Mendel Sandman

This is my uncle Mendel Sandman next to his German car; I don't know what brand it was, but I know he was the first to own a car in Czernowitz. So the picture was taken in the 1930s. Sandman is the one with a hat. The blonde boy on the other side is his chauffeur - I only know his name was Karl. I don't know who the third person, the one behind Sandman, is.

My mother's sister, Aunt Tiny, was married to a man named Mendel Sandman, born in Sadagura. He owned a candy and chocolate factory that was called Sandia. He employed around 20 workers. Only some of them were Jewish. They had a boss who my father had brought from Austria. The goods they produced were sent across the entire country. My uncle had agents who traveled and sold his merchandise in all the cities. My uncle also owned about six carts and each had a pair of horses; those were very beautiful and well groomed animals. They shone like dolls. There were Jews who traveled through the villages and sold the merchandise. My uncle's house was where his factory was. It was a large place, with spacious and beautiful rooms. It had a bathroom. It only had one floor, but had a courtyard, where the stables were located. They had a very good social position. Uncle Sandman and Aunt Tiny weren't very religious, but they observed the major holidays. No one ate pork. They spoke Yiddish and German at home. 

My uncle died in 1940, before the Russians came. He was 50-52 years old. In fact, he was lucky he died; otherwise, he would have surely been deported to some place in Siberia.