MDV 74 · Herman Herbst

Opening chat with Kerler about the recording and the date; Herbst then gives his Hebrew and Hungarian names and says he was born on the eve of Passover in 1925 in Berlabash, a very small village between Rakhiv and Trebushany. He discusses the names of the village in different languages and the changing states that ruled the area (Hungarian, Czechoslovak, Soviet, Ukrainian), and says he lived there until the war. Early in the passage he also comments on American aid to Jews after the war.

opening exchange about American help to Jews after the war and the Hungarian/Slovak/Soviet/Ukrainian names of the village

Herbst describes the tiny Jewish community of Berlabash, which had a minyan and about ten to twelve families, and his own family of eight children. He tells how his sisters sewed and knitted for local women, how his father worked as a small-time local judge who travelled on foot over the mountains, and how the family ran a small shop. He names his grandfathers, and two brothers learned trades in Brno and Rakhiv.

his sisters' sewing and knitting for income, his father's work as a local judge, and his brothers' training as carpenter and tailor

Herbst recalls how at about age ten or eleven he went to cheder in Rakhiv, sleeping at the melamed's house and eating 'days' with different families, including a rich sawmill owner. He attended four classes of the school in Berlabash, then a year in Rakhiv and a year in Oyber-Vishev (Vișeu de Sus), where his sister lived and he was near a large yeshiva. He recounts a fight in which yeshiva students drove off hostile attackers.

the story of the attack on the yeshiva students and their defence with boards

Herbst describes the mountains and river near his childhood home, where children gathered wild blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. He tells how they picked on Tisha B'Av, when fasting, and made them into syrup and jam, and how a group made noise to scare off bears. He then says he went to work at the sawmill and that war began after his bar mitzvah.

picking berries and the bears, plus the beginning of his work at the sawmill

Herbst recounts his work at a sawmill and on forest paths in the mountains, as a youth too young to be registered. He tells of an encounter with a bear that jumped down while he stood pressed to a wall, and of wolves that once threatened the family's animals in winter. Kerler asks about the sawmill, sawdust and the Tisza river.

the bear and wolves stories, and the sawmill work done as an unregistered youth

Herbst names his mother Perl and says she came from Romania; his paternal grandfather came from Berlabash. He shows Kerler photographs of his parents and sisters and names the four sisters and describes their looks. He describes the house where the family lived, with a cellar and a movable-roof sukkah, and mentions a neighbouring family that delivered logs from the mountains.

he shows photographs of his parents and sisters and describes the sukkah and house layout

Herbst explains how logs were sent down the mountain with warning shouts, the dangers involved, and how the sawmill owner placed orders for boards. He names his brothers' trades: one a carpenter, Shimon a tailor who also worked at the sawmill, and says he himself learned to be a shoemaker.

Herbst describes Sabbath in his parents' home before the war: his mother baking challah and bread in the early morning, cholent and kugel baked in the oven, and thin flat breads. Meat was not always affordable and there was no fish, so mock fish was made, with farfel as a side. He recalls a neighbour, a butcher, who survived the camps and now lives in Brooklyn.

a butcher neighbour who later was with him in the camps

Herbst recounts the deportation: in April 1944 the family was taken to the ghetto in Mateszalka (?), where for six weeks they slept in the open at the cemetery, then to Auschwitz in the first transports with a childhood friend. He declined an offer to be hidden and went with his family. He later worked on a tunnel, came to Mauthausen, and was liberated there by the Americans on 5 May 1945.

an offer of hiding that he turned down and the first meal of pork

Herbst speaks about the days of liberation in Mauthausen, when he was too weak to go to the window, and answers Kerler's question about the tunnel built under a river and into the mountain. He says the Germans paid for the work for two years under American occupation. Kerler then steers him back to Berlabash and Rakhiv before the war, and Herbst says his voice is tired, so they take a short break.

Kerler's question about the tunnel and the short break at the end

Herbst recalls childhood games with a wooden top, sleds and skis on snow, and speaks about Hungarian and Yiddish words at home. He tells of his father, who did not eat before reciting Psalms, welcomed poor guests and wanderers, and kept few books. He recalls eating paprika and tomato for the first time at an uncle's home in Rakhiv, and fruit such as apples and plums.

his father's religious routine, hospitality to poor guests, and first tasting paprika and tomato

Herbst talks about the languages and communities of the region, comparing Ruthenian, and Maramureş Jews with those of other places, and says there was little culture in his area. Kerler brings him back to cheder at Rakhiv, followed by yeshiva, bar mitzvah and Friday evenings at a young rebbe's home in Oyber-Vishev (?). He returned home in 1938 when the Hungarians moved in, and recalls his studies of Talmud and Hebrew texts.

languages and regional differences among Jewish communities, and Sabbath at a rebbe's table

Herbst tells a joke about guests in a small town on Yom Kippur eve who needed a cantor, and recites a chant. He then tells a joke about a childless woman who went to a rebbe for a blessing, and sings a comic song about it, both remembered from his time in Rakhiv.