Ich ging in das Realgymnasium RG 2, in die Kleine Sperlgasse. Da war ich von der 1. bis zur 6. Klasse. In meiner Klasse waren ungefähr zwei Drittel, also 60 Prozent, jüdische Kinder. Antisemitische Strömungen wurden erst in den 1930er-Jahren, während der Wirtschaftskrise [1929 bis späten 1930er- Jahre], akut. Ich habe Antisemitismus weder von Lehrern noch von Schülern erlebt.
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During that time certain political changes in the country affected our family. Father, a respectable man, who had worked at the brewery for a long time, got a mild hint to leave his post due to an anti-Semitic wave. He wasn’t fired. They let him choose any Lithuanian city where he could be in charge of the stock of the brewery. Thus, my parents left for the small town of Skaudville [about 200 km from Vilnius]. Father’s salary barely changed, but he suffered morally from being unjustly laid-off.
Zur Vorbereitung meiner Bar Mitzwa [13] beauftragten meine Eltern einen Melamed, mir hebräische und jüdische Geschichte beizubringen. Am Tag meiner Bar Mitzwa las ich am Vormittag in der Karajangasse, im 20. Bezirk, in einer kleinen Schil [Bethaus] aus der Torah vor. Danach gab es eine große Feier in der Werkstatt meiner Mutter. Ein Orchester spielte, es wurde getanzt, und ich erinnere mich noch an Männer, die am Boden russische Tänze tanzten. Ich bekam viele Geschenke und es gab viele Torten und Fisch. Ich entfremdete mich dann aber sehr schnell von meinem zu Hause. Bis zur Bar Mitzwa wurde ich von meinem Elternhaus stark beeinflusst, aber dann begann die Umwelt stärker auf mich einzuwirken.
I succeeded at school and in 1938 I graduated from the lyceum ranking among the top students. I wanted to become a doctor. In order to enter the Medical Department at Kaunas University I had to take an exam in Latin. We had studied it only for two years and I was afraid that I wouldn’t pass it, so I decided to enter the Biology Department. I could enter it only via an interview and then get transferred to the Medical Department in a year, which wouldn’t be complicated. I parted with my friend Eduardas and left for Kaunas. Soon I forgot about him. Puppy love goes by very quickly. I settled at the place of my Aunt Fanya, my father’s sister. The first years flew by very quickly.
Wir hielten die hohen Feiertage, aber koscher [11] waren wir nicht. Mein Vater, der ein sehr intelligenter Mann, lebensfroh war und gern in Kaffeehäuser ging, liebte seine Kinder. Einmal gab er mir aber eine Ohrfeige, weil ich zu Pessach [12] auf der Straße eine Wurstsemmel gegessen habe. Er sagte, ich solle nicht die religiösen Gefühle anderer Leute beleidigen.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
My brother Abram didn’t do very well at school. Starting from the fourth grade Father transferred him to a Yiddish lyceum where it was easier to study. But Abram had a talent for music. He started playing the accordion, the piano. In 1938 he was drafted into the Lithuanian army and he served in a musical squad in Siauliai.
Die Sommer verbrachten wir in Sankt Andrä - Wördern [NÖ, Bezirk Tulln]. Bei einem Bauern am Berg hatten wir ein Sommerquartier. Das Kindermädchen blieb mit uns Kindern dort, denn die Eltern kamen nur am Wochenende.
In the last but one grade we had a Judaic class. Less than ten students out of the entire lyceum attended that class. When I was a junior student I was a member of the Lithuanian scout organization Ptichki. I never joined the scouts for senior students. When I was a senior student, I started seeing boys. I went out with a Lithuanian boy, Eduardas Kudritskas. It even seemed to me that I fell in love with him. At home I even started bringing up the subject of marrying him. Then my parents said that they would marry me off only to a Jew.
Meine Eltern hatten jüdische Freunde, mit denen sie an den Sonntagen oft gemeinsam Ausflüge unternommen haben. Mit einer Familie Deutsch war mein Vater besonders befreundet. Aber sie gingen auch in den Augarten, der befindet sich direkt neben der Karl-Meißl-Straße. Im Augarten war ein Gasthaus, in dem meine Eltern dann mit ihren Freunden saßen. Das Essen wurde mitgenommen und für die Kinder wurde ein Kracherl [Himbeersoda] bestellt.
