Lucy Glaser Merritt - July 8, 1991
Religious Life
Um, we'll go back tothis. Um, was your family religious?
No. My father was a little and he became acutelyreligious after he came over here. It, it suddenly blossomed in him. But mymother could care less. And, uh.
So he.
neither my brother nor I were religious. And heryoungest brother used to say-he would fast-on Yom Kippur he would say that-hewould fast when he had no food and he would put all his Yom Kippurs together.That uncle survived.
So would you callyourself an assimilated family?
Yes, yes we were.
And what did your fatherdo?
He was a lawyer and worked in a bank.
Um, and your mother, didshe.
And ??? was an MD, practicing MD.
So they must have haduh, non-Jewish clients non-Jewish patients.
They had either/or, yes. My mother had and shenever distinguished. And in fact that very thing probably saved my brotherbecause the caretaker's son who was a big wig in the Nazi party had a heartattack, a seizure of some kind. And that was a month before the Anschluss. Andmy mother took care of him and he had no money and so she said well, that'sokay. When they came to round up the people on the Kristallnacht they passedour door and I think that had to do with the guy downstairs, because they goteverybody else that night.
Before we get to theKristallnacht, as a family did you observe any of the Holidays?
Yes, we uh, uh, Pesach, Passover we observed. Andmy father fasted on, on Yom Kippur.
Did you attendsynagogue?
Pardon?
Did you attend thesynagogue as well?
No.
Not on Holidays either.
He did. Yeah, I think he did on Yom Kippur. Ibelieve he went, I'm not sure. When we were in school we had to go. Thatwas-we, we were obliged to go with the rabbi whenever he asked us to. But wedidn't regularly, no.
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