[Cz-L] Re: Kindheit Verloren (lost childhood)

Dear Arthur, Hardy and all Czernowitzers,

I do not know whether Arthur meant that we lost our childhood, in the sense
that we are no longer children, or in the sense, that those of us who were
born in Czernowitz in the 1930ies had less than ideal childhoods.

Childhood in Czernowitz, as many of us have been writing about, was going to
the Volksgarten and being amazed at the tall trees. Bathing in the Prut.
Collecting shiny horse chestnuts in the fall, cracking open apricot pits and
eating the kernel inside which tasted like almonds, in the summer. Running
out to the street to see the man who was calling "Scheren schleifen".
Getting the candies which looked like cigarettes and feeling very
sophisticated, smoking in the bathroom and being very proud to be naughty.
Hanging pairs of cherries over our ears as if they were earrings.
Listening in amazement to an older child who could recite "der Erlekoenig",
or play Diabelli on the piano.

It was also wearing a yellow star. Being told I had to be absolutely quiet
when soldiers were searching the house while we were hiding in the attic.
It was playing "halt die haende hoch, du schaebiger Jud!" Seeing my mother
having a shaking fit (Schuttelfrost) because she had just escaped being sent
to Transnistria. Seeing my father cry because he had been told that his
mother had died in Transnistria.

I was lucky, my parents and I remained in Czernowitz. Arthur and Hardy were
not so lucky, they saw the horrors of Transnistria with their own eyes.
But all of us prefer to think about the enjoyable, beautiful and interesting
things which happened in our childhood. Our first taste of life, never to be
forgotten and always to be held up as a Vorbild (paradigm).

Mimi

On 6/30/10 2:35 AM, "HARDY BREIER" <HARDY3_at_BEZEQINT.NET> wrote:

> Reading Arthur's lament of having lost his childhood:
> Arthur, I completely agree with you and am sorry too .
> On a second thought : Most old people lose their childhood.
> It is an unseparable experience of getting old.
> I also know some who have not lost their childhood.
> But they are not sound of mind and not enviable.
> Hardy

-snip-
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Received on 2010-06-30 13:29:18