Louis Lichtman
Louis Lichtman was born in 1895 in a Russian city he recalled fondly, remembering its streets, river, and largely Jewish community. He was the second of six children born to a shoemaker who worked hard to support the family while his mother kept the home. Louis received a thorough education, attending cheder as a child and then a Yiddish day school where he studied Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, history, geography, mathematics, and foreign languages including Latin, German, and French. After his bar mitzvah he apprenticed in the tailoring trade, working long six-day weeks. He lived through a three-day pogrom in 1905, when his father and neighbors stood guard armed only with sticks.
At nineteen, wishing to avoid conscription into the Russian army and escape persecution, Louis was smuggled across the border with the help of paid agents, carrying only ten rubles. He traveled through Austria and Vienna to Paris, where he stayed ten days with relatives, then crossed the English Channel to reach London. Arriving alone and unable to speak English, he searched the city until he finally found his brother's home in the Commercial Street area. Within two weeks he was working as a tailor. He met his future wife on the street, courted her over a long engagement, and married at twenty-three. The couple raised six children in England.
In 1950 Louis immigrated to the United States with his wife and two youngest sons, first living in New York. He and his wife wintered regularly in Miami Beach, Florida, where she passed away in 1976 after a sudden illness. He later moved to Dallas to be near a daughter, where he lived on his own and remained active in the Jewish senior group. He volunteered with Jewish Family Service, accompanying Russian immigrants as an interpreter to places such as the Social Security office and doctors' appointments. Having lived through two world wars and made his home in three countries, Louis offered his grandchildren simple advice: to live respectably and to keep good company.
Full Transcript
Lewis Lichtman, one of my buddies in the senior group, is one of the sixth people that we are interviewing in our oral history. Lewis, good morning. Good morning. Lewis, I know yours has been a very interesting and diverse life. You started in one country and traveled to several others before you got here to our senior group in Dallas. And what I'd like us to do is just begin at the beginning and catch up. Where were you born, Lewis? I was born in Russia, in a city by the name of Shatomya. I was born in 1895. Okay. You were born in 1895. Were you born into a big family?
What kind of circumstances were your family in? My family were in middle income circumstances, not very... What did your father do for them? and at the same time not very rich. My father's trade was a shoemaker, and the mother never worked. Father tried to bring up a family by his own work. How many children were you? We were six children. I was the second. I was the second of six. I have six children. Right. Do you remember very much about this Russian town you were born in or late there? I remember, I remember almost everything where China was born in. the streets, nice river there, there are words that you call Dutchies.
In general it was a nice Jewish congregation I could say almost the whole city to my way of understanding it was almost a Jewish city Then you don't remember too many Russians? We remember a lot of Russians, but it means saying almost on every street in the city, I could say the majority were of the Jewish religion. How long did you stay in Russia? How old were you when you left Russia? I left Russia when I was 19 years of age. Oh, okay. Then I'm going to put you back a little. I thought you left much younger. So what do you remember about growing up or going to Hebrew school or Jewish school in this Russian town?
Your friends, what you did? Yes. Well, as a child, as a student of Jewish religion, we go to Ghaedir. Uh-huh. Did the girls go or just the boys? The boys and the girls. But the girls usually get their education at home. Okay. So you went to Ghaedir? Went to Ghaedir. When I graduated Ghaedir, that means when I already knew the olive base. So, there's two Jewish schools. One was called the Tomatora, and in the Russian language it was called but in the class of the Hebrew, Jewish, Jewish. That's called, in that time of Torah, we learn Hebrew, Yiddish, the Russian language, history, geography, geometry, arithmetic, and so on.
And gradually when we... as from one grade into the other, we've already started to learn the foreign languages, such as Latin, German and French. Now, was this a public school or was it a Yiddish school that taught all these subjects? It was a Yiddish school Like a day school Yes Oh okay What do you remember about the teachers The rabbis The teachers were old Jewish teachers, even those not as the Russian language and so on, but also Jewish teachers. And we had to do our own work. We had to bring in the own works the following morning, the following day to school. It had to be absolutely perfect.
They were very demanding. Very demanding. What happened if it wasn't perfect? Pardon? What happened if it wasn't perfect? The marks that we call them. Our marks were from Inul. That was very, very good. And there was a one, Igenitsa, one, two, three, four and five. Five was the highest mark. I am not bragging, I am not boxing. My marks average only falls. Which is very good. Which was very good. Did you work at all as a young boy? I finished school soon after I got barmitsu. And everything that I learned at school, I had a very, very good education at that time. I still remember and I speak, read and write my Russian language.
