different cheeses, eggs. In one area they were selling sweets, ice cream and punches, very well elaborated, Bloch was his name. Further down there was another big store, it was Glaser’s butcher shop. He had 3 sons: Asher, Senta, and Moishale. Asher stayed with his father and the other two went to Paris. Moishale was a crook. One day he disappeared and there was a theft in a furrier shop and I was told that was Moishale’s doing. After years, he showed up in Uruguay. Marcos Astman said to me: “you see, he doesn’t mingle with anybody from out of town; he must be with someone not Jewish. “

We’re not talking about the friend you told me earlier who ended up in Montevideo…

No, that friend was Eli Fish; his aunt brought him to Paris and she never wanted me to meet him; I never knew why.

So, tell me more about your home town.

I can still remember the “vonderful smell” of the Krakow ham and cold cuts that were produced nearby. Of course, we weren’t allowed to eat them, but I would sneak to the back of the store and ask for a slice or two.

Where was the food kept at home?

We didn’t have a refrigerator; the food was kept in a hole in the ground in the back yard. The winter was so cold, it was like keeping it in a freezer.

Daddy, what was your mother like?

My mother was very intelligent. She was brilliant. She and my eldest sister Jenta, were very intelligent. When she was married to Kalman I was invited for dinner and she made schnitzel, that was chopped meat prepared with garlic, similar to a flat hamburger, that you eat with bread or a roll. I remember it was so well seasoned…When I was in Israel I ordered schnitzel in an Italian restaurant and they brought out a chicken milanesa. I thought maybe they would bring me the schnitzel that my sister made… That, she had learned from home.

My mother was very efficient; she was able to prepare delicious food from nothing. You know, we weren’t wealthy. I still remember one day she prepared Kalbsbrust (a stuffed veal brisket) and we were all standing around waiting to get our share; she gave everybody a good piece and it was delicious, seasoned nicely; it was a treat! In the house we had the old stove and next to it was the oven. In the oven she kept the Kalbsbrust. In Poland you were allowed to sacrifice calves because during the winter there was not enough room to keep the milk cows in the stables because the grass was covered with snow. The only animal that can survive under the snow is the sheep. So, we would stand around and wait for our Kalbsbrust with potato latkes, made with raw potatoes and salt and pepper and an egg and fried liked bocaditos. They also used to put a big potato in the oven, we called that bubinik.

Your mother was good at cooking and also knew how to sew, right?

She knew how to sew and was also very intelligent in languages. She knew very well German, Polish, Russian, Ukranian.

Was she affectionate, warm, hugging, kissing?

She was very good with the children. She kept the children spick and span. She knew how to sew and make clothing for the children.

What about your father?

My father was a hard-working man. He had a wagon with horses and sleigh for the winter. He used to buy those calves and take them to the big city to sell. In our town, the biggest grocery store belonged to a Polish man who trusted my father and gave him money and told him where to go and buy the things that he brought back to sell, and from that he made a living. He sold the calves and made a profit. My father had a brother who owned a dairy restaurant nearby and my father used to put away his wagon and horses on that property. He took me there sometimes and once I was there for a few days.

Was you father involved with the children?

When he was home he occupied himself with the children. He had a mother living next door with two other women, they had a bakery oven. She would spend her day in bed knitting. She had a pottery pot where she used to prepare soup. She was old and toothless when I left home.

Was your father religious? How often did he go to the synagogue?

More or less. We weren’t orthodox. We went to the regular synagogue. When he didn’t go to Lvov to work, he put on the tzitzit and went to the synagogue for the Amida prayer and then used to sit around and schmooze with the other men. In the afternoon, sometimes he went for the mincha but that was done with a siddur. The men used to talk about the strategy of the war, criticizing the past mistakes. We didn’t have a kosher home. My mother would just salt the meat and make as though she was following the rules, but mostly for my father. When the rabbi came to Zolkiew from Belz (he was the rabbi for the whole region) he would rent a house from a Ukrainian wealthy man, a teacher. There was a big synagogue that was like a fortress; built by Sobieski because he was thankful to the Jews. The heroic King John III Sobieski (1674–1696) was in general very favorably inclined toward the Jews; but the clergy and Catholic nobility deprecated such friendliness toward "infidels." A replica of this temple was later built in Beersheba. Notably, in 1930 the world Jewry population numbered 15,000,000, of which the largest numbers live in the USA (4,000,000), Poland (3,500,000 = 23% of total), Soviet Union (2,700,000 = 20% of total), Romania (1,000,000 = 6% of total) and Palestine (175,000 = 1.2% of total).

