Herman Herbst

Herbst gives personal information: he is elderly and his health is poor, and he describes his praying and Torah-reading in synagogue. He recalls travelling to Linz and nearby places for the High Holidays and working in Austria. He mentions his visits to hospital and his gifts to a doctor, along with other acquaintances and current religious life.

Also covers his travel to Austria for the High Holidays and his illness.

Herbst explains his work in the community, making and restoring prayer books for several synagogues, and the recognition he received for it. He shows a Chabad prayer book in Hungarian and English, discusses its nusach, and shows his awards and certificates, with some Hungarian speech. He also reflects on peace in Israel.

Includes a Hungarian-English Chabad prayer book and his remarks on peace in Israel.

Herbst recites a prayer, then speaks about the services in Linz, Austria, where he went to pray. He mentions the lack of young men there for a minyan, the people who attended, and the non-Jews who came to listen and pray. He says the recognition he received there meant more to him than other honors.

Gives details of who attended in Linz, including Jews from Romania and Poland and people who spoke Yiddish.

Herbst talks about his childhood in a small village in the mountains with a minyan of Jews and one school, and about his bar mitzvah. He describes his work at a lumbermill, including an accident in which a friend fell in, and his job estimating timber. He mentions that he worked there until the ghetto, when his parents had to leave.

Adds the lumbermill accident and the departure for the ghetto.

Herbst answers Kerler's question about who taught him in prewar days. He describes going to a cheder in Rakhiv, nine kilometres away, and eating at different homes, then attending the yeshiva in Oyber-Visheve, where he studied Chumash, Rashi and Talmud. He recalls visiting rabbis and the Friday-night meals.

Adds his sister's marriage and a recollection of a Rakhiv rabbi.

Herbst speaks about weddings and food customs before the war, recalling his sister's wedding with a fiddler. He describes dishes such as bundlekh (a dumpling-like dish) and the simple meals eaten when he worked in the forest. Kerler asks about the word takan (?), which Herbst explains as a flour dish.

Herbst speaks about his father, who was old, how he prayed and said Psalms, and how he shared his last bit of food with others. He recalls the family's food, with meat at most once a week and false fish on Sabbath, and the geese and chickens they kept. He also describes how little news reached them.

Includes the lack of news and radio in the village.

Herbst answers Kerler's question about the best childhood memories: Sabbath afternoons with a simple meal, berries gathered in the forest, and his mother's not reading to the children. He names himself as the youngest of eight children and describes how his sisters learned to sew and what they were paid in. He also mentions his older brother, a carpenter who trained in Brno, and a second brother who trained as a tailor in Rakhiv.

Adds the siblings, their trades and the family's poverty.

Herbst talks about working to support his parents before the war and giving all his wages to the family. In answer to Kerler's questions, he says he was a good child and discusses words for a non-Jewish cemetery, mentioning the Jewish and reformed cemeteries in his town. He says the Jews lived among the non-Jews.

Adds the terminology questions on words for a non-Jewish cemetery.

Herbst speaks about Jewish life in Berlabashe, where Jews lived among Russians and Rusyns who spoke Yiddish and Sabbath goyim, and which languages he knew. He explains that he learned Hungarian after the war, then describes returning from Mauthausen, being registered as Czechoslovak and transported by car to Merikó (?) in Hungary. He then went on foot and by freight train toward Bratislava and then Budapest.

Includes the route home via Bratislava to Budapest.

Herbst answers Kerler's questions about Purim in Berlabashe: children went around from synagogue to synagogue performing a Purim shpiel and asking for money. He recites some lines and discusses how much a coin was worth and what a day's wages bought. He then talks about how the family could not afford meat.

Adds the prices and the family's poor diet.

Herbst is asked about food for Hanukkah and says that the family did not make pancakes, though they did in Rakhiv. The rest of the passage is largely garbled conversation between Kerler and others in the room, with some English and Hungarian.

Shows that most of the passage is unrelated side talk among Kerler and the others.

Herbst answers Kerler's questions about the golem and the dybbuk, saying the golem figure was kept in a synagogue attic. He is then asked about his current life, and the passage becomes a discussion partly in Hungarian.

The terminology questions concern the golem and dybbuk, and the end drifts into Hungarian talk.

Herbst talks about arriving in Budapest after the war, feeling ill and looking for a doctor. He was sent to a sanatorium in Debrecen, sleeping in a cellar room with eight men, then to one in Mátra, and finally to a Jewish hospital in Budapest. He says he arrived there with a tallis and tefillin to pray.

Adds a sanatorium in the Mátra mountains and a Jewish hospital in Budapest.

Herbst recalls friends and acquaintances after the war, including a pianist whose name is given as Becker (?) and whose concerts he attended. He also recalls receiving clothing sent by the JDC and having trouble with influence and connections. He complains that the Carpathian Jews were sent in the first transport to Auschwitz.

Also mentions Carpathian Jews deported in the first transport to Auschwitz.

Herbst describes a visit to the Bronx in America, where he was pressed to lead the morning service in a synagogue. Kerler then asks about Yiddish words and expressions, such as the Russian-derived word for 'right away', the meaning of 'apakn' and related words, and the word for 'now'. Herbst then answers questions about his family in America and Israel, and about a friend who became a rabbi. Kerler asks about a song on the coming of the Messiah.

Includes Kerler's word questions, Herbst's relatives abroad, and a friend who became a rabbi.

Herbst and Kerler discuss a Yiddish song about a burning town, and Herbst tries to show a picture. Herbst then speaks about the postwar years, saying he spent five years in hospital after the war. He thanks the American Jews and the JDC for paying for his upkeep, including a monthly allowance and daily meals.

Herbst describes conditions in Mauthausen in the last months of the war: prisoners of several nationalities, hunger, the lack of space on the bunks, and a single watery soup a day. He found a prayer book and tefillin there and recited psalms daily. He says he was liberated in early May and was too weak to go to the window.

The formal interview closes with toasts, drinks and chat among Herbst, Kerler and the others present. Herbst sends good wishes to the American Jews, Kerler arranges to photograph Herbst and copy photographs, and some of the talk is in Hungarian. The passage ends as a photograph of Herbst's two grandchildren is mentioned.

Also includes the thanks to the American Jews.

Herbst looks at family photographs with those present, with some Hungarian talk about a grandchild. The passage then turns to chat between Kerler and Herbst about Kerler's writing and a historian colleague working on Hungarian Jews, and about a Hebrew term and the word for microphone.