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Manya Auster Feldman - August 11, 1998

So what happened to the Shabbos, for example?

Oh, you know, when they—and we were just talking about it.At the time when they occupied uh, our part of uh, Poland they, they didn'thave a seven-day week. They had a—like a five-day week and the sixthday was their vykhodnoi, which means their day of rest. So when they camein, it was very hard to—the transition was horrible. They did not allowus—they did it because to begin with even in Russia, that—to thatminorities wouldn't be able to have—to have their religious day. Youunderstand? The, the, the Shabbat was Jewish and the Sunday was for the gentiles.So they, they completely abolished this, this sort of day off. But they madethe sixth day—was the sixth day—the day off, the day off. The sixthday.

The sixth day?

Started Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday uh, uh, Thursday.Friday was the day off. And then you count again. You understand?

So you had to work on Saturday?

Yeah. We had to work.

And how did your family feel about that?

It was very, it was very hard. They, they couldn't accept it.You couldn't do anything. If you wouldn't work, you could, you could go tojail. My father didn't work. The, the older generation was still able to—theywere observing the holidays and they observed their religion in a clandestinemanner, you understand so nobody would—not outward—outwardly.

And the five synagogues, what happened to them?

The five synagogues were um, they were still synagogues, butthey, they were not there—that much attended like they used to be inPoland. But they were still—they did not do anything to them.

So it wasn't, it wasn't against the law to attend the synagoguethen?

No, it wasn't against the law. It's just that they were not,you know, they were not religiously inclined. They...

Did anybody from your Shtetl go west?

You mean t. . . towards Germany?

To the Germans.

In when, when?

When they divided Poland?

No. As I—no, we had an influx of, of people that came fromthe west to us and settled and a lot of people. They were called the Bezencies.Bezencies is somebody that runs away. And we didn't. . .

How do you spell that?

Oh, it's, it's a Russian word.

Is it?

You want me to spell it?

Sure.

Uh, uh, B-e-z-e-n-c-i-e-s, Bezencies, somebody that's running.And they were not treated nice by even the Jewish population either. Theywere called this name. And because they had nothing, you had to support them.The Jewish population had to support them. They ran away from the, the, theyabandoned everything, their homes and their belongings, everything. And theyran, they ran from the Germans. But then, but then they were able to um, godeeper into Russia.

Uh, to where, Siberia?

Yeah, well, but it was better than being under the German rule.