| Len's cousin
Mannes shows off his fluency in Turkish
L: You were going to tell us about Turkish.
M: You see, when I lived in Russia, in the Turkish provinces -- they have five provinces that used to belong to Turkey -- so, I wanted to find out everything about it. I knew everything about it. I learned their language, I liked their food, I ate with them, I slept with them. When I came out, after the war, I went once by train from Munich to our camp. And there were a bunch of Turks, Russian Turks, sitting and talking, you know. I heard speaking Turkish, I sat down, I took part in the conversation, and they asked me right away, "What tribe do you come from?"
I knew the tribe I came from. The place where I was, you know, I knew the name of the tribe of the people who lived there. So, I told them the name of that tribe, and they took me for one of theirs. And we sat for about two hours, and we were talking about all kinds of things. And they thought that I was Turkish. It never dawned on them that I am not Turkish.
And then I told them, "Fellows, next stop, I have to get out."
They said, "Why?"
I said, "Because this is the camp where I live. It's a Jewish camp."
And they said, "What do you mean, a camp where you live? What are you doing in that camp? They are Jewish people that live there."
I said, "I'm Jewish." They thought that I was a KGB agent. You see, the Russians had a lot of agents after the war, and they tried to lure them back into Russia, and then they used to put them up in court for desertion. So, they were afraid that I am a KGB agent. It took me 15 minutes to calm them down. And I told them, "Don't worry, fellows, I ran away. Jews the same as you did. And I don't want to see them anymore, as much as you don't." And I told them that I lived in this and this area, that I happened to know that tribe. "You asked me the tribe, so I told you."
Oh, they got a kick out of it, you know. But they never thought that I'm not Turkish. That's how fluent I was in it.
Len: I'm going to tell you a story that Baruch told us.
When he first came to Mexico, some friends of his got him a tray with some knives and things like that. And he was standing there, and a man comes up and asks him, in Spanish, "Is it sharp?"
Of course, Baruch doesn't know any Spanish, and he doesn't know what the man asked, so he guesses, and says, "No." The man puts the knife down and walks away. So, Baruch said, "That's how I learned the Spanish word for 'sharp.'"
M: Sure That's exactly right. Oh yes.
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