Lily Fenster - November 8 & 10, 1994
Political Leaders
No, tell the story.
Yeah? Well the--I know that what my older cousins use to tell me, when Pilsudski--why he was so good to the Jews is because a Jew when the Cossacks came. I don't remember which year from Russia, came to Poland and they were looking for him because he was a little bit I think, a liberal. And he walked--jumped into a little shtetl, a little town where a Jew was staying and davening and he walked into him and says, "Save me," so he took off the tallis, that's the story and he threw over him. They walked in and they said, "Is there anybody?" And they say, "No." And they left. Then when he became a President of Poland he remembered that so people said he was good for the Jewish people. He wasn't such a terrible anti-Semite. He helped a certain, a certain degree, like letting more Jews to the, to the universities. It was a lot of that.
Did you remember when he died?
Yes, I remember because I had, I said a poem in Polish in school when I was, I don't remember which grade. He died May, I think, in 1935, if I'm not mistaken, Pilsudski. I don't know exactly where to follow the history but I remember it was a terrible day for the Jews. And they said it in Polish in which really you are not interested in that. "To nie prawda ze ciebe juz ni ma." It's not true that you're not here. "To nie prawda ze lezyszjuz w ziemie." It's not true you are laying in the ground. The old Polish people cry for you. That I remember because I was standing on the stage and saying that and it was a terrible day because the curtains were draped and black with the flag. You know, certain things you remember. I'm sixty-eight years old and I remember some of those things I don't remember from yesterday. But I remember back then. Seems I'm getting old, huh? If you want something to drink, it's...
So a...
You have a lot of patience, you're very sweet, you belong to that. I don't know, you give me a sense of, it's, it's I don't know. The minute I looked at you, you gave me such incredible feeling in my heart. I don't know why.
Uh...
Yes.
Let's continue...
Yes, yes, yes. Now you want to...
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