Later expeditions, 2012–2018 › Warsaw 2018

AHEYM-2018-006 · Warsaw

Warsaw (Varshe in the project's index) 2018-06-16 29 min · 8 stretches · 2 questions about words Yiddish 77% Polish 23%

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

Last of six consecutive camera files of a session in Warsaw (16 June 2018) with an elderly woman who has no name in the index. Kerler and the woman, who mixes Yiddish and Polish, recall a Hanukkah children's song and trade Yiddish jokes. She then talks about her parents' names and her own Polish and Yiddish names, a birth-certificate error, and senior travel tickets. The end covers Yiddish speakers in Warsaw, the Jewish club, and her wartime departure from Łódź.

Stretches

00:00–02:46

Kerler and the woman recall a Hanukkah children's song and a children's song about a mother with three boys, one called Berele and another Khayim Shmerele. She tries to sing it, with mixed success. Kerler asks whether she could say it into the recording for her son, who speaks German but not Yiddish or Polish. She says it would not sound Yiddish in Polish.

02:23–08:56

The woman tells jokes, partly in Polish. One is about a Jew at a ticket window who has forgotten where he wants to go. Another is about a man with a changing name in different countries. Kerler asks where she knows the jokes from and says he collects them. He asks the Polish name of a fire pump and gets Yiddish equivalents, and he tells the joke of Goldberg and "bon appétit". Polish jokes follow.

09:05–12:07

Kerler repeatedly asks the woman to tell more jokes in Yiddish rather than Polish. A joke about a sexologist and a joke about the last time a couple slept together come up. They talk about how that subject was named in Yiddish. Much of the speech here is Polish and the transcript is unclear.

12:07–15:59

Kerler asks the names of her parents. Her mother was Gitl, officially Miriam Gitl, called Gitl or Gutshe/Guta, and her father was David, with one name. She says her grandmother was Khaye, and that her Polish name is Halina (?). A birth-certificate problem is told in Polish: a copy requested from Łódź gave only one of her mother's names, so she has Miriam with a spelling mistake in her papers. Kerler asks about the Polish word for a Russian.

15:59–19:13

While waiting for a person bringing the tickets for an outing, the woman says that as a senior she no longer needs a ticket. Kerler tells of a Jerusalem bus fare refund. Kerler asks about a sexologist joke again, and the woman tells a joke about a rabbi's advice to a woman who wants no more children.

life today Life todayStories, humor and sayings · Jerusalem

18:48–21:52

Kerler asks for a song about a children's sanatorium, and she recalls only a fragment. They mention a film and the youth organisation Skif, a children's and youth group she knew. She says she has no computer or internet and sees poorly, and that she still reads, though with difficulty.

Singing before the warlife today Songs and musicLife todayZionism and youth movements

21:52–25:25

She says in Polish that she watches only TVN24. Kerler asks for a prewar Polish song, and she recalls a song sung in the courtyard. She also recalls songs from the Bundist school, including one about Jabotinsky (?). Polish jokes follow about a Jew accused of singing the national anthem and about Grinberg being apologised to, with the point that the melody was what mattered.

25:25–29:04

Kerler asks for other Yiddish speakers in Warsaw. She says she knows none, apart from the Jewish club where people mainly receive money. She says that on emigrating from Łódź she was not in the ghetto, as her mother was there two weeks after she left. Kerler also exchanges a few words with someone in Russian about arrangements.

during the warlife today Life todayGhettoJewish identity and attitudesCommunity institutions · Warsaw, Łódź

Questions about words

  • 05:13
    What is the word for a fire pump / hose (Polish 'sikawka')? — Yiddish word for a fire pump, with Kerler suggesting 'pompe' and 'shlank'
  • 10:07
    How was sex called in Yiddish? — Yiddish term for sex / sexual life