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.

Memories of Pre-War Yiddish Culture And My Warsaw Jewish Home

Watch now:

Henryk Robak, a native Yiddish speaker, describes his family and education in Warsaw before the war, including what his father did for a living.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Henryk Robak.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Other video highlights from this oral history

A Polish-Born Yiddish Speaker Explains the Formation of Post-WWII Jewish Organizations in Poland

4 min 3 sec

My Escape from the Warsaw Ghetto

5 min 24 sec

My History Teacher was Emanuel Ringelblum: Remembering the Poale Tsion Shule of Pre-War Warsaw

2 min 55 sec

Going to the Great Synagogue on the High Holidays

2 min 7 sec

Why Stay in Poland After World War Two?

2 min 48 sec

"To Whom Can We Transmit the Yiddish Language?”: Jewish Cultural Programming in Contemporary Wroclaw

2 min 35 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: