Larry Brenner - December 13, 1981
Introduction
The following is an interview with Mr. Larry Brenner in his home in Southfield, Michigan on the afternoon of December 13, 1981. The interviewer is Professor Sidney Bolkosky.
Could you tell me your name and where you, where you were born?
My name is Larry Brenner and I was born in Hungary in a small town, and the name of the town was Vásárosnamény. V-Á-S-Á-R-O-S-N-A-M-É-N-Y. Uh, I am the second child of uh, fi... four brothers and one sister, which one of my brother is and one of my sister survived the Holocaust. My... I'm from a family, a quite religious family. My father was a pious Jew and activities were surrounded mostly on Jewish activities and great emphasis was given on Jewish education. His father was very strict in that respect.
How big was the town?
I would say it's about... The general population was about thirty-five hundred from which about, I would say about two hundred families, Jewish families. And the town itself, I say that most of the Jewish families were quite pious Jews. My grandfather, my father's father, lived in town and he was uh, one of the great Hasid. Matter of fact, all rabbis who came from out of town, they headquartered all the time at his home. And later on in years, my mother's parents, they weren't originally living in the same town, but as they got older and my father could afford to bring them to our home, we build an extra wing to our home and uh, they quartered there. But uh, as I remember, as a kid I had to get up early in the morning around five o'clock to attend cheder and then go to, for two, three hours, and then when I finish there I go to public school. And I would finish the public school around three o'clock in the afternoon, go back to cheder. And uh, at night went home. It was...
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