Tag #140172 - Interview #77972 (max shykler)

Teaching at the Romanian grammar school was in Romanian. I studied there 4 years, from the 5th to the 8th grade. The majority of students at this grammar school was Jewish. The attitude towards Jews was very good. There was no national segregation in those years. However, there was anti- Semitism at higher educational institutions. Officially Jews were admitted to these institutions, but all Romanian students were members of the fascist and anti-Semitic organization, the Iron Guard [3]. They persecuted their Jewish co-students. Therefore, Jews couldn't study at higher educational institutions in the late 1930s. Better off families could send their children to study in Vienna or Prague. But gradually fascists came to power in those cities, and Jews couldn't hardly get a higher education from the late 1930s. But everyday life was all right until the Romanians came to power in 1941. There were individual demonstrations of anti-Semitism: A student was murdered in Chernovtsy once and some Jews were beaten, but these were rare demonstrations of anti-Semitism.

I had many Ukrainian, Romanian and German friends at grammar school. However, in 1935 the Germans stopped socializing with us, even the ones who had been good friends before. They stopped greeting us, and so on. Romanians behaved in a normal way until the beginning of the war. The Germans lived in Rosha, in the outskirts of Chernovtsy. After 1935 Jews didn't go to Rosha in the evening because they were afraid to be abused.

During my studies at grammar school I joined a Jewish youth organization, the Betar [4]. It was a right-wing Zionist organization. There was strong Zionist propaganda at that period. They said Jews had to live in Palestine, sing Jewish songs and have military training.