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Doreen Wajchendler

 

 

"Of course I went to work. I used to work for the United Synagogue at first. And I enjoyed it there, and I went to another job after that. You know, in those days you could get jobs easily. I wanted one nearer home. I didn’t want to have to trawl on buses all the time. It was a horrible job. Cause, I lived in Clapton and the syn- the United Synagogue was south- Southampton Road. So eventually I got a job in a furniture factory, I was a secretary there. So I was a short hand typist. And I enjoyed it there. And I stayed there until I got married at the age of twenty"

"I remember Mrs. Newman asking me the following morning if I would like bacon and eggs for breakfast. I said ‘what’s bacon?’ because you know, I had never had it. So I said ‘only an  egg will do.’ Later that day, David my older brother came round. And told Mrs. Newman not to give me bacon, pork or ham to eat because we were Jewish. She looked at us in surprise. ‘Ohh golly I thought Jews had horns!’ [laughs]"

"My parents? Yes, came from Poland. My father came from a cathedral town er… called Czestachowa. Yeah. And I remember him telling me if they went on a er, horse and cart. If the driver didn’t doff his hat, passing a church. It means he had no respect for the church. And my mother came from a little place called er, BÄ™dzin." 

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