Iva ANDRIC
253
That is true for you as well, you who were born in Bosnia, and even
more so for a newcomer. And so, during one of those fall nights, listen–
ing to the odd calls of those diverse and differently voiced Sarajevo tow–
ers, I concluded that I could not stay in Bosnia, my second homeland,
and that
T
need not stay there.
T
am not so naive as to look for any town
in the world where there is no hatred. No, all I need is a place where I
can live and work. Here I would not be able to do that.
You may now mockingly, perhaps even contemptuously, repeat your
remark about my running away from Bosnia. This letter of mine will
not have the power to explain and justify my behavior to you, but it
seems there are occasions in life when the ancient Latin maxim holds
true: Non est salus nisi ni fuga . And I beg of you to believe me this
much: I am not running from my human duty, only attempting to fulfill
it more completely and without obstacles.
To you and to our Bosnia I wish the best of luck in the new state!
Yours,
M.
L.
Ten years passed. I rarely remembered my childhood friend, and I
would have forgotten him completely, had not the basic idea of his let–
ter reminded me of him from time
to
time. Sometime around
I930,
entirely accidentally, I found out that Dr. Maks Levenfeld had stayed in
Paris, that he had an extensive practice in the suburb of Neuilly, and
that in our colony of Yugoslavs he was known as "our doctor" who
examined workers and students for free and, when needed, even bought
medicines for them.
Another seven or eight years passed. One day, again accidentally, I
found out the further destiny of this friend of mine. When the civil war
broke out in Spain, he left everything and joined the Republican army
as a volunteer. He organized dressing stations and hospitals, and
became known for his eagerness and expertise. At the beginning of
1938
he was in a small town in Aragon whose name none of us could pro–
nounce properly. In broad daylight, an air raid was carried out on his
hospital and he died along with most of the wounded.
That is how the life of the man who ran away from hatred ended.
Translated from the Croatian
by
Moira Milevoj
