Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Nathan Roth - February 4, 1983

Relations with non-Jews

Let me ask you this, ten people walking, do you remember any incidents of anti-Semitism?

Oh, no, no, no, never. With me, I had some, you know when I was growing up, it was a couple of, uh, uh Gentile boys in the neighborhood that used to throw rocks and stuff like that, but, uh...But it was just no more than pranks. It wasn't per se uh, not that it wasn't anti-Semitism, there was, because uh, there was. Uh, because they were very devout Christians. And the Jew was perceived as the Christ killer. You know. So uh, th...the...there was, but not walking at night, no way. There was no problem at all.

Did your father have any dealings with non-Jews?

Oh, only, practically.

So he was very well known in the community.

He was well known and he was also, he was also elected to--I know that only from my older sisters, he was also elected to the city council, the village council if you want to call it.

Now how large a town was it?

Two thousand--2,500.

And of that, how many were Jews?

Of that, of that at least half, maybe 800, maybe 1,000 Jews.

And this was Czechoslovakia, at this time?

It was Czechoslovakia at that time, it was the eastern province of Czechoslovakia.


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