Interview with Mr. Borel, from Krakow. Recorded at HIAS headquarters, 1949.

This interview was conducted as part of a YIVO project to interview Holocaust survivors in New York in the late 1940s, soon after their arrival from Europe. The interviews in this collection were conducted by Beatrice (BIna) Silverman Weinreich as part of the:YIVO Yiddish Dialects Project. Interviews were conducted at various locations including HIAS headquarters at Lafayette Street, refugee shelters on the Upper West Side, the Bronx.

One of the reasons for including these interviews at this website is to provide the public with the opportunity to hear the original Yiddish spoken by survivors immediately upon their arrival in New York, especially Yiddish spoken in Poland.

Interviewee: Mr. Borel

Origin: Krakow, Poland

Interview location: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

Yiddish pronunciation:Krakow

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW SELECTION

[beginning of audio selection]…..(the preholiday market was laden with) with vegetables and poultry, and it was such a pleasure for me at such times to go to the market, [and to look on] ; it looked so beautiful, a few thousand women and little girls helping them.  Standing and buying fruits for yom tov {the holiday} and it then it was almost time for chometz “batln.” [searching and selling chometz before Passover].  Everyone went home ……………and in the “batei midrashim” (small prayerhouses) they were preparing  the “shtar mechira,”, the bill of sale for the chometz,and the businessmen brought their own “shtar,” and each person, each Jew, needed one for himself.  And Friday morning [sic: probably means on the morrow, on the eve of the holiday] there was such  a commotion,  everyone afraid that they would be late and miss the deadline for eating chometz, the “sof z’man achilas chometz.”  And they had tohave  the “siyum” [special meal at which a portion of learning Torah is completed] for the bechorim [the eldest sons who otherwise would have to fast on the eve of Passover] for himself if he was a ‘b’chor’ and for his son if his son was a ‘bchor.’  In Kruke, they had a minhag [custom] that they did not drink spirits on yom tov, on pesach. In Kroke they did not drink it at all. This went back to the olden days,  when only Shlivovitz [plum brandy made with no grain] was drunk, with hechsherim [kosher certificates] from prominent rabbis. Already at the siyum (special meal) for the bchor they, the bchorim only drank Shlivovitz [even though they were still allowed to eat chometz for another hour or so].

Afterwards they went home and they waited until 12 oclock noon. And then the Chasidim started a big commotion, they started baking matzos.  It was considered veryimportant in Poland, in Krakow, to bake matzos on Erev Pesach. [the eve of Passover]. It was beautiful to see how they baked the matzos, how they sang Hallel [prayers of praise from Psalms while they baked]. Everyone hurried about, in  a great rush,  and they called out [transcriber's note: this phrase not deciphered].

Then it was after chatzos [noon] and many were already wearing shtraimlach (fur hats), holiday clothing. There was such joy, such happiness, such passion, such fervor. Never could you have seen such a thing [elsewhere].  It could lonely have developed in Poland with its 3.5 million Jews and it could only have happened in Kruke [Krakow] which was the Jerusalem of Poland. And after baking everyone took home the matzos.  Each family got only 6 matzos, for the two seder nights. Each one went home with such  joy and happiness.  And the young ones were already dressed up for yom tov, in their holiday clothing, running after their fathers.  It was beautiful. And so they continued until mincha [afternoon prayers].  And when mincha came,  in the bet midrash (small prayerhouse) and in the shuls, the “shechina”, divine glow or radiance, was visible on each persons face. You could see how each person was in a dream, the miracle of Egypt shone on  each face, the freedom which Jews experienced at the splitting of the Red Sea. They prayed the mincha prayers with such enthusiasm and passion and joy . With the arrival of maariv [evening prayers]  the chazan began to sing.  And in the shuls there were the  great cantors and the choirs, and in the smaller shuls, the baal tefilah [prayer leader]. And the first two nights of [Pesach] Hallel is said, a specially Hasidic custom with deep roots in Kruke. Even the misnagdim [non Hasidim] found the custom [of saying Hallel] a pleasing one.  And the chazzan  sang Hallel with such beauty and joy. And then they went home to the seder,  and some families kept the seder until 2 or 3 oclock in middle of the night,  just like [in the Haggadah] where it says ‘the time has come to say kriyas shma [the night has passed and it is morning and it is time to say the morning Shema]…. End of audio selection