Tag #115799 - Interview #100553 (Boris Shteinas)

Tannery business was also highly developed in Siauliai. Frenkel tannery and footwear factories, Murek and Krazinskiy tanneries were famous in entire Europe. There were other plants, e.g. – nail making plant, ,which was also owned by a Jew, Zif soap factory, well-known in Baltic countries, flaxen processing plant. Jews also owned posh stores, photograph salons, cafes. There was Milstein café in the heart of the town. We went there for deserts on holidays. There was also my favorite ice-cream café owned by Komash. Levin photo studio was the best in town. The owners of large textile, haberdashery, jewelry stores were also Jews. They were really very wealthy. There were less large stores in the vicinity of the market. There were mostly small shops, owned by less rich Jews. Some of them sold flour, bread, others manufactured goods. There were also kosher meat stores. All kinds of craftsmen had their shops there: cobblers, tailors, sleuths, joiners, barbers, glazers, working hard for their bread and butter. There was also Jewish intelligentsia in town. Here lived veneorologist Semion Bolner, who was renounced all over Lithuania. There were other highly skilled doctors- Epshtein, Borukhovich, Bleiner. There was even a Jewish hospital in town. To be more exact- the corps of municipal hospital pertained to Jewish health care organization .