Alois and Josefina Senska with their children

Alois and Josefina Senska with their children

This picture was taken in Mohelno in 1904. There is my grandfather's shop with the name of his father, Josef Sensky. My grandfather, Alois Sensky, is standing in front of the shop on the right, on the left there is my grandmother Josefina Senska who is holding my mom. Beside grandfather there is my Uncle Bedrich and the smaller is Uncle Hugo Sensky. Grandpa had a secondary school education. He lived in Mohelno with Grandma. At that time, it was a pretty big Czech village with about two thousand inhabitants. Grandpa had a shop with mixed goods; they sold groceries and sweets but also whips, shoes and hoses. I remember how once someone came, who needed shoes. Grandpa put this person's foot on a piece of paper and traced it to get the size. Then he brought the shoes back from Trebic, where he would travel to buy goods. There was an old, rickety bus that would go from Mohelno to Kralice, which was where the nearest railway was. When Grandpa would travel to get the goods he would take the rack wagon with him. There was a great deal of discipline in the family, Grandpa was a stern man but also an honest man. He was an educated person and for many years he acted as the school alderman on the local town council where he was in charge of education. Twice he was even elected mayor of the village. People would come to Grandpa when they needed help with a request. When Grandpa wrote a letter, especially in German, it could be considered a graphic piece because he used handwritten gothic script of the German language, different from classic Latin script. It was an example of his elegant and cultured expression Grandma came from the Steckerl family. Although she spoke Czech fluently, same as Grandpa, her mother tongue was German. My grandparents lived with the consciousness that a Jewish tradition existed but it was not accompanied by any rituals. They were religious and I think that they probably went to the synagogue for the high holidays. However, they didn't cook kosher food at home. Hugo was born in Mohelno in 1896. He went to Miroslav for training; Grandpa probably wanted him to take his place. Bedrich was born in Mohelno in 1899 and went to university and became a construction engineer.
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