Irene Sobel - September 8, 1998
Being with other Jews in Orphanage
Didn't affect you though.
No, it didn't affect--I mean, it didn't affect us no, but there was a fear there, there was a fear that, not so much initiated by the children, but the fear of the adults that was experienced also by the children. I heard a awful lot of talk about the, among the Jews, the Jews among themselves were not afraid to disclose, or the people who were in the orphanage how they hated this system.
The Jews hated the system.
How they hated the Polish--well, I was just in the presence of Polish Jews, I didn't know if there were other non-Jewish. But among themself, they freely talked about how they hated the system. But never a comment was made to some local people.
And was there any evidence of any kind of anti-Semitism that you remember while you were in the orphanage?
No, first of all we were very isolated.
Mainly with Jews.
Yes. And I think we were more a oddity for being uh, European than being Jewish. Where we lived I am--don't know whether they even had an awareness of what it is to be a Jew, in the small villages in Asia, uneducated uh, peasants, farmers.
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