Faith amid Darkness - Softcover

Rittman, Danny

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1491718889 ISBN 13: 9781491718889

Verlag: iUniverse, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

While growing up during the 1930s in Lodz, Poland, Adrian Nowak befriends Misha Coen, a Jewish boy who lives in his apartment building. As they play together and learn about each other's cultures and religions, the two boys look forward to the future. They have no idea of how things will change in 1939 when Nazi Germany invades their beloved country. On the day of Misha's Bar Mitzvah, he and his family are taken away by the SS. A few months later, Adrian is forcibly taken into German service and put to work at Treblinka and later Auschwitz-the two most notorious concentration camps in World War II. Subjected to years of subjugation and horror, Adrian is left in deep despair-until the day he catches a glimpse of Misha in a selection yard at Auschwitz. Thrilled to be together once again, Adrian and Misha find strength, faith, and hope in their morning prayers, the sacred Teffilin that Misha managed to save from his old life, and their friendship, as they both attempt to survive in the face of horrifying conditions. Faith amid Darkness provides a heartrending and surprising glimpse inside the brutality of the Holocaust.

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FAITH AMID DARKNESS

By Danny Rittman

iUniverse LLC

Copyright © 2013 Danny Rittman
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-1888-9

CHAPTER 1

Folsom, California, Spring 1998

"You can smile any time now!"

The woman from personnel coaxed me into a pleasant expression as she took the photograph for my ID card at the Intel offices. It wasn't too hard as it was my first day and I was filled with optimism by the challenges that lay ahead. A quick flash and click later and I was up from the plastic-mold chair and off to the next part of orientation process.

About twenty of us were escorted down a long corridor illuminated by institutional lighting and lined with photographs of the rolling hills and open waters of the San Francisco area just to the west from which a few hearty employees commuted. Some knew each other from graduate school or previous employers in the volatile hi-tech businesses of Silicon Valley where teams coalesced, created great things, and after a few months went on to new outfits. Others recognized names on the still warm security badges by reputation or from articles in trade newsletters. A few years older than most of my new colleagues, I didn't find the orientation process as exciting as most others did, but designing new chips always attracted me and I knew the excitement of others would lead to hard work and creativity.

I jotted down a few notes as the spokesperson ran down corporate guidelines and handed out a slew of pamphlets. Mostly, however, I was enjoying the energy of the young people around me. I confess, I felt like I too was fresh out of college and exploring the world, at least for a few moments here and there.

My assignment was the R&D group and that was ideal for it meant working with remarkable new technologies and creating new ones. Pushing the envelope, as they say. In other sections, work entailed implementing accepted technologies, putting them into a family of chips. At R&D, I'd be looking for new manufacturing processes using nanotechnology. That, my friends, is creating microscopic machines to build microscopic circuits. At times, it feels like you're part of a science-fiction work instead of a business operation.

After the orientation lecture we enjoyed a light buffet of pineapple, sushi, and herbal tea. Yes, this was Northern California alright. Chatting, conviviating, and greeting old friends came with the food naturally enough. A man tapped me on the shoulder. "Danny! Danny Rittman! Welcome aboard. Let me show you to your office. I think we have one with a splendid view of the hills for you. We're still expanding the facilities here, so you'll be sharing an office for now."

"That'll be fine," I replied amicably. "I'm used to a cooperative environment and it's good to have a real person to chat with amid all the abstraction. Besides, we can help each other by increasing productivity and decrease the learning curve."

"Fair points, Danny." The manager clearly liked my outlook and flexibility.

We reached the open doorway inside of which an older man was looking intently into a large CRT monitor (this was the nineties, remember) where a circuit design was laid out for his scrutiny for flaws that could potential problems.

"Knock, knock!"

A short, rotund man in his late sixties with a balding pate slowly raised a hand to acknowledge our presence but continued with his work, occasionally muttering to himself and running a finger along a section of the circuit layout. Suddenly, he spun his chair to face us, slowly stood, and gestured for us to come in.

"Welcome! Welcome! You, young man, must be Danny Rittman. Your reputation precedes you—but I'm sure it doesn't exceed you."

Funny guy.

"Yes, Adrian, this is Danny. He will be with our team on the Tejas Project. Oh, and Danny, this is Adrian Nowak. He's been working in this field since ... oh since computers were the size of those Sub Z refrigerators in everybody's kitchens out here. He's been a helpful consultant here at Folsom for the past year or so."

Adrian smiled with the compliment but it quickly receded. "Actually my experience only dates back to when the first 286 processor was taping out many years ago. My first design experience was here at Intel. Pleased to meet you, Danny." Adrian shook my hand firmly though with discernible kindness. I looked into his eyes and saw kindness there too, though a flash of tragedy seemed to appear before disappearing in an instant.

"The pleasure is all mine," I replied to him with simple pleasantness. I saw the kindness again and thought that I'd been mistaken about the hint of tragedy. I was new in the place and early impressions come and go, forgotten in a week or two. Usually.

"Adrian, can you please show Danny how to access the design software and the layouts? I'll show him the kitchen and other amenities. I'm afraid there aren't as many of those as we'd like, but with the new building coming online, we'll be up to industry standards. I see we've already cleared out the desk for him."

"I shall be delighted to do all those things and more. Come with me, young man. We'll start with the most important place—the kitchen. That's where the great breakthroughs happen anyway. Rumor has it that Hewlett ran into Packard during a coffee break. And that chance meeting turned out rather well, didn't it."

"Well then, here's to the founding of Nowak-Rittman!" I said, enjoying my wit almost as much as the others did.

"Nowak-Rittman, eh," the manager said warily. "Gentlemen, I hope you read those nondisclosure and intellectual property clauses in your contracts very carefully! All patents and any idea developed here belong to the Intel Corporation."

He was kidding, of course, but making a point as well.

The first day was going well. I liked Adrian. He was full of life and his eyes held the prospect of many life experiences I could learn from.

Over the next few weeks, Adrian and I got along swimmingly. He was much my senior so there was a certain amount of father-son affection but there was also that between an esteemed mentor and a grateful student. He taught me emerging techniques in integrated circuit layout design. He pointed out some faults with established methods and occasionally offered ideas how to fix them. It didn't matter if the issues were simple or complex; he had a sixth sense for finding innovations—especially in regard to a circuit's geometrical aspects. His intuition was almost always more useful than our colleagues' studied responses. His comments weren't just grumpy complaints; they conveyed profound understanding of a design's intricacies and truly thoughtful notions as to improving them. He was both insightful and concise. With each thought there was wit and soul. We thought one day we'd collaborate on bettering methods for the next project.

He laughed aloud at spontaneous wit, his or mine. He did the same when we came across an error, his or mine. In those first few weeks, I freely confess that the mistakes were mostly mine. But I was learning. Learning from Adrian. Father-son, mentor-student—and good friends. I felt fortunate to share an office with him.

The hi-tech world is well known as a place for young people. I say this as someone who looks around the office now in 2013 and sees that most coworkers are far younger than I am. Okay, I'll say it. I'm now old enough to be their father. Many of them anyway. Back then Adrian was old enough to be my father and I wondered why he hadn't put in for retirement. I don't think it was a money matter. I truly think he still loved to be out doing things and didn't...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: iUniverse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1491718889
• ISBN 13: 9781491718889
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland