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.

"Being Jewish and Being Stateless is not a Good Combination": Jewish Immigration to Buenos Aires in the 1960s

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Samuel Ponczak—Holocaust survivor, polyglot, and translator—describes how his family was kicked out of France and with nowhere else to turn, they immigrated to Argentina where they had an uncle, and he used knowledge of Yiddish and Jewish community to help start his father's tailoring business.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Samuel Ponczak.

This excerpt is in English.

Samuel Ponczak was born in Warsaw, Poland.