When I became a student of the Lithuanian girls’ lyceum I was mostly in a female environment. I was the only Jew in my grade. Actually, another Jewish girl joined our grade two years before my graduation. I was friends with Lithuanian girls: Polina Uskaite, Gribaite, Lukasheite. We were friends for ages. My classmates, both Lithuanian and Russian, treated me very well and paid no attention to my nationality. There was only one teacher, Vishinskine, who was an ardent anti-Semite. Even during the classes that had nothing to do with ethnicity she blamed Jews for all kinds of trouble. I was very active and sociable. The girls liked me. My friends and I went for walks in the park. We gave each other hugs. Sometimes we went to cafes to eat ice-cream, watched movies. There were two movie houses in Siauliai at that time. There was the Lithuanian Drama Theater. I liked to watch performances there. I liked everything, connected with the theater and the stage. My dream was to become a ballet-dancer. I loved amateur performances. I danced on the school stage, played the grand piano and accompanied singers on the piano. I felt like fish in the water.
In 1935 Mother received an invitation from my grandmother. She had all necessary documents processed and went to see her in Kharkov. Her brothers, who were serving in the Soviet Army, were Communists. They didn’t know about her visit. When Mother came to Kharkov, Grandmother sent them a telegram saying that she was severely ill and asking them to come. Mother’s brothers saw her in secret. If it was known that they had seen their sister, who was living in a capitalist country, they might have shared the fate of the thousands of those repressed [11] by Stalin. Moreover, they didn’t even talk about their mother.
I remember the ceremony of bar mitzvah, which took place at the age of thirteen. This was an important ceremony for all the Jews in pre-war Thessaloniki. We first went to the synagogue and then relatives and friends came to visit us at home and we were treating them to sweets and ice creams. Guests were visiting us all day and for the first time in their lives the young boys were allowed to wear long trousers. During Easter, and generally during holidays, men were visiting friends and relatives and women used to stay at home. Men used to have their children with them and women were treating kids to this dark egg. And then they took it home to eat it. During holidays the following was a common practice: the men of the family paid visits to the women of the family.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
Ich kenne viele Juden in Wien, die nicht zum Judentum zurückgekehrt sind. Ich bin überzeugt, die Nicht-Gemeindemitglieder würden der jüdischen Gemeinde näher kommen, wenn sie das Gefühl hätten, dass sie gerne aufgenommen werden würden. Es gibt sogar Juden, die ich kenne, die das Gefühl haben, sie werden im Tempel nicht gerne gesehen. Ich glaube, Judentum wird zu sehr verbunden mit der Religion. Es gab in den 1920er, 1930er-Jahren, als der Klerus aktiv reaktionär war, in der Sozialistischen Partei die Bewegung der Freidenker, die sich von der Religion entfernt hatte. Nachdem sehr viele Juden in der Sozialistischen Partei aktiv tätig waren, als Kassiere, als Sektionsmitglieder, sind sie auch in diese Freidenkerbewegung mit einbezogen worden. Es gibt also eine große Tradition von nicht religiösen Juden, die heute alt geworden sind: dazu gehören diese Leute. Dabei bin ich überzeugt, dass 50 Prozent der Juden in Amerika, nicht in die Synagoge gehen. Aber kann man so großzügig sagen, wir brauchen sie nicht? Wer kann sich das erlauben? Marcel Prawy [30] war Jude, aber zu seinem Begräbnis, er bekam ein Ehrengrab der Stadt Wien am 1. Tor des Zentralfriedhofs, kam der Rabbiner nicht, kam auch der Kantor nicht. Das 1. Tor gehört nicht zum jüdischen Friedhof und so ist von der jüdischen Gemeinde niemand gekommen. Prawy wurde vom Kardinal König [31] mit 'Schalom' [hebr. Frieden] begraben. In Ehrengräbern der Stadt Wien gibt es Dutzende Juden, die dank ihrer Verdienste dort liegen, aber von der jüdischen Gemeinde werden sie nicht anerkannt, weil sie nicht am jüdischen Friedhof begraben sind. Das sind Probleme, die existent sind und die tausend Wiener Juden spüren, die nicht von selbst die Initiative ergreifen, der jüdischen Gemeinde beizutreten oder in den Tempel zu gehen.
I insisted that Vladimir should be demobilized from the army. I didn’t want to be an officer’s wife and spend all my life on the road. He was demobilized and found a job. Our marriage remained unregistered for a while. The red-tape Soviet laws demanded either the documents on the divorce with Olkin or his death certificate. I didn’t even have the marriage certificate, issued by the Judenrat, as I buried all the documents when leaving the ghetto. I had to walk from one office of a dignitary to another and finally we were permitted to get our marriage registered. It happened in 1946.
