My Brother BennoCHAPTER 4 Benno, like Tusya, was born in Liebau, in
August 1910. I do not know the exact date of their birthday,
but I think it was the 27. I do not have a single memory of us having
celebrated Benno's birthday. Since my present memoirs start with
what I could recall at the age of 3, it means that my first memory
of Benno was when he was 7 years' old. Both Tusya and he were already
'studying', i. e. Mother must have been teaching them by then. I remember that when Benno was at home he was always reading. There was a large table in the dining-room and above it hang a large orange lampshade. Benno used to read in his favorite position: with his knees on a chair, he placed his elbows on the table and covered his ears with his hands, to keep away the noise. Sitting this way, he could read for hours, well into the night. It was hard to keep him away from his reading and he was very angry when someone tried to stop him. There was even a picture of him reading in this position (I think Zyama made it) but it did not survive. When Benno graduated from the gymnasium he entered the Law Faculty of the Latvian State University. He did not study there long because he was soon arrested…When he did study he found it quite easy. He probably did not study much, just learned what he needed the night before the exams and passed them. We did not know when Benno joined the (Communist) underground. His first arrest was for the family as shocking as a thunder on a clear day. Everything was so nice and quiet and suddenly the "Okhranka" agents burst in, the police came and there was a search at our apartment… Mother was standing there looking very pale, we all kept very quiet and at first did not even understand what was going on. Benno was 18 years' old at the time. It would be hard to describe even briefly what followed after his arrest: eight years of arrests, two trials, his releases from prison and his re-arrests, the worries and concerns all this caused our parents and how it all affected our lives… After his first arrest (with which the above-mentioned search was connected) Benno spent in prison about 2 years. We could have looked for archive materials and Zyama probably remembers more than I do, but I shall just put down what I remember. I do recall how Mother used to bring him parcels on Fridays. She prepared a large basket (everyone used weaved baskets then) and went early in the morning to the Central Prison to pass it on. We, the others, went there rarely, everyone was busy. Sometimes we went to meet him too, but most of all Mother went and, I think, Tusya did too. When we came to visit him we first had to wait in the dirty and dark lobby and then the visitors were called in. The visits took place in a large room separated by two metal nets that started at the floor and went up to the ceiling. A guard was pacing between the two nets. The prisoners were behind one of the nets and the visitors – behind the other. The visits were attended by a number of people simultaneously and we all had to shout loudly to be heard by the prisoners. When Benno was released from prison (he was released on bail before his trial) he was no longer a student, he was expelled. He worked here and there, either with Father, at the 'office' or somewhere else. Usually before May and October (the times of left-wing political demonstrations – Tr. ) he was arrested, like many other members of the underground, without a charge, and released a few weeks later. By that time we got used to searches and arrests and they had become routine. I remember one day a young man came to our house and said that he had brought us regards from Benno: he was held in the same cell as he was. His name was Grisha Rappoport (Zyaka's Benno is now good friends with his sons). Much later Grisha Rappoport wrote a book "Everyday Life in the Underground" ( we have a copy of it). When I met him after the war I always remembered his first visit: he stood near our large stove and told us about Benno. He died some years ago… Benno's last arrest took place under tragic circumstances. An agent - provocateur revealed the time and place of an underground members' meeting and Benno was shot at, allegedly "while trying to escape". He was shot in the stomach. He was taken to the 1st City Hospital and a police guard was placed near his bed. Visitors were not allowed to talk to him. Mother and Tusya went to visit him, I did not. When Benno got better he was sent back to prison. He was held in prison, while still sick, and was put on trial. In April 1937 there were some "usual" activities in prison on the eve of 1st of May (a usual date of left-wing demonstrations – Tr. ) We did not know anything then, it all transpired much later… At that time we just received a phone call and were told that Benno died in prison and we could come and collect the body. The coffin was placed in our large dining-room in Mariinskaya Street. Tusya sat near the coffin the whole day and the whole night. She kept stroking Benno's face, his hands and his hair. His hair was half-grey even though he was only 27 when he died. He died on 27th of April, I remembered the date. I was pregnant then and the family did not want me to come to the funeral, but I attended it. There were plans for a large funeral with members of the underground joining it, but the police did not allow anything of that sort. Benno was buried in the Jewish cemetery. I felt very acutely how lonely Tusya had become. All my life I remembered how she sat near Benno's coffin and kept stroking his face and his hands, while crying, crying all the time. In some museum there was a photograph of Benno's body in the coffin and one could see the grey hair on his temples. After the war someone suggested that I should take that photograph, but I refused. I remembered very well what Benno's body looked like in our dining-room… …And then, two weeks after the funeral, we received Benno's last letter written in prison. He wrote how he was placed into solitary confinement during those "usual" pre-May actions and was given only bread and water to eat. When brought back to his cell he was given some sour cabbage soup to eat and his stomach wound, which was not healing well, started bleeding again. He did not complain and did not ask for anything, but he did write that he was very much in pain. By that time he was already in the prison hospital. He died there, all alone. He just managed to write a letter home. It was very frightening to read this letter received after his death… |
.JPG)
Benno
was a very gifted child at a very early age and he always read
a lot. I do remember that at the age of 7 he had some sort of stomach
ache and was in great pain, so he was taken to hospital and eventually
had his appendix removed. This was the only operation anyone in
our family ever had. .JPG)
Benno
could write to us from prison and, as I remember, he was allowed
to write once every two weeks. This picture was made by the police
or by the prison authorities: he was not allowed to wear a tie. When we came to bring him parcels we had to stand in a very long
line that started in the prison yard and then the contents of the
parcels were checked in a rather dark room. The contents of the
parcels were then taken to the cells and the dishes were brought
back to us together with a note stating the items were received. 