[Cz-L] Czernowitz school #18

I have long been amazed how they managed to reopen this school about 5 weeks
after the Russian troops entered Czernowitz.
The Russians arrived on March 23rd and the school was opened on May 2nd.
Possibly I do not remember correctly and it was only the first grade which
started then. Because of the war, none of us first graders, had been to
school or Kindergarten before and I do not know how many of us spoke Yiddish
at home. We were all given a slate tablet and some graphite and taught the
Yiddish alphabet. The book from which we learned to read, was The "Aleph
Bet" of Eliezer Steinbarg. Which by the way, I think, it is the most
interesting primer, I have ever seen.

A month later we had summer vacation and in the fall we started second
grade.
I remember that there was great emphasis on Calligraphy, that we had
graduated to writing with pen and ink and that beside learning Yiddish, we
were also taught Ukrainian. In addition we learned to dance the "Kosatchok",
to sing lots of Russian songs and to worship "Tovarish Stalin".

Writing with pen and ink was a disaster, both when writing whole rows of the
same letter and when carrying the inkwell to and from school.
Since Hebrew letters are not connected, the pen had to be raised and dipped
frequently. I think that sometimes I made an ink spot after every letter. At
least once I spilled the purple blue ink all over my light blue coat.
I think the Ukrainian we learned went in one ear and out the other.
Dancing and singing was fun for us children, but I very much doubt our
teacher enjoyed it.
By Tovarish Stalin we were puzzled; he and the Russian army had saved us,
but our parents did not like him much, his four stories high picture at the
north side of the Ringplatz looked peculiar. At the movies, he was always
shown kissing children, but what child would want to be kissed by a man with
such long "wontzjes" (mustaches)?

It was a very confusing time, being taught one thing in school and hearing
the adults at home contradicting what our teachers told us.

Apartments were small, there was no such thing as baby-sitting, people took
their children along when they went to visit friends and we children
"spitzten die Ohren" (pointed our ears) and listened to everything the
adults had to say.

Mimi

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Received on 2010-09-14 15:38:57