Zuzanna Mensz uncle Motel Horowicz’s family

This is my uncle Motel’s family. He’s never allowed to take him photos, because he was an orthodox Jew. In the center is sitting his wife, aunt Perl and behind her are standing their daughters: Zlata, Hinda and Bala. It is their house in Skryhiczyn.

Motel was mom's eldest brother. He had a wife and eight very nice children. He was a very religious Jew, reportedly an expert in Talmudic philosophy. He didn't talk to me I think. Perhaps he didn't speak with women at all, but I guess he didn't like it that we, me and my sisters, were raised in not a very religious way, we went to Polish schools, we spoke Polish. Motel raised his children in a religious fashion. He even sent his eldest son, whose name I don't remember, to a religious school in Lublin. He was later in Warsaw in a religious school, but he quit, supposedly lost his faith. He was killed in the Warsaw Uprising. Uncle Motel's second son was called Pinio. He looked after the Skryhiczyn farm, he farmed the land, he bred horses. Third son, Froim, was a very audacious boy. There was this story about him. He went, as everyone, to the elementary school in Skryhiczyn. The teacher kept saying that Jews smell of garlic and onion. When he later told them to write an essay on 'Why do I love Poland?', Froim wrote: 'I love Poland, because lots of onion and garlic is grown here.' Later he had Communist sympathies, he was arrested for hanging red flags on May 1st. Uncle Motel's youngest son was called Dawid and he was my age, we were friends. Uncle also had three daughters: Bala, Hinda, and Zlata. Aunt Hanka, Chana, Mom's younger sister, used to grieve over Motel's not giving his gifted children the education. She took to Czestochowa with her first Bala, who later became a nurse, and a very esteemed one, and then Dawid, who completed high school thanks to her.

Photos from this interviewee