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I attended the gymnasium ‘Kralj Aleksandar’ and we too wore black bands on our arms, but then we changed our minds. But we had our school sign ‘A1’ on our hats with the crown of king Aleksandar on it, and we took transparent black tulle and so wrapped that badge.
While I was in gymnasium I had a very bad teacher, his name was Bozidar Prvanovic, and he taught Serbian language. Before I completed the final exam this guy had tormented me. In the 4th grade of gymnasium, for Christmas break he dictated a list of school readings to us that needed to be read. After I had arrived home and told that to my father and my mother, mother grabbed my hands and took me to ‘Matica Srpska’ [a Serbian cultural institution that is engaged in scientific and publishing activities], there we were helped by, I think his name was Cosic, to find all the books. Everything that was expected I have read. I have done nothing else during that break but read.
At my father it was a must that everything I read or write in the school, I had to copy into hard bound notebooks and it was like a Holy Letter. So after I had read all the books from my school readings, I had them written all on the paper. At the first class after the break came that Prvanovic and immediately asked me if I had read anything during the break. Immediately I started reading all the names from the list; of course he didn’t believe me that I read it all. He asked me to read the report. What ever he wanted, I had the report written in my notebook. He gave me mark 3 and didn’t want to give me a better mark although I knew everything he asked. I think he was anti-Semite but I’m not sure how he was behaving with other Jewish kids. He taught me German too. I spoke German fluently, but even here I always had mark 3 very rarely 4. He wasn’t like that with the other students. I remember when we would go on a picnic he would ask me to contribute more money for the picnic and he would say ‘You Schosbergers are rich’. Except this teacher I had nobody else problems with.
All the middle school-kids were joined members of the school organization. And we participated in all school rallies. The rallies took place at today’s stadium, then, it was ‘Karadjordje’ athletic field. It was the property of ‘Vojvodina’ and ‘Juda Makabi’ sports clubs. Here falcon parades took place with falcon music [Falcon was Yugoslavian national sporting organization]. We would march through the town, we had stylish uniforms with red shirts, school hats with a feather, and the younger ones wore short pants, red shirts, sajkaca [type of Yugoslav soldier’s cap] with red lining while the little ones had the same uniforms but instead of sajkaca they wore round caps with black and red in the middle. After that we did some group exercises, floor exercises and then that with rings and with batons mainly exercised girls and younger boys.
While I was in gymnasium I had a very bad teacher, his name was Bozidar Prvanovic, and he taught Serbian language. Before I completed the final exam this guy had tormented me. In the 4th grade of gymnasium, for Christmas break he dictated a list of school readings to us that needed to be read. After I had arrived home and told that to my father and my mother, mother grabbed my hands and took me to ‘Matica Srpska’ [a Serbian cultural institution that is engaged in scientific and publishing activities], there we were helped by, I think his name was Cosic, to find all the books. Everything that was expected I have read. I have done nothing else during that break but read.
At my father it was a must that everything I read or write in the school, I had to copy into hard bound notebooks and it was like a Holy Letter. So after I had read all the books from my school readings, I had them written all on the paper. At the first class after the break came that Prvanovic and immediately asked me if I had read anything during the break. Immediately I started reading all the names from the list; of course he didn’t believe me that I read it all. He asked me to read the report. What ever he wanted, I had the report written in my notebook. He gave me mark 3 and didn’t want to give me a better mark although I knew everything he asked. I think he was anti-Semite but I’m not sure how he was behaving with other Jewish kids. He taught me German too. I spoke German fluently, but even here I always had mark 3 very rarely 4. He wasn’t like that with the other students. I remember when we would go on a picnic he would ask me to contribute more money for the picnic and he would say ‘You Schosbergers are rich’. Except this teacher I had nobody else problems with.
All the middle school-kids were joined members of the school organization. And we participated in all school rallies. The rallies took place at today’s stadium, then, it was ‘Karadjordje’ athletic field. It was the property of ‘Vojvodina’ and ‘Juda Makabi’ sports clubs. Here falcon parades took place with falcon music [Falcon was Yugoslavian national sporting organization]. We would march through the town, we had stylish uniforms with red shirts, school hats with a feather, and the younger ones wore short pants, red shirts, sajkaca [type of Yugoslav soldier’s cap] with red lining while the little ones had the same uniforms but instead of sajkaca they wore round caps with black and red in the middle. After that we did some group exercises, floor exercises and then that with rings and with batons mainly exercised girls and younger boys.
Location
Serbia
Interview
Pavle Sosberger