Hermina Vlasopolos - April 9, 1984
Relation with Neighbors
Yeah.
...to give you an example. And uh, wherever you went I had neighbors who were, told me, one of them was a doctor, you know. And he told, "Well, if all the Jews were like you." I said, "Why, are the all the Gentiles like you? Why would you like the Jews to be like me? Are all the Gentiles like you?" And he did not hide it, you know, that he's an anti-Semite. He said, "I like you very much." I said, "you would like the others too if you would, you know, bother to, uh...
Yeah.
...to know them, you know, more closely." But in spite of this I probably also simply mention, people did not gather in certain sections of the town or the city to form their own ghetto. So we were spread all over and we, we had uh, friends on the street. I remember when I was a child, I mean, we were Jewish and next-door neighbor was an old lady and she was Christian. Across the street there was an Italian professor and he taught the King's children. I remember they sent the carriage for him to pick him up. The next one was a German, you know, and it was a, you know, Jewish people. But we, we lived in very good uh, relationships as neighbors. They wouldn't have done anything to--Christmastime we had the money, you know, children came with the, with the star and so on. We did not celebrate Christmas. We celebrated our holidays and they knew that there are the Jewish holidays and because all the Jewish stores were closed. And nobody, nobody ever, I mean, you couldn't have the store closed in the Communist regime. But in the Catholic regime you, you were allowed, you know, to worship the way you, you wanted. So I did not witness any pogroms until 1936 when little by little the Iron Guard and some more of these anti-Semitic people went to power. And it happened because it was the depression which was here was reflected there too. And, you know, when there is a depression and somebody must have been the scapegoat, and there were the Jews who had the banks and there were Jews who had--not, not, it's like here, they don't have the banks, you know, but they were the ones who fed them, they were the ones who were, you know, pointed out. And uh, the ones with the businesses and so on. And so it started to build up little by little, little by little, you know. So when I went to college it started to be already a kind of numerous clauses. I mean...
Yes.
...by the percentage of the Jews that were entered, you know, you would be able to, to enter college.
Did you have difficulty getting into college because of that reason?
You know, it was, it was a challenge, you know, and uh, it was less than in Bucharest. Probably Bucharest I would have had more problems. But there they were still--you know, the Austrians were not anti-Semitic, I mean, from the Austrian empire. I don't know now, I don't know how they are. Because they have this Kransky there who is Jewish and he's anti-Semitic. You know, Waldheimer.... 2
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