Jack Gun - August 12, 1999
Pre-War Life
Um, what kinds of things do you remember? I mean, you were very young before the war. Um, do you remember anything about your family, about the town, about life there?
Uh, very little, to be honest with you. But I remember uh, going to shul occasionally with my father uh, on, on Saturday, even though my father was not a very religious man. Uh, but he used to do it to please his mother. I remember Friday nights we used to have dinner. I remember my grandmother from my father's side used to come over. Uh, I remember also very much uh, uh, the closeness of my other grandmother, from my mother's side. She was very, very-- always concerned about us. Uh, we were the only grandchildren she had the three of us, my brother, and my sister and myself. And my mother was the only, only nakhes she had, because uh, her son was an invalid, and uh, my mother was, you know, quite uh, successful, married uh, very nicely and had a nice family and she was always very much interested in us.
The closeness with your grandmother--between you and your grandmother, is that what you mean? You said you remembered...
Yes...
...the closeness...
...myself and my other two siblings. She was always uh, very much worried about us and, bringing us things and, uh...
What kinds of closeness do you remember?
Pardon me?
What kinds of closeness do you remember?
Of hugging and kissing and, you know, you, you can feel uh, somebody--you always feel if somebody loves you.
Singing songs to you, uh?
Yes, occasionally. If she slept over she would sing songs and put me to bed. But she was not that often uh, uh, didn't stay with us too many nights because she always had to go back home to be with her son.
And they also lived in Rozhishche.
No, she lived in Torchin. My mother's grandma--my mother's mother.
And, oh, so she lived in Torchin and the rest of the family.
Lived in Rozhishche.
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