Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Bernard & Emery Klein - May 23, 1984

Relations with non-Jews

Your family did a lot of business with non-Jews.

E: With what?

Non-Jews.

E: Excuse, me, oh yeah, yeah. Especially in the meat business uh, naturally, our, our, our father and uncle were buying the cattle from the farmers. B: This is our store.

E: This is our store, which was the front of the house. This the neighbors' house, right next to it there. This is our father, in the head, the head closest to the wagon. Apparently, the caption came a little bit later, but... B: No, no.

E: It's still representing the marketplace. B: Yeah, it's a continuation of it. This is one of the cousins who came with the uncle to United States in 1932, the one in the white coat.

E: And the one in the black, that's one of our uncles. B: Right, as you see, he's negotiating, they're buy...trying to buy a chicken.

People would set up stalls in the squares?

E: Exactly, exactly. B: More like uh, a table with a tent type covering, so that in case of rain they wouldn't get everything soaked.

E: This is... B: That store front across that we can see is the store of our uncle.

These are the peasants who would come to the market?

E: Right, right. B: Yes, right, they bring chicken, eggs, vegetables...

E: And the same time buying certain things which they cannot get in the villages, they did their shopping. B: On the way home, they went shopping. If I can tell...

E: [in unison] This is the local policeman. This is our uncle... B: ...next to the policeman.

E: That's Morris Sommer. B: [in unison] Morris Klein. B: Okay, this is the store I mentioned before. ??? means store with leather goods.

E: He was another uncle of ours, Grossman. That's his house. B: The store was down, and the residence was in the back and upstairs.

E: This was usually the custom, like in our case. The store was in the front and there was an office and then followed by the residence and in our case, after with several other buildings. B: Excuse me, this is our brick making factory. This is back to the marketplace. As you see, it's pretty crowded, because it was tremendously large area that Humenné was serving. And uh, as I mentioned before, it being a regional...

E: This is our truck. Herman Klein, Herman was our uncle, he was the older one, so it is under his name, this is our cousin from the United States. B: This is Mort ??? is his name. This is his father.

E: The father's name was Irvin Klein. B: It's very difficult to identify these people.

E: All the farmers all dressed up for the holiday, for the holiday celebration. You know what holiday this was? B: The biggest celebration was the Easter, well, the equivalent of what they call here, the Easter parade. They would uh, go to church early in the morning and then march out, you know, all dressed up and, uh...

E: Sing and celebrate. B: Carrying, sing, carrying signs...

E: There's our aunt, with our cousin. In the background is our father. This is our uncle from Omaha, with his sister, Mrs. Grossman, followed by my father and our aunt. B: This is our uncle with our aunt. The uncle from America with our aunt. This is our uncle with a couple cousins. The one on the right, who is...

E: ...Los Angeles. B: The other one didn't survive.

E: And, deceased. B: [in unison] This is our father with our uncle.

E: That's our mother there, in the... B: ...can't see...

E: ...unfortunately, it's a very poor picture.


© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn