The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

The People of Chelm and the Cat

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Martin Schiller, Polish-born child survivor of the Holocaust, remembers how his mother use to tell him stories about the fabled foolish Jews of Chelm. In this case, they devise a plan to get rid of a bothersome cat.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Martin Schiller.

This excerpt is in English.

Martin Schiller was born in Poland in 1933.