We were evacuated from our house in 1942 on the basis of the racial law [1] of Romanian cleansing, and we had to move to a different place, we paid rent. The house had been our property. A Christian liked that house, for it was near the street, he moved in and started a business there, a store. Both in our house and in that of my grandfather, Lupu Meir. My grandparents moved in with one of their daughters, Rasela. And we moved somewhere else, we lived with some relatives, over at uncle Iancu’s place, a brother of my grandmother Maria Meir. It was still in Botosani, only we formerly lived near the train station, and we moved downtown. Still, it was a shack used as a kitchen during summer, we had to live in difficult circumstances, nevertheless. Of course, we didn’t get along that well, for our living there wasn’t really to their liking.
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Displaying 48061 - 48090 of 50826 results
Solomon Meir
Life was very hard for us during the war. As long as we had our home where we lived, we sold some of the things we had, my father had a grocer’s shop, we sold a weighing scale, we sold this and that.
There were other restrictions as well for Jews during World War II. From around 1941 until 1944 we wore the yellow star in Botosani [3]. We were allowed to go to the market to buy things only after 10 o’clock.
Afterwards, I stayed home during that year and my father enlisted me at an existing Jewish school in Botosani. I graduated 4 grades of primary school.
In 1940, at the age of 7, I was enlisted at a Romanian school – as the principal of that school, which was located near our home, was a friend of my father’s – but I was pulled out of the school on the basis of the racial law in force at that time, in 1940.
n fact, I learned Yiddish at home, as a child. Jewish [Yiddish, that is] was spoken in our home – naturally, Romanian as well, but also Jewish –, and I learned it from my parents. But I attended the cheder after I was 5 and a half, a school where they taught you to read and write in Yiddish; I learned to read the siddur, the prayer book – it is written in Jewish, not in Hebrew. And I attended the cheder until 1939. The Germans invaded Poland in 1939 [2], and many Poles fled here from Poland, and there was a great rush of cars, something unusual for the city of Botosani – there weren’t that many cars in Botosani. And as the cheder was at a distance of around 2 km, 2 km and a half from home, I had to walk there by myself and my parents didn’t allow me to attend anymore – we were afraid of cars. The Poles came in cars, trucks, they were very well-off. They settled here, across Romania, and part of them returned to Poland after a few years, others remained here for good.
Romania
I bear the name – Solomon – of my great-grandfather, the father of my grandmother from my father’s side. It is customary for Jews to name a child after a deceased person.
Our house was on Calea Nationala St. It was demolished when the systematization arrived. In exchange, we received an apartment in a block of flats, where I still live to this day.
After he married, my father ran a grocer’s shop in Botosani, a small shop.
My parents met each other through matchmakers – shadkhan.
My uncle, Moise Katz, was an accountant. He worked in many places, [among which was] the Moldova Textile Works – he was accountant-in-chief there. After he retired, he worked as an accountant for the Community.
My mother’s sister married in 1946, her married name was Katz, and she had a son, Manase Katz. They were very religious – they weren’t Orthodox, but they were religious –, they observed all holidays and the kashrut, everything. They lived in Botosani.
The son, Herman Leibovici, was killed in the Bucharest rebellion of 1941. He went to the synagogue to recite the Kaddish for his father – for my grandfather – and they shot him there.
When she returned home, she returned with a cow, a calf, that is, which she brought home from Botosani. It is stated, written in our ritual that the food you eat must be kosher, and she had her own cow, so that the milk was kosher, and she also made butter and sour cream, so that these were kosher as well. If you don’t have a cow, if you go to somebody else, to a Christian [to buy milk], you bring your own pot, so that they milk the cow in your own pot.
After my grandfather died, my grandmother lived in Sulita for about 1 year – from 1940 until 1941 – after which she was evacuated to Botosani. In 1941, Jews from all small towns and neighboring villages were evacuated to Botosani [1]. My grandmother came to Botosani with one of my mother’s sisters and they lived together, they rented a room from someone.
He was a religious person, as, in order to eat kosher, he bought a cow, he had his own cow, and he didn’t buy milk from anyone else.
The name of my grandfather from my mother’s side was Manase Leibovici. My grandparents were from the village of Sulita, my grandfather ran a manufacture store.
I think my father didn’t serve his military service, on account of his illness – he suffered from epilepsy –, and it wasn’t mandatory in those days.
My father’s name was Herscu Meir, he too was born in the village of Bucecea in 1902. He was an ordinary person, he graduated 4 grades of primary school.
My father had a sister, her name was Rasela. She was married, her husband’s name was Iser Smil – Smil was his family name. They lived here, in Botosani, as well, my uncle had a grocer’s shop here in Botosani, and he was employed at a gas station after the war.
Romania
The grandparents from my father’s side left to Israel in approximately 1952-1953 – I entered the workforce in 1951, they were still here –, they lived in Pardes Hanna. My grandfather died in Israel, but I don’t remember when. And my grandmother returned to Romania, she died here, and she is buried in Botosani. But I don’t remember in what year she died. She was in her 80’s.
My grandfather and my great-grandfather Smil Meir had a thales kutn, meaning a small tallit. It comes from katan – katan means small in Hebrew. The one for children is called lapsadechal, and the one for grown-ups is called thales kutn [tallit katan]. You wore it under your shirt. Usually, you didn’t tuck it inside your trousers, and it had those fringes, tzitzit, 2 in front and 2 in the back, a total of 4, which were visible from under your clothes. They wore it [the tallit katan] at all times. And they donned another one at the synagogue, on Saturdays and during the week [if they attended the synagogue]. They didn’t wear a caftan, neither my great-grandfather nor my grandfather.
My grandparents were religious persons. We, Jews, must attend the synagogue twice a day. As my paternal grandfather was busy trading, he didn’t really go to the synagogue every day. During the week, he performed the morning and evening prayers at home, by himself, and he attended the synagogue only on Friday evening and on Saturday. I was mostly raised by my paternal grandparents. As I was only a child of 4-5 – I was barely of school age –, they would tell me straight away: ‘Put some clothes on,’ and take me along to the synagogue.
They moved to Botosani in 1906. My grandfather had an inn here in Botosani, he didn’t have any employees, they ran it themselves.
After my grandfather served his concentration period and military service – a total of 9 years –, he married my grandmother – my grandmother was 18 when she got married, and my grandfather was 30 – and they lived in Bucecea until 1906.
Before she got married, my grandmother worked for her father. My great-grandfather – his name was Solomon, I wear his name – was a tailor and his trade was tailoring, he had a tailor’s shop at home. People didn’t use cloth in those days – they wore thick long coats, peasants’ clothes. He was a countryside tailor. He initially worked in the village of Vorona, and then he too moved to Botosani, on a backstreet.
Andrei Popper
I remember that, after my grandfather died, Uncle Alexandru [Werner] visited my mother every day; he was a pretty renowned dermatologist here in Arad.
It was the first house that the Communists demolished. When the nationalization [1] of the houses came, their house was on the list, even though my mother was the rightful owner. This is the house where I was born.
In Arad, the Werner grandparents lived in the center of town, in the house that had been bought by my great-grandparents.
During World War I, his employees were exempted from military service.