page 1 of 11
Play MoviePlease report errors to: info@tellingstories.org.
1-Introductions & Early Family Life In Austria
Hello, I'm Jack W., I'm Rachel H. and I'm Sydney M. We are here today to conduct and interview with Freda. It is May 23, 2002 in in the city of San Francisco.
We would all like to thank you for taking the time to do this interview with us today.
It's a pleasure.
What is your name?
Freda.
And why aren't you going to give us your last name on the tape?
I think I feel more comfortable with just going with my first name. [Note: After this interview Freda decided to allow her full name to be published.]
What's your birthday?
January 10, 1930.
And where were you born?
I was born in a place called Baden Bei Wien, which is a small town out of Vienna. When I lived there it was quite small, a sort of medieval town and very charming and beautiful. Today I think it's grown into a very big city.
What was your childhood like there?
You mean before the annexation? Well I was quite young and so I just remember living in a very charming place, in a sort of bucolic valley and life was very melodious, and my personal memory becomes sharpened right after the annexation, the Anschluss.
Who lived with you in your house?
My father, my mother and two sisters.
What was your relationship like with your family?
We had a close relationship. My parents came from Poland and my older sister was born in Poland to. Only myself and my younger sister, Lisa, were born in Baden. The three sisters were five and a half years apart.
What are some of your earliest memories growing up?
Well as I say, I seem to have a block of my early memories. My memories really begin on the day of the Anschluss. It's as though I were asleep up until then.
What was the environment like in your neighborhood?
We lived in a compound with many little buildings. There was a brook that ran by our house. It was a place I loved to play more than any other place. I played a lot of fantasy games. I would pull large leaves from the sides and sent them sailing down the river pretending that they were large ships. Little did I know that I would really go on a large ship.
What types of activities did you do besides all those fantasy games?
I knew my mother loved - she would do her housekeeping and all that and by noon she would be finished and she would love taking the three children to the Kurpark, which was the most important park in the city. It was very gorgeous. In the front of the park there was this amazing fountain with mythological animals and people and all of them having water gushing out of their mouths. I think that when you speak about early memories I think that fountain is engraved permanently in my head.
Why was that park so important?
It was so mythical and so gorgeous, especially the fountain. We used to like to sit there and run around and play like kids do.
Jewish Family Life
Did your town have a large Jewish community and facilities?
It had not a large Jewish community but a Jewish community. All of the important buildings of that community - the organizations of the Jewish community - were in a compound. That consisted of a very large synagogue - very large with a balcony - a Hebrew school, a Jewish community center, and sort of the offices - the administrative offices - of all of the other buildings.
What was it like growing up very religious?
You know, you're born into a system and you just take it for granted that that's the way the world is. So within that community it was very lovely, and very peaceful and harmonious.
How often did you attend synagogue growing up?
I have no memory, no personal memory of ever going to the synagogue. I must tell you - just to jump way ahead but only for a second - I did visit that synagogue again in 1981. I can talk more about that later on.
What did your parents do?
My father was a shochet - he was an ordained person who was considered a holy man in his community for slaughtering Kosher animals in a proper way - which meant - there is a whole law about how you treat animals. It's a weird law - but I mean it's a good law - that animals be treated compassionately. When you slaughter an animal it has to be as fast as possible, usually cutting the animal across the carotid artery and that's it. Then he had to open the animal and examine all of its organs. If there was one spot of the organ - of any organ - that seemed pathological, the whole animal could not be eaten. So that was one of the things.
He also was a cantor and he was a Talmudist. He gave talks about every Saturday. He would talk at the community center. He would be invited to people's houses. There were lecture groups and he would talk to them. In the capacity of a shochet as I first mentioned, he had a job in two major hotels. One in the Austrian Alps where he would go for about four months every year during the summer and he did all of these things as I mentioned. And then in the winter he worked for another Jewish Kosher hotel in Italy, in San Remo. So for eight months a year he was out of the community and when we were small, very often my mother and the children would go with him. That's about it.
Did your mom just work around the house?
I should tell you - I think I mentioned - that the whole family came from Poland and they were actually illegal immigrants. My father didn't want to go into the Polish armed services so he smuggled his way into Austria and settled in Baden because he knew of some people who lived there. That's typically the way people get around in the world.
Do you know when that was?
They came in the 20's, I believe.
Do you have any memories of seeing your father doing his job?
No, no. It's not a place where a little girl would normally go to.
Were you in school when you were younger?
Yes, I attended three grades. I went through the third grade. And I understand that all the children - it's not like here today, you know, you take your children in the car and you drop them off or you have a carpool - all the children walked together to school. My school was about twenty minutes of a walk from home. So I guess I started walking when I was in the first grade already. We just go with a whole stream of little children.
Did your sisters attend the same school?
My younger sister Lisa, of course, was too young because when we left Austria when she was four years old. My older sister was already in a middle school when I was in the elementary school so we didn't go to school together.
There were two separate schools?
Oh yeah, three in fact. They were in little towns, not in Baden. There were little towns all over the place.
Were you close to your parents when you were little? Did your dad ever sing to you?
Oh yes, we were a very religious family. Friday nights were the most glorious nights to remember forever because that was the night that the best food was prepared. Everyone would dress in their best clothes. My father sang and taught us how to sing and we just loved to sing. We would have all of these different dishes to eat and between each dish we would sing maybe two, three songs. Of course they were Hebrew songs and had to do with, "Oh how beautiful the Earth is, blessing God, and blessing all the wonders He had created, and how grateful we were to be alive." And songs of that nature.
He was a very charismatic person. His eyes were blue and they blazed with happiness and excitement. And that creates a sort of fever in the whole family and everyone. It was an exciting night. And Saturday - the next day - we would go to synagogue in the morning, get all dressed up, and come home and have lunch. The lunch was usually the leftovers from the night before, but still tasting delicious. And having another party with singing. A meal would last two hours.
Were your Friday night celebrations just your family or did you have other families?
No it was usually just our family.
Did you have good relations with your neighbors and the other people in the neighborhood?
Yes, before the Anschluss. I don't remember that in that compound that we lived in, I don't remember that any of the other neighbors were Jewish necessarily. But our relations were very good with our neighbors.
So there a bigger Jewish population outside of...
Yes, it was dispersed. It wasn't like a city with a ghetto.
There wasn't a Jewish quarters?
No. Not in this town. Not yet.
Do you remember any of the songs that were sung at the Shabbat table?
Oh sure, but don't make me sing! Yeah, I do. Actually, you know if you have wonderful memories from childhood, you tend to take it with you into your future adult life, and I did. I brought my sons up in this house with very rich celebrations on Friday nights and holidays. Actually they do this with their little children. It's a very nice focus for a family.
Who would do all the prayers on Friday nights? Were you designated?
My father would lead them all, he would lead them all. He didn't designate like a Passover seder, where everyone reads a portion. No it was his - he led it.
Did he always appear very happy on Friday nights?
Oh my God! I mean he would go to a ritual bath before the Friday night began. As I said before, everybody put on their best clothes. We could hardly wait for him to come home because the first thing that he would do is have the children line up - the oldest one in front - and he would bless every child. That was a great memory because I remember his nice, big warm hands on top of my head. He would say this blessing, which made me feel so safe and protected. It's a very nice feeling. First of all it's hands on and your whole head is covered with these protective warm hands. I'll remember that forever.
How many languages did he speak?
He actually learned some German. He knew Polish and he knew Yiddish, and he learned some German. My mother never learned German - she only spoke Yiddish. We spoke German because we went to school and played with the neighborhood kids. With children language is a very easy thing. You quickly learn.