Also, at that time I learned Russian Kurdish, but not getting along with it, not using it. So we were bound to forget. Of course. Did you work at all, though? Yes. After I was with Mitzvah, I went to work. What kind of work did you do? I went to work not because I wanted to, out of necessity. I had another brother tonight He graduated high school When he graduated school they engaged him in that school as an assistant teacher. At the same time, he was teaching children and growing option, the Russian language, to read, to write. Those who couldn't afford to go to school, people who went to work and they still wanted to learn the language, same as a teacher.
And my father wanted me to carry on with my education, but as I've My father was a very hard working man. And to bring up a family of six wasn't very, very easy. So I... What work did you do? I started working as an indicator in three. When I first went into the... Did you apprentice in a little shop? That's what I was. I first went into the apprentice. I had to work two years without getting any pay. Learning the trade. Learning the trade. I learned the trade in about six months. I learned the trade and the other year and a half I worked. My boss got a benefit out of it.
What were the working conditions like? How long did you work? How many hours? How many days? At that time we worked six days a week, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. Friday we finished work around, during summer days, around 3, 4 o'clock. Winter days we finished work earlier. And during the work days we started at 8 o'clock in the morning. And in busy time, we worked about 10 or 11 o'clock at night. Before Dehad Adis, such as Pesach, we used to work on this all night. Certainly, people wanted new clothes for Pesach and new clothes for Rosh Hashanah. That must have been your busiest time. No, new Rosh Hashanah wasn't so...
Pesach is more... Yes. Okay. So what about socializing? As a young man, how did you... did you have youth groups, Zionist groups? How did you get together? What did the Jewish kids do in your town of Russia? At that time, we the young boys didn't belong to no such political parties as you just mentioned, and Zionists, but we had our own group friends. We used to get together, sing, dance, we used to go on, and the duchess were on the river, on a boat, and so on. Girls, boys and girls together. But in later years when Zionists or the Social Democrats, so we joined those groups, each one to our line.
What group did you join? Well, I was in the, say, the Social Democrats. What about in your home? Was your family a very observant Jewish family or just a traditional? As a matter of fact, every Jew, every Jewish family, they were not a city. They were not very We ought to take quite a few time observing. Fridays, we finish work around, as I say, summer days later, winter days earlier, and Friday evening, the services synagogues coming out from the synagogue the Saturday meal was ready hollies on the table, wine on the table. It was a day different than every other day of the week. Night evening.
Father made Yiddish, made a moizah. Mother led the Shabbos candles, and the meals. What did you do on Shabbos? Shabbos morning. I mean, after shul, you know, and when you were free for the rest of the day. As I say, we... Go in groups. Family, they rested, Mother, they rested, so. But we did chore. We got together with our friends. So we say going on the boat, the rivers, we'll go to the Duchess. There we also danced, singing songs. So like normal teenagers do now, they go to Chili's or they just go... So, Louis, you said you were 19 when you left Russia. Why did you leave Russia, and what reason?
Do you remember leaving? Why? Where were you going? Russia did time under design. We, the Jewish people, are always persecuted. Do you remember any programs that you personally lived through or your family lived through? I do. Could you tell me about one of them? Yes, in 1905. It was...in 1904 there was a Russia-Japanese War. The Russians lost that war and because of that they accused the Jewish people. the Jewish people's fault that the Rastas was at war. And because of that, they organized pogroms. In my city, there was a three-day pogrom. I was ten years away from that time What did you do Well me as young children couldn do anything No but do you remember hiding or Those who were hiding lost their lives.
And those who were risking their lives, I wouldn't say that all of them could not die, But I can say... Well, you're obviously here. What did your family do in that three-day program to keep themselves alive? My father, brother of these, and a good many more like them, were on the lookout to see that the hooligans shouldn't come near our residences. They were armed just with sticks. Did they ever have to combat face to face with them? They did not, because I think when the Hurricanes got to know that there are people who... Well, fight back. Fight back. They didn't ever come near. Okay, so you left Russia because of pogroms and because of life for Jews?
I left Russia, not only I. Your family left together? I'm not talking about that. My family and I, we left, we were supposed to leave Russia in 1940. We had no visas, we had no passport, but we were trying to get smuggled across the Russia of the German border. At that time we were arrested on the border. We were sent back to the city where we lived. Did they put you into jail They did not put us into jail in my city They put us into jail when we were arrested on the border And they brought us back by what shall I say armed assault When we came to Shikamia, we were left.
