The war was over by the time I got there. Since I could speak the Polish language fluently and could read and write it, I did get to work as an interpreter for a while. During the Nuremberg trials, for instance, when they had somebody testify at the trials who was Polish, I was called on to serve as an interpreter.
There was a woman in a displaced person's camp that knew this one Polish cobbler. Now, what this cobbler used to do out of Buchenwald Concentration Camp -- the prison camp commandante's wife would line up the prisoners and she would check to see who had tattoos.
She would have the cobbler remove the tattoos to make placemats and lamp shades out of them before the prisoners were executed.
This cobbler had to testify at the trials, and he was afraid to testify because he thought we were going to hang him and all that. So I had to make believe I was Polish and living in the 'DP' camp. I would play poker with him and drink schnapps with him to gain his confidence.
Finally, one day he said, "You speak Polish better than most Polish people do." He was the highly educated type.
He became suspicious. Then I told him I was an American, and I was there for him to testify at the trials, which he did. I had to accompany him when the day came.
You know, we'd put those guys to work in the mess halls. We would give them American uniforms to wear, clean clothes. They would do the laundry for the Americans, and they'd do the cooking and KP work while they were waiting to testify. Then we'd put them back in the displaced person camps.
So my brothers were the big heroes. I told you about them all.
(Comment from observer: "I'm sure you were a hero too.")
Bernie's reply, "I was too damned young to know what was going on."