Eugene Feldman - July 15, 1991
Education
When you went to school was there any trouble during school. I mean, did you have religious education in school?
Not in school.
Did a priest come into the school ever?
Once in awhile they would. They would pray every morning. In Poland, i...in Poland they do that. But we were, didn't have to st...you know, they would stand up. For the prayers they would have to stand up. But the Jewish kids would sit. They wouldn't move, they wouldn't budge.
So there wasn't any religious instruction. You went to cheder then, right?
Oh for Jewish instruction we had to go to cheder. After, after the Polish school, I think it was three o'clock over, from about four to five 'til dark. It was miserable. We didn't like it.
So who was the teacher in such a small village?
In fact, he, he survived. I don't know how he survived. He survived and he--I heard he's in Israel. I, I mean I'm sure he's in Israel. But he's still alive or not now, because he must be in the eighties you know. But he survived. He was a young, to us he was not a young kid, but he was a, about twenty-one or whatever. And we were kids. He was teaching, we were teaching, he was teaching everyday, everyday. After... What it is, the--all the Jewish parents, I guess, got together and they hired him from the town, from Stolin. He lived in, in Glinka, our little village somewhere, I don't know, I don't know where. I mean, I guess I was too young to know too much. He lived there whether they free or what and how much he got paid, I haven't got the slightest idea. But that was his job and I guess he got paid enough to be able to survive. It didn't take much in uh, where we lived to survive. Probably a hundred dollars a year you can survive there.
But you and your friends didn't like it very much.
The school?
Yeah.
Nobody liked it. Because you see the, I mean, we come from a little village where you are running around free, barefooted you know. You chase the little calves. I remember climbing the roofs for the--catching the, trying to catch storks and all that.
Were there electric lights in the village?
Light?
Electric lights?
No, no electric light.
No electricity.
No bathrooms, no electric... Nothing of that.
Were there trains...
My house didn't even have floors uh, in the ba...in the kitchen. There was not even a floor.
Were there trains nearby?
No.
No trains.
I didn't...
Stolin.
I didn't see a train. I don't remember when they had, when did I see a train first?
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