Chapter 2

The winter of 1928 -29, mother was in Warsaw. Since she had not practiced for some time, she lost her license. In order to resume a dental practice, she had to take a Postgraduate Course and  pass an examination.  Ella, I and our nanny Yadviga were living on the second floor of grandparent’s apartment building.  As I recall our aunt Lisa was also there with her husband .My cousins Etka and Izia were born later. We were very found of Yadviga. She was our surrogate mother. She was warm, loving and protective. She was a simple Polish girl from a nearby village. A loving young woman put us into bed. There was also a nice and romantic story told at bedtime. Yadviga stayed with us until mother returned and for few years longer.

In 1932, my parents introduced her to a fine young man and they married. They moved to the suburbs of Lida. My friends, and I, we rode bicycles to visit Yadviga and her children. We were always offered a delicious snack. Yadviga and her husband Kazik Mamczyc were our friends in the difficult times of the Soviet occupation and during father’s arrest by the Soviet Police. There was a rumor that mother gave her our family valuables for safekeeping. We did not try to find Yadviga and her family. If she had our valuables she deserved to keep them.

Mother returned home in 1929 with a license to open a dental office.  I remember the problem being discussed in the family. The question was where mother should open her office? Lida had several well-established dental offices and the family felt that mother would not be able to earn enough to support us. It was decided that, since father was in Niemen, mother should open an office there. We moved to the village, Mother opened an office. I started school with the farmer’s children. The program was adjusted to the needs of children of the village.  The level of the school teaching program was very low.

At that point  our parents decided to move back to Lida. Mother opened office in our old apartment in Lida. Mother received an offer from a very important factory of glass and crystal to open an office at the factory. It was several km from Niemen and transportation was by  a tiny wagon on rails pulled by a horse. There was no bridge to cross the river. There was a barge. And of course the transportation in the winter was a choice of walking on the ice or using a sled pulled by a horse. In the spring and in the fall, when the ice was not solid enough, a guide would take mother to the other shore.

Our old apartment was vacant and the homeowner, a widow, and an unusually kind human being asked our family to move in and to start to pay the rent when capable. The landlady Mrs. Ilutovich was en exceptional woman. A widow of many years, she owned and managed a few houses, almost the entire block in the center of the town of Lida. Mrs. Ilutovitch told my parents that she would adjust the rent to our means. There was no money left. Father’s business was not doing well.

In our family all problems were in the open and us as children, we were allowed to participate in decisions. I did the same with my children in difficult times in our life. We moved back to our old apartment in Lida, before the winter, the cold weather and snowfall. Mother opened an office in the small room that was parent’s bedroom in the “good days”. It was the apartment in which my parents first met,  when Michal came to see Maria as a patient.  Ella and I shared a large room overlooking the backyard, the water pump and a view of children playing. We were not encouraged to play in the backyard. As a matter of fact I was even afraid of the other children. And they did not approach me. Most spoke Yiddish. We did not speak Yiddish. We used Polish and Russian language. We were considered “the upper class”; even if there was no money. This is the essential difference between USA and Europe. Here money opens door. Over there it is “who is who”.

Mother took over three jobs: a practice in Lida on market days (big events in a small town), a position of a dentist in a glass factory in  Brzozowka, called the  Niemen factory, and she opened an office in a small town near Lida, Lipniszki. She had to travel from Lida to Niemen by train and from the railroad station by the wagon on rails to the glass factory.   The wagon on rails was pulled by a horse.  In the summer the river had to be crossed in a barge with a similar horse-drawn wagon waiting on the other shore.  In the winter she had to walk across with a guide. In the spring, ice melting, there was a danger of going under. The guides knew the river and they knew where to cross the wide river safely.

I also remember the driver of the fire engine Adolph who had been our gardener, and handyman. He took care of our horses when we still owned them. When our parents bought a car, he took care of the car.  He was my driving teacher. He was there with us when my father was taken away by the Soviet Police in 1940. Although I do not know what happened during the German occupation, I am sure, he was there to help. But help was not possible.

