Anat Aderet about her grandmother, Ita Meirsdorf, nee Melman (born in Nasielsk, in 1918); the life of her family in Pułtusk, their escape to the Soviet Union and immigration to Israel.
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An English resume of an interview in Hebrew that took place in Israel, as a part of the Polish Roots in Israel Project. Interviewee name: Anat Aderet.
The Melman and Meirsdorf families, who lived in the neighboring towns of Nasielsk and Pułtusk, escaped to the Soviet Union and remained united together all throughout the war. The Melman family perished almost entirely, with only Ita remaining alive, but the Meirsdorf family survived.
The survivors then chose to settle in Israel, and their stories were documented and commemorated by Doctor Anat Aderet- an author, a blogger, a researcher of the Yiddish language and Ita Meirsdorf Melman's granddaughter.
The Melman Family:
Yoseph and Esther Melman from the city of Nasielsk, had seven children: Oldest daughter Ita, Malka, Reyzel, Sara, Abraham-Israel, Lea and Chava-Dina (who went on to marry former security colonel, Menachem Bacharach). Yoseph Melman himself had three siblings: Maylech, Rachel (a mother of seven) and Malka (a mother of five). Esther Melman nee Pener had six siblings of her own: Rayzel, Ya'acov, Pavel, Chaia, Sara and Gershon. As part of her research, Anat questioned her grandmother about her family, and Ita describes her childhood shortly: "My family was wealthy and dealt in tanning. Our home was on the corner of the streets Kilińskiego [?] and Warszawska in the town of Nasielsk. The original house was a very old house, which my father inherited, and in which we inhabited the first floor. In 1921, an adjacent house was built, and in 1933 another house was built on the other side. All in all, the house contained five rooms: A master bedroom containing two brass beds, a large closet, china stove heated by logs or coals; a dining room containing a large table, a white buffet with porcelain dishes; a large kitchen and other wings for various purposes.
My family had another income from the rent by the houses 19 tenants: In the attic there lived an elderly gentile Polish couple, and there were also a restaurant and an officer, which were rented out to gentiles. We spoke Yiddish at home, and we had a special prayer room where father kept all the Torah books. On Saturdays and on Holidays, family members would come to pray with us, but since only men were allowed to pray in the pray room, the women prayed together in the drawing room next to it. Father also had a sewing machine, and it was from him that I learned to sew.
The water that we needed for drinking and bathing, we drew from a well in the yard, and once every two months, water was brought for us from the river so that we could do our laundry. We also had a grocery store in our building, where mother would do the shopping for the family meals. Only the meat and fish were bought in the market, and since we didn't have a refrigerator at the time, mother would cook the products every day.
At four years old I already learned the shapes of the letters and how to say my prayers. At seven years old, I began attending a Polish school, where all the girls wore a uniform comprised of a pleated skirt and a blue navy blouse. In those days, Jewish children and gentile children still attended classes together; and as all the Jewish children, I was exempt from studies on Saturdays, and the Polish girl, who lived next door, would bring me my homework, which I would always have prepared by Monday. On Sundays, since the gentile children were not in school, we Jewish children would study religion with a Jewish tutor, we learned such subjects as: Jewish studies, holidays and traditions, Jewish history, and reading and writing Yiddish. We would also read the section of the Torah read on Sabbath in the synagogue. Apart from attending a Polish school, I also attended the Jewish religious girls' school "Beit-Ya'acov" ("House of Jacob") founded by the Rabbi's wife- Rabbetze Sara Schnirer. However, the religious Jewish authorities forbade teaching Hebrew, and when a new teacher arrived in school and tried to teach Hebrew, the Rabbetze had to fire her claiming that: Hebrew will only be spoken in the land of Israel".
The Meirsdorf Family:
Dov (Be'er) and Sara Meirsdorf from the town of Pułtusk, Poland, had four children; and after Sara tragically passed away, after having given birth to her fourth child, Dov Meirsdorf remarried to Sara's sister Rachel and they had three more children together (two boys and a girl). So all in all, Mr. Meirsdorf had seven children named: Israel (the interviewee's grandfather), Feiga (Tzipora), Leiv (Ariye), Shia (Yeshayahu), Zlatka (Zehava) and Betzalel.
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