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The courtyard was very long, and at the back it led into a basement with two flights of stairs. There we sheltered from the bombing. I can still hear this Haham pray, as the war and the bombings started.
He prayed and asked God to send a bomb that would destroy us, as we expected very hard times. That is what he said when the war started. Until then there were the Iron Guard, but at least it wasn’t war. I was very angry when I heard this Haham’s prayer.
I said to myself: “It is easy for you to wish for that, you are already fifty, you are old, but I am young, and I still want to live my life.” Now I see that he was right. If we were finished then, we could have escaped the Transnistria, the Pogrom, and everything else. The Haham escaped, nevertheless, and fled to Australia, immediately after the war.
He prayed and asked God to send a bomb that would destroy us, as we expected very hard times. That is what he said when the war started. Until then there were the Iron Guard, but at least it wasn’t war. I was very angry when I heard this Haham’s prayer.
I said to myself: “It is easy for you to wish for that, you are already fifty, you are old, but I am young, and I still want to live my life.” Now I see that he was right. If we were finished then, we could have escaped the Transnistria, the Pogrom, and everything else. The Haham escaped, nevertheless, and fled to Australia, immediately after the war.
Period
Location
Iasi
Romania
Interview
Rosa Kaiserman