Manners beyond the war
in memory of my great-grandpa
Days and nights of unstoppable battles. No food, no shelter. Soldiers had to fight till the end. Berlin is shrouded in the dark. Soviet soldier Orynbasar fought because of the orders he had to obey. When his tank broke into the jewelry store shattering the window glasses, other soldiers were all after collecting the scattered pieces of jewelry. They collected plenty of them and headed back towards the tank. Orynbasar just wanted to eat, sit and rest. He went upstairs and saw a family dining in a shabby room. He asked if he could join the meal, and they gave him soup and a slice of bread without hesitation. He dined silently then he went away… When the war was over, he was asked to stay and settle down in Berlin. But he decided to get back to his native land near the Aral Sea and start a family there.
What I have just told is a war episode of my great-grandpa from the granny’s side narrated by his daughter to me. He was an orphan and had nobody in his hometown. Because he had blue eyes and blonde hair, he was mistaken for a Russian boy and had been adopted by the Russian family. They named him Nicholai. Somehow he got away from them and had a new Kazakh name Oryn-basar.
Orynbasar describes a person who still lived a modest life and took from it only what he needed most. It is unknown whether it was a Jewish family or a German family who provided food and shelter for a short time but the virtue of these people makes me stand in awe before them and reflect on the perseverance and demonstration of their nobility even during the toughest times. The reward is left for God to be established. I show my gratitude through this note💙.
My great-grandma from grandpa’s side went through famine, almost could be caught by the fire when her family had to jump from the escalating fire in the precipice, had to collect coal for soldiers during the Second World War, suffered lack of food after the war, and pulled through many other unstoppable difficulties since childhood. When I look at her now, I don’t witness in her any complaint about life. Instead, she throws comments about our complaints applying harsh sense of humor. She is grateful for what she has had. Probably, that is why, she is living a long life. Gratitude extends person’s life.
Personally, pondering about great-grandparents led me to conclude one more time that the mentality of the people of the war still differs from those who live in peaceful communities and there is a lot to appropriate to our own manners and attitude towards life.