• Contents
• Map
• Audio

Joseph Gringlas - January 14, 1993

Did-your father was a shoemaker?

A shoemaker and we're, also we're selling shoes.

Did he have any non-Jewish customers?

Oh, we had a lot of non-Jewish customers. I wouldn't say allwere, were bad, but, some were good, but mostly bad. You didn't see too manygood ones because the, the other ones were so many, against the Jewish people.In-as I remember, in school, we went to school before the war

You went to public school?

Yeah, went to public school and I finished public school just1939 when the war broke out.

What was it like in school?

In school it was terrible. It was just eh, you felt that, thatyou're not welcome there. You're just like, like you're not in your own country.Like you are somebody-a stranger. And after the, after finish school you weregoing home, the stones thrown at you. It's just unbelievable. Like, thingslike that in a country where you were born and raised.

Uh, did you got to cheder too?

Yeah, I went to cheder uh, that was right at market, cheder wasclose from home. And all the time when special Sundays-I'll never forget it,when every time I ever went out to cheder and especially even it was the wintertime when the days were short and at night when it gets dark. So I, as soonI went out, I went out, I finished going home, walking home, I was hit. Theycame out from church and hit because you are a Jew, you know. And as a youngboy I didn't know why, why does this happen to me? And that built up terriblefeeling and like, scared, you know. Then your own country.

Did you discuss this with your-I mean was there any discussionabout anti-Semitism in your house?

Oh, there was, oh yeah, always discussing.

Did you come home and say I was hit today?

Yeah, uh huh.

And what happened?

That would happen, what can you do? You gonna call the police?Gonna tell anything? If anything happen to you, you call the police, theywould n...never showed up. But this is, you know, you got in-you got in buildingyourself that that's the way life is. You can't do anything about it. It's,you have to accept it, you live there in this country, this is the way itis.

Did you have any non-Jewish friends?

Oh yes, I had Jewi...non-Jewish friend. Quite a few. In school,you know, felt like that, those are the one which is close to you.

Did you play soccer?

Play-soccer was my-I was crazy about soccer.

So you made friends maybe playing soccer.

Yeah, playing soccer. But mostly in soccer playing we had, Jewishfriends close we live together. I have a brother too. He's alive and stillafter the war. And we played, he's four years older than me. So we alwaysplayed in the friends from cheder or school and get together after the schooland we played soccer. This was my-I, I loved it very much.

With w...w...these non-Jewish friends, did you ever go totheir houses or did they ever come to yours?

Eh, non-Jewish friends, the place where they lived, the landlordwas, was, was non-Jewish, was gentile. So with the daughter, I remember herand we went to school. Now she was very, the parents were anti-Semitic terrible,we knew it. But she was not. And she even spoke Jewish like I-better thanme. But she, some, they understood, they felt different. Why should they treatpeople differently than the parents, was they can tell, educate them how to,the Jews are and get them to be against Jewish people. There were some. Theywere nice.

But you felt the an...the hostility.

Oh yes, any place you went, yeah.