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I suspect Mama’s family was averagely religious. Mama observed the Sabbath and lit the candles regularly. Our house was kosher, but towards the end [in the late 1930s] my parents definitely kept kosher but we [children] didn’t: we mixed milk and meat.
We didn’t make a show of eating ham, but in town or at school I ate ham sandwiches. I was non-religious, as they say, from 12 or 13, I think. I broke with religion very early on. I stopped going to the prayer house with Father.
I wasn’t made to go. I didn’t have a bar mitzvah. Perhaps the influence of Switzerland was very strong. That could have been the difference. All that together created this atmosphere – it wasn’t assimilation, but there was a tendency that way, probably.
We didn’t make a show of eating ham, but in town or at school I ate ham sandwiches. I was non-religious, as they say, from 12 or 13, I think. I broke with religion very early on. I stopped going to the prayer house with Father.
I wasn’t made to go. I didn’t have a bar mitzvah. Perhaps the influence of Switzerland was very strong. That could have been the difference. All that together created this atmosphere – it wasn’t assimilation, but there was a tendency that way, probably.
Period
Interview
Julian Gringras