Always Tell the Truth
In the mid fifties I was in the Air Force and stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany. A civilian couple had taken several airmen under their wing and I became part of that group. The couple were Mary Jane and Al Dryak. Mary Jane, a wonderful lady now deceased, came from a well to do Cincinnati family. Al was originally from Checkoslovokia but had taken a job in Cincinnati in the late thirties with Cincinnati Milling and Machinery. Al spoke several languages and had traveled the world. Mary Jane,told me these stories. Al was an unusual mentor because his life itself is the example of his beliefs.
The Underground
Al worked for Cincinnati Milling and Machinery his whole career. Before the war, he was sent back to Checkoslovakia by the company and was trapped there when WWII broke out. He and some others managed to get some important technology out to the Allies before the Nazis marched in. Al then became part of an underground cell composed of ten people. He was questioned several times by the Nazis but was never arrested because he always told the truth and his story checked out. He just didn’t tell all and never betrayed anyone in what he did tell!
The Whole Cooked Pig
One of the many problems in WW II was finding the necessities of life. Al’s mother wanted him to find her some lard to cook with. Al went on a business trip through several countries and through a series of barters was finally able to find a good quantity of lard which was wrapped in a large package about the size of a turkey or a small pig.
Imagine an old film noir with the train coming to the border and the customs official comes through accompanied by a Nazi officer. Everyone sits quietly while their papers are examined in turn. Just as the customs official was finishing the group, the Nazi officer looks up at the large package (which was contraband) and asked what was in it (in German). Al replied, “A whole cooked pig!” The answer was so outrageous that the officer broke up laughing, tipped his cap, and left. Al took the lard home to his mother and they cooked normally for a while.
- A Unique Escape from the Iron Curtain
The Cold War period was famous for its stories of desperate escapes and attempts to flee the Iron Curtain. The images of dead refugees shot while tangled in barbed wire are still some of the most powerful of the period. Part of the folklore about the Iron Curtain is that it magically descended in 1945 with the presence of the Russian troops in Eastern Europe. In fact, it wasn’t until 1949 that Checkoslavia and the last Eastern countries fell to the Communists in a series of brutal acts and political maneuvers.
Al knew that he wasn’t going to fair well under the Communists. He had studied in the U.S. and been employed by an American company and knew that he was probably being watched. He had observed several people and even friends who had failed in their attempts to go West. His conclusion was that they had made one or both of two mistakes; they had told someone or they attempted to liquidate their assets to take with them.
Al contacted an old friend from the Underground days and had papers forged. On the day he chose, he called into work sick and went to the airport. While in the airport, he called his father and had a very informal conversation. While nothing specific was said or hinted at, Al’s father knew what was happening. Al caught a plane to Paris and asked for political asylum when he arrived. French officials were astounded! No one had used such a simple and blatant form of escape from the East.
Some might say that the forged papers were a lie. I was once asked (after saying that the truth was the best policy) what I would do if I were harboring Jews and the Nazis came to the door and asked if any Jews were there. Would I say yes? Breaking my policy of not answering hypothetical questions, my answer was that I could think of no greater lie than the Nazi regime and would not hesitate to mislead them. Al was dealing with another, even larger lie, Communism!
Al went back to work for his old company in Cincinnati and married Mary Jane in that period. The company asked Al to return to Europe and even to live in Germany. After all of his experiences with the Nazis in WW II, Al was reluctant but finally agreed. Europe was rebuilding and his company could have a real role to play in the process.
The problem that emerged was that the job required considerable travel and border crossing and Al had no passport. He only had the papers of a stateless person and border officials could take a lot of time determining if they wanted to let him pass.
Al bought a sheepskin of the type used for diplomas and official documents. He then composed a very long, tendentious, bureaucratic statement that rambled on but said in effect that he was a stateless person who had fled Communist persecution. He had the statement translated into five languages and then had the whole thing lettered on the sheepskin by a calligrapher. The final touch was to have the document certified by every petty official he could find in every town and capital in his travels.
Now customs officials were faced with this imposing document full of official language and literally covered with official seals and ribbons. Mary Jane said that Al got through customs quicker than she did with an American passport!
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.