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I did not know Grandfather Chaim Mendle. He died in 1909, when my father was only two years old. Grandmother became a widow with five children. Probably she never got married again because of the children. Who would like to marry a widow with such a caboodle of children? Grandmother managed to raise the children by herself. She was a common, uneducated woman. While Grandmother was alive, she was a housewife. After her husband’s death, my grandmother found a job, started rolling cigarettes. Of course, she could not make a lot of money with such work, but still she managed to raise her children.
I do not think any of them finished secondary school. At that time education was expensive. All of them just went to a Jewish school. My father finished seven grades of a Jewish school, maybe even less. He read a lot, was interested in many things. He looked like a mundane, educated man. The family was very poor. When father was 17, he had an ulcer from malnutrition. He had a perforated ulcer and underwent a complex operation.
I do not think any of them finished secondary school. At that time education was expensive. All of them just went to a Jewish school. My father finished seven grades of a Jewish school, maybe even less. He read a lot, was interested in many things. He looked like a mundane, educated man. The family was very poor. When father was 17, he had an ulcer from malnutrition. He had a perforated ulcer and underwent a complex operation.
Location
Narva
Estonia
Interview
Etta Ferdmann