Zinn ticked off names of the other dozen friends they had worked with in the stables. What had become of Joseph, "YoJo" Weiss? And Washavaski, whose testicles had been cut off? And what about Erwin Gutman? And Karmen Haupt, whom Zinn had jumped from the train with and who he knew had gone to Canada? And the guy from Lodz, Poland, they called "Lodgznik?"
Pressburger said he had kept in regular touch with three of the stable-masters who had immigrated to Israel. Weiss had died just two years ago. He and Pressburger had remained the closest of friends.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday May 06, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 News Desk 2 inches; 73 words Type of Material: Correction
Holocaust survivor -- An article in Wednesday's Section A about Auschwitz survivor Eugene Zinn misspelled the name of the concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, where most of Zinn's family members were murdered. It is Majdanek, not Madjanek. (An alternate spelling of the camp is Maidanek.) In addition, the article described Zinn as having returned to Palestine after the war. Palestine had become the state of Israel shortly before Zinn arrived.
Burying that lifelong friend from Auschwitz was so painful that he became physically ill, he says, which his doctor attributed to emotional distress.
The old friends talked for about an hour, but communication grew difficult. Zinn's Slovak is rusty and his Hebrew even worse. He tends to mix in Slavic-accented words in English, which Pressburger doesn't speak.
Zinn said he told Pressburger: "Otto, please write me a long letter." They said goodbye.
But Zinn could not wait for a letter. In early March, a few weeks after that first conversation, he called Pressburger.
Zinn told Pressburger: "Otto, I have to see you."
"I would love to, but I'm too old to travel," Pressburger said. And Zinn had second thoughts about leaving Sarah, whose memory is failing.
*
Zinn spends much of his time these days tending his two Meyer lemon trees and his calla lilies. His wristwatch chirps out the time because macular degeneration has been hindering his vision. He can no longer drive.
He clings to his family. He spent only two nights away from his children while they were growing up, and although they live nearby, he still insists they phone when they arrive safely home after visits.
He can't recall ever crying since he left Auschwitz.
On a recent visit, Zinn insisted a reporter tell him all the details Pressburger had recalled in the telephone interview, and as they are read, he dabs at his eyes.
He searches for words to convey how much reconnecting with Pressburger has meant.
"In the context of my whole life, I couldn't figure out all those years," he said. "I didn't meet one person who was with me in Auschwitz, or who I knew before Auschwitz. And suddenly, I saw someone I knew for three years, who escaped one hour before me.... Otto Pressburger gave me a feeling that it actually was like that ... that it's not just a dream."
Batsheva Sobelman of The Times' Jerusalem bureau contributed to this report. The writer can be reached at Valerie.Reitman@latimes.com
