Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Abraham Mondry - June 15, 22, 29 & July 13, 1992

So, you became a tailor?

Hm?

So, you became a tailor...You were making...you were making pocketbooks?

No, pocketbooks, not tailor.

Hm.

I used to...After awhile... I only stayed there for a little while. I was a good worker, you know. He pulled me ???, you know, the owner, he told me one time, you know...He...he'd see me peddling. In effect, I used to peddle. On weekends I use to go to auctions and buy stuff and bring it back and sell it. They'd paid me every week, they used to pay me, like payroll. He didn't say nothing, he... ??? know that he need the work, he asked me if I can stay an hour longer, I never refused, you know.

Hm.

And one time...I always ask, I want more money. I...I...I make more...I make more than them, I produce more. I count my work. So he told me, "You know, you're making so much...like... like this woman, see this big fat woman? She worked forty years here." So I don't care if she works hundred years, you know. I watch how much she made, she produced how many pocketbooks, she finish, how much I finished up.

And how long did you stay there?

I...I tell you, I stayed there for...I think I a year and a half or two years. Two years, 'til I got two weeks' vacation coming, and I say goodbye. I got a little foundation started, I have my customers back. I had about seventy, eighty customers ???. Italian, all kind, I used to sell them goods every week. I used to come to their home. ??? I was making. It was only seventy-five cents an hour, it was still labor, you know. And I was making 100, $125 extra, you know, a week.

Hm.

I had a little foundation, you know. I said that's it.

[interruption in interview]

???. You know ??? you know. And finally I took...I bought one time a leather...a man's leather jackets on an auction, brand new, they went broke or something, contractor. And I started to meet lots of people. And I was liked...The people liked me in the business, you know. I stayed by my word, I stayed my word. I say, I come...I come 8 o'clock, I'll be there. I'm today the same way. Because I like to be on time... 10 o'clock, see, I'm waiting here. See, I'm up at 5 o'clock this morning. It's on my mind, somebody coming. Somebody I got to see. I cannot sleep no more. I get up every...every half hour.