Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Sara Silow - August 8, 1993

Religion

Was it a religious family?

Yes

Went to shul?

Sure.

Your father would go every day or just Shabbos?

No every Shabbos. Friday, on Shabbos.

Tell me about a Friday night in your home.

It was a, a beautiful dinner with candle lighting and my father went to the shul. It was different than here--entirely different. Yeah.

So what would, what would you do on Friday during the day to get ready?

Friday evening?

During the day--in the afternoon, would you prepare for Shabbos?

A maid was, was making this.

Oh, really? Non-Jewish?

Jewish.

Jewish maid?

Jew.

Did your mother cook, as well?

Sure

What did she cook?

Gefilte fish every Shabbos. Soup--everything the best. Bake.

Your father would go to shul and come home from shul and you would then have dinner?

Sure.

Did you sing, did you...

Yeah, every Friday and every Saturday he went to the shul.

And on Shabbos you sat around the table. Did you--of course, lit the candles...

Yeah.

And what, did you sing songs?

It was very nice, very nice.

When you had Shabbos at your house, would your sisters and their husbands come, as well?

My sister--one was married before the war several years, but the other one was married in the ghetto.

Ah.

Yeah. In Poland was another style. For example, here the family on uh, yontif there are whole family together. In Poland, was different. Every family was at home preparing their own meals with everything.

But your other sister also lived in Łódź, though?

Sure, yeah.

And what was a holiday like? What was uh, what was Pesach like?

A nice holiday.

What would you do on Pesach?

On holidays?

On Pesach, what was your responsibility? Did you help cook?

I was not cooking. My mother's place was for cooking, not me.

So, what did you do?

Reading. Go to friends, friends were coming to us.

Were you the youngest in the family?

No, in the middle.

Um, did your father do business with non-Jews?

No.

Just with Jews?

Yeah. Maybe a cold drink?

No thanks. Um, did you know non-Jews? Did you have any non-Jewish friends?

No. I was going to a, to a, a Hebrew school. We were always living in a, in a Jewish neighborhood. I got nothing to do with no Jewish people. Never. Yeah.

Do you remember any anti-Semitism there?

People, were talking about, yeah, a lot.

And did you ever experience anything?

No, because I was not close with them.

Um, so you just heard things from other people?

Yes.

The school you went to, was it a Hebrew school...

Yes.

...or was it a cheder?

Yes, not a cheder, Hebrew school. They were teaching for example, German, Polish, Hebrew and, how you call this--I forgot, I forgot. German, Polish, Hebrew, another language, but I, I forgot. Maybe I will remember later.

Okay.

It was a private school.

What was the name of the school, do you remember?

No, no.

And at home you spoke what language?

Yiddish and Polish. My parents were talking only Yiddish.

Was your father a veteran? Had he fought in the First World War?

No, no. They were very, very young when they get killed. For example, in 1942, my father went to sleep in the evening, in the morning he was dead from hunger. You were always hungry in the ghetto.

This was in the Łódź Ghetto?

The Łódź Ghetto, yeah. I can never forget one time I said to my mother that I'm hungry. I know that she has nothing in the house to eat and she was crying this, "I am hungry," and she has nothing in the house. I cannot forgive myself.

How old were you?

I cannot.

How old were you then? How old were you?

Me? I not remember what year because we were in the ghetto years. I not remember what year this was.


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