So, you went to school from 8a.m. to 1 pm.

Behind the school there was a little park and there we used to play on the grass. It wasn’t a regular football field. After school I had to do homework, rested, played… sometimes I had friends coming over or went over to their home and we played Rummy. If I went with my father to the synagogue in the afternoon, I used to hang around and listen. When I was older we used to go to a social club for grown-ups and us youngsters used to hang around and they would have lectures from the different political parties that supported Israel. Sometimes it was the Shommer Hatzait - from the right- like Netanyahu’s party nowadays. At night at the club, they would sit around with candles because there wasn’t enough light.

So, that was a Jewish club, right?

It was strictly Jewish. In Poland sometimes in football clubs that were not professional they had Jews playing. The football in my town was not professional. My cousin, the one who drove the bus was playing in a professional football club in Lvov. He was studying as an actor. In Zolkiew they didn’t have and actor’s school but they had a women’s school for higher education, a paid college and there was also a Gymnasium for men. Bruno Templeman, who had a wealthy father, he went to the gymnasium. He was about five years older than I and at that age we had nothing in common. We first became friends here in Argentina.

Where did you have lunch; at home or at school?

At school they didn’t give us not even a glass of water.

We didn’t have lunch. We had a second breakfast with something hot to eat. Whatever we had… there wasn’t much.

Who did you share your bedroom with?

We didn`t have a bedroom. The house had two rooms; in one my parents slept and the small children used to sleep in their bed. And we had a couch near the table that was opened up at night. My youngest sister Tzivie was about one year or two younger than I. She always followed me around town. At that age you go around town without your parents. Lempel (or maybe Rafael) used to say “your little sister always tags after you”.

Any friends from that time other than the ones you hooked up with in Argentina?

Morris Shevitsky, was a Rumanian handsome fellow, who knew how to talk French and was very good at imitating the accent from different parts of France. Bernard used to hang out with him because he would pick up girls. After the war he came back to Paris and bought a tannery, but I never saw him again.

How come was that? Because you returned to Paris a few times after the war.

Yes, I came back twice when I was on a trip. Some of the fellows used to say, “there goes Bernard’s little brother”. They recognized me in the street and there was that little restaurant in Rue de la Chiqueé where we used to eat in the evening. They had Jewish food.

Was that where Bernard paid that lady that arranged your trip to the United States on the Normandie?

I don´t know about that. This was a big café on the corner and the little restaurant was not even a half a block away. I used to go in Berlitz with a few coins and play in the slot machines. And then with the fellows we would go and see a show in the Alhambra. The place was not as elaborate, but similar to Radio City.

Was Bernard with Edith at that time?

No, no. He met Edith in France but never lived with her in France.

Why did he end up marrying her?

I know what he was thinking? He never told me…

Was she good looking at that time? Because Bernard was chasing after the pretty girls in town.

No, she was always chubby and never stopped talking. I could never understand how he could pick up a creep like that. She was inaguantable. I could never figure out how she reasoned. She brought in Susana to tutor the children for school. Her parents came from Switzerland. And….that you know, Bernard ended up leaving her and going with Susana.

And Tanya? She was good looking…

Not so good looking but pretty, cute. She worked in a department store near her home in Place de la Republique. I think he met her there. Her father was also a furrier. Jenta’s husband was also a furrier; he came from a town about 30 km away from ours. They were introduced by some neighbor of my mother’s uncle, the notary I told you about. He came over saying he has a nice fellow to introduce to my sister, being that she was very pretty and very intelligent. She spoke very well Polish and knew Russian and German. They got married in Paris. I remember the last time I saw her was when she served me the schnitzel I told you about. They moved to Antwerp, in Belgium because her husband was very orthodox thought the Nazis would not invade there. That was a mistake. (They were deported from Malines on the last all Jew transport convoy comprising 662 persons of which 62 were children on 01/15/1944).