And in 1914, my father said, it would be best that I should leave Russia by myself. My wife said I had no blood, he was already in England. He had to come just before. And so I left Russia. Did you have any difficulty getting a visa? I didn't get a visa. How did you leave then? I got in Smart Electros-Border. How? I got Smart Electros-Border, that is, I paid, we called them agents. I paid the agents so much, and they arranged for my crossing the border with the... You mean they gave money to the border guards to let you go through? That's right. Okay. I crossed the border from Russia into Austria.
Austria, there was a city by the name of Groddy. Yes, and I left Russia because as persecuted Jews and Russia, none of us wanted to join the Russian army. We hated the Russian czar and of course we hated the general, the government, the hooligans. So none of us wanted to join the Russian army. Because maybe we were 21 years of age. We were conscripted into the army. So your father wanted you to leave before the inscription? Of course, because of that. Not only that he wanted us, we ourselves, the Anguages. We didn't want to be there. So we left the ocean. How did you get, once you were smuggled, Across the border, how did you manage to get to England?
I was a free man. Crossing the border, I was already a free man. Did you have enough money for passage to England? All the money, all the money I had when I left Russia was ten rubles. Out of these ten rubles, I had to pay my fare from my city to the border. six or eight hours of ride, and paying for crossing the border. And then I had to pay my fare to France. But I crossed the border into the street from where I went to Vienna. And in the end I got a train to take me to Paris, France. And Paris, France, I had, we called them uncle, uncle and her.
They were in a way, they were cousins to my mother. I stayed with them for ten days. It was in July, 1914. I left to be there the 14th of July. The 14th of July in France was a great holiday. They were storming all day still. So in those 10 days I had a very nice time in Paris, France. What things do you remember about those ten days? Well, uh... Just enjoying it and seeing... That's all, yes. And on the tenth day, actually the eleventh day, I crossed the English Channel, in Kuran-Hu, crossed the English Channel into Dover, From Dover I had a boat train taking me to London During those ten days that I was in the palace my brother in England broke and expected me Each day he expected me to come over I put off letting him know but each day he went to the station I know what you're going to tell me, Louis.
To meet me. The day you came in, he wasn't there? He wasn't there. Every day he gave up. So what did you do when you got there? The morning, yes. I got off the train in London. The buses running one after the other. I had the address for my brother yesterday. Did you feel so disappointed that nobody was there? I didn't know. Ah, of course, you were a young 19-year-old boy. The whole world was ahead of you. Okay. But I had the other, just not knowing the language, I went over to...who should I go over to? Uncle Bobby. Bobby. Yeah. So he tells me to get on the bus number 10.
Bus number 10 will take me, not quite to the place where my brother used to live, but near there. I got around, that was in, it was called London Bridge Station. I got on the bus, the bus was supposed to cross London Bridge. The bus conductor came up with two, what do you call those buses? Two tiers. Two tiers. We were sitting nice. Bus conductor comes over, ticket please. I had to pay, I had to get a ticket and pay for the ticket. All the money I had was French, a couple of French zoo. A zoo, yeah. And a couple of things. That's all the money I had.
Didn't have any Russian money, didn't have any English money. The money I had at that time must have been just enough to buy a sandwich And he comes over I earn my money in the purse I took out the money paid it says no He looked into my purse, he saw a Frank, he thought that was a shame. He said, I gave it to him. No. So he wouldn't stop the bus on the bridge, so I'm against the law. He crossed the bridge, told me to get on. So what am I to do? The bus number 10 will take me there, my legs will take me there.
So as far as I've seen where the bus was going, you follow. But the streets there don't go straight. Wind around. When I lost sight of the bus, I stood still waiting for another number 10 bus. I came up and left a bus coming along, I walked on. The bus got up with me, passed me. I just followed that bus. So I came to a spot called the London Orgy. It doesn't matter anyhow. Policeman standing there, Twork, City Policeman. One of them, showing them the address. Says to me, Sprechens you Deutsch? Ja. So in the German language, they gave me to understand where it is and how far I have to go.
I did go as far as that. I came to the street named Commercial Street. I turned into Death Street. In that road, just like with my, let's say the expressway, and we have Royal Lane, we have So in that commercial street, there are three streets In one of the streets I seen the Jews start selling Sephora to lease them All the Jewish I went to that store Of course, a Jewish store, so it was obvious they would understand what I am asking in Jewish language. I went in there and I'm sharing the address. We don't know. Anyhow, I will. I will. I will further out.
