Mrs. Osnas Weitman part 1

Can you tell me where you were born?

I was born in Zarubince, a little village near the town of Tarnopol. We lived in a communal home: my grandparents, my uncle and aunt, and my family. My parents moved into this home right after they were married.

What memories can you share with us about your family?

My paternal grandfather, Zeidy Leib, felt that in the coming era the Yidden would not listen to the melamdim of the town, nor the shochet, the Rav or the gabba’im. He felt that these people would no longer be important to them. Rather, they would listen to someone who had received a secular education. He felt that someone with a secular degree would be able to attract the new generation; to teach them Chumash, Rashi and Yiddishkeit.

Zeidy Leib had two sons. He made them promise that they would be educated, but the bechor refused to leave yeshivah. My father was married with three children and he felt that he had still not fulfilled his promise to his father, who passed away when my father was 16 years old.

In 1939 my father graduated from Berlin University. At that time, the World’s Fair in New York was taking place with the latest technology, and the university sent him to display their latest works and techniques. My father was very willing to leave Europe. He discussed it with the family many times. Europe looked threatening and he saw that there was no future for the Yidden there; but he couldn’t convince anyone to leave their property, which had belonged to the family for four generations. They were doing well financially and scholastically and no one was interested.

My father approached Harav Menachem Ziemba, zt”l. Rav Ziemba said, “You are right. Go to America and find a place where you will be able to transfer everyone.”

What kind of education were you given?

I was just 2½ years old, but my older brother and sister, like my father and uncle, were educated privately. In Galicia there were hardly any yeshivos. Rebbeim like Harav Meir Shapiro, zt”l, would come together with a couple of young men and teach them; that was how my father and his brother received their education. Different Gedolim would come and stay awhile. Others would travel to Lublin.

Did you feel anti-Semitism in your town prior to the onset of the war?

Tremendous! After World War I, one hardly knew if one would make it through the night alive. They would come with guns and peer through the window. Communism was in the air. We knew that one day all our land and property would be confiscated. Yet when my father left for America, we never believed that we would personally be affected.

When did events begin to personally affect you?

In 1940, just a year after my father left, we were taken to the ghetto in Mikulince, never to go back again. We left everything behind: the linen on the beds, the dishes and the crystal. Little by little we were made aware of what was happening. My mother could no longer visit her parents who lived in Bolochov, just a short distance away, because travel was closed to Jews once the ghettos were established.

To be continued…