Saul Raimi - July 7, 1982
Anti-Semitism
Uh, did you feel any anti-Semitism at all in, in the town before the war?
No question about it. We sounded very, very every step in every day, every minute in uh, every day in our life. There is no question about it at all. They didn't like us. And I would rather say they hated us. And uh, I can still vividly remember those pogroms in market days, breaking windows, beating up Jews was a common occurrence. It was a way of life almost. I was so used to it. I went to school, in cheder to be uh, to be beaten up by some uh, Polish children, to get a few stones thrown at us, at me. And uh, that was one of those uh, daily occurrences we ??? and uh, because you know that as a Jew I was taught that actually that is the way of life on this world, you know, that Jew has to suffer, you know, because he has to be prepared for the better world to come. And I, of course, accepted this. So, it made easy, more easier for me to uh, to actually to uh, acclima...acclimatize uh, and get used to those different uh, uh, different uh, torment you see, the Poles did to us.
So, it was a pretty routine, uh...
Yeah, it was, you know... And also was that. My--our little town was a border town east Germany and uh, it was for them coming, you know, to learn a lot of things which were going on, on the other side, on the German side since Italy come to--in power. And they, they learn where we were and I would say resulting the teaching that was before the war probably. They did--they uh, they had a very good background in the Poles, in uh, take care of the uh, of the Jews.
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