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In my free time I went to the cinema, or to dancing lessons. Right next to here [corner of Zachodnia and Zawadzka Streets] was Dembinski’s dance hall. That’s where everyone went to party. I went there as well, from time to time, with my friends. One Jew played his favorite songs there, sometimes quite funny, like that [Mr. Bromberg sang parts of the song]: ‘Szloches gajt szojn ahaim…’. Szloches means slovens in Polish, because it was mostly servants who came there. ‘Dos Gefes sztajt doch noch fon Szabes, zejn azejger macht men szojn cyj di tojeren…, [‘Slovens, go home now. The dishes have been in the sink since Sabbath. The gates close at 10pm’]. When he played his trumpet and sang this, we knew this melody, we knew it was time to get dressed and walk the girls home. Because those were different times. You wouldn’t hold a woman by the neck, but you’d be elegant, super. And you’d always walk her from the dance floor to the place where she was sitting; there were dances where you switched partners. Such youthful life.
Period
Interview
Jakub Bromberg