Re: [Cz-L] conscription

Miriam (Mimi) Taylor <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>

And now, my two cents worth:

Conscription was indeed a big problem, both for those living
under Czarist rule and for our Austro-Hungarian ancestors.
I would not be a Czernowitzer, had my great-grandfather, Israel Steinmetz,
not fled in 1880, his native Borsa (pronounced Borsha) in the district of
Marmorosh, to settle in Czernowitz, in order to escape the draft.

Read on, if you are not bored by "alte myses" (old tales).
I have the story in writing, in Yiddish, from my grandfather.

One day the Beigalech seller came into the store of my great-grandfather's
father and told all present, that he had gone for his medical conscription
exam and been found unfit for conscription. The family immediately hatched a
plan. The Beigalech seller, who was not from Borsa, would pretend that he
was Israel Steinmetz and go instead of him for the medical exam. He did and
this time was promptly drafted. The Steinmetz family had to pay for the
livelihood of the Beigalech sellers wife and children, which they did.
But they were afraid, that the Beigalech sellers family would try to extort
more money from them, so Israel Steinmetz was sent to the Wiznitzer Rabbi,
to get his advice. The Wiznitzer, knew of a Czernowitzer wine merchant by
the name of Drimmer or Druemmer, who needed an employee in his business.
Arrangements were made and Israel Steinmetz with his wife and baby son
Saul-Leib moved to Czernowitz. Five more children were born to Israel
Steinmetz and his wife Pesel, in Czernowitz. Years later, around 1912,
when the Beigalach seller had died, my great-grandparents returned to Borsa,
but my grandfather stayed in Czernowitz and refused to leave the city,
even when the danger of WW2 was evident.

In 1914, his two brothers and he himself were conscripted into the
Austro-Hungarian army. At that time he was already 35 years old and had a
wife and 4 children.

Mimi
Received on 2007-01-16 11:31:49