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I started working in the summer of 1939. Until the war started I worked at my uncles’ office, and continued to live with my family. I didn’t dream of any other job. I didn’t have many choices. But this didn’t bother me. It was pleasant, very interesting work. My relationship with my uncle was very good. But he was strict. Before the war my duty was to write on the typewriter. To write letters, letters no end. He dictated them to me.
The office was at 2, Ermou Street, on the square called the Banks’ Square. It was at the junction of Frangon and Ermou Street. The Stock Exchange building was in the corner opposite. It was there even before the war. Many years ago. Those were very big offices in four big rooms. Prior to the war, my uncle Sam, his brother Saul, and three clerks worked there.
We had an employee who was very active, he knew foreign languages. He did the correspondence and had the responsibility of exports and of some of the houses we represented. We also had an employee, a girl, who did errands. Before the war they didn’t have an accounting section. Things were ‘flou,’ I don’t remember the way the state collected the taxes. Except for the girl who was a Christian, the others were Jews.
We spoke in French. Everything was done in French, the correspondence too. Only a section of it concerning exports to Germany and some German and Czech representations had its correspondence in German. And another section relating to England and a few other countries was done in English. But our daily routine was in French. I think that my uncles spoke to the errand girl and one of the employees in Greek, which I didn’t know well at the time.
The office was at 2, Ermou Street, on the square called the Banks’ Square. It was at the junction of Frangon and Ermou Street. The Stock Exchange building was in the corner opposite. It was there even before the war. Many years ago. Those were very big offices in four big rooms. Prior to the war, my uncle Sam, his brother Saul, and three clerks worked there.
We had an employee who was very active, he knew foreign languages. He did the correspondence and had the responsibility of exports and of some of the houses we represented. We also had an employee, a girl, who did errands. Before the war they didn’t have an accounting section. Things were ‘flou,’ I don’t remember the way the state collected the taxes. Except for the girl who was a Christian, the others were Jews.
We spoke in French. Everything was done in French, the correspondence too. Only a section of it concerning exports to Germany and some German and Czech representations had its correspondence in German. And another section relating to England and a few other countries was done in English. But our daily routine was in French. I think that my uncles spoke to the errand girl and one of the employees in Greek, which I didn’t know well at the time.
Period
Interview
Nico Saltiel