A Stitch in Time

BOOK REVIEW

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

It is 1924. The Soviet Army had drafted two of the sons of widow Gellis, and then sent notice that the boys were dead. She was not going to let the army get another of her sons. By the time David Gellis reached draft age at his 16th birthday, she had arranged a plan for him to escape. He would hide in the concealed closet in the basement. On that birthday, when the soldiers searched, they would find no trace of David Gellis. That night, they would post a guard at the only door to the house, but she would distract the guard with fresh meat knishes (the Russian guard would call them piroshki), and with sympathetic questions about the guard’s family back home. Meanwhile, another brother would give the secret signal and David would jump out the back window.

Thus, begins A Stitch in Time (available on Amazon), written by Dr. Michael Gellis in loving tribute to his father.

David Gellis escaped on foot, then by train and then by wagon across southern Poland from Dynov to the home of his Uncle Sol near Cracow. Uncle Sol greeted him warmly, and David spent a sweet Shabbos with his family, but he had to keep running.

Uncle Sol gave him money and train tickets to the port of Gdansk, at the north edge of Poland. From there, David had a chance to try to find work on any ship sailing toward America. His goal, after getting away from Poland and the Soviet Army, was to find his older brother, Joseph, who lived in Flint, Michigan.

But how could David get work on a ship? What could he do? Well, he already knew how to sew. His late father, his mother and his brothers all worked as tailors and, even at 16, he was an expert tailor. Fortunately, the purser on the first ship desperately needed a tailor. David proved himself an invaluable addition to the crew, repairing worn uniforms and torn tablecloths. When a passenger burned her husband’s new suit, David did a particularly difficult feat, invisible reweaving, perhaps saving her marriage and certainly establishing David’s reputation with the purser.

The ship went from Gdansk to England, from England to France, from France to Portugal and Spain, and then across the ocean to Cuba. At each stop, David met helpful strangers and resourcefully learned new skills. On a two-week layover in France, David worked at a factory making bridal gowns and learned new tailoring skills. The owner, fortunately, spoke Yiddish. In Cuba, David found a Yiddish-speaking factory owner who made leather goods. David learned new skills and invented new uses for the scrap leather. He even learned the skills of managing the factory.

During his years in Cuba, David never abandoned his plan to get to his brother in Flint, though the United States had new immigration laws designed to keep undocumented immigrants out. In 1927, David had saved enough money to risk paying a smuggler to sneak him into the U.S. Good to his word, the smuggler did bring him to the surf near the island of Key West, but then, at gunpoint, sent him overboard. David did not know how to swim, but somehow survived to wash up on the beach.

And the story continues with adventure after adventure as David went north to Brooklyn, met the woman who would become his wife (making him, finally, a legal immigrant), served in the U.S. Army during World War II (where he did not get shipped overseas because his commanding

officer’s daughter needed a wedding gown). Eventually, with help from his brother, David moved his wife and two children to Michael Gellis Flint, where David set up a dry cleaning and alterations shop. Michael Gellis tells his father’s story in chronological order, in the style of a young adult novel. He shows us the thoughts of some of the characters and reconstructs dialogue as it might have occurred. Each of the 75 chapters takes only a few pages. In four or five pages, the author takes the life of David Gellis forward, often from a difficult situation toward its safe resolution. At crucial moments, David Gellis meets helpful strangers. The hero of this story shows impressive resourcefulness, learning new skills at a moment’s notice, and remarkable determination, never losing sight of the goal, even when he learns that his family in Poland has been murdered. Michael Gellis did extensive research to prepare to tell his father’s story. Interviewing his father’s friends and relatives, the author establishes the exact dates of all sorts of events. Researching the realities behind the story, the author has his characters explain aspects of the politics of interwar Europe, as well as how to sew with satin and how to set up a steam-press. This is the life story of one man, but it parallels the stories of millions of Jewish people who tried to escape from increasingly hostile Europe to someplace safer.