Before the War
Contents
Before the War: Theme Overview
Artifacts
Family Photo
Kindergarten Class
Mother and Brother
Spiro Family
Mother at a Spa
Kindergarten Class, 1937
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Before the War: Theme Overview
Before World War II over 9 million Jews lived in diverse communities across Europe, many of which had been in existence since the 11th century. Many Jews lived in shtetls (Jewish towns); others lived in larger urban centres. In countries
like Lithuania and Poland, a vibrant Yiddish culture flourished with its own language, literature and traditions.
For centuries, most Jews in Europe were subject to severe discrimination. By the 19th century Jews had achieved civic
equality in many places including France, Germany and Austria. Many achieved prominence in professions such as
medicine and law and finance.
In other countries such as Russia, Romania and Poland, Jews were restricted as to where they could live and what
occupations they could enter. In these countries Jews were sometimes met with hostility from the local populations.
After the Nazis assumed power in 1933, German and Austrian Jews began to face ever increasing restrictions. In 1939
with the outbreak of World War II and the Nazi invasion of Eastern Europe, the Jewish populations of Poland, Lithuania,
and Romania came under Nazi control and anti-Jewish measures were applied.
As other countries like France, Holland, Belgium and Hungary fell to the Nazis, their Jewish populations met the same
fate. For the Jewish children whose stories are told here, the Nazi occupation of their countries — Czechoslovakia in
March, 1939; Poland in September, 1939; Belgium in May, 1940; Hungary in 1944 — was a turning point that changed
their lives forever.
1
Photograph: Family photo
Page 1 of 1: artifact and description
Photograph belonging to Bill Gluck. Satu-Mare, Romania, pre-war.
Pre-war family photo. Great grandfather (seated in the centre), who was over 100, with Aunt Irene and Uncle Yidi. I
am in the front row on the left with my brother Ernest. [We lived in] Satu-Mare a small town in northern Transylvania,
Romania. It was a quiet town of approximately fifty thousand people of mixed ethnic backgrounds, mainly Hungarians
and Romanians. Our family was Hungarian and spoke Hungarian at home, but most of the population spoke some
Romanian.
Bill Gluck
2
Photograph: Kindergarten class, 1937
Page 1 of 1: artifact and description
Photograph belonging to Regina Feldman. Bedzin, Poland, 1937.
This was my kindergarten class in 1937, in Bedzin, Poland. I attended Jewish kindergarten and one year of public
school. In 1939 the war began and I wasn’t allowed to go to school any longer. I didn’t know the reasons, but I knew
something was dreadfully wrong. I sensed the fear and the tension. My father made yellow stars for us to wear and
sewed them onto our garments. Suddenly our relationship with our Polish friends changed. They weren’t our friends
anymore. They were our accusers. As children we didn’t really know that much, we just saw and felt the difference.
Regina Feldman
3
Photograph: Mother and brother
Page 1 of 1: artifact and description
Photograph belonging to Mariette Rozen. Brussels, Belgium, before the war.
My mother Chanah-Malka with my brother in front of our family’s grocery store before the war. My father died when I
was a year and a half old. After he died, my mother couldn’t support so many children so some of my sister Esther
and brothers Albert, Bernard, Henri & Jacques were sent to an orphanage for a while.
Mariette Rozen
4
Photograph: Spiro Family, 1929
Page 1 of 1: artifact and description
Photograph belonging to Leslie Spiro. Matesalka, Hungary, 1929.
The Spiro family: father Adolf, mother Helen, Leslie and sister Katalin. My father had a university degree and was a
banker, a trade that may have been easier for Jews to enter than others. I think banking was less affected by antiSemitism. My sister Katalin, was three years older than me and a very good pianist. She also survived the Holocaust
but the rest of my family did not.
Leslie Spiro
5
Photograph: Mother at a spa
Page 1 of 1: artifact and description
Photograph belonging to Celina Lieberman. Zbarazh, Ukraine (formerly Poland), 1936-1937.
My mother had been a mathematician before working in the family business doing the books. She was very bright
and emancipated and went to the university. She also smoked and wore make-up — definitely not the usual woman
of the day.
Celina Lieberman.
6
Photograph: Kindergarten class
Page 1 of 1: artifact and description
Photograph belonging to Leo Lowy. Berehovo, Carpathia (now Ukraine).
My kindergarten class in Berehovo, Carpathia. I am in the front row on the right. My twin sister Miriam is directly
behind me, in the second row. I attended cheder (Jewish school) as well as public school.
Leo Lowy
7