![]() Having grown up in Europe, my parents knew a lot about the war. Not usual dinner table talk for a family in Greenwich in the 1970s. forces, and how the Jews suffered during the war. ![]() My parents would talk about Hitler’s horrible hatred, the British and U.S. World War II was discussed often around my family dinner table. (After all these years, that minus after the “A” still bothers me.) The paper was one of the first times I exercised the research skills that would eventually come to serve me in my career as a journalist. I entitled mine, “Jews Under Nazi Rule.” I still have it, the A- written in red ink prominently on the title page. In 1977, my eighth-grade teacher assigned a term paper on World War II. I had begun looking into his past, and I carried with me a few conversation starters, as well as a few secrets of my own I’d reveal at the right time. Unsure what to expect, but knowing I wanted answers, I climbed into a cab and headed to his house. I had decided to make an attempt at a deeper bond, to somehow break through his tough shell, hoping to find a soft center. I longed to have as warm a connection with my dad as my friends seemed to have with theirs. ![]() and terribly confused, wondering what, if anything, I had done that was so terribly wrong? Why didn’t he comfort me when my mom died? How could he so easily detach himself from the woman he had been married to for 32 years? What made it so simple for him to segment his life so perfectly and just move on, start over again? I felt he had forgotten about us. After my mother’s death, my already strained relationship with him became even more troubled. My father and I haven’t been in close contact for years now. I gathered my things and stepped out onto the platform into the bright June afternoon sunlight, preparing myself for the encounter I was about to have. The train hissed to a stop at the Kings Street Station in Alexandria, Virginia, jarring me from my introspection. Here is an excerpt from Cosby’s new book, “Quiet Hero: Secrets From My Father’s Past”:
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