Baruch Spergel - February 4, 2008
Religious Education
Did you get a Jewish education of any sort?
BS: Hmm?
Did you get a Jewish education of any sort?
BS: Well, we learned Hebrew. That was...
You also?
BS:...in that synagogue.
ZF: Mm-hm.
You also learned Hebrew?
ZF: Me?
Yeah.
ZF: No.
No, okay, so you...
BS: Hmm?
...you learned Hebrew.
ZF: No, no I was much smaller than he was.
BS: ??? she was too young. But we learned-me and my brother we learned Hebrew...
ZF: He was fourteen and I was five.
BS:...and there was teachers, teachers there-Jewish teachers and they instructed us-they gave us Hebrew-the basics of Hebrew and we also read the, the Torah-the, the five books of Moses.
So was this a separate school you went to?
BS: Hmm? No, no separate school. We went...
ZF: Sort of Sunday school.
BS: Sunday school with a separate teacher I guess.
You had a Bar Mitzvah.
BS: Huh?
You had a Bar Mitzvah.
BS: Bar Mitzva, I had a Bar Mitzvah, yes, but my Bar Mitzvah was already spoiled by-there were um, how do you call it? Um, there were...
ZF: What?
BS: What?
ZF: No, what ???
BS: There were-the Germans started-the Sudetendeutsche...
ZF: Yeah.
BS: ...had-already starting to...
ZF: Propaganda.
BS: What?
ZF: Propaganda.
BS: Propaganda, no, no propaganda. It was the-they called it, you know, this uh, march ???...
ZF: Uh, they marched down the streets, you know, and sort of, uh...
Before the inclusion.
BS: Yes, and...
ZF: Before the annexation.
BS:...they-there were Nazism. Not all Germans were Nazis. There were quite a few Germans who were Communists right but uh, there were Germans who were Nazis who did-wanted to be part of Germany, yes? They demanded it. They-but the-my Bar Mitzvah was, ???, I was born in '25 and my Bar...Bar Mitzvah was in '48...
Thirty-eight.
ZF: Thirty-eight.
BS: Thirty-eight, yes and in '48 they are-they were making Shabbos. The Germans started to...
ZF: Not, not '48, yeah?
BS: Huh?
ZF: Not '48...
BS: That's right...
ZF: Thirty-eight.
BS:...thirty-eight. Sorry. So, uh...
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