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I used to get up at 5 or 6 a.m. everyday and leave for school. After the schoolday I went to the store with Father. I was a 13-year-old, well-built, strong boy. Everyday I carried a sack or two of flour, sugar, whatever had come from the wholesaler. Afterwards I usually spent my time playing outside. The whole market square was our backyard. Running was the most common game. The whole gang ran barefoot. Well, we did sometimes play soccer, but it wasn’t that often. We rode bikes a bit. Uncle Fajbisz used to lend me his bike to take a ride. What’s more, the Dniester was less than a mile away from the town. It was a hilly area. You could play hide-and-seek. But there was no such tradition that [children] get together and play soccer like today, there was no such fashion I’d say. Well, later there were those organizations – Zionist, non-Zionist. But I’m not really familiar with them. There were evenings for the youngest children, and for those a bit older as well. Singing, dancing, right. By dancing I don’t mean, you know, a dance band. Horas. It was called a Hora. [People] formed a circle and danced to the rhythm of their own singing. Oh, and there was also something like scouting, right. Jewish scouts. They were all very young kids. They marched, marked trails, right. That’s what they did mostly. As for Zionist organizations I remember Kordonia [Gordonia] [3]. The boys from Gordonia were older, at draft age – 18-year-olds, 17-year-olds, right. Later there was Trumpeldor [Brit Trumpledor] [4]. Zionist as well. And Ashomer Hatzair [Hashomer Hatzair] [5]. And Hanoar Hatzioni [6], also a Zionist one. But the division has never been clear to me. I don’t know what made the young people opt for any particular group.
I usually played with Jewish boys. Because as far as friendships go, they were rather uniform [homogenous], right. The ethnic groups kept to themselves on the schoolyard. It wouldn’t be welcome by the Polish parents and the whole society to have a close Jewish friend, right. Or worse still, a girl to have a Jewish boy for a friend. Not really. Well, there were no such cases. The groups did meet, yes – on civil defence lessons, on marches. Why was it that way? Firstly, there was no need [to change anything]. Secondly, I had so little free time my Jewish friends were enough for me. And the Jewish organizations existed. The meetings in those Jewish organizations were held quite often. I was a member of Jabotynski’s [7] Trumpeldor. [I was around] 10 at the time. I think Trumpeldor is a name. It had something to do with organization’s origins. But I’m not able to give any details. Jabotynski was a Zionist, his views were rather radical. As members of the organization, we walked through the forest, right. We took different trails, left marks, and the others were to follow us. But there was also Sokol Polski [Polish Gymnastic Society Polish Falcon, association established in 1893] and Polish scouts. Jews had their own organizations and the Ukrainians as well. They marched with those wooden rifles. Besides, the two or three Poles in our class were from a different sphere. They had their money, their activities. And the Ukrainians were unkempt, always barefoot, dirty. Poverty, poverty. So everyone stuck to their group.
I usually played with Jewish boys. Because as far as friendships go, they were rather uniform [homogenous], right. The ethnic groups kept to themselves on the schoolyard. It wouldn’t be welcome by the Polish parents and the whole society to have a close Jewish friend, right. Or worse still, a girl to have a Jewish boy for a friend. Not really. Well, there were no such cases. The groups did meet, yes – on civil defence lessons, on marches. Why was it that way? Firstly, there was no need [to change anything]. Secondly, I had so little free time my Jewish friends were enough for me. And the Jewish organizations existed. The meetings in those Jewish organizations were held quite often. I was a member of Jabotynski’s [7] Trumpeldor. [I was around] 10 at the time. I think Trumpeldor is a name. It had something to do with organization’s origins. But I’m not able to give any details. Jabotynski was a Zionist, his views were rather radical. As members of the organization, we walked through the forest, right. We took different trails, left marks, and the others were to follow us. But there was also Sokol Polski [Polish Gymnastic Society Polish Falcon, association established in 1893] and Polish scouts. Jews had their own organizations and the Ukrainians as well. They marched with those wooden rifles. Besides, the two or three Poles in our class were from a different sphere. They had their money, their activities. And the Ukrainians were unkempt, always barefoot, dirty. Poverty, poverty. So everyone stuck to their group.
Period
Location
Poland
Interview
Samuel König