A Doctor of the World and a Human without Frontiers

Alina Margolis-Edelman

EARLY DAYS AND SCHOOL

Alina Margolis was raised in a family of Polish Jews. Although her parents supported the Bund, a Jewish socialist party advocating the cultural autonomy of the Jews, lay education, and the importance of Yiddish*, Polish was the only language spoken in Alina’s home. Alina attended a Polish state school established by the Łódź municipal council and never learned to speak Yiddish. Likewise, her father never delivered his addresses nor wrote articles in the Jewish language*. Most of the books in the Margolis home were in Polish, French, and German. The Margolis family were atheists and did not observe any religious traditions, although Ala did recall a Christmas tree and gifts at home around the Christmas time. However, she made no mention of any Jewish holidays. What she did remember, though, was frequent visits to a nearby church, where she was taken by her Polish nanny, unbeknown to her parents. She was the one who taught little Ala the most important Catholic prayers and songs. The girl was extremely disappointed when the nun at school told her that she could not attend religious education classes with the other children because she was a Jewess. Her ethnicity also meant that she could not join cub scouts, which came as a huge blow to her. Then, Ala’s parents transferred her to the Private Secondary School for Girls, owned by Janina Czapczyńska, where she had studied until the war broke out.

*Yiddish – the Jewish language traditionally spoken by the Jews in the Polish lands. It is written in the Hebrew script. In the interwar period, many Jews did not use this language, but there were some (including the Bund activists) who believed Yiddish to be one of the foremost elements of Jewish culture.

“Before the war, I did not feel like a Jewess. /…/ That I was a Jewess only sank in when I was on the Aryan side”.

“I went to school. It was the City Labor School, established by a socialist municipal council. The school was experimental with regard to teaching methods, it was co-educational, and religious education classes were not compulsory. Of course, quite naturally, I started attending RE classes. Obviously, I had not discussed this with my parents.

The course was run by a Sister of Charity. She was young and looked very nice in her long grey dress and a coif with a white bandeau. During each class, she would give us little printed pictures of saints, which we kept exchanging among ourselves. I remember I had to part with three saints to get a Saint Theresa. A few classes into the course, I had amassed quite a collection and, like everyone else, I was looking forward to the next class, which meant new pictures. But the next class proved very different to me. The nun came into the classroom, a pack of pictures in her hand, and immediately addressed me:

‘I’m sorry, Alinka, but you can’t stay. I didn’t know you were a Jewess’.

Now, all eyes were on me. I couldn’t move, and I felt my cheeks burning.

‘You have to go’, said the nun, softly.

I stood up and walked toward the door, accompanied by dead silence.”

“My entire grade joined cub scouts. We were dreaming of the day when we would get our neckerchiefs. Two days before the big day, which we had been anxiously awaiting, our scout leader came up to me during a break, in a school toilet.

‘Hold on, Alinka’, she said, ‘there’s something very sad I need to tell you… You can’t be a cub scout. To be a cub scout, you have to be Catholic, go to church, and take Communion. And you are a Jewess’.

That was the last straw. It was more than I could take.

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Photo caption: Ala Margolis with her beloved dad.

Photo caption: Alina on vacation abroad. Her parents believed that travelling broadens the mind.

Photo caption: A teenage Ala attending to little Janeczka, daughter of her aunt (Anna Margolis’ sister).

Photo caption: The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Sienkiewicza street, where Ala was taken by her nanny. At that time, the Margolis family lived at Przejazd street 20 (presently Tuwima street).

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Find out what ethnic groups lived in Łódź before the Second World War and how many Jews resided in Łódź. What do you think about the situation which Alina Margolis-Edelman recalled from her childhood? How would you feel if you were not allowed to attend classes which are of interest to you? Look for synonyms of the words “lay” (as an adjective) and “autonomy”.