The story of my childhood will not be complete without writing about our dog, Alpha. Alpha was a black Belgian Sheppard. Alpha came in my life when I was 5 or 6 years old and Alpha was a little puppy three weeks old. Her father Votan was a well-trained police dog. The same person trained Alpha. She was protective and loving. In the winter she used to pull a sled with Ella and me in it.  In the summer and when swimming in the river Niemen, she was next to me or to Ella or to any member of the family, always watchful. When father had to join his fellow firemen to fight a fire, Alpha was next to him. She was a member of the firefighters during the parade, marching with the leader. Alpha followed the fire engine even when father was away. She considered herself to be a member of fire fighters brigade She was also a dangerous dog. She hated cats. She kept pigs and sheep at  a distance. She also had a fight with a wolf in a winter night, when she had her puppies in a doghouse in father’s lumberyard in the village of Niemen. She, somehow, knew when school was over and she would meet me to accompany me home. The people of Lida knew the Dworecki dog.  Alpha had to wear a muzzle when not on a leash. In 1934, when our parents open an office, Alpha had to go. The patients were afraid of the big, black dog. She found a home with our old maid and friend Yadviga. They knew each other. I would bicycle to visit.  I missed Alpha for the rest of my life. The last time I saw Alpha, it was before I left Poland to France in 1938. Alpha was an old dog.

In 1930 father was accepted at the Academy of Stomatology in Warsaw.  Mother had to make money to support the family in Lida and our father in Warsaw. He graduated in 1934 and returned home to join mother in the office.

In 1930 I entered a Gymnasium in Lida.  In the first grade of Gymnasium I did poorly. My grades were hardly passing. Mother was desperate. We had a talk. Mother told me about the difficult situation of our family, of her working so hard and father studying far away in Warsaw. I remember this talk very well. I think it influenced me for the rest of my life. With the help of one of the teachers, who was a friend of the family, I was able to improve my grades. For the next 8 years, I was one of the top students. In addition to schoolwork, I had piano lessons. I had to practice piano 1 to 2 hours a day .The ability to play piano was important in the social life of a teenager.

The Gymnasium had an excellent curriculum with emphasis on  the humanities. The building was modern .The laboratories were well equipped. The Gym had all the equipment needed for a good program. There was a soccer game field in the summer and an ice skating rink in the winter. We had to wear uniforms in and out of the school except for the vacation time. Everyone had to wear felt slippers at school, to protect the parquet floors. The dressing rooms were in the basement. All students had an assigned hanger and a shelf for shoes. One of the teachers was always at the door to check the attire of the students .The dressing rooms were locked during the school hours. If a student or a group of the students had to leave the school for any reason, the dressing room was open and supervised by a teacher or a janitor. The position of school janitor was respected by everyone.  The janitor’s wife was in charge of the cafeteria. His daughter attended the school. She was in my grade.

The size of the class  was always 32. There were 6-8 Jewish students. A quota was observed . Most of  the Jewish children in Lida attended a Hebrew School, The City Gymnasium or the School of  Commerce.

While father was in Warsaw, mother had to work very hard to support the family .I remember evenings, when mother would come home, very tired. Alpha was always at her feet. Mother would take out the earned money and Ella and I would divide it for living expenses, money to be sent to father in Warsaw, and for some of the pleasures like movies and whatever was available.

The first summer vacation father brought us a small two-wheel bicycle, a gift from Warsaw. It was the only child size bicycle in Lida. In a way it explains our parents attitude to life. They never thought about living tomorrow. They were living day by day.
Our favored summer vacation places were Niemen, Novojelnia and Druskieniki.

