Read I Shall Live for Free Online

miles. There were no automobiles either, and few Jewish parents who could afford the high tuition fees were sending their children to Jewish high schools in other towns. But a diploma from one of those schools counted for little in the Polish universities; the tiny number of Jewish students admitted by the universities came almost exclusively from the Polish state gymnasiums.
    About five hundred kids applied for the thirty or so places in the freshman class of the gymnasium. There were two written examinations, in Polish language and in mathematics. I was well preparedand breezed through the math exam—I was the first to turn in my paper. The Polish-language exam took longer. The subject was “My First Adventure in a Forest.” I wrote a story that started on a beautiful sunny morning and ended with an evening storm full of thunder and lightning. In between, I described baking potatoes, searching for hidden treasure, and generally experiencing the beauty of nature.
    About a week later the applicants and their parents assembled in the auditorium to learn the results. It was packed, with standing room only. The director of the school read the results, calling out the students’ names in alphabetical order. The marks ranged from “very good” to “failing,” and were mostly very low. One student, Bienkiewicz, the son of a Polish landowner, got “very good minus” in Polish language and “average” in math. When my turn came, the director read “Orenstein: Math—very good. Polish language—very good minus,” and a murmur went through the crowd. The director stopped and looked around, but he didn’t know who I was and I was too shy to raise my hand. He then read through the rest of the students’ marks. There wasn’t another “very good” among them.
    I was embarrassed to see people staring at me and bowed my head, but in my heart there was great joy. I fought my way through the crowd to my parents, who hugged and kissed me without saying a word. We walked home together, with Father on one side and Mother on the other, each holding one of my hands.
    Two weeks later a list was posted of the thirty students who had been accepted in the freshman class of the gymnasium. Chaim Ajzen and I were the only two Jews admitted, although there were many other Jews who had gotten better marks than the Polish students who were accepted.
    As time passed, I became increasingly disturbed at the upsurge of anti-Semitism in Poland. Marshal Piłsudski died in 1935, and the new government under Rydz- Ś migły wasn’t strong enough towithstand pressure from such anti-Jewish groups as the Endeks, a nationalistic Polish party. Such minimal protection as was offered to Jews by the police and other government agencies was weakening. Diverse groups found it in their interest to arouse urban mobs and ignorant Polish peasants to violence. One such group was the rising Polish merchant class, who were finding it difficult to compete with Jewish shop owners, with all their centuries of experience in trade. Another was the professional class, who were anxious to see Jews excluded from the practice of law and medicine. Propaganda from Germany expounding Hitler’s “master race” theories further incited Polish anti-Semites. Newspapers and radio broadcasts were full of reports of actual pogroms. These usually occurred during fairs in small towns and in a few cities, when large crowds would descend upon a village or town, and the local authorities found themselves completely inadequate to cope with the situation. In addition to the farm products they were selling, peasants would arrive at these fairs with empty sacks and boxes, hoping for an outbreak of violence or perhaps even a full-fledged pogrom that would permit them to plunder Jewish houses and shops.
    I spent many sleepless nights fearful of the approaching 1936 summer fair in Hrubieszów. Visions of