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When I turned six, my father decided it was time for me to go to school. He came one day and said, ‘Tomorrow you go to school.’ And he took me to a school at 36 Krochmalna Street [a seven-grade Bund school] that was called Yidishe Folksshule, or Yiddish Popular School. He was proud I’d be studying Yiddish. As there was also a kindergarten there, my sister went there with me. We were on the same floor.
I remember the school as one of the best periods in my life. Wonderful, warm, friendly, sympathetic. Very much pro-community. With such great teachers. There were three schools of the kind in Warsaw, at 36 Krochmalna Street [the Chmurner], at Karmelicka [no. 29, the Grosser], and at Mila [no. 51, the Michalewicz]. I have no idea where precisely the one at Mila was, but the one at Karmelicka I visited once, as that was from where I was leaving for a summer camp. All three were elementary schools, that is, seven grades. And I remember my parents’ plans to send to me to a gymnasium to Vilnius, as there was a YIWO [16] center there.
A school apron was obligatory for all students. It made us all identical. We didn’t wear coats, like the high school ones with insets, which I regretted very much, but I had a short navy blue coat with a light-colored collar, and I remember I wore a badge on my beret, I’d swear it looked like an open book and four letters C-I-Sh-O, which stood for Centrale Yidysze Shulorganizatsye [17]. I think the school was operated by the CIShO. And I think the Bund was its patron. I certainly remember it was leftist. I know the police often visited the place, at least that’s what my mother, who was on the parent committee, told me. Some of the teachers were Bund members for sure.
I remember songs we were singing, those were revolutionary songs, and I remember that when the war in Spain [18] broke out, and we went with the whole class to the Saski Gardens, we wore red bowknots tied to our coats. There is something I wonder about that we weren’t afraid we’d be beaten up, but still we went there and sang about Madrid, about Barcelona, there is a Yiddish song about it.
The school was a per-fee one, it wasn’t a public school. I only remember there was talk that the fees varied depending on how much a given family could pay, so that no child would be excluded. Most of my classmates came from mid-income families, and there were a few from more affluent homes, who cared about the quality of teaching and character formation, as that was what the school was known for. There were a few students from poorer homes, too, such as myself.
It was a co-ed school. We certainly learned to write and read, also arithmetic. I didn’t know the Hebrew alphabet when I went to school, so it was there I started to learn it. First with play-dough, I remember, we were making those letters, I’d bring them home and show them to Father. We didn’t study religion, but rather Jewish history and tradition. I remember there was a course where we’d read all those Bible-based legends.
Typically for the lower grades, I had only one teacher, Ms. Zonenszejn [or Zonszajn]. A woman in her thirties, I guess. It seems to me that if she entered here now, looking the way she did back then, I’d recognize her. I remember what the headmaster looked like, a slender woman, but I don’t remember her name. We had a music teacher, a tall dark-haired man. Someone else taught us eurhythmics. A lady played the piano, we did the exercises to the music. That was taking place in the large hall. I liked my teacher very much. And I liked the eurhythmics lady, and the music man. [Marek Edelman, remembers that the headmaster’s name was Oruszkes, and the music teacher was called Tropianski.]
It wasn’t so in that school that everyone ate when they wanted; instead, after the third lesson, there was the long break, everyone pulled out their lunch on a napkin, waited, and the teacher stopped at every child to check what you had. Sometimes this or that kid had nothing, and in such a case we’d share with them. I remember one time when I wasn’t hungry and lied I had forgotten my breakfast, I suddenly had more than I had actually brought with me. Then the [teacher] would wish us ‘bon appétit’ and we’d all eat together. Such equality was very strictly observed.
There was no school on Saturday.
I remember the school as one of the best periods in my life. Wonderful, warm, friendly, sympathetic. Very much pro-community. With such great teachers. There were three schools of the kind in Warsaw, at 36 Krochmalna Street [the Chmurner], at Karmelicka [no. 29, the Grosser], and at Mila [no. 51, the Michalewicz]. I have no idea where precisely the one at Mila was, but the one at Karmelicka I visited once, as that was from where I was leaving for a summer camp. All three were elementary schools, that is, seven grades. And I remember my parents’ plans to send to me to a gymnasium to Vilnius, as there was a YIWO [16] center there.
A school apron was obligatory for all students. It made us all identical. We didn’t wear coats, like the high school ones with insets, which I regretted very much, but I had a short navy blue coat with a light-colored collar, and I remember I wore a badge on my beret, I’d swear it looked like an open book and four letters C-I-Sh-O, which stood for Centrale Yidysze Shulorganizatsye [17]. I think the school was operated by the CIShO. And I think the Bund was its patron. I certainly remember it was leftist. I know the police often visited the place, at least that’s what my mother, who was on the parent committee, told me. Some of the teachers were Bund members for sure.
I remember songs we were singing, those were revolutionary songs, and I remember that when the war in Spain [18] broke out, and we went with the whole class to the Saski Gardens, we wore red bowknots tied to our coats. There is something I wonder about that we weren’t afraid we’d be beaten up, but still we went there and sang about Madrid, about Barcelona, there is a Yiddish song about it.
The school was a per-fee one, it wasn’t a public school. I only remember there was talk that the fees varied depending on how much a given family could pay, so that no child would be excluded. Most of my classmates came from mid-income families, and there were a few from more affluent homes, who cared about the quality of teaching and character formation, as that was what the school was known for. There were a few students from poorer homes, too, such as myself.
It was a co-ed school. We certainly learned to write and read, also arithmetic. I didn’t know the Hebrew alphabet when I went to school, so it was there I started to learn it. First with play-dough, I remember, we were making those letters, I’d bring them home and show them to Father. We didn’t study religion, but rather Jewish history and tradition. I remember there was a course where we’d read all those Bible-based legends.
Typically for the lower grades, I had only one teacher, Ms. Zonenszejn [or Zonszajn]. A woman in her thirties, I guess. It seems to me that if she entered here now, looking the way she did back then, I’d recognize her. I remember what the headmaster looked like, a slender woman, but I don’t remember her name. We had a music teacher, a tall dark-haired man. Someone else taught us eurhythmics. A lady played the piano, we did the exercises to the music. That was taking place in the large hall. I liked my teacher very much. And I liked the eurhythmics lady, and the music man. [Marek Edelman, remembers that the headmaster’s name was Oruszkes, and the music teacher was called Tropianski.]
It wasn’t so in that school that everyone ate when they wanted; instead, after the third lesson, there was the long break, everyone pulled out their lunch on a napkin, waited, and the teacher stopped at every child to check what you had. Sometimes this or that kid had nothing, and in such a case we’d share with them. I remember one time when I wasn’t hungry and lied I had forgotten my breakfast, I suddenly had more than I had actually brought with me. Then the [teacher] would wish us ‘bon appétit’ and we’d all eat together. Such equality was very strictly observed.
There was no school on Saturday.
Period
Interview
Estera Migdalska
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