The village is in Belarus since a new map was designed after the war. The village proper was situated about 1 kilometer from the railroad station. On the way to the village, there was an orchard, a small inn owned by a Jewish family named Yellin. There were a few rental villas for the summer vacationers and a school. The village consisted of one long street. The houses were located on both sides of the street. The flower gardens faced the street. Each house had fences and a gate. The animal quarters were in the back and facing the field. There was a small general store owned by the only Jewish family in the village.
At the end of the village were a church and a cemetery. The village was separated from the river by a wide stretch of a pasture and pine tree forest.  In the spring the melting ice caused the river Niemen to overflow. At that time the forest and the pasture were under water. The distance the forest and the pasture provided, was the protective wall for the village The River was wide and dangerous with undercurrents. The shores were low and flat with a wide sandy beach. The beach sand was almost white and very fine. This fine sand was used for the production of glass and crystal in a nearby village, Brzozowka. The factory was named after the river. It was the ”glass factory Niemen”, owned by the Stolle family.  Although in Lida thunderstorms were usually mild, in Niemen, may be because it was located on the shores of a large river, there were dangerous thunderstorms with tornado-like winds. The roofs of houses were sometimes blown away.  There were mostly thatch roofs, and fires caused by lightening were common. When a dark cloud appeared on the horizon, the villagers hurried to be under a roof. We learned early in our life not to seek a shelter under a tree. Indoors, the villagers prayed and special devotional candles were lighted. Everyone stayed away from windows. When the storm passed, we went to see the damage. It was in the forest mostly. Huge, old trees were totally overturned with old roots facing the sky.

In the evening the cattle were brought to the barn.. It was time to milk the cows. Ella and I liked to watch milking, waiting for a cup of fresh milk. It was warm with foam on the top. It had a very special taste and smell. It was safe, because the cows were under the care of a veterinarian, and the worker maintained cleanliness.  In spite of all precautions, there were cases of tuberculosis contracted by drinking raw milk. In our case, we always used a milkman who could be trusted to have regular veterinary care for his cattle. In Eastern Europe tuberculosis was endemic. Infection from person to person was common. Drug treatments did not exist until the discovery of streptomycin in the late 1930s.

The facilities in the villages were very primitive. There was no running water and no water delivery. There were wells with a pail on a chain. The water had to be boiled for drinking or cooking. There was no refrigeration of any kind. The milk and the meat had to be processed the same day and stored in a root cellar. A visit to a root cellar was a real treat for us children. There was so much to be seen and the smell was delicious. There was dried farmer cheese, buttermilk milk, fresh butter, pickled meats and fruits and vegetables and a lot of preserves to last the entire winter until the next crops were ready. It is a village of my childhood. It is gone and I doubt very much that it exists any place.                                                                          Niemen was a popular vacation and weekend place. The last time I visited Niemen was in the summer of 1938. There was a one-day outing in the spring. Our vacationing in Niemen stopped in 1934, when parents decided to move to a more sophisticated place, a vacation resort in pinewoods.

Nowojelnia was a health resort for pulmonary disorders. Deep in the woods was a Sanatorium for treatment of Tuberculosis. The railroad station was an important link to the county capital, Nowogrodek.  The connection was a narrow-gauge rail train, with a small wood burning locomotive, and tiny cars. Nowogrodek was a charming small town with the ruins  of a 14-th century Lithuanian castle. Adam Mickiewicz, the beloved Polish poet, was born and lived nearby. He loved the countryside. While in exile in Paris, he wrote an epic poem “Pan Thaddeus”.  Recently, in Poland, a movie was produced based on the story of the book.

I was a teenager visiting a friend in Novogrodek. There was a wild party- and I got drunk, silly drunk. In the middle of the night, we decided to take a walk. It was a summer night, full moon; the stars were shining bright. I stood there, among my friends, girls and boys and stubbornly insisting that what we see is not real, that it is too perfect to be real. And I stood there and I did not want the time to pass. It is so vivid in my memory...  It is gone. My wonderful young friends were killed during the war. There is one living, but the years of different life experiences separated us and when we met, we were total strangers                    A few kilometers from Novogrodek was Lake Switez This lake was often mentioned in the poems of Mickiewicz. Switez was a large lake with a sandy bottom and crystal clear waters.  When the weather was good,  it looked like  a huge mirror, reflecting the sky above. In the poet’s words, when visiting it at night, one sees ”a moon above and a moon below and you see two moons”. In my childhood, the availability of  motor transportation was extremely limited. The trip was made on bicycles or in a horsedrawn carriage.

