Of Mercy, Fame--And Hate Mail

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So, despite the taste of glamour, Meili has come full circle--from security guard to player in a vast historical drama and back to security guard. Pale, baby-faced and unremarkable in his navy-and-gray uniform, he spends most days in a Manhattan office building "just standing," he says. "Sometimes I give directions to the elevator, or I tell people to sign in. It gives me a lot of time to think. That's what I do all day long. I think about the Holocaust. Sometimes I go crazy." Back home in New Jersey, Giuseppina Meili is baffled by the American suburbs. "They have big, big castles," she says, "and a lot of people think only about money."

A few months ago, a letter hand printed in German was sent to Meili, care of Senator Alfonse D'Amato, the New York Republican who sponsored his residency. "Meili, you little s.o.b. supported by Jews," the message read. "We will hunt you down in your new home. Even the American Jew-Mafia will not be able to protect you." Since a Swiss newspaper printed Meili's e-mail address, threats have ensued. And after Edward Fagan, Meili's attorney, filed suit in the U.S. against U.B.S., seeking $60 million in compensatory damages for slander and retaliatory firing and up to $2.5 billion in punitive damages for thwarting justice, Swiss papers ran stories claiming that Meili had been a teenage member "of a shoplifting gang." (Meili, who acknowledges a troubled childhood, says any punitive damages awarded will go to Holocaust victims.)

Such attacks remain mere distractions from the doorman's primary preoccupation: seeing whether the documents he recovered from the shredding room will lead to further restitution to Holocaust victims. Jewish groups estimate that some $7 billion in assets and interest is still held in numbered Swiss accounts. As well-wishers swarm about him after his speech in California, Meili smiles shyly and shakes his head. "We don't know what will be the outcome of the story," he says. For the righteous gentile, there may be mercies. But for a man forced to give up his country, there are, so far, few rewards.