Janina Wiener on vacation in Jaremcze in 1939

This is me on vacation in Jaremcze. This picture was taken just before the war, in the summer of 1939. I had many pictures like this taken, by professional photographers who just stood in the streets taking pictures of tourists. Later they would send those pictures to our home. I had so many of them, they are all gone.

I always spent my vacations in the mountains. And it was always the Prut Valley, or the Opor Valley. So either it was Jaremcze-Worochta, or Skole-Hrebenov. In Jaremcze and in Skole we usually stayed in guest houses. The one in Jaremcze was called Majestic, it was quite large. I don't remember what the one in Worochta was called, because we went to Jaremcze more often than to Worochta, and always stayed in the same place. We always went with Mother; Father would only come for the weekends. We went for two months, July-August. 

My parents were friends with the Fisch couple. The Fisches had two daughters. One was older than me and was called Fela, the other was younger and her name was Tusia. Fela was a black-eyed blonde. I, as you can see, am chestnut-haired by nature. The younger one, Tusia, had red hair and green eyes. We frequently went on summer vacation together. To keep each other company and not get bored, our mothers would arrange where to go on vacation every year together. Our two families, I mean. Tusia and Fela's father was a businessman, but what his business was, I don't know. If I remember correctly, we stayed in Skole, in a villa called Arkadia. 

We had these dirndl dresses, with short, leg-of-mutton sleeves, tight here [at the waist], wide there [at the bottom]. All the dirndls were black, with flowers embroidered on a black background - I don't remember who had flowers of what color. There were blue ones, red ones, and green ones, and to go with that a matching mini-apron. Yes, those aprons were the same color as the flowers. And I remember that when we appeared for the first time on the promenade, some boys we knew nicknamed us 'the three graces from Arkadia.'