FEEDBACK 1999

Kameraden Carl Mai,
Boris is a fascinating storybook, on life in the Concentration Camps. He spent his youth as a prisoner of the Nazi´s. He was so young and innocent he was chosen to sweep the guards office and consequently was able to save his fathers life with a simple erasure. A wised up Italian Socialist leader told them how to survive in the camps without being a kapo. He has hundreds of incredible stories to tell in the simplest language; but instead likes to wax poetic. But it is hard being poetic when you do not have a native language. His native language was Russian and as a child learned Latvian; but studied at a German language oriented school in Riga. His current language is English and he can weave tales beautifully in it when he doesn't try to render it poetically. His English vocabulary is superb and fully expressive. He can tell you incredible stories of his life, escape, the Red Army, the American Army....etc. etc. etc. ... they incredible. It would be such a sorry thing to lose his Infories of those incredible years. His search for his mother and sisters remains is a bit of Kafkaesque literature. His father was a man of unusual ability and survival skills; in a few years he went from a concentration camp scarecrow to a wealthy New York Realtor. Despite that he encouraged his son to pursue the arts. In a way Boris is the "Everyman" of the 20th Century and in a way his father was the Faust.

Martin Levitt