What was the story with Bernard and the border guard that he was supposed to tip?

He had told Henry that when he got to the border he had to give the guard a tip. Evidently Henry forgot or was afraid and didn’t give him what he expected and the guard took away his papers and gave him over to the French. If he had given him 50 or 100 dollars he would have gone through like Bernard did.

Bernard had told me (Cecile) that he had always felt guilty because he had paid the Polish border guard in advance for Henry to pass, but perhaps that money wasn’t enough. That guilt had haunted him all his life.”

That I didn’t know. Marcos Astman was able to bring his whole family to Uruguay from Zolkiew. I don’t know the details but presume it was from that same border pass. He brought his parents and brother and sister.

How come Henry was allowed to leave the detention camp?

He never got out. The guards were very lax at that place, and people told him he should escape and he refused to because he had no papers. Evidently Tanya wasn’t able to convince him or didn’t know how to recover the papers from the Polish officer who took them or maybe he had already handed them over. I don’t know…

Do you know what happened with your father’s brother?

I don’t know. There was his brother and my mother’s sister who had a big son and a red headed daughter who used to come over to visit. The big son was driving a little bus that went from Lvov to Zolkiew, that was a 30 km distance. As a driver, he had to learn to be a mechanic. He belonged to a Jewish Club who used to play football with the Lubitch who were anti-Semites. Once they had an argument and they were prepared to fight back if they were attacked. That little bus had seats and they filled it up and rushed back to Lvov. The road was made of cobble stones, so it was bumby. Lvov was the biggest city in Galizia; the Galizia area was even more important than Krakow.

So, you don’t know what happened to them?

No, no… we never knew what happened to them after the war. The only one I knew about was that manager of the ping pong tournament who married a Ukrainian woman who hid him and he stayed on in Zolkiew for the rest of his life; never wanted to leave. He had the opportunity to go to Israel but refused because he said there he’d be a stranger.

Two of the Astman cousins (Marcos married to Julia, and Leon, married to Rebeca) eventually settled in Montevideo, Uruguay. They were also in the fur business and Teddy’s family was close to them. In the 60s they both moved to Israel with their families and we visited and remained in touch with them. Rebecca was especially warm and mindful of keeping the family ties.

Of your siblings, who were you close with?

Bernard is the one that arranged for me to leave for the United States, but Henri is the one I was close with. He took me on vacation with him and Tanya to Arcachon beach, near Bordeaux after I was a year in France.

Teddy left Zolkiew and moved to Paris in 1936 arriving at “Faubourg Saint-Denis quatre vingt”, Paris 12mme arrondisement. That was the apartment shared by Bernard and Henri who had arrived in 1933. The address he memorized indelibly to this day. Upon arrival, Bernard asked him how was it he had found his way around in a strange city and he proudly answered “it was only in my head”. They all worked as furriers in an atelier that was eventually target of an aryanization measure. Bernard planned and executed an escape plan for Teddy because he was certain war was inevitable. In 1938 he left for NY on the SS Normandie. He boarded the ship as a stowaway, disguised as a sailor and in the company of Jack Rosenfeld (also from Zolkiew). During the 4 days of the journey, the shared a tiny cabin with a couple of bunk beds with four Portuguese men. There were no windows and they would take turn peeking through the wood cracks as the ocean liner guests paraded into the luxurious dining room. They were sporadically fed meager pieces of bread and leftovers from the crew. On one occasion there was a quarrel over a glass of water, among (or with) the Portuguese fellows and apparently someone drew a knife. The crisis was resolved and they disembarked in Staten Island without further drama. Teddy went to live with the Kowlers (a married couple from Zolkiew). Jack was also a furrier and of a similar age; they became partners in New York until he was drafted and remained lifetime friends. His daughter Karen came to Argentina around 2010 and audio taped extensive interviews recounting the shared past of her father and Teddy.

Jack Rosenfeld, ¿do you consider him to be your partner but not your friend?

Yeah,,, Jack was my friend. We arrived in the States together and worked together until I left for the army. And I was supposed to come back with him but he had taken in her family. Before he worked even on the holidays, but then he married Sarah and became religious. Sarah had a sister Blanche that I met in a country club in Deerfield. Her husband passed away, and she had a son. So, she married a rabbi and lived in Deerfield. Both sisters had exactly the same nose with a mark.

