(1938)

In the August of 1938 Fira went with Lolek Gerner for a camp of the Lvov Bnei Britu (B’nai B’rith), a Jewish philanthropic organization, to Zakopane. The boy’s parents agreed to let their son go there only on condition that Fira went too. He was already sixteen but as the only child he must have been the apple of his parents’ eye. There are many pictures of that stay in the fifth album of Fira Melamedzon- Salanska. Some of them are in the book, the majority is published here. One can see Fira, Lolek and Nusiek, aka Henryk Wollisch, a lawyer who took a fancy to Fira, and whom she liked too. There is also another admirer, a medicine student, and many other Jews from Lvov, who we don’t know. Is there anybody recognizing them?

A story of Wollisch is described in the book. Below we present it in a slightly broader context.

A sister and a fiancée

B’nai B’rith was an American organization of Jewish Freemasonry, which supported young Jews having no money for education, among others. Its Lvov department announced in a newspaper that they organized a camp in Zakopane. Lolek found this information and wanted to go there. He came and started to beg me to go with him. Otherwise his parents wouldn’t let him go. Finally, I agreed, Lolek’s father booked two places, and we went for this camp.

There were so many participants that we lived in a few guesthouses, side by side. I shared a room with a girl from Lvov. I don’t remember her name, it could have been Maryla. I remember that her fiancé had committed a suicide some time before. They both used to be a sister and a brother, as they called themselves in B’nai B’rith. I think they met there. They had been engaged for a couple of years. He graduated law and wanted to be a lawyer but he couldn’t find a job and get to the legal training. They must have unofficially closed a list of Jewish lawyers of Lvov and he broke down. He lost hope for the future and flung himself in front of a train. She showed me a letter, in which he explained why he had done that.

Foretelling my holidays

The camp was successful. We often went for trips in the mountains, visited Morskie Oko Lake and went by a roller coaster to the Kasprowy Wierch. Sometimes, we played tennis and went dancing. I was engaged to Jozio Frenkiel, whom I liked and respected, though I didn’t love. I agreed to get engaged because my parents had been persuading me into doing this for a long time. So, I accepted his proposal but I didn’t think about marriage. I wanted to be free. Besides, we grew apart as Jozio had to focus on managing of the Frenkiels’ office and on a huge argument with his father and stepmother. When I went to this camp I felt that something would happen.

Since Marysia, my schoolmate, told me a story about a fortune-teller’s prediction of her mother’s death and her failure to marry the beloved man, which all came true, I started to visit this fortune-teller at Wielka Street. Just before the camp she told me, “You will go far away for your holidays and meet a young blonde, for whom you will feel affection.”

I was very curious who this man could be and I was looking for him during the camp. First I thought it was one student of medicine, or maybe a young doctor already, I don’t remember. He was from Lvov and often accompanied me. We are together in a few photographs. But then Henryk Wollish from Lvov appeared. Heniutek was a lawyer and one of the Lvov Britu (B’rith) heads, who co-organized that camp. He was a friend of one famous journalist of “Chwila”, a Jewish newspaper published in Lvov and popular in Poland. This journalist also took part in the camp. I have a picture of two of them. Anyway, Heniutek liked me and started to come to my room on the pretext of visiting my roommate, who was his friend. As a matter of fact, he visited me. I liked him too, he seemed interesting to me. Eventually, he said he wanted to marry me.

In the August of 1938 Fira went with Lolek Gerner for a camp of the Lvov Bnei Britu (B’nai B’rith), a Jewish philanthropic organization, to Zakopane. The boy’s parents agreed to let their son go there only on condition that Fira went too. He was already sixteen but as the only child he must have been the apple of his parents’ eye. There are many pictures of that stay in the fifth album of Fira Melamedzon- Salanska. Some of them are in the book, the majority is published here. One can see Fira, Lolek and Nusiek, aka Henryk Wollisch, a lawyer who took a fancy to Fira, and whom she liked too. There is also another admirer, a medicine student, and many other Jews from Lvov, who we don’t know. Is there anybody recognizing them?

A story of Wollisch is described in the book. Below we present it in a slightly broader context.

A sister and a fiancée

B’nai B’rith was an American organization of Jewish Freemasonry, which supported young Jews having no money for education, among others. Its Lvov department announced in a newspaper that they organized a camp in Zakopane. Lolek found this information and wanted to go there. He came and started to beg me to go with him. Otherwise his parents wouldn’t let him go. Finally, I agreed, Lolek’s father booked two places, and we went for this camp.

There were so many participants that we lived in a few guesthouses, side by side. I shared a room with a girl from Lvov. I don’t remember her name, it could have been Maryla. I remember that her fiancé had committed a suicide some time before. They both used to be a sister and a brother, as they called themselves in B’nai B’rith. I think they met there. They had been engaged for a couple of years. He graduated law and wanted to be a lawyer but he couldn’t find a job and get to the legal training. They must have unofficially closed a list of Jewish lawyers of Lvov and he broke down. He lost hope for the future and flung himself in front of a train. She showed me a letter, in which he explained why he had done that.

Foretelling my holidays

The camp was successful. We often went for trips in the mountains, visited Morskie Oko Lake and went by a roller coaster to the Kasprowy Wierch. Sometimes, we played tennis and went dancing. I was engaged to Jozio Frenkiel, whom I liked and respected, though I didn’t love. I agreed to get engaged because my parents had been persuading me into doing this for a long time. So, I accepted his proposal but I didn’t think about marriage. I wanted to be free. Besides, we grew apart as Jozio had to focus on managing of the Frenkiels’ office and on a huge argument with his father and stepmother. When I went to this camp I felt that something would happen.

Since Marysia, my schoolmate, told me a story about a fortune-teller’s prediction of her mother’s death and her failure to marry the beloved man, which all came true, I started to visit this fortune-teller at Wielka Street. Just before the camp she told me, “You will go far away for your holidays and meet a young blonde, for whom you will feel affection.”

I was very curious who this man could be and I was looking for him during the camp. First I thought it was one student of medicine, or maybe a young doctor already, I don’t remember. He was from Lvov and often accompanied me. We are together in a few photographs. But then Henryk Wollish from Lvov appeared. Heniutek was a lawyer and one of the Lvov Britu (B’rith) heads, who co-organized that camp. He was a friend of one famous journalist of “Chwila”, a Jewish newspaper published in Lvov and popular in Poland. This journalist also took part in the camp. I have a picture of two of them. Anyway, Heniutek liked me and started to come to my room on the pretext of visiting my roommate, who was his friend. As a matter of fact, he visited me. I liked him too, he seemed interesting to me. Eventually, he said he wanted to marry me.