Rainbows in my wine

RAINBOWS IN MY WINE

By Kim Neale

They enter into a club in Berlin called Irendwo Iirgendwohin translated as “Nowhere Special”, Mary is dressed in a backless sleeveless long bias-cut dress made of silk and crepe de chine with a hem that touches the floor in a pale pink underneath a black fur pelted coat with a silver fox stole her dress fits her curvy body perfectly. she wears a little velvet hat tipped over the eye like Greta Garbo in “Romance” called the “Empress Eugenie” she has elbow length gloves and silk stockings. Christ is looking dashing in a waist length white mess jacket with a cumberbund single breasted worn with black bow tie and black trousers trimmed with a braid down the side seams.

Christ and Mary are having a heated discussion. it is the night before Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. The have decided on this tryste as both being Jewish they want to spend the last day of freedom for their people in each other’s company as lovers.

“You will never prepare for what is coming next, people will curse you and say you never existed”

“Something big something terrible is about to happen”

: “Even if you didn’t exist I would be a spark of light and compassion in the heart of those who follow you do they not feel a longing in their soul that they cannot deny?they will try and destroy that spark”

“Will you follow the Jewish people, move into a ghetto work for potatoes and thick bread filled with sawdust then get herded into a cattle car for the “work makes you free” five star resort?”

“Don’t worry Mary I would not expect from you anything less than the frank way you speak and act,and I will be scrubbing the pavement with toothbrushes with the rabbis tomorrow but felt us sit in this obscure night club and love each other with a slow dance it will be like the last supper only you and me”

Tomorrow I might get shot for having a dance with you, why does it have to be obscure?

“There are people who want to shame you with or without me. Feel no shame and let them think what they want take my hand Mary, but before let’s toast with a Merlot especially for you.”

A waiter brings a glass to their table in the corner of the club with a basket of bagels.Mary looks at the glass.

“There’s a beautiful rainbow sheen to it!”

“Rainbows are a symbol of miricals and promises and there might be some tonight”

“They are going to destroy everything that is holy to you. These special things will be replaced by coffee made of acorns and bread with sawdust in it.”

The band starts playing. A torch singer starts her tune

“I never made love by lantern shine

I never saw rainbows in my wine

But now that your lips are burning mine

I’m beginning to see the light”

Mary and Christ slow dance.

“I have never heard this song before. Who is it by?”

“Ella Fitzgerald sings it. It officially gets play time after the war in 1945. when all of this anguish finishes. It is a favourite song. I know all about Hitlers rise to power and the terrible war.”

“First they will take all our rights away

Then they will give us a star to wear

Then they will send us to the ghettos

Then they will put us in cattle cars

Then they will starve us

And kill us with back breaking work

Anda tattoo will replace our names with a number”

“You are so brave Mary you are the only one who stuck by me during my death. Do you remember when I had risen from my tomb and you thought I was the gardener?(he puts a rose behind her ear). Here is a bloom for my love from my holy garden.”

“Let’s get out of here. I think this obscure nightclub is not safe for much longer”

They stumble outside. it is deathly quiet. They embrace in the night.

“Let us stroll before everything falls to pieces”

They stumble across a fountain. It is beautiful in the night air.

“You know Mary there are many grails. A cup of tea between lovely old ladies, a cup for the homeless person, if you put your hands together in prayer you are giving if you hold your hand cupped you are receiving everlasting water. This fountain is a grail for us both tonight. Perhaps a grail for genius Jewish genetics”

“Yes my darling, remember when I poured spikenard on your feet and wiped it with my hair?. I can’t do that with my coif but I have a special perfume called “Eternity” by a Jewish designer called Calvin Klein with which I will anoint you on this night. I also have “Karma” to signify the circle of life and death until we are enlightened.

“Actually I think what I need is a simple hug.”

They both start weeping in each other’s arms. Then Christ picks Mary up and throws her in the fountain. A peel of laughter is herd echoing in the midnight air. They leave their hats on the rim of the fountain. a fedora and a jaunty little velvet hat with a red rose on its brim.

Part 2

KRISTALLNACHT

On November 10th 1938 in Berlin and across Germany and Vienna and scores of Synagogues were in flames thousands of Jewish shops and department stores were in ruin and many thousands of Jews were herded up in goal or deported to concentration camp. It was called Kristallnacht or “night of broken glass”.

