Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Simon Cymerint - June 8, 1982

Introduction

The following is an interview with Mr. Simon Cymerint on the evening of June 8, 1982 at his home in Oak Park, Michigan. The interviewer is Sidney Bolkosky.

Uh, could you tell me your name please and where you're from?

My name is uh, Simon Cymerint and I was born in Poland. The, the city is Ostrowiec. And uh, then we moved. When I was seven years old we moved to another city, Bieśnik Starowicea [Starowice].

Can you spell that for me?

Starowicea [Starowice] is uh, S-T- uh, A-R-O-W-I-C-E-A. Starowicea [Starowice].

All right, tell me something about--so, you were brought up in Starowicea [Starowice].

Hm? Starowicea [Starowice], yeah.

Tell me something about your family and the...

Like...

town that you were brought up in.

The town had about twenty-five thousand Jewish people. We had about three beautiful synagogues, the city. And uh, we had a lot of relatives. Everybody was in the same city, my relatives, from uh, my father's side and from my mother's side.

Okay, do you know how big the town was altogether?

The town was uh, population was about thirty-five thousand people.

So, the majority were Jews.

Not the majority, no, no. It was a lot of uh, Gentile people.

Was it--the total population was thirty-five thousand.

Yeah.

And how many, how many Jews?

Jewish people was about uh, twenty thousand.


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