Where did you live in Paris when you were a child?
In the fourth
district
which
at that time
and for a long time later was called
the ghetto
of Paris
the whole neighbourhood
because most of
the inhabitants
of
the fourth district
where all
had all their parents
living
in this ghetto
coming from the pogroms in Russia
in Romania, in Poland
all over Central Europe
They came from Poland because in Poland
life was very hard for them
and
he figured, my father that it would be much easier
in France
to take care of uh... he already had one child my oldest sister was a year old
so he moved to Paris
and then his
parents came and all the other relatives came
Do you remember what year it was that your parents came to Paris? Well
my sister was born in 1924 so it had to be 1925
my parents
uh... my father started this company called Armina
and it went very well
he had many
almost all the grandes magasins - the big department stores
bought household articles from him
and there was really no problem whatsoever
and he didn't suffer from the fact that he came from Germany
except
being accepted
by the French Jews
the French Jews
looked down on German Jews
uh... the public schools, the Lycee Pasteur was only boys
they had a special high school for girls across the street
Ecole Secondaire
and uh...
and I had some very interesting teachers
uh... in the first years of high school
and I enjoyed high school very much except
where I suffered very much
was that
i was called a Boche
A Boche is
a slang name
for a bad German
that dated from the First World War
and nobody was in any way concerned that I was Jewish
In France, I was a Boche
We had a very tiny appartment
and uh...
we lived in the very poor section of Paris
where all the Jewish really settled
people from Poland
and
we had very little
but uh...
the only thing I remember, you know it whatever the apartment looks like it
didn't matter
because
there was so much loving in there, you know
singing and dancing and
and so
the apartment, it didn't matter that the windows were broken
we had a little table and a few chairs and that was it, and my mother's
bedroom , my father's bedroom, there was their bed, an armoire
my little sister's little bed
and then they had a tiny little room where Marguerite and I, we slept in
there was just enough room for a bed
and then we had
excuse me
a tiny little room, there was a little sink
cold water
and we had a cradle and we had some dishes on there and a
soft-burner I think you call it
That was it
That was our life
Before the war I heard it on the radio, I know
I remember one day my mother and I went to a lovely market Place Mobere
and
she bought a pair of shoes, but as she paid for the shoes
the shoes had dissapeared from her bag
and
the marchande, the lady who sold the shoes
said that's got nothing to do with her and my mother really protested, she said
well I've just put the shoes in my bag and now they're gone
and she's and that's when I had the first
what you call it?
antisemitism, the lady said, "Why don't you go to Palestine?"
You know where Blois is on the Loire?
It is a beautiful little town
and uh... so the first thing we were told because
we were still German
citizens
that we have to register
with the police
we registered with the police and they said well
you will hear from us
in the next uh...
week
or so because
all Germans
over the age of
twenty five
must
go to a camp
The French immediately arrested my father
arrested, I mean he was interned as an enemy alien and had to go into concentration
camp
and my mother was given expulsion papers because she was an enemy alien
so they arrest us for she had to go to the uh... police uh... headquarters
every week and then every other week.. it was just awful
and uh... and my father's was in
concen.. in the
internment camp
until
he volunteered to join the
foreign legion