"Where did you get that hat?" "Alex gave it to me." "Take it off." "Why?" "Because I told you to, that's why." "I think he looks cool." "Who asked you to speak?" "Did I ask you to speak?" "Did Mama ask you to speak?" "Did Grandfather ask you to speak?" "SHUT UP!" "Don't talk to her like that!" "Papa, I already have one son walking around Odessa looking like a raving lunatic." "I don't need another." "But Papa...." "Why is it called sixty-nine?" "What did people do before 1 969?" "You're taking a Jew to Lutsk this weekend." "l can't, I have plans." "What plans?" "With Grisha at Club Zephyr." "Well, now you're taking a Jew to Lutsk." "But we have vip passes." "Papa, I need you to drive them." "Go to hell!" "I'm not driving anyone." "Papa, they are paying $ 1 200 American." "I don't care. I'm retired." "No more dead Jews." "Papa, you drive him to this place show him everyone is dead and you come home." "It will be so simple." "He's looking for a woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis." "Trust me, there is no one there anymore." "She is from someplace called Trachimbrod." "It's near Lutsk." "They said he has a map." "His name is Jonathan S. Foer." "He is a writer." "He wants to write a book about the place." "Okay, I'll go." "But Sammy goes too." "Papa, please, you know that is impossible." "She's demented!" "You listen to me." "I'm supposed to be retired." "I am not supposed to be dragging rich Jews all over the goddamn country." "I'm blind." "blind!" "Understand?" "My bitch is my eyes." "I'm not going anywhere without her." "Papa, I'm not saying that I don't believe you're blind but the American could have a problem with this." "No bitch, no driver." "We could make a uniform for her to make her seem more official." "Grandfather!" "Grandfather, I've got Jonfen." "We should go to Lutsk." "Yes?" "Grandfather!" "Shut up!" "I'm blind, not deaf." "I heard you the first time!" "Bullshit, no one is afraid of dogs." "Get in the car." "The bitch and the Jew will share the back seat." "It is big enough for both of them." "Grandfather, the Jew says that Sammy Davis Jr. is Jewish." "The bitch?" "Not Jr." "Jr., Jr. the singer." "That's bullshit!" "The Jew wants to know if we are close." "Tell him to shut the hell up!" "How long from here to Lutsk?" "Perhaps you would like me to stop the car and you two can fuck yourselves to Lutsk!" "He says he does not eat meat." "What?" "He says he does not eat any meat." "Not even sausage?" "I know." "What is wrong with him?" "Hello." "Excuse me, do you have anything without meat?" "Why?" "Our friend here is American-- l can see that." "Yes, of course, but he does not eat meat." "What is wrong with him?" "Potatoes?" "You only get potato with the meat." "Please, this American is deranged." "Would it be possible to have a potato without the meat?" "It's a village." "Grandfather he says Ukrainians were anti-Semitic before the war." "is it true?" "Grandfather?" "Sammy Davis Jr." "Jr." "Come on, let's go." "He seems like a good person." "Yes, he does." "We should try to help him." "How?" "We should try to find her." "Who?" "Augustine." "Look." "We are looking for Trachimbrod." "Do you know it?" "You heard of Trachimbrod?" "Never heard of it!" "Come here, please!" "Come here!" "It's a small village Trachimbrod." "Maybe Kolki?" "Yes, yes." "Could you direct us to them?" "Of course." "They are not so far." "Go north on the superway." "Keep going north until you see wheat fields then head east through the farmlands." "Thank you." "What is he doing?" "What is he doing?" "He doesn't eat meat." "Thank you." "Come, Zlata, come." "Do you have any chewing gum?" "Do you know where Trachimbrod is?" "What's in Trachimbrod?" "Nothing, it's just a place we are trying to find." "If there's nothing there, why are you trying to find it?" "Why do you ask stupid questions?" "Where are we?" "I don't know." "Ask the Jew." "He doesn't know." "What do you mean, he doesn't know?" "We're driving!" "How can he not know!" "Please, you're making this impossible." "Shut up!" "This is pointless!" "We don't know where we are." ""Shut up" means shut up!" "Grandfather, we should stop." "What are you doing?" "Go and ask them." "Leave the Jew here." "Excuse me, could you tell me, do you know where Trachimbrod is?" "Never heard of it." "Thank you." "I'm sorry, I forgot, it's also called Sofiewka." "What do you want?" "I told you I never heard of it!" "What's your problem, huh?" "We are trying to find the town of Trachimbrod." "I told you, we don't know." "Do you want a Marlboro cigarette?" "Get lost!" "Go back to Kiev!" "I'm not from Kiev, I'm from Odessa." "Then go back to Odessa!" "Hey, Odessa!" "You forgot your dog!" "Sammy Davis Jr." "Jr., come here!" "You little piece of shit!" "Don't you put your filthy hands on her!" "If you ever hit her again I swear to God, I'll cut your hands off!" "Do you understand, you piece of shit?" "Grandfather?" "Grandfather?" "What are you doing?" "We're out of gas." "Alex, get up, it's time to go." "Tell him this is the most fertile land in Eastern Europe." "Before the war, this was the most beautiful place in the world." "You were here before the war?" "Tell