[5] It was the first summer after the outbreak of the war. Before the
war, children had been accustomed to go to sanatoriums, to holiday camps
and day camps. Because people wanted to enable the children to experience
even a small taste of what they had lost, children’s corners were set up in the
courtyards.³⁰¹ There a child could forget for a few hours the terrible severity
of the real world. There the children were fed, entertained with games, songs,
poems, and stories. It was Roza Symchowicz who was in charge of the children’s
corners. She purposely chose the poorest district. The days when Roza
Symchowicz came to visit were a real holiday for the children. She brought
with her kindness, warmth, and Jewish songs. She noticed that the children’s
corners totally neglected Yiddish and that the instructors, who were mainly
young people and volunteers, were not all trained for the work. For this reason,
she herself tirelessly collected Yiddish songs, poems, and tales. Because
of the war, many books had either disappeared or been destroyed, but Roza
Symchowicz ferretted around, searched about and found some. She organised
and led a course for the instructors of the children’s corners; she gave lectures
in Yiddish and addressed educational problems.
CENTOS assigned Roza Symchowicz the task of supplying teaching and
reading material for the children’s institutions. She attacked this work with
enthusiasm. She worked in very difficult circumstances. The premises were
cramped and not only did she not have a table to work on, she didn’t even
have a place at one, so she worked on “borrowed tables”. She did not have
her own drawer, so in the beginning she kept all her things in her handbag.
She worked by moving from one table to another. She brought together
a group of friends who understood the project, held it dear, and helped her
with her work. They searched out suitable materials, they translated, they
revised, and they rewrote. Roza had no funds to pay anyone, but she won
over everyone to the project with friendship and warmth. She glowed with joy
when she managed to find a suitable book, a necessary anthology, or a song
she had been looking for. She herself set the best example of industriousness
and commitment to the project. She organised commemorative gatherings
for the children and their instructors in honour of Yiddish writers. She herself
read to them and took pains to plant in their hearts a love for Yiddish.
301 See doc. 18.
