After thanking
the rabbi for the tremendous attention that he had shown
towards me, on the Monday morning of April 21, 1969, I
left for Vienna. Again I was in a train, this time
however I was traveling for the first time as a free man!
While in the train, I noticed that the rabbi had placed
some money into the pocket of my jacket next to the piece
of paper containing the HIAS address in Vienna where I
was going. I was tremendously impressed by all this as I
had never encountered a more attentive person in my
entire life. In about two (2) hours I was in Vienna.
It was about 11 AM. As I left the station looking for a
taxi, I was amazed to see that all of the taxicabs were
Mercedes-Benz.
In Romania only the President and no else had
Mercedes-Benz cars. Here I was, now riding in a
Mercedes-Benz! Upon giving to the taxi driver my piece of
paper with the HIAS address, he immediately acknowledged
it with a nod of his head as if he was saying "I know
exactly where it is."
I arrived at the
HIAS headquarters for Austria and the receptionist was
aware that I was coming. After filling out a long
questionnaire, I had my first interview with an official
from HIAS. The interview was tense, unfriendly, and the
bottom line was that I was discouraged to go to America
and encouraged to go to Israel where I had some 50
relatives --all on my mother's side. Their argument went
like this:
"I
cannot approve your going to America. You have
nobody there, you speak English poorly and you will
end up on the unemployment line. Why don't you want
to go to Israel where you have so many relatives?
You see, Israel is not like Romania. Israel is a
free country and from Israel you can, if you want,
go to America. So because of my responsibility
towards your well-being I cannot accept your
application for you to go America. You need to go
to Israel."
In a subdued voice,
I asked: "Do you need my signature of consent to go to
Israel? "Yes, we do" the official responded. Well, to
this I added:
"For
me, you see, it is inconceivable not to go to
America and because of this I could never be able
to sign a paper consenting to go to Israel. I do
not want to go to Israel. I want to go to America.
"
Recognizing that
this interview was leading nowhere, the HIAS official
advised me to come back in a few days and to reflect in
the meantime on everything that had been said. Also, I
was told that HIAS had arranged for me to have a room in
the city where I could stay while in Vienna and that I
would also receive money for food.
Returning in a few days to my next scheduled
appointment, again no progress was achieved as both HIAS
and I held to the same intransigent positions. A new
appointment was scheduled in a week's time and the result
was the same. Another appointment was again scheduled
with the same HIAS official. The lack of progress because
of my "stubbornness and lack of cooperation" prompted the
official to refer this matter to the Executive Director
of HIAS for Austria for the final disposition of this
case.
I began to worry
considerably about my chances with HIAS helping me to
reach my ultimate goal --that of reaching the United
States, and consequently I began working on contingency
plans involving the seven addresses that I had from the
rabbi from Graz and that of contacting directly the
United States Embassy in Vienna and asking for political
asylum. With these growing concerns and tentative
alternate plans to bypass HIAS, I went to see, as
scheduled, the Director of HIAS. This Director, a man of
considerable wit, articulated in a most eloquent way the
position that the Agency was taking and once again
emphasized the necessity for me to go first to Israel.
Stating my case, in an extremely subdued voice, that
there was not even a remote chance for me to consent to
going to Israel, notwithstanding my great numbers of
relatives that were living there and of the fact that I
could have become an Israeli citizen within 24 hours of
my arrival there, I insisted that for me really there was
one and only one place that I could consider living and
that place was America only. In exasperation, the
Director asked me: "But WHY when from Israel you can go
directly to the States?" To this I responded that this
was my burning desire to live in America and nowhere
else, and that I would appreciate if he could help me in
that direction. Then, continuing, I said:
"Could
you at least help me arrange for an appointment
with the Consul from the American Embassy here in
Vienna where I could state my case? With or without
HIAS' help I am determined to reach America from
here."
To this the
Director informed me that the American Immigration laws
would require that a person intending to immigrate to the
United States have a guarantor vouching for that person
and since I did not know anybody in America, I obviously
could not have such a guarantor vouching for me in
America. Then, he continued:
"HIAS
could be a guarantor, if we are convinced that
immigrating to the United States is the best course
of action. Can you give me a compelling reason why
you should immigrate to the United States rather
than to Israel?"
Bowing my head
down, I stood in complete silence for some two (2)
minutes when the Director interjected:
"You
see you do not have an answer and, that is why we
cannot approve for you to immigrate from here to
the United States."
Looking straight
into the Director's eyes, in a forceful voice I
stated:
"Oh,
but I have an answer! I have in fact the most
compelling answer to your question. You saw from my
application that my field of expertise is Astronomy
and that my last job was at the Observatory of the
Romanian Academy of Sciences working on the PAGEOS
International Project. It is my desire to continue
working in my profession and by sending me to
Israel this would not be possible as Israel does
not even have an Observatory! Why are you forcing
me to change my profession?"
To this, after a
pause and with a subtle smile, the Director
said:
"OK.
You have convinced me. We will be your guarantor
for your first two years in America. I will arrange
all the necessary paperwork. From here, you will be
going to Rome, Italy which is the center of HIAS
for all of Europe. You will stay there a number of
months while you are waiting to receive the
immigration visa from the United States. There, you
will have an interview with an Official from the
United States Embassy. I wish you well and good
luck!"
I was enormously
relived by all this. My three (3) weeks ordeal was over.
I was tremendously excited and happy. Reaching America
now appeared to be within my grasp as a milestone towards
that end had just been passed. I was convinced that
somebody above was watching over me!
