[Notebook IV]
An exception to the rule, Dr Neumann
continuation
Every day Dr Neumann would secretly sneak into the poor Jewish dwelling
(it was already forbidden at that point for German soldiers to visit Jewish
homes). He would bring medicine, bread for a poor family, on occasion he
would bring kerosene and sugar, and everything necessary until he had stood
the sick man on his feet again.
Dr Neumann would modestly respond, “No thanks are due to me. I am
fulfilling a human duty”. (You must remember that these were the words of
a German military doctor to a Jew...) “If you hear of a Jew who is ill, send your
son to me in the hospital and I will immediately understand and come... to
you, and you will take me to the sick person...”
Needless to say, such a thing could not be kept secret and it was soon
known throughout the shtetl.
And Dr Neumann acquired a large practice... The sick and the weak soon
learned that there was a [3] German doctor who would not charge you, would
give you medicine for free and even a little food... and above all that he was
so polite, so gracious, that he gave people courage and consolation... day in
and day out...
With the utmost devotion, he did everything he could for a certain
patient, the greatest scholar in the shtetl, the head of the Kozienice yeshiva,
who had become critically ill. Dr Neumann examined him and said that it
was very serious, but he would do everything possible...
And he kept his word... This case shows how his behaviour towards Jews
was nothing less than self-sacrifice... First of all he brought palliative drugs
from the hospital. And when that did not help, he asked the commandant for
permission to use the x-ray machine in the military hospital for... the head of
the Kozienice yeshiva... and for permission for him to come daily to the hospital.
The Commandant warned him not to become so personally involved
with the Jews... to no avail...
Dr Neumann again requested the x-ray equipment... [4] He said it was
for a personal friend of his...
The commandant was aware of his merit as a military doctor and his high
distinctions as an officer and he authorized him to use the x-ray equipment.
