The Bender book tells the story of one unusally gifted VG who was well educated, went to University and rose to the rank of officer in the army and was dispatched to Paris on a diplomatic assignment. As he had a talent for language, he learned Russian and interacted well with his Russian neighbors. After his service he became mayor of Schuck. He was a competent administrator, and while his family acquired wealth, even after the revolution he was kept on as an administrator, partially because of his competence and partially because of his good relationship with the Russians. He remained in that post up until 1941 when he went underground when the deportation was becoming inevitable. However this was not a typical person, and his diplomatic , administrative relationship between the two groups was not the norm. Frank jacobs Topeka