I came to the street where my granddaughter used to live. I already, not knowing the language, but I already knew how to read the English language and according to the others I had, I've seen according to the others and hear the name of the sea. So I was in Bed Street, early morning around, it should be about 8 o'clock in the morning. People are rushing, walking there, I didn't know, At that time I didn't know whether they were Jewish people or Englishmen or anything. I've seen a man, an old man with a grave and beard, standing on flight of stairs, an apartment, selling bales. Went over to that man, training the others.
He didn't know. He was in England. He couldn't read. He couldn't read. He didn't have English language. But he needed it. So how finally, we're going to have to speed this up a little, so how finally did you find your brother's house? Yeah, he says that. So, about around the street I've seen a grocery store. I went to that grocery store. Jewish grocery store. So he asked a woman standing there, Are you David's brother? Yes, no. She got hold of me and I'd fly upstairs on the sixth floor. We walked up. She knocked in the door. My brother was already at work. My sister, whatever.
She opened the door. What a joy, what a joy. So I was already in England in a nice few countries. and got together all our landslides. And I advised, they saved, had, and what they wish. So it didn't take me long. Two weeks' time I started to work there. I worked. I earned good. I earned good money. Were you living with your brother and his wife? No, he wasn't married. He wasn't married at that time. Oh, your brother and your sister. My sister was married. So my brother was a waiter. As I've seen, in Russia my brother was a teacher. But in the new country you had to do what you could.
Yes, yes. So first he started as a wrestler in the tailoring grade. But it makes a lot of difference. Somebody was used with the perineam and the lift of 18-pound pericide to do medicine. He gave it up and he... He became a waiter. No. What about you, though? You became a tailor. Yes. And then how did you, let's say, meet your wife or what kind of a social life did you did you have or how much after that did that happen? Well we met, the war broke out in 1914 and we young people we didn't task was absolutely like a child's play. Ah, well, it was a nice Jewish theater.
We went to the theater, everybody. And one day, I, my friend of mine, just walking along the street, two young kids were walking along facing us So I said to my friend you see her Do you see her She is mine So the children came over and said, what did you say? What did you take the zoo? They were all for the zoo, they gave us mine and finished. That's all it. And this is how we got aged there. You picked her out on the street. How much younger was she than you then? Uh, five years. I was five years old. How old were you when you got married?
I was 23. She was 18? She was 18. Was she working? What kind of work did she do? She was also working in the tail and trade as a finisher. Where had she come from? Was she born in England or was she in...? No, no, no, no. Also, she came from... Her family came from Warsaw Pogue. Uh-huh. And I was the same year that I came over to England, they came over to England. But we didn't know each other until that second that I... Feature. How long after you picked her out on the street did you marry her? We were engaged for about three years.
So you were able to both work and save money? Yes, we were working, yes. What kind of... when you got married, was it a big wedding, a little wedding, just the mishpocha? Were your parents still in Russia? My parents were still in Russia. I didn't want to get married till my parents would be able to come over to England. But unfortunately, the war lasted too long, from 1914 to 1918. My year ended was absolutely impossible to bring them over. At that time, already in 1917, 1960, 1917, the revolution, When they overthrew the Tsar, almost every Jew all over the world is absolutely very, very happy.
When they overthrew the Tsar there already a kind of freedom of Russia and we hope that the Jewish people will not be persecuted so much will not be persecuted anymore. That was when Kerensky took over the government, but when the the Bolsheviks took over. At that time we didn't know exactly the policy of the Communist Party. But at the same time we were absolutely happy. To us it made no difference whether Karansky or Bolshevich, as long as it wasn't the czar. It wasn't the czar, and Russia, to serve next to him, was already a free country, and he gave it to the Jewish people, the all right to live.
And we, at that time, a lot of us almost made up our minds to go back. All right, but you didn't. So you got married, and when you first got married, where did you live? Do you remember the place where you lived? Yes, we got an apartment. We got an apartment. We were still going to work, wife and I, until we saved up some money. And then year after year, I could say, 30 months after we got married, the first child was born, a boy. Of course, mother having to look after the hairs to feed the child and so on. Now we feed the children with a kind of formula and so on.
At that time, every child was breastfed. So were you. I know. It's the best way. They still should. Yes. Okay, so she stayed home. How many children did you eventually have in your family? We had six children Can I have more of these For our fortune we lost lost Adora in 1966 a young woman 45 years old age And in your womb was leukemia. Where are your children now, Louis? Two in England, three in the United States, one in New York, one in New Jersey, a daughter living here in Dallas. Okay. And because of my daughter that lives here in Dallas, I am in Dallas now.