The villas in Novojelnia were built in a pinewood forest. The villa in reality was a primitive log house. There were no sewers.  We used outhouses. There was a water well with a pail on a chain. The supply of electrical power was limited to evenings and nights. There was a small narrow river with a dam. It supplied power to a mill and produced electrical power for the town. There were two full pension hotels. The guests were housed in small villas .The dining room was open to the outsiders. The hotel rooms were furnished.

The villas were rented empty.  All the furnishings, the beds, tables, chairs, the bedding, the kitchen equipment, all was brought from our home in Lida. It was a very big and complicated move. It was an adventure. Two maids had to pack everything the night before. At  sunrise, the horse-drawn carriages were loaded and the load was secured with ropes. The carriages gone, Mother, the maid, my sister Ella and I took the train to Novojelnia .The trip took about 40 minutes. The train passed the village Niemen and the bridge over the river Niemen. The carriages with our belongings would arrive at sunset. The maid did the unpacking, while I was out to meet my friends.  Most of the time we stayed there with the maid. Our parents alternated their free days, commuting by train. On Saturdays the family was together.

As small as Novojelnia was, there was a nightclub with dancing in the afternoon and in the evening. They had very good live music. Drinks, snacks, coffee and pastry were available.

My first date in the club was at the age of 14. I was with a boy  the same age. My parents were also there at a different table, having agood time. When my date and I were ready to order, the waiter brought to our table a small bottle of cognac (three stars Martell) . It was ordered and paid for by my parents. It was my introduction to alcohol. I was a popular girl, and I always had a good time, although my boyfriends were different each summer.

In 1935 we went to a hotel in a well-known spa Druskieniki on river Niemen. It is in Lithuania since the borders of Poland were reshaped after the WWII. It had nice hotels. The Spa itself was in a park. In the afternoon there were concerts.  Dispersed in the park were fountains with healing mineral waters. It was in style to stroll around while sipping the mineral water. Not far away was an outdoor exercise club, owned by a physician. There were separate sections for children, for teenagers and for adults. Each one had male and female sections. The admission consisted of  a physical examination. The program of exercise depended of person‘s physical condition as well as preference. Nudism was encouraged. For those who did not want to be nude, bikini and bra outfits were available The equipment was excellent. There were tennis courts and a swimming pool. The vacation in Druskieniki was planned because of my health problem.  At the age of 14; I developed an allergic reaction to cold. The parts of my body exposed to cold would break out in hives.  Back indoors I had chills, and the affected skin became warm and red. It lasted about ten minutes and than I was fine again. Medically, it was known as Cold Urticaria. It was a strange phenomenon. I did not have it in the severe, frigid air of Komi Republic. It did not happen since we arrived in the  USA in 1958.

When I was 14, the treatment was hydrotherapy, (water treatment) alternating cold and hot streams of mineral water. The treatment did not change the condition, but we had a wonderful vacation.  A very dear friend Bella stayed with us. Bella Golombiewski was in a Bielski partisan brigade. A fellow partisan fighter killed her. I was told years later that Bella was killed by a fellow fighter who wanted her leather coat.

In Druskieniki we met a group of teenagers from Warsaw and we were out almost every evening. My sister Ella was a real problem at that time. She had no friends and she insisted on going with us. Mother’s solution was to take her for ice cream at a Turkish cafe .So Ella was fed sweets and she was getting fat, but not happy.

Overall I had a happy childhood despite the changes in my parent’s life, from wealth to almost poverty, and to wealth again, until the war disrupted all normalcy.