Vladimir and I rented an apartment and moved in there. Once in the evening after work we were passing by my house. Mother was on the threshold and said, ‘Dinner is ready.’ Thus, Mother accepted Vladimir. When Father came back from the trip, Mother told him that I was living with Vladimir. Then Father collected all the presents he had brought me, Mother took linen, table cloth, dishes and they came to see us. Since that time Father and Vladimir became as thick as thieves. My husband never remembered how my parent gave him a hard time at first.
Once in winter 1946 I invited Vladimir for lunch. He brought canned products and firewood. In that period of time it was hard to find supplies. When Father found out that Vladimir made all those presents, he put everything in the garbage can. I told my fiancé the way it was. He reacted calmly to that and invited me to a restaurant. Here he ordered all kinds of delicacies: caviar and ham. Since that time Father started turning out Vladimir, when he came over. Father went on a trip and I decided to have a talk with Mother, woman to woman, and told her about our love. Mother said that I would marry him only ‘over her dead body.’ Then I took my nightie and left home without anything. In spite of the fact that it was my apartment I left everything there, even my food cards, for my mother.
Zu unserer Silbernen Hochzeit im Jahre 1967, flogen meine Frau und ich nach Israel und machten eine Rundreise. Wir besuchten Verwandte, die Familie Lewinter und Jaqui, die Tochter meiner Schwester aus London. Seither waren wir einige Male zu Pessach in Israel. Meine Einstellung zu Israel ist Folgende: Als 1948 die Gründung des Staates Israel von den Vereinten Nationen beschlossen wurde, lebten dort Araber. Herzl [28] schrieb 1902 in seinem utopischen Roman 'Altneuland', wie er sich ein gemeinsames Land von Juden und Arabern vorstelle. In der Zwischenzeit gab es natürlich große Auseinandersetzungen zwischen den beiden Bevölkerungsgruppen, wobei es auf beiden Seiten Falken und Tauben gab. Das größte Entgegenkommen, die größte Geste der Israeli war das Angebot Baraks [29], im Jahr 2000. Er bot an, das Westjordanland zu räumen und eine zwei Staaten Lösung zu finden. Dieses Angebot wurde von Arafat abgelehnt. Das musste Israel als Zeichen der Aggression verstehen. Aber es ist sicherlich so, dass es auf die Dauer eine Zwei- Staaten- Lösung geben muss. Es müssen nur auf beiden Seiten gleichzeitig die Tauben das Sagen haben. Israel wird auf der Fortsetzung des jetzigen Weges in große Schwierigkeiten kommen. Es wird wirtschaftlich nicht existieren können und auch viele Sympathien verlieren. Wie weit sich jetzt die Schutzherrschaft der Amerikaner positiv auswirken wird, kann ich nicht sagen. Aber der jetzige Weg schadet Israel mehr, als er den Palästinensern schadet, weil die israelische Substanz stärker ist und viel verlieren kann. Es wurde aus meiner Sicht ein positiver Schritt getan, indem sich die Arbeiterpartei aus der Koalition losgelöst hat. Solange sie in der Koalition war, war jede Kritik antiisraelisch. Heute kann man eine Kritik äußern, die dem Standpunkt der Arbeiterpartei entspricht, und das ist nicht antiisraelisch. Das ist ein wesentlicher Fortschritt, der auf israelischer Seite gemacht wurde.
There was a Soviet military unit not far from our house. My brother met three officers and invited them to come over to us. One of them, Colonel Vladimir Lukinskiy, a tall handsome man started courting me. I didn’t mind his courtship as I liked Vladimir very much. It wasn’t that I forgot about my husband whom I loved, just being young… Vladimir Lukinskiy was much younger than me. He was Russian, born in Leningrad in 1924. Vladimir came from a rich family. His mother Katerina was from a noble family. She raised her son in a wonderful way. Vladimir was well-read, educated, loved opera and classical music. I found him very interesting. While we were mere friends, my parents treated him very well. Gradually our relationship changed. We fell in love with each other and Vladimir proposed to me. All of a sudden Father opposed to that. He was flatly against my marriage to a non-Jew. He remembered Eduardas and was sorry for not letting me marry him, and again I was dating a non-Jew.
