Mark Iwry grew up in Mt. Washington.  We’ve known each other since childhood.

Mark’s parents – Sam and Nina Iwry — were born in Poland.

They both escaped the Nazis and fled to Shanghai, where more than 20,000 Jews found refuge.

I asked Mark and his wife Daryl to join me, my mother, and brother Bruce Sunday at the Jewish Refugees and Shanghai exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Maryland.

At lunch beforehand, Mark related that his mother, a hospital administrator, had rescued her future husband after he had been beaten unconscious by a guard who had discovered his  activities in the underground enabling Jewish families to escape from the Nazis to Palestine, Australia, and other safe havens,

The exhibit panels were prepared by the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum.

Many told the story of individuals’ time in Shanghai and their joyous return with family decades later.

One made reference to Ghoya, a Japanese official.

“That’s who tortured my father,” Mark told me.

—

I left the Jewish Museum and headed to Cedardale Road, where Frank Robinson lived in 1966, when he led the Orioles to a World Series championship.

I met the neighborhood “kids” from that era – black and white.

They talked about other Orioles and Colts who lived there – all were black.  It was one of the few integrated neighborhoods in Baltimore.

A story was told about a minor league baseball player who visited Frank.

His mother lived in the neighborhood.

His name was Reggie Jackson.

The MVP of the October 1966 World Series met Mr. October.

 

I highly recommend Samuel Iwry’s autobiography, “To Wear the Dust of War: From Bialystok to Shanhsi to the Promised Land” (available on Amazon)