Zoltan Galambos

Travel footage while the team drives toward Nyíregyháza. The speakers note phone numbers and make phone calls in Hungarian to find Yiddish speakers and the Jewish community, mentioning a Yiddish speaker and the synagogue. They discuss who might be interviewed, and the transcript is largely garbled.

The transcript shows phone calls to locate Yiddish speakers and the community.

Tour of the Nyíregyháza synagogue with a local man (S2, Kiralyi per the catalogue) speaking Hebrew and some Yiddish and Hungarian. The talk touches on the history of the Orthodox and Neolog congregations, Jewish life in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, and the Jews of the town after the war. A Hanukkah gift is mentioned, but the transcript is mostly garbled.

The talk also covers the Orthodox/Neolog division and Jewish communities in neighbouring countries.

Footage in and around the synagogue with a few words of talk that are hard to follow.

Brief remarks on present-day Jewish life in the town and a Hanukkah event, partly garbled.

Talk at the community centre and library, followed by exterior footage of the synagogue. Hungarian conversations deal with an ill person. Kerler and the others discuss visiting an elderly Yiddish speaker, Zoli bácsi, in Vaja, and whether to bring him to the synagogue by car or taxi. They phone about his address in Vaja and decide to go together.

Most of the passage is arrangements and phone calls about meeting Zoli bácsi, not library footage.

The team drives from Nyíregyháza to Vaja, with a few remarks about finding the right street and house.

Kerler and the team meet Galambos and his family at the house and arrange the interview. Kerler explains they want to sit for half an hour, record how he speaks Yiddish and hear about old times, and asks him to speak slowly. The camera is set up.

Galambos shows family photographs of his siblings, his parents and the Jews of the village driven into the ghetto. He was liberated from Majdanek. As the interview begins he gives the place of his birth, and the interviewers discuss the Yiddish word he uses for it.

The passage also shows the start of the interview, with his birth in Vaja and a note on his Yiddish wording.

Galambos gives the date and place of the recording and his own birth in Vaja in 1923. He names his father, born in Vaja around 1880 (?), who was a cabinetmaker, and says the family also had a shop and fields. Kerler also asks about the father's family name and double given name.

Kerler's questions about the father's name and the street address.

Galambos names his maternal grandmother, Chaye Shpitser, and says his mother came from Pusztadobos. He describes his long childhood day, from cheder before dawn through Hungarian school to cheder again until evening. He names his melamdim, Shlomo Pavel and Yosef Fridman, and the subjects taught, and says that at thirteen he went to the yeshiva in Putnok.

The names of the two melamdim and the subjects taught.

Galambos says he never knew his grandparents and describes tending the family graves in the Vaja cemetery. In answer to Kerler, he names his siblings, five sisters and three brothers (?), and says most died in Auschwitz. One sister who reached Palestine and a brother died after the war.

A full list of his siblings' names and their fates.

Galambos talks about the war years, when he was in a Hungarian labor service. He describes the earthwork he was made to do, digging large pits meant to stop enemy tanks. Kerler helps him find the Yiddish words for this.

Galambos answers Kerler's questions about cheder: there was no special chant for learning, and children learned to speak Yiddish and Hebrew and to write. He mentions that he goes to the synagogue every Sabbath despite poor health. He recalls playing in the courtyard with other children, and says the Vaja community had 41 families, a shul and a rabbi named Grinvald who died in the early 1930s.

The 41 families and the rabbi Grinvald.

Galambos says the Vaja Jews were not Hasidic and did not wear the shtrayml, only the shoykhet had one. He then discusses prayer and the shtrayml-wearing Jews of Munkács, with some doubtful words, and begins to talk about the Tosher rebbe. Kerler asks about the meaning of "shtrayml-wearing", and about the modeh ani prayer taught to children.

Galambos recalls people asking the Tosher rebbe in the Kisvárda ghetto what would become of the Jews. He says the rebbe answered that he could not tell. He sings or recites parts of a prayer-song, evidently "Habeit mishamayim", and a song about paper children, which he heard sung by a Polish Yiddish theater in Pest after the war. Kerler asks him to repeat the first song; the words are largely garbled in the transcript.

The two songs and the Polish Yiddish theater in Pest.

At Kerler's request Galambos chants the prayer for blessing the new month. He is asked about the Kaddish and says he does not say it without a minyan. He says that none of the 41 families in Vaja was Hasidic, that there were no wealthy Jews, and that the trades were tailors, shoemakers and shopkeepers. His father was a cabinetmaker with a shop and fields worked by non-Jews.

Kerler's questions on Hasidim in Vaja and on trades, and the family's fields worked by non-Jews.

Galambos speaks about the Sabbath goy who lit the fire each Sabbath and did not know Yiddish, and what his father said to him in Hungarian. He says Jews numbered 41 families and the non-Jewish population of Vaja was about 2,000, with 3,800 today (?). He mentions reciting a text from the prayer book (?) every Sabbath, the transcript is unclear on which.

The size of the Jewish and non-Jewish population.

Kerler asks whether Galambos could continue his studies after the war. He answers by describing what he saw of the Jewish catastrophe, and bitterly says the wealthy American Jews did not come to help the survivors. He says he has no relatives in Israel but his brother's son lives in New York and calls occasionally. Kerler then turns to questions about the evil eye.

The relatives in America.

