Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Lisa Kallai - January 28, 2008

Life Before the War

Central European, okay. What do you remember about your childhood in, in, in Vienna? Was it a rea...was it...you went to school obviously...

Obviously.

...what was that like? Was it a private school?

No, no, I just went to an ordinary elementary school most children did and uh, then it was a secondary school, which was, yes, I suppose you'd call that a private school. But first four years were just elementary school and next...

And was your family, was your family religious?

No. Consciously Jewish but not, not observant. My grandmother was but...my mater...my paternal grandmother was but the family wasn't really. We knew...

So you, you...

...more or less when the holidays were.

But not a weekly trip to the synagogue for, for...

No, no.

...the Sabbath.

No.

You said you were there until the Anschluß...

Yes.

Do you remember the Schuschnigg...

Yes.

...fiasco with the, the overthrow?

Yes.

Do you remember that as a child?

I remember that, I remember. I didn't know much about it, I wasn't very poc...conscious politically. I think we were far less conscious at that time than young people are nowadays but uh, I mean you couldn't ignore it, it was in the streets.


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