™

Home
Bio
Blog
Books & Excerpts  Coming Soon
Reviews
Events
Bebo
Media
Photos
Links
Why 39
Contact

 

The Goring Collection

Jacob was six years old and his sister Natalie a year younger, when they stood on the windswept platform at Berlin Station and waved enthusiastically while their parents boarded the train. Jonathan and Anna Meyers had told the children they were off on a business trip to Switzerland, and they would meet them later in Rostock. The trip was precipitated when Jonathan’s friend, Fritz Heimann, while working at the Reich Chancellery saw the names Jonathan and Anna Meyers on a list stamped JEWS for DEPORTATION.

However, the news was not all bad as he noticed that, for some unknown reason, Jacob and Natalie were not named in the document and in that instant he saw a way to save the children. Fritz Heimann urged his friend to leave them in his care, explaining that he would take them to his family home in Rostock.

Jonathan Meyers was reluctant at first but eventually recognized the gravity of the situation, consulted with his wife Anna and they agreed to go along with Heimann’s plan. Jonathan sold off some of his merchandise, which included one of the finest collections of rare books, old coins and paintings in Berlin. Then he packaged his cherished Pissarro painting, The Cliff’s of Normandy, and shipped it off to Rostock.

Once the elder Meyers’ train rolled out of Berlin Station Fritz Heimann leaned on his cane and gestured.  "Come along children, we must hurry, our train leaves soon."

Jacob and Natalie skipped along the platform as they made their way to the other track, and boarded the Rostock Express that would take them north to the city by the sea. During that trip north the children’s questions never ceased. When will Mama and Papa come? Where will we live? Who will we be staying with? Fritz Heimann explained that they would be living at his family home and then in a very serious tone, he admonished, “For now you must address me as your father. Do you understand?”

It was obvious, from the looks on their innocent faces that the children did not understand. However, a few moments later a mischievous grin spread over Jacob’s face as he decided to play the game. “Yes, Papa.”

 

Jacob and Natalie lived out the war years in Rostock as Fritz Heimann’s children. Their father’s Pissarro hung and became a larger than life beacon of hope, for the youngsters, which helped to sustain the memory of their parents. But near the end of the war that symbol was shattered when a Nazi Special Detail came and took the painting away.

At the end of the war, with Jacob and Natalie still expecting their parents to come home Fritz Heimann finally told them exactly what had happened. “Your mother and father died at the concentration camp at Buchenwald.” Jacob’s shock at hearing the truth led him to believe that Fritz Heimann was telling a cruel joke, but Natalie recognized it for what it was and wept for days. Eventually Jacob’s questions were answered and over a period of time by using physical activities and studies, as a diversion, the hurt he felt at the loss of his parents began to wane.

Following the war Rostock became a part of the Soviet Bloc, and as a consequence the children grew up in East Germany. 

Jacob was bright and always near the top of his class. He entered the University of Rostock, and as a way to break from the past he immersed himself into his studies and absorbed the indoctrination to the Communist System. Jacob was especially interested in the political, economic, and social theories advanced by Marx and Engel’s. It was during his sophomore year when he first began to think about a possible career in politics.

But while Jacob was consumed by the socialists’ ideology, it offered no appeal to Natalie. During those post war years she was desperately searching for her Jewish roots, and eventually joined a small clandestine group that had begun to study the Torah.

Soon after Jacob’s graduation, from the University of Rostock, Communist Party officials looked at his scholastic achievements and offered him a position with the KGB.

He accepted and following his preliminary indoctrination into the agency he was ordered to Moscow for special training.

Jacob’s trip to Moscow was exciting and filled with many challenges and hard work, the kind of environment in which he excelled. He attended classes and participated in exercises taught by instructors that were experts on the subjects. Many of the instructors were internationally known spies that notoriety had forced to retire from service.

By the time Jacob completed his course and left Moscow for his return to Rostock he had every intention of joining the secret world of intelligence gathering and espionage, but those ideas were quickly derailed. For when Jacob returned to Rostock new orders awaited him. He would be moving to the United States and assigned to work with the American Communist Party, from a position, later to be determined, in academia. Jacob didn’t question his assignment, but he was disappointed in the new job since it didn’t allow him to become a part of the Intelligence Service.

Nothing was spelled out about his transfer until a meeting with his regular KGB contact; a heavyset man named Alexei. They always met in a park at the end of a promontory overlooking the Baltic Sea. It was there during one a routine meeting when Alexei explained, in great detail, the KGB's plan for Jacob’s defection to the West. The escape would be timed to coincide with the 1960 Rome Olympics. Jacob was given a job as an assistant gymnastics instructor, and following a formal request Natalie was allowed to accompany her brother to the West.

     The defection was set to take place during an Aeroflot charter flight in route from Potsdam to Rome. They faked a hijacking, and the charter flight made an emergency landing at London’s Heathrow Airport. The plane had no sooner parked on the tarmac when Jacob and Natalie made their exit and asked for political asylum in the United States.  Then following extensive questioning by British authorities they were granted their wish and turned over to the American CIA.

 

©Tombarnes39 2006-2008