Vera Konig

„My father was the manager of the farm. We lived in a small house they provided with a party line telephone and I went to a one room schoolhouse. There were twelve grades in one room and the teacher´s name was Mrs Peel. That was one of the documents I sent you. She was ..She had a daughter who had Polio. She was, I guess, one of the best teachers. I loved her. To this day I remember her. I can see her face, I can see the school („And her name was Mrs Peel?“) Pí í í el. It was great, you know. I was in the first grade. Don´t forget I didn´t have English for very long, I had mostly Czech. But I was a good student, I was always a good student. My memories of Nova Scotia? My mother would send me down to one of the fields where there were peas to be picked and I would go down with my basket, eat half of the peas first and then pick the other half.“

„As I said my father was very scared about talking of being Jewish until..I´m gonna tell you this right now but you …When we moved to Montreal, there was a Czech community there and we lived next door to a Czech family in the apartment. They were Czechs, Jews, but they sent their children to a Unitarian Sunday School. So, my parents decided that I should go to the Unitarian Sunday School. I had to put on a dress one Sunday, and I didn´t wanna wear a dress, but I went one Sunday and then the following Sunday I put myself in a corner and I said that I´m not going. And that was it. My parents, you know, they were amazing. It was always, and I have another story when I was later at College. ‚OK. If you don´t wanna do it, you don´t have to‘. Never forcing something on me, I never felt that I had to do something because to please them.“