Tag #108758 - Interview #78427 (Janina Wiener)

Grandfather had an office in the house where he lived. The address was 35 Skarbkowska Street [now Lesi Ukrainki], and we lived next door at 37. That was the center of Lwow. Grandfather owned both houses, and that’s why I was so close to them. Both houses had two stories. Like us, Grandfather lived on the second floor. His apartment was very spacious, and from the living room you entered a balcony overlooking the street. The balcony had beautiful metalwork, hammered by some village blacksmith. Grandfather had bought those houses, but I don’t know when. I can’t say whether Grandfather owned any other real estate except those two townhouses.

In the kitchen they had this huge tiled stove with a top plate for cooking. A door led from the kitchen to the dining room, and when you entered, on the right there was a niche, a cabinet set into the wall, with a metal door – all that was wallpapered. There were shelves there, and on the lower shelf stood tins full of cookies. All kinds of cookies: salty ones of the cracker variety with poppy-seed, sweet ones…