So, who else was a close friend in NY?

I never had, I didn’t have close friends in NY.

What about Gottlieb? No, they were all, you know acquaintances but not close.

There was someone else in NY?

Martin Ziegletuk, he liked Sunny but she wasn’t interested. She met Gene who was a dentist and became a major in the army and they married and the divorced.

WWII

When did you join the US army?

Before 1942 I got a letter from the US government asking if I wanted to enlist in the army. It was unthinkable that a Jew would not be willing to fight the Nazis, so I joined immediately. We were assembled in New Jersey and then transferred to Arkansas for training. It rained non-stop in Arkansas so were sent to boot school for training.

I was in the light artillery (105); the heavy artillery was 155.

You were one of the Timberwolves, right?

Yes, Timberwolves was our division. The commander of our division was general Allen. The Supreme commander of the allied forces was Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. When I was making maneuvers, Eisenhower was a coronel and directed maneuvers in Arizona. After that Marshall (head of the American armed forces) named him Commander in Chief. He’s the one that designed the Marshall plan.

There were 2 Jewish fellows in my unit I was friends with, Morley and another one whose name I can’t remember, but he was very smart and well educated. I think he was a teacher and helped out whenever he was asked how to spell or say something. Morley was from a wealthy family in NY; they owned a laundromat and he wanted to get into politics when he got out of the army.

Once, when we were in a movie theater in Denver, three girls walked out from the movie and began talking to us and invited us over to the home of one of them. I was the one who was doing most of the talking because I was always interested in politics and my friend said to them: “Teddy majors in politics”. In their home we were just necking, because it was 3 of us in the same room… That’s how things were in the West; what we picked up was mostly daughters from wealthy farmers. NY was more politically liberal, but the girls were more conservative.

What did you do in Europe?

The first commitment of our division was in Antwerp and the goal was to stop Gen. von Rundstedt in the German’s attempt to stop the British, who were unable to take the city because they were weak. Rundstedt wanted to make a comeback and surrounded the 101^st division and they couldn’t break out, so all of the divisions that were in the area went to help in liberating that division and finally we got through.

In mid-September 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market-Garden, a daring land and airborne attack behind enemy lines in the eastern Netherlands. The goal was to bring the war to a rapid end by cutting in half the German positions in Northwest Europe. The German resistance was determined, however, and the bold offensive failed. It soon became apparent that the conflict would drag on. To maintain pressure on the German forces, the Allies needed a reliable way to keep the flow of vital supplies moving to the front lines of Northwest Europe. This meant a large seaport would need to be taken on the continent. The major Belgian port city of Antwerp was captured almost intact in early September 1944 but there was a complicating factor. Antwerp is located some 80 kilometers from the North Sea and is accessible only by the Scheldt river – a waterway that was still in enemy hands. Our troops would succeed in opening up the port of Antwerp to Allied shipping – a key step in the liberation of Northwest Europe – but it would come at a great cost.

Teddy was awarded a medal for his part in the Battle of the Bulge.

The Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region of Belgium 12/16/1944 to 01/25/1945 was called “the greatest American battle of the war” by Winston Churchill. It was Adolf Hitler's last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front. Although the Germans were practically defeated, Hitler had convinced himself that the alliance between Britain, France and America in the western sector of Europe was not strong and that a major attack and defeat would break up the alliance. It was a turning point in WWII because it represented Germany's last best chance to win on the Western Front. The German offensive exhausted their resources on the Western Front and its collapse opened way for the Allies to ultimately break the Siegfried Line. It was fought in bitter cold winter with 8 inches of snow on the ground and 19,000 US soldiers and 100,000 German soldiers died in action.

We were moving forward and the Russians from the other side fooled the allies. They had been building up the war machine under the Ural Mountains and the allies praised themselves for helping the Russians by sending the war equipment, that they didn’t actually need. Anyway, the war was won thanks to the Russians. If not for them maybe the war would have lasted a few years longer, or would have been lost. Russia and Germany took the biggest brunt from that war.

When did you enter Germany?

