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 | My parents, fashionably dressed, walking in Bydgoszcz in the 1930s. |
At first, the transition to living in Bydgoszcz was hard on us. It was a much larger city, containing about 200,000 people; here, Jews were very much in the minority. But we got used to our new life. My father became a travelling salesman, selling lingerie, elegant belts and other accessories. Although we had less money than we’d had before, we still must have been quite comfortable because we had a beautiful apartment at 86 Dworcowa Street. Most of my clothes were made-to-measure. Once a year, I even got a pair of made-to-measure patent leather shoes. In addition to our furniture from Kalisz, we now had a new Telefunken radio. Our apartment had a big verandah, covered with wild grape vines. My friends and I spent a lot of time playing on that verandah. At night, the whole family played games — a Bingo-like game called Loto, for instance. In summer, we always went to the country for vacations.
I liked school very much. I was a good student, especially in languages. First we studied Polish; then we had to learn German. The best work was always put up on the wall. A lot of my work was there. The only subject I wasn’t keen on was arithmetic. But Gitta, who was excellent at math, helped me with my arithmetic. Other parents paid her to tutor their kids in math to help them prepare for exams.
There were only two other Jewish girls in my class. I was very close to one of them — Zula Hanftwurzel. I wasn’t very close with the other. She wasn’t very clean; she had lice. Zula remained my friend all through my years in Bydgoszcz. She would come to my place, I’d go to hers. We’d do our homework together and have sleepovers. She came from a very fine family. I remember her mother fondly.
I remember experiencing anti-Semitism for the first time in Bydgoszcz. I had an arithmetic teacher who made anti-Semitic remarks in class. There was an anti-Semitic political party in Bydgoszcz, Endeck, and they put out a paper called Shabbes Goy. One of these anti-Semitic guys, a member of Endeck, fell in love with the daughter of one of the Jewish families living in our building. The girl’s parents broke the relationship up and she was heartbroken.
 | Gitta, my grandfather and me on vacation in the 1930s. He was now living with us. |
We were traditional Jews, out of respect for my grandfather, who was now living with us. We kept kosher. He saw to it that I didn’t write on Saturdays. Friday there were candles and for Pesach we had a different set of dishes. We celebrated the various Jewish holidays. I remember bringing an apple stuck full of cloves to my mother in shul on Yom Kippur. The fragrance helped her deal with the day-long fast. My father was less of a believer than my mother. I remember that when my grandfather was with us and said kiddish on Friday night, my father would sit impatiently, waiting to take off his hat. Things like this stick in my mind. My mother wasn’t too happy about that.
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