Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

• Contents
• Map

Luba Elbaum - January 20, 1982

Before the war, do you--did you remember uh, having uh, running into any anti-Semitism dur...before the war?

I run in anti-Se...it was Passover, it was Passover, it was Passover when I used to going off to school and we used to go out. And you know, leave, and we used to go to school. We used to have the religion school too. Our religion was their religion. And forgot. The priest used to come to school. And a priest used to come to school. It was not too many Jewish, Jewish kids in our school. It was more was the main Gentile. When we came in the morning we have to say the prayer, you know. So we don't say the prayer, but they have to say the prayer.

Everybody stands up and...

Everybody stands up and they're saying the prayer, you know. The prayer what...

Did you stand up too?

Yeah, for God. You have to say the prayer for God--it was Polish prayer, you know. We stand up. Didn't say you had to say.

Mm-hm. But you stand up with everybody.

You stand up. It was once a week. Once a week came in, you know, like the priest then. We had, we had to go out. When the priest came in--was never a class maybe five, six kids Jewish. And then just their kids. And after we went out and we went with them home from school, before Passover they think we make, we make matzos and put it in the blood. And that's what starts the whole problem, the whole uh, they think we're making matzos...

Mm-hm.

...we bake matzos before Passover. So it was to them as, I mean, we using their blood.

You heard them say this?

Yeah, the kids when go home from school. Just the kids. Not the older, just the kids.

Any other problems with uh, anti-Semitism there?

Then uh, when comes--then when we have a Sukkot, Sukkot, and we made all the Sukkot they used to come, you know by the, you know by the Sukkot. Sometimes, not always come, but Sukkot throw like, I mean, stones. Then was okay because uh, bis '39, bis '39 was not bad in Poland. They used to say it, but not--I don't remember this, when used to be like, I mean, uh, not a lot, I mean the Jew ???, but I mean this is a long time--I don't remember this already, this. Like we used to live with them--not that we used to live with them good. Plus me, I, I don't have no problem because they all think I'm a Gentile girl, so...