SOLLY'S ANGOLA MEMORIES
by Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum

Recently I heard a beautiful story filled with saudades from Angola. A friend - an elderly Ashkenazi (Jewish) gentleman who used to have diamond consessions in Angola shared this with me. He used to travel from Johannesburg to Luanda at least once a month and made friends with a Portuguese family. ( I do not want to use their names so as not to cause any embarrasment )Lets call the 'father' Antonio - had a very important position in the Portuguese Government - and these two most unlikely figures- because firm friends. Whenever my 'old' friend Solly went to Angola he would have at least one meal with the family of Antonio. The one - Antonio - a tall artistocratic figure and Solly - a small very round cuddly type with a heavy Yiddish accent. The tide turned politically, and Antonio decided to take his family back to Portugal. Before he left, at his birthday dinner, he asked Solly out of the blue, and in front of all the family; "Solly, what do you think of the Catholic Church?"

Wow - poor old Solly. He had his back to the wall - this man, his friend knew his religion, they respected their differences - and now, how does he reply to this question without offending his friend, and still be honest and true to himself.?

Solly, replied as honestly and as gently as he could; "Antonio, I can only say that had the Church done a little more, I may have some family today." He felt dreadful, because he meant no disrespect, but had lost all his family in the gas chambers during the second World War.

Antonio stood up and made a toast; " Solly, my friend and all my family here today- possibly the last time we will be together before leaving for Porugal - I too am a Jew and feel 'you' are my family."
Wow again!! No one in his family were aware or had known. ( It is too long to go into here and in itself a story worthy of a book )

A few years later, Solly recieves a call from Lisbon to tell him that Antonio had died and had left a letter for Solly, and a request for a simple (similar to a Jewish ) burial. At the funeral for his friend, Solly held on tight to the letter his friend Antonio had left him -and after the Mass - read it. It was a request for Solly please to say 'Kaddish' - the Jewish prayer of mourning for him - Antonio. He had no one else who could do this forhim, his family had all been brought up Catholic and new nothing about the Jewish religion or customs.

Poor Solly, at this stage of telling me the story- we were both crying - he was barely audible. Today, he still religiously says Kaddish for his 'brother' Antonio. As he says; "I have no family, no date of their death, no grave - but I have Antonio as my family now."

With saudades,
Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum
Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999 Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum
Johannesburg 1999

E-mail: Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum