Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Zwi Steiger - March 27, 1982

Education II

At home was not occupied. This is a few miles away, but it wasn't occupied yet and I had a break from October 'til um, March.

October '36 to March of '37?

No, October uh, '38...

Oh.

...to March '39. I--from '36 'til '38 I was there in Munkacs. Then uh, I came home because Hungary occupied the school. Then in '39, in March, they occupied...

They--did they close down the Hebrew?

No, no, they didn't close it. They--but, it was closed for me because I was...

I see.

...my hometown was in a different country by this time. But then, in March, again, they occupied completely the Carpathian uh, area. And then I went back to school.

In Munkacs?

In Munkacs, yeah, 'til '41 when I graduated.

Okay, and is that--I know it's not the equivalent of high school. The same...

It was, a little bit. I see what my kid is studying at his age. We were probably studying much harder. There was no, no electives and so forth. You had to say this is what, what they gave you and this is what you have to digest and there was no exemptions. And, I'm seeing what he's studying in math and uh, in history and geography. So it was probably somewhat better than, than uh, more than uh, American high school. And you can see it even now, when American kids after high school they want to go to a university in, in Israel, they have to take a year of extra studies. But thing is that's about American high school, but a little bit better, I think. A little bit more studying. I don't think it is better.

So you would have been uh, nineteen years old in '41?

Nineteen...in '41, yes, I was nineteen years old.


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