This is a picture of me and my relatives on vacation in Bystra. It was taken in the 1930s. I am in the center of this picture.
In the picture there are, from left: my siblings Zosia and Natan, me in the center, my cousin Nacek (Nachman) Beitner, my sister Jadzia. Aronek, the younger brother of Nachman, is lying on the ground and Abram Manela is standing on our arms.
Almost every year we'd go on vacation. We'd leave the city for at least a month, or two. We'd take all our stuff. We'd go near Katowice, to Bystra, to Cyganski Las, sometimes to Rabka, always to southern Poland, Silesia.
I never went to the seaside before the war. Our more distant family would go with us, too, and we'd spend time there together. We'd rent cottages from peasants.
My brother Natan was smarter and more talented than I. I kept arguing with Natan all the time. We would fight over everything, but he was very chivalrous.
I remember how once, when I was supposed to get a spanking for something, he stood in front of me and didn't let Mom or Father spank me.
We were later very close, we liked each other very much. Natan kept to himself. He was involved in his technical things. He was tinkering all the time, electrical equipment.
For example he built some radios. I remember he also took pictures with Father's camera and he took this one picture of our cousin in a bottle.
At first he took a picture of a bottle, then he placed the image of this cousin on the same film. He went to the Berek Joselewicz Public School in Katowice, I later graduated from the same school.