When we crossed into Achen, there was a river before, and we were shooting artillery all night and then the infantry and the amphibious soldiers crossed over and a lot of them swam over even though it was the winter. There were some soldiers who were willing to volunteer to make the bridge. From there we went on. We stopped off to rest in tents, or we occupied vacant houses and had the machine guns outside for protection. Once we went into a German house where there was some food left and I remembered how my mother used to prepare for breakfast with eggs and potatoes and onions and I cooked it all. The captain was amazed and said who made this dish?” Someone said: Rausch! And he came over to congratulate me and since then he was after me I should join the military school to become and officer. He wanted me to go to Officer’s School for training and I didn’t want to because I had an accent and I was embarrassed and I said to him: I have a profession to go back to when I leave the army. On another occasion he insisted, that the American Army was lacking officers, but I said again, “thank you very much but I have a profession to go back to”.

I was doing well in my profession before joining the army. I sent Bernard 5000U$ that I had saved from my work. That was enough money to buy a house in 1942 and I kept 2000U$ in my money belt so that I had money to go out and enjoy a good restaurant and enjoy the weekend when we had off.

Were you allowed to loot from what you found in the vacant homes?

There was nothing to loot. In one of the very wealthy houses that was destroyed we found a huge safe; we didn’t have the keys so we banged until we opened it because we thought we’d find a fortune of gold, dollars, sterling pounds, but there wasn’t much left; whatever was of value, was taken earlier. That was in Cologne.

Then, towards the end of the war there was a meeting of the international leaders: Churchill, Roosevelt was still alive with Truman, and the Canadian prime minister, and Stalin and they had to agree on how to handle the surrender conditions with Germany and pay the compensations. Konrad Adenauer was a very bright man, the first president of Germany after the war; he gave the war prisoners life compensations.

I don’t remember how long we stayed in the area, but waited around until we got orders of being shipped back to the States.

Which other concentration camps did you free, aside from Achen? (list provided to Teddy).

It was three or 4. Two of them we went into before Achen; then there was Buchenwald and the other I’m not sure… maybe Sachenhausen or perhaps Flossenburg (they both ring a bell but I’m not sure.

What is it that mostly drew your attention when you entered the concentration camps?

It was to see people so thin from hunger, you saw the bones from their whole body. Not all of them were Jewish. They were like walking corpses.

Did you talk to them?

No, we didn’t get close to them. But we were taken there to see what the Nazis had done. When they were still fighting, we were told not to take prisoners of the Germans, we should kill them on the battlefield. In the concentration camps the guards were either hiding or had fled; they weren’t anywhere around.

Were there any gas chambers in the camps you were into?

No, they were specially built only for the bigger camps.

What happened when you came back to the United States?

I returned from Europe in 1945, They gave us a month’s furlough in NY. I remember I was arrived with a Polish fellow, by the name of Cuchinsky; he was American born and was living in Long Island. He went with me the first night to sleep over in a Turkish bath. He had a betting agency and wanted me to go work with him; he said “you have an honest face and it would be good for my business if you come to work with me”. That in not legal in NY; ha ha! I said to him, that is not my line.”

Then, we were sent to California to be transferred to Japan to finish out the war. After the atom bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demonstrations flared up with people demanding that the soldiers who had just returned from fighting the war in Europe, not be sent to another devastated area. We were transferred to Denver, CO; Phoenix, AZ; and then to Seattle from where we were to be discharged. During this wait, other soldiers returned from Europe in bad condition, and they were assigned (in groups of 2-3 friends of my division) to accompany the wounded soldiers back to their home town and help them get settled.

Why did you choose to leave the US and come to live in Argentina after getting married?

Because Bernard told me that in NY the fur business was very bad. So, I figured, I’ll go there and see how it went for a year and see for myself. And, I did very well. So, I did well what I did. In NY, some of them, found themselves good locations and they were working, but the majority of them were struggling. So, Bernard said come and try. If you make it you’ll stay, if not you’ll go back.

Did you think that was a wise move at the time?

I made a lot of money in the first year. I had shipped merchandise and the boat took such a long time, during those months they closed the importation and by the time it arrived it had re-valuated a few times. In the meantime, I had money I had sent for Bernard to keep for me when I went off to the war. You know, at that time 5000U$ was a fortune so with that money I bought merchandise in partnership with Sami Honig from the Russian auction that was held in Buenos Aires. I worked much faster and each time I gave him a bigger profit and bought back the merchandise and sold it.

