Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-06-23

- one OF the StpuldtlOnS OF the new manage
ment, the name of which Jewish man would
not mention or even think of. mot to organize
another company in Berlin in the same line of
business within five years. This stipula-
tlon in the agreement OF sale meant emigra-
ton. of course, emigration from Berlin In
consequence his SOn-ln-aW was now eking
out hand -tO-mOuth existence in a small shop
IN Pommeranla which he had acquired with
the miserable proceeds of the sale of the
Siegiried kraute Company
4 poor deal by an incompetent business
man. thought the old man His SONS would
have handled matters more efficiently. But
where were they? Hugo had been Wondering
nearly twelve years in a small grave in France.
together with twenty-sy other Germans The
whole lot didn't take up much space these
twenty -seven infantrymen of the 4Sth regi-
ment, into which his son had been so hon
orably indicted to Join in 1916 In his desk
the letter from the Companys captain was
gradually turning yellow
This desk. aside from his emaciated and
neglected body, was all that was left of life to
Sieglried Kraute Each month his daughter
Ella, dear child, sent him whatever she could
spare from POmmeranla. sometimes food
StuliS. sometimes fifty marks He still retained
one room of his flat in this old fashioned
section of Berlin, which long ago had been a
desirable residential district for wealthy mer-
chants. The housing commission had long
since appropriated the kitchen and the other
rooms.
AT dusk he would creep down the two
nights of stairs. carrying an ear-trumpet he
had fashioned for himself from a pasteboard
cornet. Ii had originally been muti-Coored,
but he had linked it all over Wearing wide
brlmmed soft hat and in summer as we'll
as in winter a black once silk lined over
coat, he was familiar figure to the grown-ups
and children of the district. There was small
danger meeting any of his oldacquaintances
Nevertheless he would only venture forth at
dusk when the lamp-lighter had lit the
greenish- yellow flame in the glass cages on top
of the Cast-iron pillars.
His old acquaintance. So many of them
were better off than he Their home was
WeissenSee. alongside his wife who regret
tably had left him SO many years ago to
enter the vast Ghetto OF the Dead. where
there was SCant room for the individual yet
more than his younger son had in France
The elder South Africa was SO far away,
but he used to be able to find it on the map.
Those were the times when letters still
reached him: Il will be getting on better
soon and then | shall send for you" the boy
used to write, and many a banknote
pound here and a pound there used to find
its way in registered letters to his father. But
with the old mans neglect to write or send a
message how could Julius krautel over in
johannesburg, know that one Siegfried
krautel was still alive in Berlin?
He shuited across the room on his worn
slippers. diagonally across the large bare spot
where the oriental rug had formerly been, and
sat on the edge of his bed. He did not have to
TOan, the bed did that for him. He asked
himself why he had not written his son: he
would do SO at once Perhaps he would not be
able to find the address. Years ago, when he
had known exactly where he had put it, he
had been too heartsick and bitter to give a
sign of life. to send letter Moreover the
first one had been returned to him marked:
insufficient postage" although he had glued
thousands of marks in stamps on the en-
velOpe at the time he could not afford to mail
another.
Ever since his illness. ever since that heavy
cold which he had managed somehow to