Simon Goldman - June 6, 2003
Anti-Semitism
Um, you used to walk to school and you had trouble you said with...
We used to walk to school and sometimes we had trouble going through the other kids, they wouldn't let us go through.
Did they just block your way? They would not let you go to school?
They would not let us through but we had to, a lot of times we had to fight our way, you know, or run, you know, make a run for it. And there used to be another one of the kids, Polish uh, fellow that used to stand up for us. And he'd fight it all the way through, both ways going home and school.
And at the school was there ever any feeling of anti-Semitism from the teachers?
Well, you know, I, I really didn't know much about it.
When you would come home, you would get into fights occasionally, is that?
No, we didn't get in no fights.
Did you have to tell your parents you had trouble coming...
Oh yes, they knew, they knew, yes.
And what did they say?
Well, what could they do? Nothing, I mean, not much. When you fight a majority, there's not much you can do.
Did you ever talk about it to anybody, why people were feeling that way? As a kid, did it ever trouble you?
No, no. We, we already were, we knew about it, you know, and uh, we expected it almost that that's what they're going to do.
Let me go back to the question of religion, did you go to shul regularly?
No, my, my father did, but not...
Not the kids.
...not the kids.
So your father sounds like he was fairly observant.
Yes, he was observant, yes, but...
Modern Jew.
...modern, right.
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