How come Uncle Bernard didn’t come to your wedding?

That I don’t know. I guess he was busy with his business. You know, Rafael was a gurnisht; he wasn’t able to manage without Bernard. Bernard teamed up with Rafael when they got to Argentina. Before that Rafael was working with Sami Honig and Bernard was on his own. He was always very active. He even went to Algeria to buy off paws and pieces from France. You know, Algeria was a French Colony and they had the Foreign Legion, that was made up mainly of mercenaries, they had very few French officers.

Teddy married Lillian on June 23^rd 1946 (right after the war) and moved to Argentina in February 1947. He worked as a furrier until 1991; in 1987 he split up his partnership with Enrique but kept the apartment on Viamonte in order to sell the remaining merchandise. Lillian passed away on Feb. 9^th, 2013. His 90^thbirthday was celebrated with a party at Cecile’s home, entertained by Klesmer musicians and attended by the remaining lifetime friends and current Hacoaj club buddies. His 100^th birthday was celebrated with a luncheon in Mirasol restaurant attended by almost all of the Rausch family members from Argentina and the US.

ARGENTINA

Arrived in Argentina at the start of February 1947, at time at which his local friends from Zolkiew were vacationing in Piriapolis, Uruguay.

How did you resume life in Argentina?

In Buenos Aires I learned immediately how to work with Persian lamb skins, bought the sewing machines and rented a flat on Carlos Pellegrini and Cordoba. I bought merchandise from auctions of the Russian market in partnership with Sami Honig. I was very fast working so every time I gave him an extra 10% and ended up buying off his part. As soon as I arrived I learned how to classify the lambskins.

Who taught you that?

Nobody, I just learned paying attention to what Rafael was doing. He and I were the best classifiers in town. You know, it is not only the shade of black, but also the height of the curl, and the thickness of the skin.

How come you didn’t join Bernard in the business?

He was already a partner and friend with Rafael and Bernard was always traveling around and involved in risky things that I wasn’t interested. I always wanted to be on my own and be my own boss.

What about your personal life? Where did you live?

Mommie and I moved from Libertad and Arenales to a rented an apartment on Las Heras 2552 right across the street from a big garage. During that time, I made good money and was able to buy the house from Arshadjian in Belgrano. He had built three houses for the three brothers and one of them died so they sold the homes to Weisman, Bekerman and me.

Saturday after lunch I used to go to the Turkish bath and get a massage and a steam bath and liked it but had to discontinue because it used to give me a headache. I didn’t eat there but had some sandwiches that Ashardjian used to order and we shared with Bernard and those of us there. I don´t know if it was bad for my stomach but I suffered from headaches. At that time, I used to go to Uruguay with the Aliscafo and arrange cuentas with Biller and Sapir (furriers) and would come down with such a headache I couldn’t stand it. Then they broke up their partnership because one of Biller’s brothers was a gambler at the casino.

How was life with Mommie?

She didn’t know the value of money. I used to tell her: you have to realize, I’m not a machine, I don’t produce money”. She used to go and shop without ever learning the value of money, all her life. She used to threaten me, if you don’t want to give me money I’ll tell the children.” She had a friend Sarita Eskenazi who was such a nice, fine person but very poor and Mommie used to go out with her and always treat her and I used to complain but she wouldn’t hear reasoning. And then she began losing it and I didn’t realize immediately but first when we went on plane for Veronica´s Bat Mitz Vah and she said; Where are we? In a theatre? In a movie?”

Before that time, I had problems with Mommie about the support of her mother, who was a sick woman who had to have electroshock. The only time Joel ever called here was when he wanted me to send them money Jack and I sent every month, because I was late in sending money, so he had to lay it out and wanted it back because he wanted to go on vacation.

Then, Nathan went into living in a home and again it was Jack and I that paid because Sunny was divorced and Trudy… they had no money.

Did you have many girlfriends prior to Mommie?

