September 21st, 2012 → 6:38 am @ Lea // No Comments

“Was ever woman in this humor wooed?” – Richard III

In July, 1942 the Germans announced that all the Jews in Warsaw would be “resettled” to Treblinka.  There were, however, a few categories of exception and if you fit into one of them you, your wife, and you kids were all exempted.  Marcel Reich-Ranicki fell into one of those categories.  He was not married at the time but he had a girlfriend, whom he immediately (like that day) married.  As he faced the rabbi during the shotgun wedding, the Nazis just down the street, the words of Shakespeare rang in his ears:  “Was ever woman in this humor wooed?”