Soon after my parents arrived I went to my hometown, Siauliai, in order to get some documents in the archive as I didn’t have a birth certificate and school certificate. The first person I saw when getting off the bus was Eduardas Kudritskas – my friend from childhood and my calf love. He was happy to see me alive. We had a long talk. Eduardas saw me off and came to Vilnius a couple of times hoping that I would be with him. But it turned out to be quite different.
Unsere Kinder kamen aufs Gymnasium in die Stubenbastei [1. Bezirk]. Auf dieses Gymnasium gingen viele Nazi-und Emigrantenkinder. Liesl studierte dann Slawistik und Osteuropakunde und Hazel Kulturwissenschaften und in Tübingen Sozialwissenschaften. Liesl lebte in England und Dänemark und hat eine Universitätsprofessur in Kopenhagen. 1988 erschien im Böhlau Verlag ihr Buch über das Leben meiner Mutter: 'Man hat nicht gebraucht keine Reisegesellschaft...' Sie hat drei Söhne: Michael, Jan und Tomas. Mein ältester Enkel Michael ist österreichischer Diplomat an der Botschaft in Mexiko und bewusst der jüdischen Gemeinde beigetreten. Seine Frau ist antireligiös, sie feiern aber Chanukka. Wenn von der FPÖ offizielle Repräsentanten nach Mexiko kommen, dann stellt sie die Menora [26] auf. Sie, eine dunkelhäutige Brasilianerin, ist sehr dafür, dass mein Enkel sich offiziell zum Judentum bekennt. Jan ist Diplomingenieur für Informatik und arbeitet in einer großen internationalen Konsulentenfirma. Tomas studierte an der Wirtschaftsuniversität und besitzt eine eigene Firma.
Hazel lebte in den USA, in Kanada und in Deutschland, wo sie auch promovierte. Sie lebt in Berlin und ist leitende Redakteurin der Zeitschrift 'Gegenworte', einer Zeitschrift für den Disput über Wissen an der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Sie ist auch wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Soziologie der Freien Universität Berlin. Hazel hat Bücher geschrieben und Bücher herausgegeben. Sie hat einen Sohn Luis. Luis wurde beschnitten und seine Bar Mitzwa wurde festlich begangen. Das heißt nicht, dass er jetzt jüdisch aktiv ist, aber das Tor zum Judentum wurde ihm geöffnet. Ob er durchgehen wird oder nicht, kann er in den nächsten fünfzig Jahren selber entscheiden.
Meine Frau holte nach dem Krieg in Wien die Matura nach und studierte Germanistik. Sie unterbrach das Studium, arbeitete, kümmerte sich um die Familie und promovierte 1971 mit einer Dissertation über Josephinismus [27].
Hazel lebte in den USA, in Kanada und in Deutschland, wo sie auch promovierte. Sie lebt in Berlin und ist leitende Redakteurin der Zeitschrift 'Gegenworte', einer Zeitschrift für den Disput über Wissen an der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Sie ist auch wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Soziologie der Freien Universität Berlin. Hazel hat Bücher geschrieben und Bücher herausgegeben. Sie hat einen Sohn Luis. Luis wurde beschnitten und seine Bar Mitzwa wurde festlich begangen. Das heißt nicht, dass er jetzt jüdisch aktiv ist, aber das Tor zum Judentum wurde ihm geöffnet. Ob er durchgehen wird oder nicht, kann er in den nächsten fünfzig Jahren selber entscheiden.
Meine Frau holte nach dem Krieg in Wien die Matura nach und studierte Germanistik. Sie unterbrach das Studium, arbeitete, kümmerte sich um die Familie und promovierte 1971 mit einer Dissertation über Josephinismus [27].
,
After WW2
See text in interview
When my son was born he was circumcised by the rabbi at home. Afterwards a celebration took place. When he was thirteen he had his bar mitzvah at the synagogue and then we went home where we had invited all our relatives and friends to celebrate.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
I kept friendly relations with Abbess Prontishke at first, after the war. The convent was threatened with closure due to the politics of the Soviet regime, in accordance with the struggle against religion [20]. As per request of the abbess I arranged for her an appointment with the plenipotentiary of the Council of Ministers for Religion. She came to Vilnius, stopped by at our place and met with that person. He treated the abbess with respect, but nothing could be changed. Soon the convent was broken up and closed down. The abbess left for her motherland and I never saw her again. I also saw Kutorgene. She worked as a doctor for a couple of years in Kaunas. She died in the mid-1950s.
