I’m a student of the Shoah, an autodidact with over 58 years of  self-study under my belt.

When I read, “The Good Assassin” by journalist and bestselling author, Stephan Talty. (The Black Hand and A Captain’s Duty, which became Oscar-winner Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks) I learned of a notorious Latvian who assisted the genocide of thousands of Jews.

Since I had never heard of the book’s antagonist, I decided to make him the subject of today’s Holocaust history quiz.

As with our last quiz, there is only one rule:

I give you 10 clues about the infamous murderer, if you come up with his name before the clues run out, you are awarded the honorary title of  “Holocaust Scholar.”

If you fail the quiz, better luck next time.

Here are the 10 clues:

1. Before the Second World War, he was known as the “Charles Lindbergh of his country—Latvia’s most famous aviator;”

2. He was second-in-command of the notorious Riga based, Arajs Kommandos, a volunteer paramilitary group who assisted the SS in carrying out the mass killings of Jews;

2. By 1945, he was known as the “Butcher of Latvia;”

3. This war criminal was responsible for the murder of at least 30,000 Latvian Jews;

4.The murderer managed to dodge the Nuremberg trials;

5. In 1946, the “Hangman of Riga” fled to Brazil using the “ratlines” as his means of escape to Latin America;

6. In 1965, Nazi hunters, Simon Wiesenthal and Tuviah Friedman fought against the implementation of  a German statute of limitations law that would have granted amnesty to former Nazis like the monster of Riga and they searched for the monster throughout South America;

7. In 1965, Mossad agent, Yaakov Meidad, lead an Israeli hit team to assassinate him;

8. Yaakov Meidad had also participated in the kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann in 1962;

9. The “Butcher of Latvia” was assassinated by Mossad in Uruguay in 1965.

10. The monster’s assassination played a key role in the defeat of the German amnesty law.

Well, that’s it for clues.

But I hope these tidbits of information will lead you to learn more about the “Butcher of Latvia”—- Herbert Cukurs.

For a riveting read about Cukurs, his Holocaust victims and the Mossad hit team that made him pay for his crimes against humanity, I highly recommend Stephan Talty’s “The Good Assassin: How a Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down the Butcher of Latvia.” New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2020)

Behind the wheel, I entered the lot of a bagel shop and deli and parked my car.

I craved a double toasted, scooped-out, poppy seed bagel, with  nova; schmeared with Philly cream cheese; covered with some capers and onions.

I opened the door of my Honda, looked down on the ground and observed a soiled light-blue surgical face mask and two crunched up blue latex gloves.

Right under my feet!

Disgusting!

I twisted my legs making sure my shoes didn’t touch the mask or the gloves.

The toasted bagel image planted in my brain started to fade.

My taste buds no longer imagined the flavor of lox.

“Here was another example of Corona Virus Mental Health Disorder (CVMHD).”

Yes, the mentally ill littered parking lots with used, potentially lethal, contaminated hospital gear.

In the scientific community, they were known as the schmearers of disease (SOD).

Covid-19 was causing a serious mental health crisis in America.

I had heard about it on CNN.

But here it was, the evidence right in front of my eyes and inches away from my feet.

“This mask and gloves were the new cigarette-butt mounds I saw so often carpeting parking lots in the 50’s and 60’s.

These I-don’t-give-a-crap SOD certainly knew how to spread lethal viruses.

I thought, “Either they were lazy or mentally ill or both.”

Mental Health questions floated around my brain:

“Where in the DSM-5, (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition) do I find out about these mental issues I am witnessing in Florida?”

“What does DSM-5 say about these potential killers losing their cognitive skills during this pandemic?”

“What does DSM-5 say about people losing their ability to focus on more than one thing at a time?”

I stopped thinking and entered the bagel emporium—of course with my mask on.

“Miss, I want a double toasted, scooped-out, poppy seed bagel, schmeared with Philly cream cheese, nova, capers and onions.”

The middle-aged cashier wrote out my order.

She looked physically healthy but seemed a bissel meshugenah.

“So you want a double toasted, scooped-out, poppy seed bagel with nova, Philly cream cheese, capers and onions.”

“Yup,” I nervously responded.

I threw a couple of bucks in the tip jar and paid the bill with my credit card.

But in the back of my mind, I knew that “Corona Virus Mental Health Disorder  (CVMHD) was going to cause them to f’up this simple order.”

I recalculated.

“Well, maybe by paying $11.00  for a bagel with the works, I might get lucky.

The establishment ain’t that busy.

I gave them a tip.

Well, maybe the the staff isn’t infected and they still have their cognitive skills.”

Finding a table on the patio, I bit into my bagel.

Something was missing?

I opened it up and searched for the nova.

Lo and behold I found none.

Gevalt! Oy, vey iz mir!

A bagel, cream cheese and lox with no lox!

Quickly I realized that Covid-19 had to robbed some of the staff of their minds.

Nervously I asked myself, “How many Floridian minds had already been eaten away by this disease?”

Sixty years of ordering bagels mit lox and no restaurant had ever forgotten the lox.

Altz iz nit gut.

What should I do? How do you treat these poor mentally-challenged souls?

I put on my mask, walked back into the shop and tried to be polite.

Pointing to the opened bagel, I asked, “Please tell me what’s missing?”

“We’re so sorry,” the cashier said as she grabbed the red plastic basket from my hands.

I replied with two nods and my sad-sack face.

A face that said, “I’m so sorry you’ve contacted CVMHD.”

This disorder was a much more serious problem than portrayed on CNN.

As I ate my new bagel, I knew we were all in some deep, deep trouble.

—————————–

A Note to  My Dear Readers,

If you have noticed or witnessed  any examples of Covid-19 mental health disorders in your community, please let me know about them in the comments section of this blog.

Thanks.

Blessed are you courageous knights,

for having ridden your stallions for 40 days and 40 nights.

Blessed are you courageous knights,

for wearing your armor for 40 days and 40 nights.

Blessed are you courageous knights,

for hiding your fears for 40 days and 40 nights.

Blessed are you courageous knights,

for carrying six foot lances for 40 days and 40 nights.

Blessed are you courageous knights,

for battening your gates for 40 days and 40 nights.

Blessed are you courageous knights,

for fighting death for 40 days and 40 nights.

Blessed are you courageous knights,

for riding the rainstorm for 40 days and 40 nights.

You watched the days of your lives fall through the hourglass.

And now you attend the devil’s mass.

Carefully listening to his every word, as he preaches:

“It’s safe to shop in the villages and tan on the beaches.

Death no longer desires you.

You were part of the lucky few.

Your probation has ended and so has your trial.

You have nothing to fear, you’re going be around for a while.

You have passed the test.

You probably have the antibodies deep in your chest.

Hallelujah, this plague has come to an end!

Blessed are you the survivors who are still on the mend.

But just in case, on your way to the village carry that invisible spear

and be sure to wear your protective gear.