Dear Leo,
I remember everything. But the most bone chilling thing I recall are five words you said to me. I thought I understood them back in 1986, and I suppose I did; as well as I could at the time.
Last night I heard you saying them over and over again in my mind as I looked at a picture of a man storming the Capital. He wore a black t-shirt printed with an image of the Nazi Skull and the words "Camp Auschwitz" . And I heard you. I heard you. All these years later I can still hear you and the five words you said…
Kenny DiCamillo introduced us to one another in his office on the 30th floor of the MGM building (home of the Rock ‘n Roll Department at The William Morris Agency). We both worked there. We were in our twenties. Your thick Russian accent and warm 'cchallo' was unexpected. We clicked and became good friends.
You were a Soviet Jew. I was an American Jew of Russian descent. You were here, with us, in the United States after having made a dangerous journey out of the USSR, through Soviet Georgia, and into the safety of this place. You had a story. I listened.
Your father was a famous dissident, Vladimir Slepak. He was a very learned man who was highly respected in the Motherland until he insisted on being able to practice his Judaism openly. He fought for his human rights, for the rights of all Soviet Jews to pray, to light the candles on the Sabbath, to simply be who they were. That didn't go well. He and your mother were sent to Siberia along with other Jewish dissidents who had also found their voices.
Your were on a mission. Looking back, and to put this into context, we met before the Berlin wall fell. But in 1985, just a year prior to our meet-cute, Mikhail Gorbachev initiated Glasnost (increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the USSR). It was the beginning of hope and would lead directly to the eventual fall of the wall in 1989. But it was also an opportunity for a son to fight for the release of his father and his mother from a society that had tried (and failed) to silence them.
You wanted to write a letter to the editor of the New York Times. You asked for my help in finding your words. So you spoke and I wrote, sitting on the floor of a Manhattan apartment. For hours we sat there. I listened to your thoughts and organized them on paper. In the end, we had a letter. We brought this missive to Alan Kanoff, a VP at William Morris and the head of the legal department. He helped. He sent the letter to Dr. Armand Hammer. On November 1, 1986 the letter was published on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/01/opinion/its-time-the-soviet-union-let-vladimir-slepak-go.html
As a result of Op-Ed letter you were invited, along with your brother Alexander, to the home of Elie Wiesel. You asked me to join you. We ended up visiting him on the very day it was announced he would be the recipient of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize (which he accepted in Oslo on December 10th). We were welcomed into his home where his closest friends had gathered to celebrate this amazing honor. I remember we met the Swedish Ambassador.
At some point Elie scooped the three of us up and during this incredible moment for HIM, he took us out of the apartment and into the elevator. He lead us to another apartment a few floors below. It was his study, his office. The place where he wrote. Every wall was lined with books, hundreds and hundreds of books, some of them his. He sat down and we sat in comfortable chairs facing him. We had a drink.
He began to speak with you and Alexander about your father. Of course he already knew everything about Vladimir. I listened to all of you.
And here's the thing...
Elie WAS in Camp Auschwitz.
Every correct thinking human in the world knew this. But he had survived, had told his story. And in doing so he had changed so much wrong thinking. And now we were with him, looking into his soul. He assured you and Alexander that he would do everything he could to see your parents safely out of The Soviet Union and delivered into freedom. It was a promise he kept.
The events of yesterday, January 6, 2021, will go down in history as a torturous reckoning. This is where your 5 words come in...
Back then I had said to you, "Leo, No one deserves to be treated the way your father and so many other human beings have been/are treated". You were quiet for a time and then you looked me squarely in the eyes and said,
"Carushka...All people deserve their leaders.".
I still hear you Leonid. When we are quiet, when we allow even the smallest infraction, it grows and it grows, like mold in the dark. This is why we say 'We must never forget'.
When we normalize, through allowance, that which should be extinguished, a fire ignites and a human being feels empowered to slip into a t-shirt celebrating Auschwitz while storming the Capital.
All People Deserve Their Leaders.
Caro
©️ Caro Kalb-Marr
