Dear Charles,
Since your father was born in Wiznitz, I assume that his parents or
grandparents were Wiznitzer Chasidim. So were my great-grandparents.
Conjecture: they probably knew each other.
Even though I have no liking for any branch of Chasidism, I love the
Wiznitzer melodies of the prayers. I did not hear those in Czernowitz, but
in Oradea Mare, where we moved to after the war.
By the way; what a difference between Oradea and Czernowitz! In Oradea,
some of the streets still were not paved.
As far as "Sie" and "Du" were concerned, I too did not say "Du" to my
parents. I found "Sie" too formal, so when addressing my parents, I would
say: "die Mama", or "der Papa". When speaking about them, I never said "sie"
or "er" (she or he). To this day, if one of my grandchildren refers to his
or her mother as she or he, I immediately correct them: who is she? The cat?
We were unfailingly polite in Czernowitz; men lifted their hats when meeting
a woman (excuse me, a lady), people took off their right glove in order to
shake hands, on tramcars and trolleybuses, men and children offered their
seats to women and the elderly and said: " Bitte nehmen Sie Platz". (please
be seated). Some maintain, that because we spoke German so badly, there were
those who said: "Bitte platzen Sie" (please explode), but I doubt that this
is true.
We did not speak German correctly, but we must have spoken it better than
some of the other nationalities within the Austrian Empire. There were lots
of jokes about how Hungarian noblemen and Polish Jewish nouveau rich spoke
German.
Mimi
On 9/9/10 12:02 PM, "Charles Rosner" <frenchczern1_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi Mimi, Hardy, Arthur and all friends!
> My father was born in Wiznitz in 1910 and, till he arrived in Cz after the
> war, he spoke Yiddish, not German. My maternal grandfather (grandmother was
> from Sadagura) was born in Zalesszcsyki, spoke German with his parents and
> said "Sie" not "Du" to them. He was an accountant and had brothers who were
> teachers. He married Grandma in September 1903 and moved to Cz where she was
> already living (Morariugasse). My mother didn't speak Yiddish as a child at
> home. In fact, the Yiddish she knew came from my father, and the German he
> knew came from my mother...
> Anyway, here is an extract of my book (an English translation) as to what I
> consider as one of the best Jewish humour stories about languages:
> "... in my opinion, the best story about languages appears in the dialog
> between Mordechai Schwarz and Israel Schmecht, in the excellent movie ³Le
> train de vie² (train of life) directed by Radu Mihaileanu: Mordechai Schwarz
> must absolutely improve his German in order to be held for a Nazi captain;
> Israel Schmecht, who lives in Switzerland as a refugee after the Anschluss of
> Austria, is a cousin of the Rabbi. He tries to have Mordechai get a German
> accent by repeating the words ³Freundschaftliche Beziehung², a friendly
> relation.
> - I donıt get it! Why is it so difficult? It resembles so much to Yiddish; I
> understand everything!
> - German is a rigid language, Mordechai, precise and sad. Yiddish is a parody
> of German: it has humor in addition. So, the only thing Iım asking of you in
> order to perfectly speak German and to lose this Yiddish accent is to
> take-out the humor! Thatıs all.
> - Do the German know that we parody their language? Maybe thatıs the cause for
> the war!"
>
> Best regards and Shana Tova to all friends,
> Charles
>
>
-snip-
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Received on 2010-09-11 06:42:37
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