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1. Before the War
- The University Press of Kentucky
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1. Before the War My grandfather's name was Moshe Ganckewitz. I lived with my mother and father in his apartment house at 23 Preplaukos Kanto in Kovno, Lithuania. My grandfather and grandmother (my mother's parents) shared the first floor with us. When I was younger, my mother's two younger sisters, Golda and Celia, lived there too, but after they married they lived with their families in two apartments across from each other on the second floor. An older sister, Ettel, lived with her husband, Abraham Gizelter, a few blocks away until my grandparents died, then they moved in with us on the first floor. Solomon (Shloime), my mother's youngest brother, also lived with us and shared a room with me until he married and moved to the third floor with his wife. The three apartments on the third floor were rented out for approximately ten to fifteen dollars a month (although one tenant paid her rent in eggs). Halfthe cellar was also rented out to a Kosher butcher shop. The otherhalfwas used as an ice house and to store pickles made from my grandfather's cucumbers. We had a Lithuanianjanitor who lived three or four miles away and took care ofthe house and stables for us. My grandfather was a farmer. He rented land from a Lithuanian landowner to raise his cucumbers. Every Friday morning, around 4:00 or 4:30, he would take the cucumbers to the farmers' market in 150- to 200-pound bags. He had three wagons, each so large that it took two big horses (probably Belgians) to pull it. During school vacations I would ride with the driver the twenty-five or thirty miles to market over rough roads. After the cucumbers were sold we would drive back to the farm and 2 The Shadow of Death L A T V A ~ ", ........~............:..... Siauliai. Varenai. Radviliskis· L T H Skaudvilee .Raseiniai eTauroggen : Pilviskiai . . Eydtkuhnen tf.~ .Vilkaviskis .... Kybartai Kalvarija· EAST :::..../ ............. ................. .... Rokiskis. .... • Panevezys U A N A elinkaiciai • Kedainai .Vidiskiai·Ukmerge eUtena Miligan·.... , . '" .... Oszmiana .Dvinsk········/···~;aslaw· I'" ....:J? :...... ·Widze PRUSSIA :'::- .~:~~~.~: ........... .............. P o L A N miles 50 I Bialystok. kilometres 1989 ................ [44.222.196.236] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:06 GMT) Before the War 3 Grandpa would pull up a chair to a big table and payoff the farmworkers (mostly women) out of a big bag of silver. Coming home I would get to ride one ofthe horses down to the river, where we took them to be watered before returning them to the stables. This I loved. When we got home we went through two large doors made of wood and sheet metal that led to the stables in back ofthe apartment building. There were six stalls and my grandpa kept his carriage there also. We would have a lunch ofsoup, rolls, and meat, and then go to the steambath down the street so we would be clean for the Shabbas. In the steambath the higher up you went, the hotter it was. I could only make itto the third step, butmy Grandpa could go all the way to the tenth step at the top. There was a man called a pashtek who would slap you with a beater to stimulate the blood. My grandpa would turn fiery red, but he could have stayed all night. I hadto leave after an hour and a half. He would come home after about three hours. When we came home we would dress to go to the synagogue. The women would be in the kitchen preparing the Shabbas meal, but we were never allowed inthere for fear someone would give the food the evil eye and jinx it. It smelled delicious, but AuntEttel, the oldest sister, was veryfirm, and no meant no. For Shabbas dinner we would have gefilte fish (forwhich Aunt Ettel was famous), meat, brown potatoes called cholent, plums, carrots , soup, and dessert. The whole family-aunts, uncles, and cousins-ate together. I would fall asleep at the table and then be awakened to go to prayers for two hours. Saturday mornings were also spent at the synagogue unless I could sneak away and play soccer with my friends. But if my mother caught me, she would give me the look and say, "Sit down-don't move," and she meant it. After lunch, usually fresh rolls filled with meat-it would melt in your mouth-we would be so stuffed we would nap for two hours. Then around 3:30 or...