Answering Kerler's questions about folk beliefs against the evil eye, Galambos says he does not remember such sayings and that Yiddish in Vaja was plain Hungarian-style Yiddish, not Polish. He mentions the Tosher rebbe's grandchildren who visited from Canada this summer. He criticizes the fund-raising of the Satmar rebbe's followers and recalls the Satmar rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum in Kleinwardein before the war. Kerler then asks about holidays.

The evil-eye questions and the visit of the Tosher rebbe's grandchildren.

Answering Kerler about prewar holidays in Vaja, Galambos says everyone went to the synagogue and held a Passover seder. He describes the comic Four Questions his father used to stage, and says he was the middle child and a twin. He speaks about Purim and recites at Kerler's request a rhyming Purim shpil verse, repeated for the recording.

The Four Questions and the Purim verse.

Galambos recalls the Yosef play, performed by Jewish children in Vaja before the war and lasting two hours. He says it was performed only on Purim, quotes a few lines from it, and says it is no longer performed. Kerler asks whether his mother or father sang; Galambos says no.

Galambos says his mother read the Tsene-rene at home, for his sisters and the neighbors, and Kerler asks when this was. He answers questions about the term baal shem and a "good Jew". He then reflects on the state of the world and prays for Eretz Yisrael, before starting to talk about the hardships of a yeshiva student.

The two terminology questions.

Galambos describes how hard yeshiva life was, with much study and poor students depending on a different Jewish household for meals each day. A song about yeshiva students is introduced here but is not clearly audible in the transcript.

The song is not clear in the transcript.

Galambos sings the Yiddish song about the yeshiva student who does not want to go on suffering, repeating it slowly at Kerler's request.

Galambos says the Vaja synagogue was ruined, like the Temple. He recalls that after the war a sister and three brothers returned and began businesses. He describes poor Jewish peddlers from other towns selling religious items and books, and says he read Hebrew, Yiddish and a little German but not Hungarian literature. He remarks that the Holocaust cannot be portrayed in theater or books.

includes his remarks that the Holocaust cannot be portrayed in theater

Galambos shows a book in English about Vaja, given to him by the grandson of a Jew from Canada. Kerler says they will obtain a copy, and the book's publisher and Weinberger from Munkács are mentioned. A Russian term for a labor battalion comes up. Galambos then repeats the yeshiva-student song with Kerler, who asks about its grammar.

includes the book's possible purchase and the labor-battalion remark

Galambos is asked about Sabbath table songs and recalls little. Asked about Hanukkah food, he says they made fried dough cakes and fish on Sabbath, and mentions gefilte fish prepared with sugar once in Klausenburg(?). He says his cheder songs are forgotten and doubts that anyone is interested in such memories.

adds the Sabbath gefilte-fish talk and his doubt that his memories matter

Galambos argues angrily about the Americans' failure to bomb the camps and save Hungarian Jews. He claims that Americans took a train of Jewish gold, for which Hungary later received compensation, and speaks about restitution. He says he gets a lifelong pension from Germany. Kerler then asks about yeshivas in the area.

adds the claims about Americans and the gold train, and a pension from Germany

Asked about prewar yeshivas in the area, Galambos names places such as Nyírmada and Ópályi. He cannot say which had the best reputation. He then speaks of saying the Kaddish and prayers that bring back Auschwitz and the burning of children, and asks for a prayer book.

adds the turn to Kaddish and Auschwitz memories

Galambos reads from the prayer book and says the verses recall Auschwitz, where children were thrown into the fire. He contrasts prewar life, when Jews lived peacefully with their neighbors, went to synagogue and cheder and walked freely day and night, with today.

adds the prayer-book reading and Auschwitz recollection

Kerler asks about prewar newspapers. Galambos recalls a Jewish paper in Hungarian and no Yiddish one. He says cheder taught reading without translation and yeshiva taught Gemara. He lists towns he visited, including Debrecen and Munkács, and the group discusses travel to Košice. They also touch on the river and the word for ritual bath.

adds newspapers, languages, towns he visited and the river

Galambos speaks about Sabbath kiddush wine and bread, and the term for the braided loaf, and about burning the challah portion as a commandment. Kerler asks about theater, and about the terms dybbuk and golem. Galambos explains the golem as a figure from the Haggadah.

adds the dybbuk and golem terms and the theater question

Galambos recalls the camps after liberation, where Polish Jews spoke Polish, Russian and Yiddish while Hungarian Jews mostly did not speak Yiddish. He names places in the area where Yiddish was spoken, mentions that American soldiers came with a Torah, and describes devout Polish Jews. Kerler then asks about the happiest time in his life.

adds Hungarian versus Polish Jews' Yiddish and the American soldiers' Torah

Asked for the happiest time, Galambos says his life was hard. He had some good life before the troubles came, and he names relatives who survived, his parents and sisters. Asked how Vaja's life should be remembered, he says he cannot say much. Kerler thanks him and the formal interview ends.

adds the surviving relatives and how to remember Vaja

Outside, Galambos talks with the team and says he has found it hard to recall old things. He recalls that his family came to Vaja when he was three. He mentions cheder and games with other children, and the group discusses the number of streets in Vaja. Hungarian chat with others and a gift of apples follow, then a song and warm farewells.

adds the farewell chat and gifts outside

Footage of Košice streets while Kerler and another man talk; the speech is largely unclear, with remarks about Slovak and a pleasant street.

Footage in and around the Košice synagogue with several voices, including some Polish, Russian and English. Speech is mostly garbled; people discuss documentation, a found historical document and books, and something used in a camp.