him about Odessa." "Tell him that the sand on the beaches is more soft than a woman's hair and that Odessa is the perfect place to fall in love and start a family." "There." "Ask there." "I'm sorry to bother you." "How could anything bother me on such a day?" "Where are you from?" "Odessa." "I have never been to Odessa." "You should go there." "Have you ever heard of a town called Trachimbrod?" "I was told that I should ask here." "Please, I don't want to trouble you but have you heard of Trachimbrod?" "I am sorry I bothered you." "Have you ever seen anyone in this photograph?" "Have you ever seen anyone in this photograph?" "Have you ever seen anyone in this photograph?" "I have been waiting so long." "We are searching for Trachimbrod." "You are here." "I am it." "Weddings and Other Celebrations" "Silver, Pinwheels, Perfume" "Journals, Sketchbooks, Underwear" "Death of the First Born" "Wooden Toys" "Figurines, Spectacles" "Menorah" "Dust" "Are you hungry?" "I can cook you something." "Please don't make any effort." "It is nothing, but I must tell you I don't have any meat." "Thank you, but we are not hungry." "It has been so long since I have had any visitors." "Do you live alone here?" "You have someone?" "I have all of them." "What are they?" "They are Trachimbrod." "In Case" "This is my sister's wedding ring." "She hid it in a jar and put it in the ground." "I knew this because she told me." "Many people did this." "The ground by the river is still filled with precious things:" "Rings, money, pictures, Jewish things." "I was only able to find a few of them but they fill the earth." "Do you remember his grandfather?" "Who is his grandfather?" "The man in the photo." "Safran." "Yes." "Safran." "What is this?" "Money." "For what you have done for them." "What have I done for them?" "Safran was his grandfather." "No." "He means Augustine." "That is Augustine, that is Mama, that is me." "This is Safran, Augustine and me." "Mama was so fond of Safran, he was so polite." "He would tell her she was pretty when in truth she was not so pretty." "I was older, so Mama thought he should marry me instead." "But he was in love." "They were married on her name day." "When we were kids, my sister, Safran and I played kissing games behind the trees." "I can still remember how I felt." "It was a little like flying." "Tell him." "What is your name?" "This is Baruch in front of the library." "He used to sit there all day long." "He took out more books than anyone in the shtetl and he could not even read!" "He said he liked to think about the books think about them without reading them." "He would always walk around with a book under his arm." ""Nonsense!" Mama would say." "They said he was insane." "We had this in common." "Leave us." "Leave us alone." "We're going." "We're going to Trachimbrod." "To the river." "She's agreed to take us there." "What's the matter?" "I have never been in one of those." "Please, don't be scared." "Cars are totally safe now." "They even have air bags, crumple zones." "Maybe not this one but most!" "Sammy, sit." "Please, you have nothing to fear." "I cannot." "This is it." "What is this?" "This is Trachimbrod." "We are here." "This monument stands in memory of the 1 024 Trachimbroders killed at the hands of German fascism on March 1 8, 1 942." "This is all that is left." "They destroyed everything." "Only a few were able to get out before they came." "You were lucky to survive." "They put us in lines." "Made lists." "It was all very logical." "They burned the synagogue." "That was the first thing they did." "Then they unrolled a Torah on the ground and told the men to spit on it." "My father would make us kiss any book that touched the ground." "Cooking books." "Books for children, plays, even journals and this was our Torah that had been in our synagogue since the first rabbi brought it here 300 years before." "First was Yosef." "He was a shoemaker." "They held a gun to his daughter's head and commanded him to spit." "He spit." "They all spit." "And tore and kicked and whatever else they were told to do." "Except my father." "And then my sister." "She was pregnant." "They put the gun to her pregnant belly." "They said they would kill the baby inside her if my father did not spit." "He could not." "He did not spit." "Trachimbrod." "And where was his grandfather?" "Safran was gone before they came." "He left for America to find a home for Augustine and the baby one week before they came." "Yes, it was." "One moment, please." "For you." "He says he cannot." "But he must he is a collector." "In Case" "I didn't understand why my sister hid her wedding ring in a jar and why she said to me, "ln case."" "In case what?" "In case she was killed." "Yes, and then what?" "Why did she bury it?" "I do not know." "Ask him." "To remember her." "No. I don't think so." "In case.... in case someone should come searching one day." "So they would have something to find." "No, it does not exist for you." "You exist for it." "You have come because it exists." "May I ask you a question?" "Yes, of course." "is the war over?" "Yes." "It is over." "Grandfather?" "Sammy Davis Jr." "Jr.!" "[english]"