Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Joseph Rotbaum Ribo - July 5, 2005

Life Before the War

So, when you were a child, um, what kind of memories do you have about life in Głowaczów?

Well it was eh, very tight community, a small community. There were about 600 uh, Jewish families in Głowaczów and they consisted of, I think, forty to forty-five percent of the population. And most of them were active, of course, in, in small businesses, shops and eh, my father dealt in uh, two--in fruits, mainly--in the fruit uh, business eh, he would buy off the fruits from the trees in the village--two villages before they got ripe. And we used to move over to one of the two villages for summer to pick them, and send them out for marketing, and also he would buy from the villages who were hunting uh, animals in the forest, in the forested region, and he would eh, send them out. So...

Sell the pelts or the meat? He would sell the pelts of the animals?

Yeah, yeah.

Um, so he had a store, basically? He was a merchant?

Yes, mainly a merchant, yes.

Was your family religious?

It was eh, yes, it kept religion. It was kosher at home. It was--Saturdays we went to shul of course, but not eh, very extreme, not extreme.

So beard and payes--your father didn't have beard and payes, beard and payes?

No, no.

What was a Friday night like at your house?

Oh, it was a very tight family occasion, of course, with eh, candle lights and eh, coming back from the shul, and a nice Shabbos meal, of course. Eh, from time to time, had some guests from other places, but most of the time, that I remember, we had meal, Shabbos meal.

And what was Friday during the day like?

Preparations for Saturday. Shopping, and eh, washing up, and eh, preparing clean, clean eh, clean clothes for Shabbos, that was main.

Polishing shoes?

Polishing shoes, exactly, yeah.

Um, and was there singing at, at dinner? Zemirot?

Yes, not much, but yes.

Um, And on Saturday you went to shul?

Saturday we went to shul.

The whole family, or just, just....

Mainly father, and um, the two boys.

Two boys.

Yes.


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