Tag #128908 - Interview #99833 (Morris Schiff)

When we came in Tashkent, mother put our clothes and footwear aside. We put local ‘rags’ on. It we were really starving, mother took some of our clothes and sold on the market, to buy some food with that money. There were a lot of paupers by the market. Nobody gave them arms, some people even teased them. I saw somebody putting a stone in the box of the blind lady. There was only one time when I saw people give somebody to the pauper. It was an amazing case. When I was on my way to the market, I saw a person without two legs who was at the patched mat. There were a lot of cripples during the war, and people remained indifferent. The pauper was with his back turned to the passersby and it was amazing, but in that position one could tell that he was a decent man, whose life made him ask for alms. There was a hat by his mat and people came up and put money there. The pauper did not even take it right away. The hat happened to be full of money. I saw that pauper only once.

There was another case in Tashkent, which I will always remember. I was on my water to the water pump and saw a four-wheeler (something like we had in Tallinn, though it was covered with the yellowing Tashkent dust. I stopped and started looking. The horse looked terrible it was so meager that its bones were protruding like spears. That ‘skeleton with the skin’ was hardly moving. The top of the four-wheeler was open and there was a lady there with her arms flung open. It was sultry and the son was shining directly at her. The coachman was sleeping. The horse reached water pump and stopped. The coachman woke up, took the bucket and gave water to the horse. I think water was all that horse could get. Having been watered, the horse moved on. I looked at it with my mouth open. The horsy reached the next water pump  and stopped, the coachman watered it once again. I asked passersby what it was and I was explained that it was the “ambulance” !