Transcript from PBS Documentary, "Shtetl" Featuring My Grandmother

MARIAN MARZYNSKI: [voice-over] In a suburb of Atlanta lives a woman who left Bransk(Poland) as a 14-year-old girl. Her name is Evelyn Silverboard. Her family fled Bransk in 1938, just before the war.
EVELYN SILVERBOARD: [subtitles] [showing photos] This is my house!
ZBYSZEK ROMANIUK: [subtitles] I've never seen pictures like these! They alone make my trip worthwhile.
MARIAN MARZYNSKI: Would you go to Bransk?
EVELYN SILVERBOARD: No.
MARIAN MARZYNSKI: Why?
EVELYN SILVERBOARD: I want to remember it the way I am. That's my home. Home! Bransk is home. That's my home and that's the reason I don't want to go back because I want to remember my home the way it was. I don't want to remember it the way it is now. I don't know anybody there.
I_ that was_ all the familiar faces, every nook and cranny_ I mean, I drew him a map of where people lived, and names, and I can still see in my mind's eye. I can see everything. I can see the way it looked and I remember going on the river, with Lyzwy, on the river when it was frozen. And I remember going in the summertime swimming in the river. I remember that, all of that.
This is from Rachela Finkelstein. This is from Shana Gold, Goldowna_ her mother_ they had a galanteria store. This is Jozef Balkestin, in Jewish. And this is from Motl Szpitalny. And this is from Hajcuvna. And this is from my Aunt Huma, Mulhuma. And this is Stella Lerner. We were a close-knit group of girlfriends.
The last night, I went with_ we said good-bye. The lights were out in town. The electrownia was being cleaned. So we had lamps and everybody came to say good-bye. And in the morning, I remember Chumski_ do you know the name Chumski? Sonya Chumski, who was very good friends of our family. She was knocking on the door to wake up. It was time to wake up.
Then the bus stopped in front of our house. All the good friends, they went on the bus with us to the outskirts of town, when the bus was near Binduga. And that's where they got off and walked back in and we went on. And we...I remember my aunt saying, "They'll never see us again." And that was it.
Then we went to Warsaw and we stayed in Warsaw three, four days. Papa went to Lodz to say good-bye to his brothers and sisters and two brothers came and_ and a nephew came back to Warsaw to say good-bye to us. And I remember going on the bus to the train station to go to Gdynia and there were riots in the street.
And the last thing that I remember about Poland, and I don't know whether I should say it or not, was we were on the bus and the students, college students, university students, yelling and carrying signs, "Precz z Zydami," and that I'll never forget. That was in my brain. It still is. And that's another reason I won't go back to Poland because that's my last memory of Poland was "Precz z Zydami." We were on the bus. We were all scared. And that_ that was it.
MARIAN MARZYNSKI: How would you say "Precz z Zydami" in English?
EVELYN SILVERBOARD: "Down with the Jews."
MARIAN MARZYNSKI: [voice-over] Evelyn shows us a collection of letters from Bransk written to her in 1939 before the war put an end to all correspondence. "I can't believe that you are seas and continents away from us," reads one of the letters. "Your golden America is a dream for everyone. You read newspapers and must know what is happening in Germany. Therefore you should not miss Bransk, even though you had your sweet childhood here. I hope you will forget Bransk soon and adapt to the American life."
"Life in our shtetl has become unbearable. I am sick of this hideous word 'Jew' I hear all around me. It seems that we are born to suffer. The only hope is that one day we will all be in our sunny Palestine. And you are so far from me in your golden America. I can't believe I won't be able to see your beautiful little face and kiss your rosy lips."
EVELYN SILVERBOARD: Look on Friday night we used to put this on our table.
MARIAN MARZYNSKI: Shabbes.
EVELYN SILVERBOARD: For shabbes. "Pulshenin tishtact" that was called_ this_ and Mama's_ my mama's silver candlesticks. This is the way it looked, Lord. It's pretty. It's still pretty. And we've been here since 1938 and_ and I don't think it's been used since.
We have some beautiful candlesticks and Mama used to put it right here, at the end of the table. And she used to benchlicht. There was what was, and it'll never, never, never be again. It's a civilization, a way of life that's gone forever and it'll never be duplicated. It can't. It was a very rich, rich, rich civilization.
How can you transfer the flavor? Sure, there are American Jews that are doing_ that are making shabbes, but have they got the Pulshenin Tishtact? I mean, that doesn't make the shabbes, but it's the little things. It's the way of life. It's_ [sings] En shul a rhine_ Are you going to hear it here, Maycheu, the calling?
You can't_ it's just a way of life that I was really blessed to_ to know. I really was. And that is_ you asked me about going back to Bransk. I want to remember. I want to have my memories that I remember, my good memories.