A merica apish periodical Cotter
fr oey, September 27, 1946
URKA
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
Page Fifteen
NACHOLNIK JETWHISEHSTROORBYINOHFOAOD
By LIBBY L ZARITSKY
Pavlova was born to dance.
Shakespeare was born to write.
Beethoven was born to compose.
But Urka Nacholnik—Urka Nach-
olnik was born to pick locks.
Urka was born in Warsaw in
1895. His parents were wealthy
nd planned to give their son
lerything that money could buy.
hey anticipated a professional
future for their first born. What
profession? "Medicine," said his
grandfather. " L a w ," said his
father. "Teaching," said his moth-
er. Little Urka lay serenely in
his crib and listened patiently to
the heated argument. He double
crossed them all. He became a
crook.
At first Urka did not know
where his talent lay. He just knew
that schoolwork was not for him.
He couldn't undertsand arithmetic.
He couldn't remember history. He
didn't enjoy literature. He would
sit in class and play with the
watch his father gave him for his
ninth birthday. Once the watch
stopped running. He took it apart,
marveled at its intricacy, poked
his little fingers here and there.
The watch began to tick. A
schoolmate's watch broke. He fixed
that too.
Then his interests broadened. He
found his father's straight edged
razor. Was that too intricate in
Its makeup? An investigation fol-
lowed. He plied at the razor with
his nails, with a knife, with a
file until he succeeded in rough-
ening the edge. The next day, the
sight of his father's bleeding face
and the touch of his mother's
hair brush put an end to the in-
vestigation. His interest reverted
to watches.
Urka did not continue his edu-
cation in the gymnasium. He went
Instead to a school for mechanics.
Theory bored him. But practice—
he could fix anything. He tinkered
with machines. He tinkered with
automobiles. And finally, at 1?, he
began to tinker with locks. He
took his studies seriously. When
he managed to open all the locks
at school and at home, he began
looking for new, fertile fields.
Warsaw abounded in storehouses.
At night, when people had gone
to bed, Urka would slip silently
out of the house and wander
about the deserted factory dis-
trict. The next morning business-
men were greatly surprised to find
the doors of their warehouses
open.
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CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, 01110
Then Urka fell in love. He was
a tall husky youth. His face was
large and ruddy. His voice was
loud and booming. And the object
of his affections? A petite young
lady with a small, angelic counte-
nance. She was the daughter of
the city's leading lawyer and
traveled in refined, cultured cir-
Iles. Urka strove to make a good
Impression. He even managed to
wangle a dinner invitation.
The fateful evening arrived.
Urka put on a new, blue suit. He
perfumed his hair. At dinner he
kept his voice at an unusually
low pitch. And then he saw the
cabinet. The cabinet was locked
but with a lock the likes of which
Urka had not yet encountered. It
was made of gold and was elab-
orately designed. It seemed to be
three locks in one. Urka could not
resist the temptation. When the
guests retired to the drawing
room, Urka set to work. Deftly his
fingers turned the knob right. A
click. Swiftly his fingers turned
the knob left. A click. A circular
motion and the lock flew open.
Urka succeeded in his task—but,
succeeded also at being caught in
the act.
The romance shattered, Urka
took stock of himself. He was
wasting his life away on foolish
pranks. If he could open locks so
easily, why shouldn't he avail him-
self of the material that lay be-
hind the locks? The next eight
years he did so. He organized a
gang. They held up banks and
robbed the wealthy. They broke
Into warehouses. They acquired
great wealth but Urka never kept
his share of the spoils. He gave
the money to the poor. He felt
that he was duly compensated by
the success of his ventures. To
the rich he became public enemy
No. 1, to the poor he became the
reincarnation of Robin Hood.
Then Urka was caught and im-
prisoned, but there was no damp-
ening his buoyant spirit. He picked
the prison locks and aided the
other prisoners to escape. Him
self—he was willing to serve out
his sentence. Time dragged. Urka
became bored. He had to find a
new outlet for his gargantuan
energy. So he started to write.
He wrote about the life that he
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knew best—the life of the vaga-
bond. He wrote about the crim-
inal's activities and vacations in
prison. The guards were delighted.
They passed the articles on to the
warden. The warden was delighted
and passed the articles on to the
magazines. The periodicals clam.
ored for the worms of this novel
author. And finally Urka Nachol-
nik, Poland's new literary protege,
was pardoned.
But Nacholnik had lost the zeal
to write. He returned to his par-
ents' home and resumed his tink-
ering with machines and auto-
mobiles.
Then in 1939 Poland was in-
vaded and enslaved. And Urka,
together with his fellow Jews, was
Imprisoned in the Ghetto. Once
again, Urka began tinkering with
locks. He organized a new gang—
a gang that harassed the Nazis.
At night they filtered out of the
Ghetto and broke into the store-
houses. The next day the Jews
would be properly fed. They raid-
ed the warehouses. The next day
the Jews would be warmly clothed.
Dynamite would be shipped into
Warsaw. That night the bridges
were blOWn up. And Urka devel-
oped a new talent—the talent of
silent, swift murder. He resolved
a Nazi a month and a Nazi a
month it was for 18 months.
The nineteenth month Urka was
captured. How he was killed no
one knows. Where he was buried
no one knows. But rumor has it
that the Nazis Invented an un.
pickable lock and fastened it to
Urka's coffin. To this day not one
of his disciples has managed to
open that lock. Urka might have.
But then—Urka is dead.
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A VERY JOYOUS ROSH HASHONAH TO ALL
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