Marim and Iacob Haller on excursion

This is I, Marim Haller, with my husband, Iacob Haller. When might this photograph have been taken? In the 1960's, I reckon.

I was born in Harlau in 1915. Officially, my name is Marim, but people call me Maly. I was named after a neighbor whom my mother knew. At school, I was registered as Marim Nuta, even though my father's actual name was Sin Nuta, after his father. Formerly, that's how people were named, Sin Nuta, Sin This, Sin That - son of Nuta, son of this, son of that. [Editor's note: The word "sin" is a dialect form of the Yiddish "zun" (zin)=son.] Afterwards, I secured an attestation from the court of law stating that Nuta and Ghebergher were the same name. It doesn't matter, I changed it afterwards, when I got married.

I got married in 1946. My husband was recommended to me by David Kesler, my cousin in Dorohoi. My husband was a teacher in Dorohoi, and my cousin knew him well. My cousin came with him to our house in Botosani. I went out with him for a walk, and [on returning] when he entered the house, he said: 'We are engaged.' And actually it wasn't long afterwards that we got married. We saw and liked each other. At first sight. We knew details about each other beforehand from this cousin of mine. I knew what he did for a living, what sort of person he was, how he conducted himself. Mother was very fond of him.

His name was Iacob Haller, he was from Siret. He was 1 year older than me, he was born in 1914. He graduated the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Cernauti.

We lived on Dragos Voda St. after we got married. That was our first house [home]. We paid rent. It was a large house, but we only had a room and an entrance hall, and our kitchen was in the courtyard. But our room was very nice, it measured 5 meters by 5. We had a dog when we lived on Dragos Voda St. And once it accompanied my husband to the high school and returned home all by itself. We moved here from Dragos Voda St., in a block of flats. We moved just after they finished building the blocks of flats. And we paid by installments and purchased the apartment. We never owned a home until we bought the apartment in a block of flats. Where could we get one?

My husband obtained a transfer from the high school in Dorohoi to the "A. T. Laurian" High School in Botosani, and it wasn't long before he became principal of the "A. T. Laurian" High School. He was principal for a few years. He wasn't a party member - nor was I. He taught biology. He was known to be a good teacher. He was on the board of examiners for the baccalaureate examination, he was a highly esteemed teacher. He worked at the "A. T. Laurian" High School until his retirement. He retired around 1972-1973. And he departed [died] in 1996 and that's that.

Photos from this interviewee