It was followed by mass looting and Torah’s, prayer books and holy texts were set on fire. Clothing shops and jewellery shops were broken into and the looters stuffed their pockets with stolen goods. Chaos prevailed across the metropolis and other towns as Jewish hatred mounted into mass destruction of their places of worship and lively hoods. Private houses owned by Jews were also broken into and vandalised, throwing families on the street while their furniture and things of value were either destroyed or stolen. It was only done in 24 hours. There was no help from police or fire brigades who made sure non-Jewish real estate was not harmed but let the mass destruction of Jewish owned businesses and homes go ahead without any assistance. This was anti-Semitism at its worst. Hitler Youth stood around cheering and shouting “Raus mit den Juden” (away with Jews), in one synagogue altar cloths and ornaments were removed and set on fire in the Wittebergplaz and people danced around the bonfire. Huge crowds of people stood around as the town burned and plundered. mobs smashed their way into private homes and tore them apart. Owners of Jewish stores walked in front of them with signs: “I am ashamed to be a Jew.” By 4:30 in the morning in whole of Germany there existed not one synagogue that was not burnt or still burning.There were no more store windows that had not been plundered.

Amongst the crowds little Jewish boy wears a fedora that renders him invisible. He walks around the main towns as chaos ensues. He saw women with threadbare clothes loot fur coats, a shop selling pillows and quilts was next to a liquor store as he approached them feathers were swirling in the air and glued to the pavement where they had mixed them with wine flowing from the liquor store broken bottles were lying about, the best of the wine plundered. He saw women and children screaming as their husbands and fathers were taken away. One Jewish family the doorbell rang by a non-Jewish person they knew well. He stood there and asked for keys to the apartment and business.They thought it was an odd request, and had no idea what was going on. They thought this man was a decent fellow and they had been on good terms as neighbours. They gave him the key. Apparently he had built large signs reading “Aryan Business” and had plastered this over the entrance doors as well as five shop windows. The next time the bell rang it was the Gestapo to take father away. It was not until much later on that the family found out he had been taken to Burchenwald.

The little boy was Jewish and his home had been destroyed and his parents taken away. He saw other children on the streets some joining in on the bonfires and looting, others lost and afraid. He was very hungry and he almost joined in with the children eating cream cakes from a looted bakery but told him self it was wrong. He really wanted to find his mother and father. The fedora hat made him invisible but it did not stop the strange and terrible reality that he encountered. In his satchel he carried another hat a fashionable velvet one with a rose on its brim he new this hat was also a special gift to be given to a woman in need, little did he know that later on in history some magical ruby slippers were designed by a Jewish artist for a famous movie.

He looked up at a burning Synagogue and said his own prayer. He noticed bits of charred Torah floating out on to the street. No one noticed when he pocketed the piece. He looked at it and read:

“A Jew can be Jewish with God or against God but not without God” Genesis 18:16-19:38

After the patriarchs initial protest he entreats God to save the cities if 50 righteous people can be found within them. God agrees whereupon Abraham starts bargaining with God asking that if he can find 45,40,30,20 and finally only 10 righteous people. God accepts each of Abrahams appeals only when it becomes apparent that with the exception of Lots family the entire population of the cities evil,does God proceed to destroy them.”

“Awake, why do you sleep O Lord why do you hide your face and forget our suffering and oppression” Psalms 44:24-25

“ shall not the judge of all earth act with justice?.” Genesis 18:25

Abraham also seems to be arguing on behalf of the evil people otherwise he would have requested that the good people alone should be spared. Instead he appeals to God to save all the people of the cities providing some good people be found within them.

with that the little boy hands the hat Mary Madgdeline wore to a nightclub before Kristallnacht with a rose from a very lovely gardener to a Jewish lady in despair who has just been thrown out of her apartment. Her next door neighbours have taken it over. “It’s mine now”. She is hurt by this audacious thievery of someone she was good friends with. With her rose she looks for the good in people amidst thousands of German citizens, smashing and looting peoples houses, their livelihood and sacred religious space. Let us hope she finds a good heart.

“Love: love is an Impossible value to quantify and its powerful role should not be underestimated. In this case as in countless others the love that prompted those to submerge was the very same love that drove many Jews to share the fates of their families. Regardless of what they knew or surmised about what awaited them in the east - and stay together when the deportation notification arrived.”-Kristallnacht by Martin Gilbert