I started looking for a job. My sister-in-law’s cousin Hana was a famous underground member and partisan, a member of the Communist Party. She recommended me to the secret department at the Council of Ministers of the Lithuanian SSR. The job was very serious. We received top-secret letters and orders and distributed them to different ministries and authorities. I wanted to go on with my education, at Vilnius University, but I didn’t manage to study as I was very busy at work. Being employed at a governmental institution I got good product cards – the best products available, even delicacies – while by common food cards [19] only insufficient products were given. In the postwar period life was hard and people starved. Soon I was given an apartment – a wonderful two-room apartment in the heart of Vilnius. I moved there with my brother and his wife. I sent an invitation to my parents as they wouldn’t have been able to return to Vilnius without that document. Soon they came and moved into my apartment. Shortly after that, Father found a job in the office of subsistence production.
My brother Abram had married his friend from Vilnius during the war and now he was living there. My brother’s wife was the daughter of the most famous tailor in Vilnius. My brother was seeing her before the war, but it happened so that they met again and got married in evacuation. My brother was drafted into the army and served in the 16th Lithuanian division [18]. Since he was an excellent accordion player, he joined the military orchestra right away. Right after the liberation of Vilnius a Lithuanian band was founded, where my brother played the grand piano. His wife was a singer and she worked with him. I went to see my brother in Vilnius. At that time they lived on the premises of the philharmonic society. At first, I stayed with them. We slept on the floor.
I remember the customs we kept before the war. For example, before New Year's Eve [Rosh Hashanah] we had to practice 'kapara,' meaning sacrificing. We used to bring cocks home, which were kept on the balcony of the kitchen. We waited until the night of Protohronia and then the hahamis came. He used to sit on a chair and my father put a ribbon on his head, called 'kapara' and he slaughtered the animals. Afterwards we had to offer them to a poor family. It was forbidden to eat the sacrifice. And I remember we knew some poor families and they used to visit us every Rosh Hashanah to get the slaughtered animals. You know Jewish families before the war were so extended and we had so many relatives that during feasts we ate at home. We used to have friends within our family but we also had friendships with our neighbors. Anyway until the war we were all together.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
My parents and brother were in evacuation in Ural, in the settlement of Kosa, Komi-Permyak oblast [1500 km from Moscow]. In 1944 they came to Kharkov, where after the evacuation Grandmother Anna was living. I sent a letter to their Kharkov address – in Russian but with Lithuanian letters as I didn’t know the Russian alphabet. Having received my letter, Father was crying and laughing at the same time, walking to and fro in the room. He called Mother from work. She was working in a pharmacy. My parents wrote me a letter, to the address of the municipal council. There was no place for me to live in Kaunas and I stayed with my acquaintances. I found out that all of them were alive and healthy.
Unsere Kinder kamen aufs Gymnasium in die Stubenbastei [1. Bezirk]. Auf dieses Gymnasium gingen viele Nazi-und Emigrantenkinder.
I decided to look for my kin. Those, who were seeking their relatives, sent letters to the municipal council of Kaunas. There I found a letter written by my father. He was hoping to find his brothers and thought that they would know something about me. My loved ones had no idea that I happened to be in Kaunas at the beginning of the war. They were looking for me in Siauliai and Vilnius, sending inquiries there. My name was Olkina at that time, but they were looking for a Liza Abramson.
During the liquidation of the ghetto all my relatives perished: my father’s siblings. The members of the underground organization told me that my husband, Ilia Olkin, perished in spring 1944. He died by accident. A partisan squad, where he served, was dislocated to a Belarusian village. At night, on the way back from the task, my husband said the password. The sentinel shot Ilia either because he didn’t hear the password, or because it had been changed. He was severely wounded and passed away by the morning… My premonition was true. I became a widow without a chance of knowing the happiness of married life in peaceful times. My mood was terrible and I thought that I wouldn’t get married again and keep the last name of Olkin.
Before the war every family was celebrating the high holidays at home. I remember for Pessach we used to buy matzah from the Community. It was in big pieces and we used to put it in chests. There was also a big bakery owned by the Community on Vassileos Irakleiou Street. This bakery used to bake matzah for the Easter period. During Pessach you wouldn't find a single piece of leavened bread in our houses. Of course all that happened before the war. I remember when the Germans entered Greece we stopped eating matzah and we kept it because we were afraid that we would not be able to get any more. From the time the Germans came I believe we stopped keeping the traditions. We keep nothing now...
,
Before WW2
See text in interview