Tag #138794 - Interview #99363 (Judita Schvalbova)

The Donaths promoted more of a Neolog [3] tendency, we didn’t concern ourselves with religion very much. From the pre-war period I remember only one seder led by my father. And even that I don’t remember in detail, just this one little thing has remained in my memory. There’s a seder custom that the door is opened and one waits for the prophet Eliahu [Elijah]. At that time we did it, according to tradition, and suddenly our dog came in. For me, as a child, that was very amusing, so that’s why it’s stuck in my memory. And I also remember, that I said the mah nishtanah. My grandparents went to the synagogue on only the major holidays. I was an eight-year-old child when in 1944 they went to Sered [4] and from there to a concentration camp. I don’t remember them very much.

I have no way of knowing if my grandfather was a member of a political party or what political opinions he had, because during the war we didn’t concern ourselves with politics. We concerned ourselves with saving our lives. Unfortunately, this effort didn’t work out for the larger part of our family.