What's more, my parents had lots of friends and they helped us a lot. I can tell you one interesting story. Before the war, my father designed the Salesian House in the Kobylisy neighborhood. There was a Dr. Trochta [11] there, which is a well-known name. I think later he was the bishop in Litomerice. And he was a great friend of my father's. At that time we were already living in Vinohrady, and he would regularly, about once every fourteen days, come by with cigarettes and chocolate. And I remember that once he came by and told my father that their bell tower in the street Na Prikopech - I think that the Church of the Holy Spirit is there - was falling down, and whether my father wouldn't come have a look and figure out what needs to be done with it. And my father said: 'Are you crazy, how can I go into a church wearing a star?' Well, in the end they covered the star up somehow or removed it, and I know that at nine in the evening, even though we were supposed to be home by eight, they went to go have a look at that bell tower and Mr. Trochta then brought him home again without any problems. All the while my mother and I were sitting at home, stiff with fear.
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Displaying 4801 - 4830 of 50826 results
milena prochazkova
I was used to a very social life, for one in our family and for another also in that building on Veletrzni Street. But as far as the star goes, I remember how stupid I was. I had this feeling that I had to say hello to everyone I met that was wearing a star. Even if we didn't know each other at all. So everyone looked at me incredulously, and my mother would tell me to stop being silly, that it doesn't mean that we're relatives. I was around 10 years old at the time.
And I'll tell you one more thing, for which I admired them during that wartime period of those horrors. My mother and Mrs. Geshmayova had an agreement, that each one of them would be a servant for one week and the other would be the lady of the house, and that after a week they'd trade places. So the way it worked was then one would go do the shopping and cook, I helped clean a bit, and the other had polished nails. After a week she'd remove the nail polish and wash dishes and do the shopping, and the other was the lady. And they had a hoot with this. Sometimes it went so far that they'd say: 'Listen, am I the servant today, or the lady?
Originally we lived on Letna, but around the year 1941 the Germans moved everyone out of the Letna neighborhood, because Germans came to live there. My grandma and grandpa [Stern] went to live with Grandma Otylie Kosinerova in the Svihanka neighborhood, and we moved to Vinohrady, where we lived for about a year and a half with some other families. The apartment belonged to the Geshmays, who were a lot younger then my parents and had no children. I have very fond memories of our stay with them. I think that back then at the Jewish community they offered three names, they went to visit the families, took a liking to them and said: 'Here we'll stay.' And truly in the end this beautiful lifelong friendship was born.
Singing certainly didn't belong among my favorite subjects, I had problems with it. I always liked history, but in that elementary school it wasn't separated like that, and I actually only attended up until 4th grade. Then I had to stop going to school [8].
In the end I did go into 1st grade, and had a very kind man for a teacher. But I have to admit that as far as being fired up over school and over spiritual enrichment, that wasn't the case with me at all.
The operation lowered my blood pressure and I could then, thank God, start a normal job, and even leave that partial disability pension.
Very early on, in 1928, she then married my father. They were married at the Old Town Hall in Prague. They met through my mother's sister Marie. Her future husband, Frantisek Faktor, who was my father's classmate from university, used to go to Kamberk to see her. And one time Frantisek says to my father: 'They've got this nice looking younger girl, come there with me.' And that's all it took. They went out for about three years, my mother was 19 when she was married. So it wouldn't even have been possible sooner than that. My father was nine years older.
She attended elementary school in Kamberk and then for three years traveled to Tabor for family school.
During World War I my father was in the army as a gunner. From 1917 to 1918, so he was 17 when he joined up. I don't know what front he was at. The only thing he talked about was how horribly he hated it.
My father was named Ervin Kosiner. He was born on 16th June 1900 in Bukoly, near Kralupy, and then attended Czech Technical University in Prague [CTU]. He studied civil engineering and worked all his life as a structural engineer - he designed large chemical plants.
As far as religion goes, my grandfather on my mother's side regularly attended synagogue. At least once a month. But mainly he always observed the New Year [Rosh Hashanah] and the Long Day [Yom Kippur]. He was brought up that way at home, likely by his father, because his mother didn't observe anything.
And so as not to do an injustice to local schools, for example my granddaughter here attended a German high school from the age of 14, which was led excellently by only German teachers. They learned a lot there. And when they had history - they had all subjects in German - they had only Czech and math or Czech and history in Czech, their history teacher began talking about it, and she spoke up, that her grandma had gone through it. I then, at his request, went there to tell them something about it.
When we first told them that they're Jews, they had no idea what it was. They had no clue as to what they're supposed to imagine by that.
During Communist times no one talked about Jews here at all. Neither did my children find out in school what had happened during the war, nothing at all. And in our home after the war, it was almost never talked about, and then when I had small children, the war wasn't talked about at all. For years my children didn't know what we had gone through. They didn't find it out until they were a little older, around nine, ten years old.
But we, who have Jewish roots as such, we'll be stuck in it up to our ears.
I myself have many times pondered about how it is with Judaism and me. But it's never particularly attracted me. Maybe that's a mistake, maybe I missed out on something, but those are simply the facts and I can't do anything about it. Our family, perhaps with the exception of my father's brother, didn't live according to Jewish rituals. Basically I've come to the conclusion that it's caused by upbringing.
I was born as a Czech girl in Prague and I'll die as a Czech girl in Prague.
I also remember that when on that 14th May 1948 the state of Israel was proclaimed [27], my father said: 'That's the most horrible and catastrophic thing that could have happened.' He was a very smart and educated guy, and said: 'It's is a catastrophe, it's going to end very badly.' And see, unfortunately his prediction came true.
