Later expeditions, 2012–2018 › 2012 Expedition

AHEYM-2012-136 · Fixler, Dora

Solotvyno (Slotfina in the project's index) 2012-05-29 6 min · 5 stretches · 4 questions about words Yiddish 74% Hungarian 26%

Not online: the recording is held by the project and is not on Media Collections Online, YouTube or archive.org. Everything below is a paraphrase of a machine transcript, the weaker of this site's two transcript layers — see how it was made.

Summary

Camera-track file of a 2012 session with Dora Fixler in Slotfina (recorded 29 May 2012), the second of two consecutive files. It opens with Kerler and others discussing the meaning of a word for a work-shy, unreliable person. A short passage on Budapest and a request for a Hungarian song follows, then questions about the Passover four questions and prewar Jewish life in the village. It ends with talk about a telephone number and a booklet.

Stretches

00:01–01:11

Kerler and others discuss the meaning of a Yiddish word for an unreliable person who does not like to work and gets by with lies. The informant offers her own gloss. Kerler then asks whether she has a question to put.

Questionnaire Yiddish language and dialect Cultural terminology

01:11–02:13

The informant speaks in Hungarian about Budapest, where she lives now and visited for several weeks in 1978. The others then ask about a Hungarian song and whether she remembers one. Kerler guesses it concerns the Messiah, which she denies. S3 asks about a Passover song.

Informal life today Songs and music Life today · Budapest

02:06–03:20

Kerler and S3 ask who asked the four questions at the family seder. The informant says her father was already old and did not wait for her to ask them. Kerler and others discuss three or four questions, and she recalls only the one about eating leavened bread all year but not at Passover. She says she was taught the blessing for washing hands and the ha-motzi (?), but now remembers little.

before the war Passover Religious life (general)Family history Childhood

03:20–04:50

Kerler asks what she would want remembered of prewar Jewish life in the area in the 1920s. She says she was a child, that there was no synagogue, only a place for Sabbath prayer, and that holidays were different. S4 says Jews and Christians lived together well, and the informant comments that things are no longer like that.

before the war Local Jewish history Religious life (general)Synagogue and prayer Jewish–non-Jewish relations Daily life (general) · Grosse Ratke (?), Solotvina (?)

04:50–06:04

Kerler asks whether Christians in the area spoke Yiddish. The informant says yes, in a village whose name is unclear. Fragmentary talk about a horse and carriage follows, then the closing exchange in Hungarian about telephone numbers.

Informal Yiddish language and dialect Jewish–non-Jewish relations · Gresselat (?)

Questions about words

00:01
What does it mean when one says (a certain word for a work-shy person)? — the meaning of a word for someone who dislikes working and is unreliable
01:29
Do you remember a song in Hungarian about ...? — a Hungarian song
01:49
Who asked the four questions in your family? — who recited the four questions at the seder
04:53
Were there Christians or non-Jews who spoke Yiddish here? — whether non-Jews spoke Yiddish

Series: 2012 Expedition
Recorded: 2012-05-29, Solotvyno
Interviewee: Fixler, Dora
Kind: conversational · prompts in Yiddish
Transcript: draft class, 1,040 words

Speakers, as the transcript identifies them

Fixler, Dorainformant
Elderly woman who says she lived in Budapest and visited it in 1978. She was a child in the 1920s in a village where there was no synagogue, only a place used for Sabbath prayer. Her father was old when she was young, so she was not asked to ask the four questions. She recalls little of the Passover questions or the blessing for washing hands, but says she once knew them.
Dov-Ber Kerlerinterviewer
Explains the meaning of a word for an unreliable, work-shy person, and asks about the four questions, Jewish life before the war and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
S2other
A team member or other person present; asks whether she remembers a Hungarian song, talks with the informant in Hungarian about a telephone number, and takes part in the farewell.
S3other
A second voice who asks who asked the four questions in her family and about non-Jews speaking Yiddish.
S4other
A voice who remarks that Jews and Christians lived together well and gives a house telephone number in Hungarian.

The interviewer's practice

Kerler and the team ask loosely, prompting memory of the seder questions and prewar life. The informant is hesitant and says she remembers little.

Notes on the transcript

Short file, mid-conversation at start. Hungarian passages (01:14, 05:08, 05:37) are about Budapest and telephone numbers. The place names are uncertain in the transcript, and the index gives Slotfina while the transcript seems to say something like Solotvina.

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