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My mother, Margita Singer, neé Grünburg, was a very intelligent and clever woman. I'll tell you just enough for you to be able to imagine our circumstances. I got my first store-bought suit of clothes when I had my bar mitzvah [bar mitzvah - “son of the Commandments”, a Jewish boy that has reached the age of thirteen. A ceremony, during which the boy is declared to be bar mitzvah, from this point on he must fulfil all commandments of the Torah – Editor’s note]. I was 13 years old.
Otherwise it was all sewn from my father's old things. My father used to tell one joke about this: "Young Moritz comes to school with his nose up in the air, and the teacher says to him: Moritz, just because you have a new vest doesn't yet mean that you have to be proud. But they made the vest out of my father's pants, and I can't stand the smell!"
My mother was a very pretty and slim woman. She was one of eleven siblings. Two boys and nine girls. The girls got married to men from all over the monarchy, all the way down to Satmar [Satu Mare, a town in what is now Romania – Editor's note]. Back then I was still a little boy. Because they lived so far apart from each other, they didn't meet very much. I remember two of my mother's sisters.
The oldest was named Saly Horowitz. She married Rabbi Horowitz in Frankfurt am Main, who was also president of the Kolel Shomre Hachomos of Jerusalem [The Society of the Guardians of the Walls: a worldwide Jewish society that has for centuries financially and culturally supported the settlement of Jews in the city of Jerusalem – Editor's note]. He used to live in Jerusalem for three months of the year, and the rest in Frankfurt.
Another of the sisters married an assistant rabbi in Kezmarok. Her name was Roza Glück. I've already talked about my mother's brother, Nathan. He had a red moustache and beard. He was a very kind person. I can also talk about how as children we used to admire him, due to his skill in eating fish.
Back then people used to eat these small, white fish, that cost only a crown fifty a kilo [in 1929 it was decreed by law that one Czechoslovak crown (Kc), as a unit of Czechoslovak currency, was equal in value to 44.58 mg of gold – Editor's note]. They were very tasty, but were full of bones.
He knew how to eat them so that he'd stuff them in one side of his mouth, and bones would come out the other side. I don't remember my mother's other brother. He got married and settled down in the Hungarian town of Csenger. He made a living as a businessman. I unfortunately don't know anything about the fate of the rest of the siblings.
Otherwise it was all sewn from my father's old things. My father used to tell one joke about this: "Young Moritz comes to school with his nose up in the air, and the teacher says to him: Moritz, just because you have a new vest doesn't yet mean that you have to be proud. But they made the vest out of my father's pants, and I can't stand the smell!"
My mother was a very pretty and slim woman. She was one of eleven siblings. Two boys and nine girls. The girls got married to men from all over the monarchy, all the way down to Satmar [Satu Mare, a town in what is now Romania – Editor's note]. Back then I was still a little boy. Because they lived so far apart from each other, they didn't meet very much. I remember two of my mother's sisters.
The oldest was named Saly Horowitz. She married Rabbi Horowitz in Frankfurt am Main, who was also president of the Kolel Shomre Hachomos of Jerusalem [The Society of the Guardians of the Walls: a worldwide Jewish society that has for centuries financially and culturally supported the settlement of Jews in the city of Jerusalem – Editor's note]. He used to live in Jerusalem for three months of the year, and the rest in Frankfurt.
Another of the sisters married an assistant rabbi in Kezmarok. Her name was Roza Glück. I've already talked about my mother's brother, Nathan. He had a red moustache and beard. He was a very kind person. I can also talk about how as children we used to admire him, due to his skill in eating fish.
Back then people used to eat these small, white fish, that cost only a crown fifty a kilo [in 1929 it was decreed by law that one Czechoslovak crown (Kc), as a unit of Czechoslovak currency, was equal in value to 44.58 mg of gold – Editor's note]. They were very tasty, but were full of bones.
He knew how to eat them so that he'd stuff them in one side of his mouth, and bones would come out the other side. I don't remember my mother's other brother. He got married and settled down in the Hungarian town of Csenger. He made a living as a businessman. I unfortunately don't know anything about the fate of the rest of the siblings.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Singer Alexander