Malke Leybovna Snook

The team is let into Snook's house by her daughter-in-law, who speaks Russian. Kerler greets Snook and recalls their visit two years earlier. Lemster asks where she was born, and she says it was a village about sixty km away. She mentions that her son is in hospital.

Snook talks about her son, who is in hospital after an operation, and about her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, who live in Israel. She says she has two daughters and eight grandchildren and that her son keeps Jewish tradition. Lemster asks whether a mohel was available when he was circumcised. Snook mentions that her husband died fifteen years ago, that her parents lived in the village, and that she was in Auschwitz.

also covers her children and grandchildren in Israel and Auschwitz

Snook says she was about twenty when she was taken before the war. She tells how a relative's wife, after her brother-in-law's death, asked her to take one of two children when Jews were being taken to the camps. The transcript is garbled about who exactly the relative was.

Snook describes arriving at Auschwitz. A German snatched the child from her and sent it to one side while she was sent to the other. She says Jews were killed in the camps, and Lemster says he was born after the war. He then steers her back to prewar life.

Snook says the village had about a hundred Jewish families and a synagogue, and that people went to pray. She compares observance then and now, mentioning her grandchildren in Israel and her daughter-in-law's synagogue-going. Lemster asks how she herself studied.

gives the size of the village Jewish community

Snook says she was able to study little and attended a Czech school, which cost money. Her father was a middle-class man who kept a cow and a pair of horses. She also mentions a rebbe's grave in a nearby place where people go (the name is unclear), where a building has gone up.

Kerler and Lemster ask Snook about the 'gut vort', the Saturday-night greeting, and about the blessings that began it, starting with the God of Abraham. She remembers only parts and says she has forgotten much. Lemster then asks what the village Jews did for a living.

Snook lists the village Jews' trades, including a shoemaker, a tailor and a glass cutter. She says the Jews did not dance in the Gentile manner. At weddings there was a 'gramer', a rhymester who was rewarded with thrown coins, but she cannot name one. Kerler asks who taught her to read Yiddish.

Snook says her son was taught by a melamed. She herself went to a lame teacher for lessons so as to be able to pray. She did not read Yiddish newspapers, which came from Israel. The village had a library with various books, and her daughter-in-law knows Yiddish.

Snook says there was no Yiddish theater in the village and going to town cost money. Jews who farmed had fields, hay, a cow and sheep and made cheese. She explains how cheese was made kosher with rennet from a slaughtered calf. She says there were few Jewish shepherds.

Snook says there were few rich people in the village; they made money from land and orchards and sold the produce. Lemster asks about the fruits that grew there, and she mentions apples and a hailstorm that damaged the crop. Kerler then brings up singing.

Snook says she sang songs at Purim and at weddings. When asked, she cannot immediately recall a song about a wife who eats too much, and she worries about her son in hospital. Kerler passes on greetings from a colleague who could not come.

Snook says her son has two daughters who live in Israel. She recalls Passover baking and the fast of Tisha b'Av. She says she married in 1939, before the war. Lemster asks about the return home, and she says the house was found wrecked.

adds Tisha b'Av and her 1939 marriage

Snook says her belongings were stolen, though the wartime losses are only briefly described. Her husband's parents were taken to a camp in the 1940s and did not return. She has lived in Khust for twenty years and says young people there no longer speak Yiddish but understand it. Lemster asks about Christians who spoke Yiddish.

Snook says some local Christians learned Yiddish and spoke it. She talks about Jews and Christians living side by side. She notes good and bad people in both groups, and that Christian neighbors help her today.

Snook talks about the 'good Jews' and rebbes whom people consulted in Khust and nearby places. She says what was said to them was secret. She explains remedies against the evil eye: extinguishing coals and using challah blessed by the rebbe. She says that Jews did not play cards, that spirits were hardly drunk, and that wine was for kiddush and celebrations.

adds the evil-eye remedies and drinking customs

Snook says she went to the village synagogue with her parents, and that her father prayed at length. Her parents kept a cow and horses and worked the land. She describes cheese made kosher with rennet and meat salted at home, with a shoykhet. Kerler then works with her to reconstruct a childhood song about a girl who marries and eats up the household.

adds the recited marriage song and kosher meat

Kerler and Snook talk about when her son will leave hospital. Lemster asks how she made gefilte fish, and she describes it using carp and chopped fish with pepper but no sugar. Kerler says the team will leave in a day or two. Lemster asks whether she still speaks Yiddish with people in Khust.

Lemster thanks Snook and says the interview is finished, and they arrange to take a photograph the next day.

Outside, Kerler and Snook's daughter-in-law talk about a man named Misha Berger (?), who held the key to the holy place, and about her brother, who died long ago. She says her siblings and children are in Israel. They speak of the children phoning daily and of her husband.