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134 LUBOML
genilkelech at them, and the village Jews felt very
insulted. Very often the visiting villagers would
manage to enter the town at night so as not to be
noticed. But when the town's children noticed a
village child, they would surround him with catcalls
of "genilye."
I do not remember how long I was sick. My
father once told me it lasted half a year. No one
expected me to be well again. But a "miracle"
occurred: I somehow managed to get over my
sickness and to improve, until I became well
enough to be like the other children.
Meanwhile, war broke out between the Russians
and the Poles, with the Russians eyeing
Poland and Warsaw. How odd the Russian "army"
appeared to us then: ragged, barefoot, and naked.
The little they did have on was made up of all
sorts of mismatched garments.
The first thing the Bolsheviks did was call
together the entire population in the marketplace,
put up a table, and set an agitator upon it,
who began to propagandize about all the "good
things" that the "comrades" of the Bolshevik
government could expect. They turned the heads
of the mob to such an extent that they expected
paradise to be just around the corner. But when
after awhile they found that instead of paradise
things were going from bad to worse, they began
to sober up.
The Jews in our region suffered a great deal
from roving bands, especially from the Ukrainian
Balechovtzes, who murdered, robbed Jewish
possessions, and violated the women. Even after
the Poles returned and took over the government
there were pogroms against Jewish businesses. It
was touch and go as to whether the bands would
also come to our town. But a couple of Jewish
proprietors, headed by R. Pinchas Oselka, brought
a petition to the Catholic priest Yostschembsky,
who helped prevent an attack.
My oldest sister began her training as a
seamstress. It was customary to teach every girl
how to sew, as well as how to read and write.
Naturally, she had to know how to pray and how
to write a Yiddish letter, while a little knowledge
of Russian did not hurt either. My oldest sister
showed a great talent for learning. And since she
was busy all day with studying and preparing her
lessons and with practicing on the sewing ma-
chine, the family began to look upon me, a fouryear-old,
as a grown-up and began to teach me
how to take care of the house.
With time, I took over the housework. I
even painted the chimney with white lime
with a home-made brush. S uch a brush was
braided from special soft, long grass, bound in
the middle, and turned over a few times at the
binding to create an edge for brushing. All the
loose grass was cut off with an axea good
brush came out of it. Whoever wanted to invest
more time in finishing the brush would put it
in hot water to soften it and by doing this make
it a better brush.
In time I noted that I became more and more
involved in domestic chores. While children of
my age were involved in games in the street, or in
class, I was bound to the home, peeling potatoes,
cooking, cleaning, and doing other chores. Every
time I ran out to play my sister called me back
home. More than once I used to ask my older
sister why all the other children could play and
no one interrupted them and called them back
home. So what do you think my sister answered
me? "They have mothers, so they do the work for
them."
So I began to ask my father to take in a
mother, so I would have one too. Then, like other
children, I would have time to play and study. My
father's sister approved of the idea.
One bright day my father did bring a mother
into our home and said: "So Rachel, here, Ibrought
you a mother!" I ceased to do all the work in the
house. I ran around with children all day long to
make up for all the time passed. I felt like a bird
who had escaped the cage. Who was my equal?
But the older children immediately said that
father had brought home a stepmother.
The fact that she was really a stepmother
became quickly apparent. She began to rule the
house with a strong hand, began to beat the
children for the smallest infraction. My father
could not stand it and one day my "new" mother
disappeared from our home. My career as a child
quickly ended, and once again I became bound to
the house.
Time moved on. I grew and developed, and
with luck began to attend school. I did not have
enough time because the household with all its