The Professional School Darmstadt 1947-48
Moshe Mordchelewitz - INTERVIEWS
Skype June 12, 2009 21:00

Moshe Mordechelewitz Conversation with Lea Dror-Batalion
Translated from Hebrew
Moshe: I am angry with you!( He tried to call me on Skype several times and I could not answer)
Lea: we had a course in Oral History and I had no time to talk to you. Betty Borenstein called me from Canada.
Moshe: Were  they married (Betty and David)already in Darmstadt?
Lea: yes
Moshe: I remember David 's face but no the face of Betty. David was night tall medium height. He was younger.
Lea: How old is he?
Moshe:  82.
Lea: Was David all the time at the school or did he join later?
Moshe: He was there all the time. He was your father's driver. There was another driver from checheslovakia
Lea: What was his name?
Moshe: I do not remember. David sometimes also drove me and sometimes with your mother to the German authorities.We would get things there.
Lea : What things?
Moshe: Champagne, they call it Sekt. We would sell it and buy for it vegetables and other products.
Lea: What else did you get from them?
Moshe: Instruments for the school for teaching. We received Teachers. They received payment from the city.
Lea: How many teachers were there.?
Moshe: About 4 or 5
Lea: what did they teach
Moshe:  Carpentry, Mechanics, Electricity, Professions for Building…there were short, fast courses because they were suppose to immigrate to Israel. I don't know what happened at the school. Maybe David will know. I did not go to the school. I stayed behind. I taught in the evening.
LeaSo what did you do?
Moshe: sometimes I went to the University to courses as a free listeneners.
Lea: Like my father
Moshe: yes
Lea: MY mothers studied regularily.
Moshe: Sophie went every day to the University. She and Schmetterling. I think his wife also Lea: So what did you do every day?
Moshe: I was busy preparing the material and lectures. Sometimes I taught Hebrew, Zionism or Bible. I read a lot. The students set quiet and listen to me. They like me and appreciated me.
( he want to derminate the conversation. I go on asking questions)
Lea: when were you born?
Moshe: 18.2.1921
Lea: Where
Moshe: in Kovno Capital of Lituania. (They call it Kaunas  (Government of Kovno was a governorate (guberniya) of the Russian Empire. Its capital was Kovno (Kaunas) http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005174).
Lea: Did you go to school?
Moshe:  I finished the gymnasium. Then I went to Memel (eine Stadt im ehemaligen Ostpreußen, heute Litauen, siehe Klaipėda  - deutsch Memel, ist eine Hafenstadt in Litauen. das 1920-39 von Deutschland abgetrennte nördliche Ostpreußen, siehe Memelland
It was a German city. The Germans gave it to Lituania to enable to have access to the see. It was a port of ships. A large city after the first
World War. My father send me to Memel to learn German
Lea: When
Moshe: From 1937-38. Father send me to gymnasium. He wanted me to know German. We had literature at home
Lea: What Literature?
Moshe: Literature, Books, many books in German like Heine.
Lea: where is your father from?
Moshe: He was born in Lituania. Riga
Lea: the russian Riga
Moshe: No, the capital of Letvia (Riga -Latvian: Rīga, the capital of Latvia, is situated on the Baltic Sea coast on the mouth of the river Daugava. Riga is the largest city in the Baltic states)
Lea: What did you do after coming back from Memel?
Moshe: We had a business. I entered, worked in the business.
Lea: what business?
Moshe: Textile business. We had a factory.
Lea: What did you do after that? Until when where you in the factory?
Moshe: When the russians cam in 1940 – they took away everything, the factory.
Lea: What did you do then?
Moshe: I went into hiding. They wanted to take me to the Russian Army and I did not want to go. When the Russians came we knew that that there would be war (we the Jews).
Lea: Where did you hide?
Moshe: By my brother. His wife was near the border with Germany in Krettingen.( Kretinga   (deutsch: Crottingen, auch: Krottingen, Krettingen), in der kurischen Landschaft Megowe gelegen, ist eine Stadt im Westen Litauens in unmittelbarer Nähe (11 km) des Ostseebades Palanga und 25 km von der Hafenstadt Klaipėda entfernt.) I hid myself for a half a year. Then I fled 400km by foot to Bella russia. I stayed there.
Lea: Were you interviewed by Yad Vashem?
Moshe: No I don't want publicity. I am a real survivor. I was also a few hours in the hands of the Germans. In the food, where I fled to, the Germans came as parachutes.  They caught me . I managed to excape.
I have to go and  do something.  We will talk again. Bye