Yes…. There was one girl…when I lived in Kowlers house there was a German Jew girl, whose father was a writer. Before I went to the army, once I went on vacation to Lakewood for the weekend, and came back on a bus and when I came back, she was there alone, because the Kowlers had gone out, and she wanted I should stay with her and I said “leave me, I`m dead tired and I´m not in the mood; I want you to do me a favor and go up to your house and leave me rest” and I sent her away, and now I think how foolish I was. I was a young fellow, you know…

Would that have been your first time with her?

Every time when I returned home she used to wait for me and we used to go out near the water and neck but never had an opportunity to be in a room alone. The truth is that day I was dead tired.

Did that end the relationship?

“No…no, it didn’t end the relationship; …then we went with Jack Rosenfeld (my partner at the time) we went to Bear Mountain and we spent the day there with a real bear and then we came back. “So, you never slept with her?” No. “So, aside from Mommie, did you ever have any steady girlfriend?” No, not steady, but I used to go out…

I used to go to make cuentas in Uruguay in the Victoria Plaza hotel and you now, the fellows at the front desk used to ask me: would you like to have some company? And they sent you up very nice sales girls from the department stores. Spitalnik, who was a friend of mine told me he used to go into de department store and pick up girls. In Uruguay they were freer than in Argentina.

Did Mom ever find out?

I don’t think so.

Was Mommie jealous?

Very… That was her nature, not because she had a reason.

I know that she drooled over you but wasn’t aware that she was jealous. Did she ever suspect about the monkey business going on in Montevideo?

No.

Those were occasional encounters anyway?

Yes….

Did you ever get involved with any of those girls?

Once I was in Rio Hondo in the Pinos Hotel, the best hotel there and I was just floating around but not interested… and somehow when I came back to Buenos Aires this good-looking girl called me up. I don’t know how she got my phone number, so I told her I’m a married man, I have children; I’m not interested in having an affair. Her father was a big business man in the leather industry and she was either separated or never married and she was staying in that hotel with a group of mostly foreigners. Los Pinos was not the biggest hotel; that was the Grand Hotel, but Los Pinos was the finest hotel. I used to go there for vacation with Bruno and Grinberg: We used to go the 12 of August to the 17^th because there were 2 days of holidays. In September it was too hot to go to Santiago Del Estero. We used to go from Tucuman to Rio Hondo and then on from La Banda were there was the train.

How was your business doing?

I made good money so I bought the store (in fact, a whole building) on Suipacha from Jacobo Feuerman. He wanted to sell because his partner was directing customers to his private business. I started working hard and made good money. I used to go in to work on Saturday and Sunday, before going to the club I went in to prepare the skins so that the talleristas would have work ready for the week. I had Armando living there and Leon and Pantalion as operators. I used to sell skins to Bauchman and Enrique Tsin, who were neighbors. When foxes became fashionable I didn’t understand anything about foxes and he suggested I become partners with him and move into the flat on Suipacha and Charcas. I accepted because I didn’t understand about foxes and he was a young fellow and was willing to travel to Rio Gallegos. Maciel Martínez once told Enrique, “with the partner you have, you don’t need to worry; he was born to be a business man”.

Enrique had no memory; we had agreed on a price for the merchandise and he let him have it for less and because he didn’t want to lose the client. I said: “What to do you want; to lose my money. If you don’t call him back and tell him that I was present when we settled the price, I ‘ll call him and tell him that he had accepted that price and I won’t sell for less. A dollar difference for each skin ends up being two thousand dollars. I almost ended the partnership because of that incident. Finally, Enrique called and they settled. Once Marcos Astman came here from Israel on a visit and was amazed at the size warehouse we had and asked “who controls so much merchandise? I said, it’s all in my head. This kepale that sits here at this desk, pays and receives and keeps track of everything and I know exactly vere everything is in the deposito.”

Who was your closest friend in your lifetime, either here or in the States?

I didn’t have a closest friend, because I was an immigrant… In the States I was there only for a short time, a few years before going into the army.

And here, who were your close with? Not mommies’ frinds, but yours.

Here? Close, here I never had. I had friends here with Bruno, Grinberg, Vainer he was my accountant but we used to visit, and Selig Dubrovsky, but never close friends. They were all older than I was and they were all immigrants, Samek Gutmacher I never could have a conversation with him; and Poldi Furst, he was Annas’ husband, an Austrian, but I considered him very stupid. I was friendlier with Abraham Tessler, and Kiessel and his brother in law, we used to visit each other in Punta del Este and here… and other people but never close. I had a close friend in my town. He came to Paris but I never got together with him; he was living with an aunt.