When did you leave England to come to America? 1950. Who came with you? My wife, my late wife, which I was thinking. Two of my youngest sons. One was 16, the other one was 10. And I've already had my two daughters. Married in England. Married here. Living here in the States. Oh, I see. One of them got married in England, she married a GI. And when she got married she came to America. So my younger daughter came up here, a young girl. And she met her husband here in America, they got married. They got married just about, they got married in May 1950. We came over in November of 1950.
You came over, was your wife alive at that time when you came over? My wife, I lost my own wife about four and a half years ago. Oh, I see. So she came over with you. And you lived first in New York when you came? We lived in New York at the time, yes. What did you do in New York? Working in California. And then you ended up with here in Dallas. Because I lost my wife in 1976. My wife passed away. We were in Florida, Miami Beach. We used to go to Florida almost every winter season, spending the season there. And coming back to New York around the end of April, May, In 1976, we were in Ayambe Beach, Florida.
We had a very nice time there. We enjoyed ourselves. Concerts, theatre, all kinds of entertainment and so on. and three days before we were bound to go back to New York home, that was the 30th of April, 1976. That day was a Friday. Friday morning we got up and my wife said to me, Monday we are going back home. So it wouldn't be right to get busy Saturday and Sunday. Let's get busy now, we'll start packing. We'll be ready when time comes. We'll be ready to go. We have five more minutes. Okay. So we got ready on that Friday. We packed everything and when we were over there she cooked our meal Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
And then we went swimming. In the evening, Friday evening we went to a concert. Coming home around 10 o'clock in the evening in the hotel there. We sat inside the hotel with the people talking I was talking with the men she was talking with the women Around 10 11 we went up to our room hotel went to sleep went to bed We had a room, two beds, one back here, one back there. Around 2 o'clock in the morning, I heard that my wife was up, calling. Got out of bed, whatever, and said, what's wrong? She said, I don't feel good. What's wrong? I don't know, I don't feel good.
What am I to do? I called the doctor. I called the ambulance. She said, good dear. She said, what are you crazy? We're going on Monday. I said, okay. I said, but you're sick. Anyhow, she wouldn't let me go. In the morning, I'm 7 in the morning. She felt very bad, so I didn't ask any questions. I called her to the hospital. She was five days in the hospital under her contensive care. And on the fifth day she passed. Okay, so you're here with, is it a daughter or a son, Louis? In Dallas, with a daughter or the son? No. Okay, so you came here how many years ago?
Three? We were in Dallas two years ago. Okay. Now, you live on your own. You don't live with your daughter. I live on my own. Okay, and you're very much involved in the senior group here. What... As much as I able to do as I able to go to I happen to exist in the hotel for the Russian immigrants At Mid Not only at Mid I am a volunteer for the Jewish Family Service Jewish Family Service, whenever they need an interpreter to go to some of the Russian immigrants to such places as the Social Security, foot stamps or to a doctor. You go along with them.
I go along with them. So you feel that you're really very much needed in your... I, and I, shall you say... Well, you're doing a service that's very important. I'm about to do it. Right. What is your feeling on the senior activities that go on here? It's very, very... Does it fill the need or the void? Well, it does fill the void. If you, Lewis, if you knew that someday your grandchildren would come into this building and go into the library and they'll see tapes of interviews of seniors and they'll see Lewis Lichtman and they take out your tape and they'll hear how you tell the story of Russia and of England and of some of the instances that you've recorded in your life and you wanted to leave them a message of how they should leave their lives or what would you say to them what what's the most important thing you would like to leave to them?
Years after you're gone, they'll say, listen there my grandfather What he saying What would you like to say To live their life as they do up till now is a very very good way of life Respectable They come from a very nice, respectable family. My own children, when they were young, they You're going out, you're meeting friends, you'll be in certain kinds of groups and so on. If you find yourself in bad company, if you find yourself in good company, be good. If you find yourself in bad company, you can't make them good, stay away from them. And that's the same advice you're giving your grandchildren to those young people.
Okay. If you had to change, one last question, if you had to change anything that you did in your life, would you have changed it? Or I know circumstances in the world had a great impact on your life. You lived through two world wars and you changed your countries three times. Is there anything you perhaps would have done differently or not? If it would have been, to my case, it built, it would have been possible to change, I would have changed. But otherwise, the way I lived was just, I wouldn't say it was very, very good, but it wasn't.