My Childhood 1929-1939

I was there.

Vasile Nussbaum was born in 1929 in Turda, a small town in the vicinity of Cluj-Napoca, in Northern Transylvania, where his family moved.

Vasile Nussbaum (1929), Romania/Hungary

Vasile Nussbaum (1929), Romania/Hungary

Consider here what life was like for Vasile before the war

My Family

Vasile is born in Turda in 1929. He has a normal childhood and goes to a Jewish school. His grandfather, an Orthodox Jew, has several businesses, which are then inherited by Vasile's father.

1) Listen to Vasile as he talks about his family. Answer the questions.

  • 1a. How do you find Vasile's childhood? Do you find it very different from that of the children today?

  • 1b. What does Vasile remember from his childhood about his family? Think of an important moment in your childhood when you were together with your family.

The Feeling of Being Different

Vasile enters a public high school for one year and feels for the first time that he is an "alien".

2) Listen to Vasile as he talks about the feeling of being different. Answer the questions.

  • 2a. How does Vasile feel when he learns that he is different from other classmates and how does he get to learn this?

  • 2b. What does the word “alien” mean for Vasile?

Slideshow

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