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If I had known how it would all work out, I would have left her immediately. She didn’t want to listen to me, she kept repeating that she’d survived the ghetto, camps and that she didn’t want children. She was crazy about this. Constant arguments. And there was a doctor living downstairs in our building. A Jew. His name was, just like my grandmother’s – Golebiewski. He was a gynecologist. He saw patients in his apartment and that’s where he performed abortions. I sometimes saw it from the bedroom window, how women went to see him. I went there too. I met him and I paid him, I don’t remember if that was weekly or monthly, so that my wife wouldn’t miscarry, to keep the pregnancy. She didn’t know about this, I didn’t tell her.
That’s how it was with my wife. She didn’t want to know what the next day would bring. And I said that we should think about the future, that I didn’t know if I’d have a job, if I’d be healthy. No, she only lived for today, because tomorrow the world might collapse. And there were conflicts already. When I wanted to buy her some present, she didn’t need it. ‘So hang yourself today if you don’t need anything. Take some rope and hang yourself.’ I wanted her to have two pairs of shoes, winter shoes and summer shoes, but she didn’t want those either. Nothing. But later, when she started needing things, I’d get headaches from that. She had different advisors. I could fend for myself very well, I made money, I worked in Zalcberg’s textile workshop on 13 Zeromskiego Street. When people went on holiday, I worked. On Sundays, when they went to the park, I was sitting and working. And that was the story. I had different problems with her, I avoid talking about it, because it still hurts.
That’s how it was with my wife. She didn’t want to know what the next day would bring. And I said that we should think about the future, that I didn’t know if I’d have a job, if I’d be healthy. No, she only lived for today, because tomorrow the world might collapse. And there were conflicts already. When I wanted to buy her some present, she didn’t need it. ‘So hang yourself today if you don’t need anything. Take some rope and hang yourself.’ I wanted her to have two pairs of shoes, winter shoes and summer shoes, but she didn’t want those either. Nothing. But later, when she started needing things, I’d get headaches from that. She had different advisors. I could fend for myself very well, I made money, I worked in Zalcberg’s textile workshop on 13 Zeromskiego Street. When people went on holiday, I worked. On Sundays, when they went to the park, I was sitting and working. And that was the story. I had different problems with her, I avoid talking about it, because it still hurts.
Period
Interview
Jakub Bromberg