MDV 433 · Alfred Benovich Schreier

Schreier recalls the end of the war and the years after it. He worked as a German–Russian interpreter without ever having studied German formally, was in Freiberg until the end of 1945, then went to Dresden (Hellerau, Klotzsche) as interpreter for the Soviet trade administration. He describes being gathered at Teltow near Berlin, the Red Cross in Berlin where he asked about an aunt and uncle in Argentina, and a camp in Grodno where he played in a small orchestra, until he returned to Drohobych via Vilnius with a fellow musician.

Gives the Freiberg and Dresden details, and says that his relatives in Argentina were the reason for the Red Cross visit.

Schreier tells of his return to Drohobych, where he quickly found work in a large dance orchestra and played for the cinema. He studied at the music lyceum and the Lviv conservatory, finished at the music department of the pedagogical institute and taught at the music lyceum for 42 years. He says he is the sole survivor of his family and had no siblings. He mentions his father's sister, wife of Rabbi Dr. Bernard Schreier, who taught Jewish religion at the Polish gymnasium. His marriage and his wife's death are mentioned but the year is unclear.

Adds the uncle's relation by his aunt Matilda (?) and Kerler's questions about aunts and uncles.

Schreier describes prewar Drohobych, with about 42,000 inhabitants, now about double, and its mix of Poles, Jews and Ukrainians. He mentions the oil industry, the many Jewish professionals and mild antisemitism such as boycott slogans. In the gymnasium the groups sat together and nobody asked who was what. For religion lessons each group had its own teacher, including his uncle Dr. Bernard Schreier for the Jews; he blames Hitlerism and Stalinism for later hostility.

Adds the antisemitism remarks and the postwar blame on totalitarian systems.

Schreier speaks about Drohobych today, with few Poles and about 180–190 Jews, and about the Great (Choral) Synagogue, which is being repaired but has no minyan. He gives its date as 1865 and says it was the largest in Poland; it stands on Leon Reich Street. He recalls tolerant Austro-Hungarian times and the Polish period from 1918. He also describes the Soviet influx of village people into the city to work in new factories, and the resulting change in its character.

Adds the Austro-Hungarian tolerance and the Soviet-era migration from villages.

Schreier talks about Jewish streets and houses and the languages of his home, where Polish was spoken, his father knew Yiddish well and his mother did not; he describes his bar mitzvah in his uncle's small synagogue. He then speaks at length about Bruno Schulz: his walks in the poor Jewish quarter, his teaching of drawing and carpentry without a formal permit until 1936, his family, translations of his work and Schulz festivals in Drohobych. He then describes the German occupation, the 'Black Thursday' shooting, the Gestapo officers Landau and Günther, and Schulz's murder.

Adds the home languages, the bar mitzvah, Schulz's translators and the account of the murder by a Gestapo officer.

Schreier speaks about being asked to sing for a visiting group and answers Kerler's questions on Yiddish songs and newspapers in prewar Drohobych; he sings only a Yiddish song about a Kraków carpenter. He describes Schulz's murals in the villa of the Gestapo officer Landau, found by chance in a dining room, and shows photographs of them and of the Great Synagogue and other buildings. He talks about plans for a Schulz museum and a book on synagogues, and the wooden churches of the town. Kerler explains that he is a professor of Yiddish at Indiana University.

Adds the Yiddish song and newspaper questions and the finding of the Landau-house murals.

Answering Kerler's question about his music, Schreier says he plays violin, sings and holds a conducting diploma for choir and orchestra. He then tells of the Judenrat chairman, Dr. Isaac Rosenblat, who after the August 1942 deportation of 5,000 Jews asked the Gestapo to allow a soup kitchen for the remaining small children in the synagogue. The Gestapo agreed after two days, and when the children first sat at the tables, police burst in and shot them all.

Adds the August 1942 deportation as background.

Schreier talks about a recorded disc and says that more will be redone, and offers Kerler a Yiddish song. A recording or performance of a song about a mother and the golden land is then heard, mainly voiced by Lemster. Afterwards Schreier says he plays and sings it with accompanists, and that the recording is not finished.

Names Lemster as the voice heard in the song and notes that the disc is not finished.