Lilli Tauber's mother Johanna Schischa

This is a photo of my mother, Johanna Schischa [nee Friedmann], taken in Vienna.

My mother was born in Prein on 19th May 1885. She was affectionately called Handschi. My mother went to primary school in Prein but had no further education.

There was a ball at Purim in Neunkirchen, my mother went to, and she met my father, Wilhelm Schischa, there. I don't know when that happened. In any case, my father traveled by cart to my grandmother and asked for my mother's hand. That was rather unusual because people mostly got married through shadkhanim back then. It seems that my grandmother gave them her consent because my parents got married in 1908. So my parent's marriage was one of love, which, apparently, was an exception to the rule back then.

Jewish traditions were very important to my mother. Every Friday on Sabbath kiddush was said over a glass of wine, candles were lit, and we had barkhes. There was always a napkin folded over barkhes. We usually had cold food in the evening, but on Friday evenings we had diced carp as a starter and goose or chicken as a main dish. I remember that the geese were stuffed to become very fat and get a big liver. We used goose fat for cooking because we didn't eat any pork dishes.

My parents were deported from Vienna to Opole ghetto on 26th February 1941 and murdered in either Belzec or Sobibor concentration camp in 1942.

Photos from this interviewee