Tag #130214 - Interview #101129 (Samuel Eiferman)

Anti-Semitism wasn’t an issue in our area. Even though the Cuzists [6] came to power in 1937, the Ukrainians weren’t aggressive to us. This went for the Romanian gendarme and the Romanian priest too. When it was time for the religion class, the priest would ask the two Jewish boys, one of whom was me: “Would you like to leave?” – “No, Father, we’ll stay.” So we stayed with the others and watched the Christian Orthodox class being taught. I made friends with everyone, regardless of their faith. We didn’t know what racial hatred was. Even when Cuzist supporters spent one month in our village, with clubs, swastikas and everything, they didn’t harm anyone, despite the fact that they were already in touch with the Gestapo.