Tag #118478 - Interview #78080 (Isroel Lempertas)

One of the local Jews Tulia, owned a house. The first apartment we rented was in his house. Tulia had large egg storage. He dealt with wholesale of eggs and even exported them to England. I did not enter the lyceum because of one of his daughters. My elder brother Duvid went to Ivrit lyceum. Gradually the number of students was cut and it was in the wane. Brother did not finish that lyceum and lately studied in the working school of the labor organization in Kaunas. There was an elementary Jewish school in Mazeikiai. I had studied there for couple of months and got ill. I was taught by my father and crammed for the lyceum by a tutor who came to us. I entered the 3rd grade of Lithuanian elementary school. Having finished it, I took entrance exams to the state Lithuanian lyceum. One of the entrance exams was Bible study. I practically flunked it, having got a satisfactory mark. The teacher, who took the exam on Bible, was the daughter of rabbi Mamjoffe. When I was not in the list of the admitted, Mamjoffe's daughter ran to my mother, repenting and blaming herself. She thought I was not admitted because she gave me a low mark. Two of Tulia's daughters were in the list of the admitted to the lyceum. They did not have brilliant knowledge and given satisfactory marks for the entrance exams. Tulia just bribed the director of the lyceum having arranged parties in his honor. I had studied in the 4th grade of Lithuanian elementary school and the year after I succeeded to enter the second grade of the lyceum. Thus I turned out to be in the same grade with Tulia's daughters. They were good girls. I made friends with them and helped them with homework. In general, mostly Jews, my classmates, were my friends, I remember Borya Mendelevich, son of the owner of butcher store, Jacob Gusev, Meishke Mitskievich. All of them perished during occupation.