Joseph Rotbaum Ribo - July 5, 2005
Relationships with Gentiles
And you played with non-Jewish kids?
Oh yes.
Soccer?
Soccer, no, we didn't have football then, but we played. In winter we would go eh, eh... Man: I'm sorry to interrupt ???
Yeah, okay? ??? Man: ???
All right.
[interruption in interview]
We would go skating, on the--it was near the mikvah. There were some fish ponds, eh, ponds, fish ponds, and uh, in the winter it would freeze. We would go, not skating, but eh, on our shoes. We rented iron um, you know, those iron...
Heels?
Heels. On those we would, and throw ???, and build up eh, snowmen and things like that.
And was there ever--do you remember any resentment from these other children?
No. Very little, very little, if at all. Very little. Maybe the older people in the town, but not us youngsters. Especially those who didn't go spying and didn't dress like...
Ah. And your father did business with non-Jews?
Yes.
So he was respected in the community.
Yeah, he was. Yeah, well-known, and eh, he was accepted.
What was life like? Um, was there a market day?
Yes. Tuesdays. Tuesday was the market day.
What was the market day like?
Where the villagers in the vicinity would come in to buy or sell their products. And also Jews, what they were selling, would put up a stall in the market, and try to sell to the villagers that came in. And there were the ??? you know what a ??? is? That's a um, butcher store, selling uh, meat on there. It was my uncle's eh, business, was uh, something like this.
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