Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Vera Schey - June 10, 1994

You said it was a mixed um, mixed environment, you mean assimilated?

Yes, yes.

You were an assimilated family.

Absolutely.

Um, not religious?

Uh, my grandfather, yes. And until my father lived we had a kosher home. We were never Orthodox. We always belonged to a Neolog synagogue, which I think is here pretty much between Reform and Conservative. Am I correct?

Yeah.

Uh, but 'til my father was alive and mostly for my grandparents' sakes my mother kept kosher. After my dad died and my father--my grandfather uh, lived in a smaller town, not in Budapest.

[interruption in interview]

What was I saying?

Your grandfather, small town.

Uh, he lived in a small town so he was not a frequent visitor, so my mother asked if I cared if we discontinued being kosher and I said I couldn't care less. And uh, anyway it was a different household, just, just two women, so. But going to synagogue was on the Holidays and for memorial services, for Yizkor services. That was about it. However, in s...in school, in Europe it was different than here. School, the school stuff, religion. I don't know if you have ???

What did you do when they came in to, to teach...

Religion? There was a Jewish class.

So you went...

Right.

How many children were in that class?

Uh, maybe twenty out of, I think it was two or three classes put together. ??? had twenty-five.

You...

And it was divided. I mean, one went to the Protestant, whoever taught that and a priest who taught the Catholics and a uh, he was not a rabbi but a, a teacher who taught the Jewish religion, twice a week.