Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Eugene Feldman - July 15, 1991

Education II

When you went to school, do you remember anything that you--any of the subjects that you studied in school?

Poland, in Polish?

Yeah.

Not religion.

No, but what, what else did you...

Geography. Because I knew, I remember I wasn't good at it. I remember that because I remember standing on once, on a chair trying to point out on a map something. I couldn't find it. And the teacher was mad about it. So that uh, that stays in my mind, so I remember that, geography. Math. I was good at that so I. And Polish history.

Polish history. And you spoke Polish. Did you speak Polish at home?

Oh yeah. Not now.

At home.

No.

Yiddish.

Sure. We never liked Poland. Even when we lived there we didn't care for it.

Was there any talk about um, Palestine? Zionism.

Never heard of 'em. Never heard of Palestine. If somebody would ask me what Palestine was, at--when, at that time I wouldn't know what they're talking about.

So no Zionists.

We are, we're backwards, we were b...very much backwards down there. Not much better than the goyim.

Was there one shul? There must have been one shul.

There was no shul.

A shtieble.

In a home, in a house.

Oh.

Listen, I think my uncle's houses.

Did you dav...

The one that says, if God wants me to die I'll--that's his, in his house.

Did you daven everyday?

Oh yeah! When I turned bar mitzvah, when I just turned bar mitzvah, but that was during the Russian already. But anyway, dad would drag me always to shul to the, to daven. He was very, he was very religious.


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