Letters from Lida - 5

Lida, January 3, 1926

Dear Olia! (1)

 

I received your letter from December 20. You are asking me lots of questions; I will try answer them all. About your plans I already wrote you in my previous letter in details. As to whether Mama should be told or not, I am sure that soon you will write her about everything anyway. Besides I wrote to you a long time ago that she wants you to go somewhere to study. Mama was in Warsaw for few days, why she went, I don’t know. She sent here a wardrobe for linens, a small black table, and chairs. It seems like your father made a deal(?) with Cherniak. Robert (2) also was in Warsaw. I gave him a letter to my first cousin so he would play chess with him. He was a good host to him (to Robert), took him to the chess club. Today I am sitting at V. and he so cheerfully was telling me how he played with him, almost  <unclear>. Even before he thought that he is the best chess player in the world, now you cannot even approach him ( meaning that now he thinks that he is even better). And I am saying, you know Robert, let’s play one game. He starts laughing at me and saying that he is <unclear>. So we sat down to play with the condition: the loser is a big <unclear>. And after 1.5 hours he gave up the game. You can imagine how angry he was. I am waiting impatiently for Karpiskies to go to Palestine. I will send you one (dollar?) with them. I already wrote to you that I fixed my boots, also got a new suit. The old one got all ripped from my work. Luckily,  Molchanskaya owed money to Papa, and she did  not pay it back for a long time, and for this money I was able to get myself a suit. Sweater is so ripped  that today I could not wear it. Until it can be fixed I am wearing a white shirt underneath.  Under the coat I am wearing a small fur jacket that you sent  - I got it thru Feinstein. In the last letter I also got 2 photos. The one taken of four of you I think the best. Morduchai’s hand is already doing well. Schmuel-Udel almost all month was sitting with his bride.

See, I responded to all your questions. As for Vera, I cannot for sure <unclear>.

Here is a little from Lida’s chronicles. Merka Balanskaya stole from <unclear> 200 dollars, took Belka Fromberg and Golubovich, and ran away to Russia. They already sent a telegram from Minsk. Dubchansky and Shleimka Ribacky [Rybatsky]  were making moonshine, got caught and had been arrested. In a week, e.g. Saturday evening, Mama will have a soiree <a party or performance>. Dodik is going to play too. I again started to go to Sonia Israel. Last night was studying <or playing?> with mama. To Moisej, I do not go very often, moreover I do not visit him at all. Only visited them few times during  Avreml’s wedding (3). I do not visit Kalman (4) also. A few days after Abreml’s wedding I was at his place and Lisa (5) asked me to play with her in “kerosinka,” I started to play with her but saw that she does not know how and stopped, and started to play with Avreml’s wife, and Lisa decided to get upset with me. She probably thought that I will get on my knees in front of her, but I of cause responded from <… farrig - Yiddish> . Since that, of cause I don’t go to them at all. Actually, I don’t go to anybody. Even Borvise I rarely see. To mama I go every evening, often having supper with her. Yesterday, for example was sitting at her until midnight. Were talking about you. She was upset that could not afford a separate apartment because a payment for the house had and still has to be paid to the bank. Also repair on the house costs a lot. I wanted terribly to talk with her about it, to tell her that you are not to be blamed for it, that you have to have a little place for yourself, that the room was busy with people all the time and you had nowhere to go. But Olenka, you know my feelings towards your mama. There was no way I could tell her that. On the other hand, I could not agree with her. So as always, during all time I had just to be silent. By the way, yesterday she told me that you wrote her that she should get your certificate for the 8^th grade. And she is asking me to do that. And I really don’t know what to do. I am very surprised that you didn’t write me anything about it. Although it is hard to do but if you need it then there is nothing to talk about. Write me right away and I will start working on it. At Avreml’s wedding there was nothing special. You know, I liked one thing. Don’t remember who told me, but your grandmother came to your mother and said that two people don’t feel very good at this wedding. That is Tania without Elia and I without you. What would you say about it? When they ask me what are you writing about, I am saying that you are not going to stay in Palestine because cannot stand its climate. Be healthy. I wish you all the very best.

            Meishl. (6)

The first page of Meishel's letter

 

Say hello to Fanechka. Feigle Trockaya asked to say hello.

(1) Olia is Ola Zajczyk. She eventually returned to Lida, married Meishel, and was murdered in the Holocaust. Meishel does not appear in the Yad Vashem Database. Olia's parents were merchant Aizik Josef and teacher Dvora (Dora) Zajczyk, who were likewise Holocaust victims, as was her brother Robert. Robert was unmarried at the time of his murder.
(2) Olia's brother Robert
(3) Avraham Pupko married Shayna Mirsky in 1925, as can be deduced from other letters. Avraham was Fanya Pupko's first cousin. His entire family was murdered in the Holocaust.
(4) Kalman is probably Kalman Pupko, Fanya's father
(5) Lisa is most likely Kalman's daughter Lisa.
(6) Meishel's surname is Polachek (usually written Poliachek in these letters), which we deduce from Ola's Yad Vashem Database entry. Several family groups of Polacheks from Lida appear in the Yad Vashem Database, but there's no mention of Meishel, nor did he ever submit Pages of Testimony.