Looking Back: August 10, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward
Has anybody seen Abie Levitt’s wife? The Levitts moved with their son to Portland, Ore., from New York a few years ago. Not long after, Rosie Levitt started making noises about how the family should move back to New York. Abie didn’t want to go back — he was making a decent living in Portland — but Rosie wouldn’t stop nagging him. So he sold his things, and off he went, to New York, to look for work. The plan was that Rosie and the boy would join him after he was settled. He borrowed some money from relatives and sent Rosie a letter, telling her to prepare to move back, that he’d soon be sending her some money. Shortly thereafter, Abie got a postcard in the mail from a former neighbor. It read: “Your wife was already prepared: She and my husband have both disappeared. — Mrs. Coopersmith.” The mystery of Rosie Levitt’s disappearance has been solved.
75 Years Ago in the Forward
Adam Lipkin, a 22-year-old Palestine Railroad worker, was killed recently when a British soldier’s rifle accidentally went off. Lipkin’s father has asked the commander of the regiment not to punish the soldier, who had been accompanying Lipkin to inspect an auto accident. The appeal came about after the Lipkins received a letter from the regiment commander, expressing his sympathy for the loss of their son and stating that he hopes to bring his killer to justice. The Lipkins have said that punishing the soldier for an accident will not bring them any sympathy.
50 Years Ago in the Forward
A West German newspaper has reported that the murderous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele has been captured in Brazil. In Auschwitz, Mengele sent hundreds of thousands of Jewish victims to their deaths in the gas chambers. Before him would stand two rows of naked Jews, and he would walk among them, singing cheerily. He would look at each person and occasionally wink, as he decided who would go to the right and who would go to the left. To the left meant to the gas chamber, and to the right meant that the person would get to live a little while longer, as a slave laborer. Many eagerly await for the claim of Mengele’s arrest to be corroborated. If it is true, he will stand trial in West Germany.
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