But I do concern myself with what's going on in Israel. Very much so. I'll tell you, completely honestly, that when I was reading an article two or three years ago - it had been a hundred years since Herzl [25] had founded Zionism [26] - so they were asking him what he'll do with those Arabs. His answer was: 'It'll get done somehow.' And that was the beginning of the catastrophe. And that's why I can't understand Zionism. I very much condemn it.
I've never been to Israel, none of my relatives or friends emigrated there. And I've never felt the urge to go see it. I'm not very well off as far as my heart goes, and as much as it's possible, I consciously avoid emotions. Something like Yad Vashem [24], that would probably slay me. It's enough for me to hear Brundibar, and I cry.
They threw my father, who had refused to enter the Party, out of university, where he had lectured from the beginning. In light of the fact that neither he, nor my mother, nor I were in the Party, we knew that no financial benefits would apply to us.
As soon as our daughter and her husband remained outside the country, my husband and I were constantly at the STB [18] and they were constantly filling out some papers with us. It wasn't easy, a family full of emigrants, what's more our daughter worked in TV, her husband had a name in the Czech Philharmonic, and actually escaped along with his twin, who played for the FOK. But luckily we didn't have problems at work because of it. Though my husband had his promotions blocked, but he said that it after all doesn't matter, the main thing is for them to be healthy.
My husband and I otherwise also had problems with a place to live. Actually, they threw us out of our apartment. When our older daughter got married, when she finished university, my husband and I remained alone, just the two of us in that big apartment. Well, big, it was about 130 square meters, but for two people that was unimaginably huge. They simply told us that the apartment is too big for us, that we should find a smaller one and gave us two months for the exchange and to move out.
Yakov Honiksman
When I was six or seven my father decided that I should go to the yeshivah. There was a yeshivah in Lublin with Rabbi Mayer Shapiro at its head [1887- 1934]. He was an outstanding scientist. My father sent me there since they provided meals. I did well at this school. However, since my stepbrother Haskel was under the influence of communist ideas, he thought that I needed to have a general education and my mother listened to his opinion. A year or a year and a half later she sent me to a Polish school. I began to live a dual life. At 7am I left for the yeshivah and at 2pm I arranged my payes behind my ears with invisible hairpins and put my yarmulka in my bag to avoid any mockery from my schoolmates and went to the Polish school. Of course, this dual life couldn't last long. Haskel insisted that I left the yeshivah. When I was ten I quit the yeshivah and just attended the Polish school. My parents had no objections to this. They gave me an opportunity to make my own choice.
I liked studying at this school. There were four Jewish pupils in my class. The rest of my classmates were Polish. Polish children openly mistreated us. I was shortsighted and wore glasses. I sat at the first desk in class. I shared my desk with a short Polish boy. His father was a policeman. My family was poor and when my father bought me a notebook it was quite an occasion for me. The boy messed up my notebook and it happened several times until I began to fight with him. Other boys began to shout, 'Why are you fighting here? Go into the yard' in Polish. We went into the yard where we continued fighting. Other Polish boys shouted, 'Mariam, beat this zhyd' [kike]. Other Jewish boys hid away. When I became desperate I grabbed a piece of steel and hit the boy on the head. He fell down bleeding and a teacher called an ambulance for him. The director of the school called me to his office and said, 'I hope I will not see you again at this school.' I was twelve then. What was I to do? My parents thought I should study a profession, but my father couldn't help me to find a craftsman that would teach me. He only spoke Yiddish and there was no way that somebody in a well-standing shop would even talk to him.
I took my school certificate and went out looking for a job. I had excellent marks in my certificate and spoke fluent Polish and a leather craftsman employed me in his shop. This leather craftsman was a Jew. His name was Zygmunt Zygielwarc. My brother Haskel said to me, 'You are a genius and need to continue your studies.' He talked to my master and I was allowed to continue my studies. I went to the first evening school for working people in Lublin to complete my secondary education. I lived at home. This leather craftsman lied to us. He agreed with my father that I would work as an errand boy for a year until he approved my contract and forwarded it to the chamber of crafts and commerce, but I worked for him as an errand boy for four years and he paid me peanuts for my work.
My father had no luck with his jobs. We didn't pay our rent for four or five months and based on a court order, we were evicted. The owner of our dwelling was a wealthy Jew. My father begged him to let us live in this room, but he refused. An officer of the court and a policeman came to throw our belongings into the yard. We lived in the open air in this yard for three months. My mother earned some money by doing laundry for our neighbors. In 1937 my father rented a room from a 70-year-old Jewish man. He leased his room to us under the condition that my mother would look after him and we would pay 15 zloties per month. We hoped that this room would come into our possession if he died. We had a room in a Polish district, in 86, Krul Liatoshynski Street. This house is not there any longer. Poor Polish workers lived in this district.
My brother Haskel was a communist and brought communist books to our home. We enjoyed reading those books. I worked for this leather craftsman for four years until he fired me. I was 16. My master had three or four apprentices. On 1st May I decided to make a speech and told them that they shouldn't work on this holiday, but go to the working people's demonstration. I made a very emotional speech, but other employees laughed at me and weren't interested at all. However, I continued to demonstrate my revolutionary spirit. At last my master lost his temper and said, 'Just get out and I hope I will never see you again - we could all be arrested for this.
At about the same time, in the middle of the 1930s, I gave up going to the synagogue. I had observed all holidays and fasted before and had gone to the synagogue with my father, but then I said, 'Father, I'm not going to the synagogue tomorrow,' and the next day was Yom Kippur. My father asked me why and I told him that I didn't believe in what was written in the religious books. I began to prove that there were many discrepancies in the Torah. My father told me to get out of the house. In a couple of days my mother found me at the home of some acquaintances and took me back home.
,
Before WW2
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