Interview with Dina Drori
Społeczność żydowska przed 1989 – Relacje, wspomnienia
Polska / małopolskie
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Baile Dina Mincberg was born on 3.12.1924 in Koszyce.
Baile's siblings: brother Mosze Eli was born on 17.1.1917; sister Chana Perl was born on 14.6.1921 – both in Koszyce.
Paternal family
Father Yechiel Szlomo Mincberg was born in 1888 in Ostrowiec.
(Baile does not recall the names of his seven siblings).
Grandparents: Szmuel and Gitl – both born in Ostrowiec.
Maternal family
Mother Tonia was born in 1888 in Koszyce.
Tonia's siblings: Awracham, Golda, Miriam, Sara, Mosze.
Tonia's parents: Itzchak Meir Loewinstein and Baile Dina (nee Singer).
Father Yechiel grew up in an orthodox family in Ostrowiec. He studied at a Yeshiva and was ordained a Rabbi. His father Szmuel managed a building materials shop.
Mother Tonia's father Itzchak Meir managed a fabrics shop in Koszyce. From the economic point of view the Loewinstein's were wealthier. After her parents passed away, Tonia took over the management of the shop, buying out her siblings.
In her twenties Tonia's boyfriend traveled to France to study medicine. The love letters that he used to send her through his parents never reached her. She decided to end their relationship and after sometime married Yechiel. He had been married before at the age of 18, but his wife and child died of tuberculosis.
Yechiel studied bookkeeping and after their marriage he was in charge of the shop's finances and purchasing the goods, while Tonia managed it. Dina attended the same Polish school as her siblings did, a Jewish one did not exist in town. Chana Perl continued with a private tutor at home assisting her parents in the shop. Mosze Eli, on the other hand, was sent at age 13 to his grandparents Mincberg in Ostrowiec to study in a Yeshiva. But he expressed reluctance and was sent back home and joined the family shop as well.
2/…
Yechiel, although orthodox (one of his brothers was an atheist), was liberal minded, an adherent of the "live and let live" slogan. He was also an uncompromising anti-Zionist. Dina in contrast, was active in the Zionist Gordonia youth movement.
In his leisure time Yechiel learned Talmud commentaries, while Tonia used to play cards with other family members.
In the summer time the family traveled separately to the vacation sites in Krynice, Rabka, Szawnica. However, in spite of the above circumstances, the family lived in harmony.
WW2
The outbreak of the war was the realization of what had been contemplated at home: sister Chana Perl read "Mein Kampf" and told her parents that Hitler intended to carry out his visions in the book and therefore it was a must to flee to the east. Father Yechiel Szlomo argued that the men would be taken to forced labor and during the last week of August 1939, prepared double walls in the shop to hide goods. On the first of September he and brother Mosze Eli ran away to the east. Tonia and her two daughters were forced to give up the shop and earned a living by selling the hidden goods. They bought dollars, diamonds and gold with the money. In their apartment they accommodated four Jewish families from Krakow who sought a shelter.
Until the German invasion of the Soviet Union, in June 1941, Yechiel and Mosze Eli lived in Lvov. Tonia sent them packages and food. Then, Yechiel was sent to Tashkent and Mosze Eli to Gorki and nothing was heard from them during the war years.
In the fall of 1942, Janek Mlynarczyk the coal salesman arrived. He cooperated with the family, selling them coal for the winter. To his and others surprise, he heard the four year old Danusia, the cousin's daughter, saying that "it is not worth buying a lot of coal because we will not stay here for a long time". Mlynarczyk decided that instead of selling coal he would arrange fake documents for them. Tonia already had a faked identical card. She went to the local priest who was an old family friend and asked him to prepare fake identity cards for both daughters. He delivered the goods with the names Matilda (for Chana Perl) and Eugenia Krzeczowska.
When is became known that an expulsion plan of the Jews was underway, Tonia turned to Mlynarczyk. He advised them to hide by the cemetery. That night he fetched
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