Were you able to find out what happened with him?

I think that he came to Montevideo after the war and saved himself.

You never looked him up?

Marcos told me something peculiar happened with him. He got together with some woman and never wanted to mingle with any one from our town.

Maybe he converted

And if he converts he has to avoid us?

That is the only thing I can think of.

We were not racists; we accepted gentiles. He must have had a reason. How do you know what happens in someone’s mind when you go through a war and hide out?

How close were you with Bernard?

He was always busy working and running around like crazy. But Bernard, when he left Argentina and moved to Europe with Susana, he left me one hundred thousand dollars for me to pay his bills here while he was away, because he didn’t trust Anita and Enrique and Mario. Enrique on one occasion got involved with his psychoanalyst Fontana who talked him into buying land and he used Bernard’s money that was meant to pay for merchandise; then when he moved to Miami, Bernard sent him merchandise to sell there and never paid him a cent. Enrique always lived off from Bernard.

Is there any period of your life that you think of as the happiest or more fulfilling?

When I was small I liked to go skiing, skating, figure skating in my town. In Paris I was getting along but not too much, you know.

I was wondering. In the photos Clairette sent from your vacation with them in Arcachon you look sooo sad.

I was very young. I had just arrived in Paris, and was only 16-17 years old. It was not so easy.

Would you say your childhood was the best period of your life?

No, in my childhood we were not wealthy but we were getting along pretty well. My mother was very capable. She was able to prepare wonderful meals with nothing. She used to say, don’t look to save money with food. If you buy bad quality it ends up being more expensive because you have to throw it away. She used to send us to buy the groceries every day, whatever we needed. You know, at that time you didn’t buy quantity like you do today.

And what about the other periods of your life? What do you think of as more rewarding, good…

I had good periods and I missed a lot of things because I was too careful. Many things I let go by because of my cautiousness.

What do you regret having let go by?

That girl in NY when I was living with the Kowlers and I was coming back from that trip and was so tired. And I didn’t want to have a relation with her because I wasn’t prepared. I had no condoms and was too tired to go buy and I said to myself I don’t want to knock her up and have that on my mind. She was a German Jew and her father was a writer and they lived in the same building. And she waited, Uy, she waited and said, now that the Kowlers are out and we’re alone, let’s go! ….And I said I was tired…. And now I regret it.

What other regrets do you have?

I told you about that woman you hired to look after Mommie. She was a good-looking woman, refined, educated, divorced or separated with two grown children. She was practically seducing me and felt uncomfortable; with Mommie in that condition, and Berta…. After dinner she would come over and sit by my couch and say: what are we going to see tonight on the TV? You ought to get out more often. We should go to the movies and share a meal afterwards in the restaurant next-door….

And an especially good period?

After I got out of the army I was having a good time. Economically I never had problems. Only when I was a child were we poor, but as soon as I started working I always had money; I always managed to save money. Whenever I went out with the fellows, they would get drunk and begin fighting. I, if I had a couple of beers, for me it was enough; you go and get drunk. Me, I’m going to watch myself. I never came back late. Once, after furlough I got back late because there was a problem with the train and you know what; it was stated in my discharge papers. The Americans keep records of everything.

Do you think you enjoyed your children early on or mainly in the later years?

Even though I worked I always dedicated a lot to the children. When you were a baby you had a bad diarrhea and I rented a home in Bella Vista so as to be near the doctor and we came into town to see Dr. Carry and he said: give her cereal, that will help and he was right.

I remember one Saturday morning you took me to Palermo and someone stole my white boot roller-skates and you chased him like crazy and when you got back you were breathing so heavily I was afraid you’d have a heart attack.

That, I don’t remember. I remember going with you children to The Rosedal, to the Planetarium, to Ital Park (the amusement Park) with those rides.

And you used to enjoy the beach.

Ah…. The beach… In Miramar, that I always enjoyed…We always had a carpa in the Balneario Enrique. We lived near the Normandie Hotel and I couldn’t sleep during the weekends because Estela Raval was singing there until late.