Lilli Tauber's brother Eduard Schischa

This is a picture of my brother Edi [Eduard] Schischa, taken in Wiener Neustadt in 1914.

My brother was born in Wiener Neustadt on 5th October 1914. He finished primary school and four years of grammar school. I don't know if he quit grammar school because he wasn't such a good student or because he just didn't want to study anymore. In any case, he served an apprenticeship as a tailor and finished it with his final examination. Afterwards he worked in my father's shop.

Edi fled to Palestine with an illegal transport in October 1938. He called himself Jeheskel in Israel. He had taken many good suits, shirts and ties from our menswear shop with him when he fled. Nonetheless life was difficult for him in Palestine. He first worked on an orange plantation. I had no idea how hard he had to work. After the harvest the trees had to be taken care of. They had to be irrigated by digging up the earth around the trees almost way down to the roots. Today all this work is done by machine but back then everthing was done by hand, so it was hard work, considering the high temperatures in Israel starting in March. Well, that was my brother's work, and he was lucky to have the job.

Photos from this interviewee