Award Winner by Mort Laitner

Two of my favorite words are “Award Winner.”

So when I opened my email and read,

Dear Blake,

Congratulations!

Wallachia Int’l Film Festival has updated the Judging Status of your submission WE NEED RENT MONEY to Award Winner.

I smiled.

There in front of my eyes was the digital trophy, with the gold star on it, next to the words, Award Winner.

How sweet it is!

Not an acceptance into a festival, not a semi-finalist but a win.

WOW!

There it was on top of the list of films: We need rent money (USA) by Blake Laitner and Jeremy Ferguson Best Trailer

I was ecstatic for Blake, Jeremy  and WE NEED RENT MONEY film team.

A Romanian film festival with three years under its belt, located in downtown Bucharest, only hundreds of meters away from Dracula’s former court in the Old Town! loved the trailer.

I wondered, “Did the ghost of Dracula watch Blake’s trailer in this open air film festival?”

As a ten year old, I remembered how frightened (scared-the-crap-out-of-me frightened) when I watched the classic version of  Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1931) with Bela Lugosi on the Million Dollar Movie.

You New Yorkers recall twisting the dial to the Million Dollar Movie on local station WOR channel 9.

You remember the opening credits, the City at night as “Tara’s Theme” played in the background.

Who can forget it.

A film with Vampires, the Carpathian Mountains, a Translyvanian castle, a crucifix, a wooden stake in the heart  and the classic line, “I want to suck your blood.” made that film a winner.

So in the spirit of these two classics, I wish Blake, Ferguson and the “WNRM” team all the luck of the Dracula film and a Million Dollar movie on its release to the silver screen.

May the wins keep rolling in.

Buy this book.

Why?

Because you’ll love it, relate to it, and learn from it.

If you haven’t already figured it out, Mel and I are cousins.

On arrival to the States, both our dads Americanized our names from the Polish spelling of “Lajtner.”

Mel and I are also children with mothers and fathers that survived the Camps.

Mel and I have both written father/son books about our quest to learn what made our dads tick.

Mel and I have also fulfilled our obligation—our duty—to our families, to the six million, and to the Jewish people to tell their stories so that their suffering will never be forgotten and the mass murder of Jews will never happen again and to explain why Israel must always exist.

So, why should you trust me and buy Mel’s book?

Well, have I ever let you down?

Of course not.

So, why do I think you’ll love What They Didn’t Burn?

Because I read it in two sittings.

Because it’s not just another piece of Holocaust literature.

It’s unique gem—a rare Shoah story written by an investigative journalist whose father and mother survived the war.

And not just any journalist but a career reporter with NBC News and United Press International.

A reporter who travels to the scene of the Nazi crimes in Poland and gathers the documentary evidence that mentions his dad’s imprisonment.

A reporter who travels the world, to speak to the witnesses who were in the ghettos, in the concentration camps and on the death marches with his dad.

A reporter who takes the reader along on his journey to learn how and why his father, Josef survived.

A master writer who paints pictures in your head that make you think you’re in the ghetto, in the camp and on the death march standing next to his father.

A writer who paints masterpieces in your mind that cause your lacrimal glands to secret tears and make you realize it’s time to visit the graves of your parents.

Well, have I convinced you to read What They Didn’t Burn: Uncovering my Father’s Holocaust Secrets by Mel Laytner?

If so, I promise you, that you won’t regret it.

I heard screams, shrieks and howls resonating from the lower deck of the stadium.

“What the hell is happening down there?” I wondered.

A fight, an explosion or a terrorist act.

I sat perplexed by the cacophony of sounds reaching my eardrums.

Then in a matter of seconds, they ceased.

My attention returned to the football game on the field.

And it was not until I arrived home and turned on my computer that I learned what the commotion was all about.

I watched the YouTube video of this black and white cat hanging from the blue awning attached to the cement rafters in Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

Clawing and slipping.

Slipping and clawing.

This cat literally hung on by a thread. I heard a gasp as the cat fell approximately 30 feet into a United States flag held and spread open by two football fans.

Of course, during the fall the cat reflexively twisted its body and righted itself.

The whole show blew me away, causing a bombardment of thoughts:

What drama!

What were the odds that  this cat would fall safely into Old Glory?

How did the cat get into the stadium and on to those rafters?

Why did this miraculous stars and stripes rescue occur on 9/11?

Do cats really have nine lives?

Where is that cat going to end up?

I saw it had a collar.

Was this a pre-Yom Kippur message falling from the Heavens?

Was this cat-falling story a reminder of the historical past?

Then it hit me.

Israel was the cat.

America was the flag and the year was 1973.

Yes, the Yom Kipper War.

Fear, screams, sheiks, howls and air raid sirens blanketed Israel, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.

In the early days of the war, Moshe Dayan warned Golda Meir that Israel (Code-named, “The Third Temple”) might lose. The nation of Israel hung precariously by a thread.

Then on Israel’s request. President Richard Nixon ordered the U.S. Air Force to airlift and resupply the Israeli Defense Forces with F-4 Phantom II fighters and M60 Patton tanks plus other weapons and supplies.

And this almost-lost war became a military victory for Israel, albeit with a great loss in soldier lives.

So a falling cat—with thousands of people praying for its safety—rekindled old memories, caused us to reflect on the loss of loved ones and strengthened our belief in miracles.

May you have an easy fast.