MDV 800 · Khezkel Srulevich Shpitz; Lazar Eilovich Burshtein

Shpitz gives his surname and says he was born in Zhytomyr. He recalls going to synagogue with his father as a child. His father was a poor cobbler with eight children. He began factory work early, around the fifth grade, and the passage ends with a muddled mention of the post-war years.

adds the father's synagogue visits and the poverty of the eight-child family

Shpitz is asked about his work after the war and answers that he was a turner who loved his work. He also mentions working on some kind of machine. Lemster redirects him to tell about his own and his children's years.

Shpitz recalls attending a Yiddish school before the war, on a street whose name is unclear in the transcript. He mentions subjects such as physics and chemistry, and that he was poor. Asked about Yiddish literature, he says he read the classics, Mendele and Sholem Aleichem among them, and loved Yiddish books. Kerler notes that he still reads Yiddish today, and the passage ends with a turn to Passover and the four questions.

adds Mendele and Sholem Aleichem as his reading and the turn to Passover

Shpitz describes the poor Jewish life of a shoemaker with eight children. Lemster asks about Purim, Purim plays and masking, and Shpitz says little about them. He recalls Passover preparations with new dishes brought down from the attic. He says Jewish life passed quickly and thanks God for his years.

adds Purim questions and Passover dishes from the attic

Shpitz says his wife is Jewish and that they have two children, one an engineer. His children understand Yiddish. Lemster asks about grandparents, which he does not remember, and about his siblings. Shpitz lists six brothers and two sisters by name, one of them in Kyiv, and says he was the youngest.

adds the list of siblings by name and his own children's occupations

Shpitz says he left school to work in a felt-boot factory, whose director, Bukhshteyn, was Jewish. He had no chance to study because his father could not support it. He was drafted for the war in Poland in 1939. He recalls his mother coming with a letter, in a passage that is garbled and includes a Russian phrase.

adds the Jewish factory director and the 1939 draft

Shpitz says his brothers were killed in the war. He speaks Yiddish with his parents at home. Asked about Yiddish theater, he answers only vaguely. He describes his father as an honest man, a poor cobbler and a synagogue gabbai. He mentions a brother Yasha who was an artist and painted. Lemster asks about his two sons, and a Russian aside interrupts the exchange.

adds the father as gabbai and the brother who was a painter

Lemster puts questions about the words golem and dibbuk, and Shpitz explains a dibbuk loosely in his own terms. He talks about life today, with its pension and easier living. His children understand Yiddish, and he speaks it at home with his wife. The passage ends with a question about the theater he saw.

adds the golem and dibbuk questions

Shpitz says he went to Yiddish theater and liked Yiddish plays, but he cannot recall which ones or the songs sung there. Lemster asks about differences between kinds of Yiddish. Shpitz says American Yiddish differs from his own and that Litvak Yiddish is different, but he speaks as he always has.

adds the Litvak and American Yiddish comparison

Shpitz speaks of his war service, in Poland and Finland, ending with the defeat of the Germans. He is a war veteran with an order and about ten medals, and also some for his work. Asked when he married, he answers 1949 (?). A Russian-recogniser line in the span is mostly noise.

adds the medals and the date of his marriage

Shpitz says there was no Jewish wedding for him, because he had returned home and simply registered. Asked about prewar Jewish weddings, he talks about guests arriving by horse and a hall. He says he attended a Jewish wedding in Israel and that a badkhn led weddings. Lemster asks about the word gramer (wedding jester), which Shpitz does not know. He recalls being about twelve at that time.

adds Shpitz's own registered marriage and the wedding he attended in Israel

Shpitz says he loves Yiddish but is one of two Jews in the village where he lives. One child lives in Berdyansk (?) and one with him, and he has three grandchildren, one relative in Israel. Lemster asks about words for 'sick' or 'asleep'. He says his wife was born in Zhytomyr, her father was a carpenter and her mother a bookkeeper. Lemster then asks his name, closing the interview.

adds Yiddish word questions and the wife's parents

Burshtein gives his name and patronymic, notes his Yiddish name Luzer, and says he was born in Gorovo, about 80 km from Warsaw. He lived in Poland until 1939. He gives details of his father, who died in 1943 (?), and his mother Rokhl Leye bat Yitskhok, who was a housewife. He does not remember his grandparents. He names his brothers and sisters, five children in all, and says he was the youngest.

adds parents' names, the grandparents and the sibling list

Burshtein says he worked in a printing house in Zhytomyr after the war, after arriving in June 1944 from the Urals. He tells how the war began in Gorovo, with bombing and the family sheltering in the beis-medresh. They fled toward Ostrów Mazowiecka, where an aunt lived. There the Germans entered, rounded up the Jewish men, and drove his father and brothers away. Only one brother died, in Bobruisk, and the others survived.

adds the German entry, the roundup and the fate of the brothers

Burshtein says he went to kheyder and recalls prewar Poland: Piłsudski's time, and the antisemitism that grew after his death. He tells how Jews hid Piłsudski in the synagogue wrapped in a tallit. He says his melamed ended badly and describes meeting the rebbetsin, who began to weep when he asked about the rebbe.

adds Piłsudski and the rebbetsin

Burshtein describes the German entry into Gorovo, when the synagogue was undermined and the Jews were herded together. He says a great rebbe had blessed Ostrów Mazowiecka, and that many people tried to flee there. The rebbe was thrown into a fire. He was a child and studying gemara at the time and does not remember details.

adds the rebbe's death and the German destruction of the synagogue

Burshtein says he spoke, studied and wrote in Yiddish in Poland. He recalls reading a journal, and says he knows many Yiddish writers but cannot recall their names. He describes his present routine of getting up early and going to the synagogue twice a day.

Burshtein describes Jewish political life in Gorovo, with Zionists, Bundists and Betar members who marched in uniform with a Star of David. He sings a song of longing for Eretz Israel, and says German Jewish refugees came to Gorovo and walked the streets with it. He describes Gorovo as a small town of several hundred or a few thousand Jews, with tailors, shoemakers and other trades, and mentions Yiddish newspapers. He begins a refugee song.

adds the Zionist song, the German refugees and the town's trades

Burshtein sings songs of the German Jewish refugees, about poor wandering refugees and a lonely street singer. He then performs two songs of his own about his home town Gorovo, one of them written in 1939 and expressing longing for home. He says he composed them himself.

adds his own songs about Gorovo, one written in 1939

Burshtein recalls going around in masks, probably at Purim, and says he knows Polish songs from the Polish school, which the children sang at the end of the school year. He sings a Polish school song. Asked about a Purim song, he does not recall one.

adds the Polish school songs and a Purim question

Burshtein tells stories from before the war: a naked man in the woods who predicted the war, his father the tailor traveling to fairs, and a sack of salt on the road. He tells how his father was followed by silent figures, and a madman dug up his father's body before a holiday. He recalls fear of demons as a child and how he wore tzitzit to go out. He explains how people were buried in Poland.

adds the father's fair-going story and the burial customs

Burshtein recalls that Jewish weddings in prewar Poland took place outdoors, with music, horse-drawn carriages and a procession for the bride. He sings two songs, one a wedding song and the other about a flirtatious woman. He is asked about the badkhn and the word gramer, which he does not know. Kerler asks about further songs, and the passage ends in confusion.

adds the two songs and the badkhn and gramer questions