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They were both trade people. Their trade consisted of my grandfather going to the fair with one of the peasants. He would go to Kroscienko [a town in the south of Poland, around 80 km south-east of Cracow], or to Szaflary [a town, around 70 km south of Cracow], or Nowy Targ [a city, around 70 km south-east of Cracow]. He was a bearded Jew whom people trusted. He used to bring, for example, five geese, five hens and ten dozen eggs. With the help of a neighbor or a wagon driver he would distribute those among the local Jews, those who could afford it.
My grandfather brought poultry from the countryside. When someone bought a hen, my grandmother took it to the kosher butcher, to the ‘siojchet' [Yiddish for shochet], and delivered poultry to the clients which was ready for cooking, that is, plucked and gutted. Clients bought from her, because they trusted her. They knew that poultry from the old Schnitzer woman had been ritually killed by a kosher butcher and if the hen swallowed something at the courtyard, like a nail or something, and my grandmother found it while gutting, she wouldn't sell the hen because it wouldn't be kosher. My grandmother paid the kosher butcher for his work and calculated that and her own work into the cost.
My grandfather brought poultry from the countryside. When someone bought a hen, my grandmother took it to the kosher butcher, to the ‘siojchet' [Yiddish for shochet], and delivered poultry to the clients which was ready for cooking, that is, plucked and gutted. Clients bought from her, because they trusted her. They knew that poultry from the old Schnitzer woman had been ritually killed by a kosher butcher and if the hen swallowed something at the courtyard, like a nail or something, and my grandmother found it while gutting, she wouldn't sell the hen because it wouldn't be kosher. My grandmother paid the kosher butcher for his work and calculated that and her own work into the cost.
Period
Interview
Leopold Sokolowski