Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Sally Horwitz - June 18, 2007

Did, were there ever any political discussions in your house that you remember?

Uh, I, some of it. And a lot of uh, Jewish people who were socialists and communists. And they were Bundisten. We had in our little town, we had Hashomer Hatzair, Betar, um...

So they were Zionists?

Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And they marched, and they, they could do all that stuff. And they went um, and they, they, they were pretty good. And what they-- When they stopped the public school, not they stopped. When um, certain grades, 7th, 8th grade, 7th grade I think, that was it. They took over. They had uh, a room, they rented a room someplace, like Hashomer Hatzair, they met uh, once a week there. And whatever, and they studied. They read, they brought in stuff for them. And then we had a lot of kibbutzim within around our area. Uh, they bought land. They taught the young people uh, farming. They taught "em how to milk cows, they taught "em a lot of stuff. And then in the winter, what did they do? They came to the cities and they worked in people's houses. I mean, they learned how to really work not just sit and, and, and do nothing. And they studied, they studied Hebrew, they--and I remember I was a kid, I used to go in there, they didn't chase me out.

[laughs]

And they used to go to, sometimes like uh, Shavuot, or Saturdays they would march out to a forest. So, and a bunch of kids followed them, you know, people march you follow them, no we weren't afraid of anybody. I mean, I would wander off and I wasn't afraid somebody's gonna hurt me. Oy vey, I wander everywhere, anyways um, so we followed, a bunch of little kids would follow them. So what they do, they make us sit down after they got into the place, they were watching us, to sit down and we're telling us stories. They had a, a group of like people, they were telling us stories. Actually they were explaining all things from the woods. This is this, and this is that, and were singing songs. So, they, they helped one another, we helped one another, they were really pretty good.

Was your father a leftist as well? Was he a Bundist?

I think, no I think he was uh, socialist. More of the socialist side.

Socialist.

But when they, they discussed things uh, uh, I don't think we were around when they were talking about. Uh, maybe they were afraid we'll tell somebody. And they didn't want anybody to hear. But then in "39 I was just a kid and they were talking outside, you know, what's going on in Germany. And it sounded very scary for a little kid, this was in "33. Because they started to chase out Jews already.

Mm-hm.

Jews who were born in Poland and they moved to Germany, they had to leave. I don't know what year it was but the, the Poles wouldn't let them in and the Germans wouldn't let them in. And the Polish Jews weren't rich Jews because they were forever attacked from different uh, areas. So uh, um, they collected stuff to bring to the border. They would sit in like no man's land, they wouldn't let them in any place. They went through quite bit for quite a while, too. But the...they had a chance to leave but some of them just, just didn't want to because, you know, a Jew thinks tomorrow it's gonna be better. And didn't get any better. So...

Did they talk about the Nazis or Hitler? Did you ever...

Uh, they were talking about Hitler I remember. I remember they were talking about Hitler. A group of men and just uh, linger on and all, you know, like men. They talked politics. Um, my father was such a handsome man, not because it was my father. But they come from a very tall family, you know, my dad was 6'4" and uh, beautiful looking people, really they were, and good hearted wonderful people.

And what were your parent's names?

Uh, my mother was born a Kerczberg.

Her first name?

Esther. My dad was a Finkelstein. Uh, he was Leib. Uh, my sisters, one was uh, um, my ???, one was Francis, Frania, Freyda, then was me, ???, and my ???. And then was Leah, ???, and then was my little brother Avrahm Mayer. I had their names between my children and grandchildren, I have most of the family's names. I have bubby ???, the grandchildren were already named after my grandparents. All these children, all three children have somebody from my family and of course my oldest son and my daughter has ???, my bubby ???. ??? Rachel and my dad's name ???.