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Manya Auster Feldman - August 11, 1998

In the store or—

In the store, yes. And in, in the marketplace, they used to bringall their wares, you know, all kind of mushrooms was a very big commodityor um, the, the seeds that oil was done from it and other items that he usedto buy and send deep into Poland. So—because from the grocery alone wecould not make a living.

So, so he was an entrepreneur?

Yeah, in a way, in a very small way, he was an entrepreneur,yeah.

And your mother, what was she like?

Oh, my mother. My mother had a very, very hard—they allhad—they—both of them had a hard life. Can you imagine having toget up four o'clock in the morning and getting ready and oh, cooking dinnerand preparing everything and preparing the children to go to school. She hada very tough life. And then she—right after the kids went off to school,she went to the business. She went to the store. And when I got older, I wasabout eight, I already worked in the store. We all helped out. We all chippedin. My father, by the way, was an invalid from the First World War. He losthis four fingers from his right hand so he only had one thumb. He couldn'tdo any physical work.

So he. . .

I mean, he did, very, very hard.

He fought in the Hapsburg Army?

He fought in, in the Russian Army, in the Czarist Army, whenthe war was going on between Austria and and Russia.

So he was in the Russian Army.

He was in the Russian Army, yes.

Um, what was she like?

My mother?

Yeah. Tell me what she was like.

My mother was a typical Jewish mother, you know, very much—verymuch uh, uh, uh, concerned about the family. She was a very smart lady. Butthey were—both of them were not educated. They were only educated Jewishly.But they are most—their biggest concern was to educate—the childrenshould get an education. Even though we had some—a lot of chores to doin the house, but they demanded we should come up with very good, high gradesin school. And uh, um, she was uh, in Hebrew there's a very smart expression,an, a um, Ezer Kenegdo she was a helper for my—to my father. She wasnot a housewife. She was actually half of the business. She does—shedid the business and she did household goods—household work.

And what kind of a relationship did you have with her?

Oh, we had a very loving relationship. As, as a matter of fact,when, when it came to the end, she cried. I'll never forget that. She saidthat she worked so hard all her life, she raised a, a, a family of five childrenand now, when she can really reap the harvest, so to speak and and reallyhave it easier, because the children are older, so she says, "See, they'rekilling us." My mother was a very brave person. She was a hard worker, always,always doing something. On Friday night, she used to say, "Oh, thank God forFriday night, I'm able to relax." Because she used to work from four o'clockin the morning until about ten o'clock in the evening. You know, we did allour things—she never sat—I never remember my mother sitting idlenot doing anything. We had our own geese, so we used to—when we usedto slaughter the geese for, you know, to have the meat, we used the feathersto—for our own good, you know, to make pillows. Then we, we brought driedmushrooms and we used to put them on a string. Oh, she used to sit and mendthe children's socks. Always doing something, always doing something. Veryhard worker. And she died—by the way, she was killed when she was forty-twoyears old. That's how old, how—and—but she—when I, I—theway I remember her, she looked old. She used to go from the store—ourstore was quite a ways from the house. And I used to say, "Mom, why don'tyou hurry up?" She said to me, "Wait, when you'll be my age, you'll see thatit's not easy to work."

And your father, what was—

My father was—I mean, he suffered a lot. He—you know,he was an invalid. And he, he had lost an awful lot of blood. The reason—actually,one finger was shot off, but by the time they brought him into the hospital,he had an infection, so they had to cut off his four fingers. Can you imaginegetting married and having a family and not being able—he was a um, carpenterbefore the—before he went into the army. But he couldn't work as a carpenter,so he had to get into business, go into business.

And you and you said the whole family helped in the business?

The whole family helped. My, my two little sisters, were veryyoung yet when they were killed, were about eleven and thirteen.. But my fatherwas about the same age as my mother.