Lola Taubman - December 22, 2009
Going to School in Munkacs
Let's go back to Munkacs. So you, you, you went to school in Munkacs.
Yes.
Your family didn't move there.
No, no. The family stayed in Szolyva. I, I, I went by train every, every day.
So you commuted.
I took the train six o'clock and didn't get back until three thirty. Uh, so.
And what did you learn in school in Munkacs?
Pardon me?
What did you learn in school in Munkacs?
What? Every subject. Uh, language, literature, geography, geometry, math, art and music.
So it was all a secular education.
Yeah.
Did you, do you remember Masaryk, Masaryk?
Masaryk yeah, Masaryk.
What did you think about Masaryk? Did your family ever talk about Masaryk?
Yes, yes, we, we uh, celebrated his birthday with lanterns and marching and singing. Yeah, he was very--he was in the United States on a visit, did you know that?
Yes, I did. Uh, do you remember when he died?
Yes.
What happened when he died?
Well uh, his son--was it his son? I'm not clear about it. His son came to power but when the Russians came they threw him out of the window.
Right. Yeah. And you remember this as a child?
Right. You are younger than I am.
Well, yeah. I only read about it.
Yeah.
Tell me a little about the um, the Munkacser Rebbe, if you ever saw him or knew him.
I never saw him, but I, I heard, see because I only came from the station to school and back. Only later when they needed the trains for military purposes, the uh, the passengers, the uh, inhabitants couldn't use anymore the trains. So I, I stayed a few weeks in one house, a few weeks at another house and my mother tried to send me some food, you know, there's a container like a Chinese that has three compartments, sent me food there.
Did you meet anyone from Munkacs when you were going to school there?
Oh yes.
Did you make any friends there?
Yes, yes, yes. I mean, I knew everybody in my class and I visited them. There is in New York a girl by name of, of uh, ??? but her maiden name was Gottesman and her sister was good friends with Agi
And you're good friends with Agi, Agi Ruben.
Yes, yes. But I didn't know her very well because she was younger. But I remember her coming to school with her friend, Marie, Marie Gottesman and see, we got there before the rest of the students but we had to wait until the gate opened up to go to the school and uh, so I knew practically everybody. There were about four hundred students in our high school. And the high school--I don't know if it's true or not--but we were told that the stones were brought from Jerusalem to build the high school. I don't know if it's true. But we had very good teachers, very good. Dr. Kugel was a principle and when he managed to, to get to Israel and he was the, the uh, how do you call that? The mayor of Cologne and when he died they named a street after him. Everybody knew Dr. Kugel. And when I went to the first reunion--school reunion, I met some of my professors who made it.
When was this?
Uh...
Daughter: Eighty-something, right?
Eighty-one.
Daughter: Eighty-one or '82. I think it was '81.
But I went to Israel in 1968, so I met some of the teachers. And one of the teachers was in the same kibbutz as my cousins on my mother's side.
Oh, okay. Because Agi went to a reunion. Agi went to a school reunion.
Yes, but she was younger so she finished grade school and then she just came to one or a two years, maybe just one year. That was during the Hungarians.
When the Hungarians were there.
Yeah. And then when the Hungarians came in all the teachers were changed. Very few remained of the old teachers. They brought in Hungarian knowledgeable teachers and, uh...
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