Objects

Another scene from the life of the residents of pre-war Opatów as remembered by Mayer Kirshenblatt. Every Wednesday was market day, and it was a very important event for the local community. As Kirshenblatt recalled, ‘Most of the business for the week was done on market day. Farmers from near and far would fill the town to capacity. The town was overrun with horses and wagons. [...] There were three market areas. The main market, on the town square, was for produce, dairy products, poultry, raw materials, and manufactured goods. A second, smaller market was located in front of our house, for the spillover from the main market. A third market, for livestock, was on the torgeviske, a big open space on the edge of town, next to the Jewish cemetery’ (M. Kirshenblatt, B. Kirszenblatt-Gimblett, They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust, Berkeley 2007).

Małgorzata Bogdańska-Krzyżanek