Re: [Cz-L] Richtige Czernowitzer .

Ja, Richtige Czernowitzer.
We did speak German, Czernowitzer German. Just as in Berlin, they
spoke -
Berliner German and in Vienna - Viennese German and in Switzerland
- Swiss German.

Mostly our German was quite passable.
In 1942, I was walking with my mother on the Herrengasse.
My mother was wearing the yellow star of David. Apparently I was not.
We talked as we walked. A German officer passing us, stopped my mother
and asked her, where she had gotten the German child.
She had a hard time convincing him that I was her own child and not
German.

I and many my age, did learn to read German, before we learned
to read any other language. When we should have started school,
Jewish children were not allowed to go to school.
Our parents found us private teachers and we learned German,
all our books were in German.

Mimi

On May 26, 2011, at 5:09 AM, HARDY BREIER wrote:

> "Those of us who were born in Czernowitz or Cernauti and spoke German
> as our first language, are "Richtige, wirkliche Czernowitzer".
> ( proper, true Czernowitzer). We can be graded according to our
> degree of
> conceit, but let's leave this to another time."
> So writes Mimi,
> To this I say : We didnt speak German as our first language or second
> or third.
> Simply because we didnt know German. Never learned at school.
> What we heard at home was make believe German.
> We read German- but speak ? With whom ? Other Czernowitzer who
> spoke just as bad. German is a very difficult language with a grammar
> which is impossible. By study and listening to proper language you
> can manage a command of it.
> We missed both . True Czernowitzer , real Czernowitzer as we
> were , German as
> spoken in Germany we did not.
> As much as we wanted to !
> So we were proper Czernowitzer , but as regards German Kultur
> we didnt have what to be proud of.
> Richtige Czernowitzer - my eye. Hardy
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Received on 2011-05-26 07:18:19