Tag #120573 - Interview #89576 (Tobijas Jafetas)

In 1936 we visited Aunt Mania in Berlin. She, her husband and children lived in the center of the city. We stayed in Berlin for about two weeks, but I was too young to remember any details of this trip. That same year I went to the preparatory class at the gymnasium where my brother Azriel also studied. Jews constituted about 30% of the total population of Kaunas, and there were several Jewish schools there: a Yiddish Jewish school, the technical Jewish gymnasium, the humanitarian gymnasium and a religious school. In my gymnasium the subjects were taught in Hebrew. Soon I started talking to my parents and my brother in Hebrew. I had Jewish friends. One of them, Zandel, was my classmate and so were the girls Tanur and Soloveichik. These were their last names; unfortunately, I don’t remember their first names. Regretfully, our communication didn’t last long. Zandel and Tanur perished during the occupation, and Soloveichik and her family were deported to Siberia. I don’t know what happened to her. I also played with other children of different nationalities, and we got along very well.