Selected text
High school, however, lasted for eight years.
I started high school in 1942, but of course Jews weren’t accepted to state high schools, so I went to the Jewish high school: it had an industrial profile, but it was just the name, nothing more. We only had to have a workshop, where we had to file different pieces of metal. The first assignment was to file a piece of metal in a perfect, 90-degree rectangle. I remember one teacher, Engler, who wasn’t in good relations with my father, I don’t know why. But fact is that he gave me the most terrible piece of metal to file into a rectangle. We had like ten such assignments that year, but I finished the year still filing on that lousy piece of metal. I passed the grade, at great pains, but I did. Engler was full of hot air, he didn’t realize that what he was teaching wasn’t very important. The other teachers were Jews from Brasov as well as Engler, but they were cultivated people.
I started high school in 1942, but of course Jews weren’t accepted to state high schools, so I went to the Jewish high school: it had an industrial profile, but it was just the name, nothing more. We only had to have a workshop, where we had to file different pieces of metal. The first assignment was to file a piece of metal in a perfect, 90-degree rectangle. I remember one teacher, Engler, who wasn’t in good relations with my father, I don’t know why. But fact is that he gave me the most terrible piece of metal to file into a rectangle. We had like ten such assignments that year, but I finished the year still filing on that lousy piece of metal. I passed the grade, at great pains, but I did. Engler was full of hot air, he didn’t realize that what he was teaching wasn’t very important. The other teachers were Jews from Brasov as well as Engler, but they were cultivated people.
Period
Location
Brasov
Romania
Interview
Stefan Guth