Chapter Two: Childhood in Portugal
A house near the sea, holidays in the mountains; fables/stories before sleep
David, it seems, was somewhat disappointed that he had no sons, and he educated his three daughters to show restraint, not to be soft and not to complain. After all he demanded the same of himself. He would take us to the beach, even in winter, and often we would bathe in the cold sea.
David was an avid reader, whose curiosity led him to become interested in self-treatment, unconventional medicine and in Stoicism. Stoics believed in the strength of good souls, and their resistance even in difficult situations in life. David searched in his books for natural treatments, and then did many exercises that could help him see better, and maybe even remove his eyeglasses. So, when the doctor had told him that in the city the air was harmful to his wife’s delicate health, he understood that he had to move.
This was why before Ana’s birth the family had moved away from the city to Benfica, then a suburb, and later to Carcavelos, a town close to the sea with a very nice beach, which is today a holiday resort. We were almost the only Jews in town and we knew that we were Jews. The electric train ran along the towns of the Estoril coast. Our friends, the boys who lived in the same street with whom we played often were José Miguel and Pedro Ramos, sons of one of our Father’s partners. There also was an English girl from school who lived in the house at the corner of our street, with whom I often played.
The combination of a Stoic father and an introverted Mother who was brought up in the British strict educational system, resulted in a home where there were no soul-searching conversations. But the girls felt loved and protected. “We had a happy and free childhood,” said Sonia, “our parents were perhaps strict, but also warm and pampering in their own way, maybe like other parents of those days.
They did not have much free time, but after the long hours at school and homework, they would play with their neighbors, José Miguel and Pedro. Ana and Sonia were two years apart – they were and still are today very close, in spite of the differences in their character.
“Ana was gentler and I was more impatient, she was more sociable and I was more introverted. As a child I was more active than she, and enjoyed climbing trees in our garden. Once, when we played in the garden, I fell backwards on our Mother’s cacti, which were on the wall surrounding the reservoir, and the needles stuck in my neck. My Mother and one of maids tried to pull them out, but had to take me to the pharmacy, and the pharmacist took out the needles one by one with the help of tweezers. It was very painful.”
There was another period which she remembers: a few times each week, she would go to the town doctor, up a steep staircase; the doctor gave her an injection in the tummy, and she would lie down and receive an infusion. She also stayed home and didn’t go to school, during this time when she was hypoglycemic. She ate many sweets during this time.
Ana and Sonia shared one room; their Mother would read English stories every night, and sing nursery songs, and then they would continue reading; Sonia enjoyed especially the books of Charles Dickens. Sonia was frightened when there were fireworks and there were shadows on the walls in their room.
On her birthday, there was always a surprise near her bed before she awoke: once it was a round box of watercolors, which gave her great pleasure, for she loved to draw and paint. Another gift which also gave her great pleasure was a Kodak “square box” and she photographed their vacations and trips. She photographed the Carnival procession in Lisbon, with many people masqueraded, several of whom wearing the typical embroidered garments of the northern Portuguese provinces rode in colorful carriages, and threw confetti. Often, David and Esther would invite their friends for a big party and they would sing and dance along the corridors of the house, to the music of the gramophone. They would also hold big parties on the New Year.
On weekends the family gathered in the dining room round the table and the maid brought in the food. There were clear rules: no one rises from the table until all have finished eating; one had to finish eating all the food on the plate, “because there are children who are starving”. Even if liver is on the plate, and you hated it, you had to finish it. “It is very healthy and gives energy to the body,” said our Father about red underdone liver. On Fridays, like our neighbors who were Protestants, who didn’t eat meat on that day, we would eat bacalhau for lunch. Our Mother didn’t cook, the maid did, but she baked wonderful cakes: chocolate, coffee, marble cakes. Sonia learned to bake these cakes.
On Saturdays, they would go to the Girl Scouts in St. Julian’s, took swimming lessons, and/or went to the city to visit their Father in his office in rua Augusta; they also ate cakes and ‘pasteis de nata’ in the tea room in the building. When a circus came to Lisbon, we would go to see it. “I liked the acts with the lions, horses and elephants, and the clowns, but not the acrobats, because I was afraid they might fall from the high cables.”
We would ride in my Father’s black Ford and he would take us to the beach, even in winter, and we got used to the cold, high waves of the Atlantic. In the summer, we rode further away to the green slopes of the Serra da Estrela, where we’d stay at a small pension; when my Mother would say “you’ll drink the milk of the camel,” we would laugh, because camel was the name of the owner and he had a cow. We loved to walk with Father in the forests around and play games with him. Our parents were very relaxed on these holidays, which were real family holidays. We would travel to small villages and also to the south, to fishermen towns, as well as to a hot thermal water spa, where my Mother would drink from the water, believing that it would help her overcome her digestive problems.
Our parents paid great care with our education: at age 6, each of us was sent to kindergarten at St. Julian’s School, which was a very good school (founded in 1932), with English staff, and a very strict discipline, and where Sonia’s children would also study later. When Ana joined her, she took her on her bicycle to school.
The imposing, large buildings were surrounded by green lawns and grounds for tennis and hockey. Sonia liked very much sports, and especially the annual Sports Day, when the parents would take part with their children, and race together with them in large potato bags, and running holding spoons with hard boiled eggs on them.
Studies continued in the afternoon after homework: a private teacher came to teach Portuguese; on another day, Auntie Brania would teach us French (we refused to learn German); we also had Hebrew lessons with the Jewish Rav who came especially from Lisbon.
Although they were the only Jews in the town of Carcavelos, they knew perfectly that they were Jews. In Pesach they would take down the dishes for Pesach from the high cupboards. They would follow their Father, on his search around the house with a candle to find the “chametz” (bread crumbs). On Pesach night they would celebrate, together with the two sisters of our Father, who had come to Lisbon in the meantime, as well as our good neighbors and partners of our Father. They ate the traditional “kneidalach” in the chicken soup, the “gefilte fish” that Esther prepared. When Hanukah came around, they lighted the candles every evening. When Christians celebrated Christmas, our parents told us that “we were different from others, and we had other holy days”.
Sometimes, in Rosh Hashanah and Pesach we would go to the Synagogue Sh’arei Tikvah, the beautiful synagogue built in 1904, in Lisbon. This was the first one built in this city since 1496, when Jews were expelled from Portugal. Until it was built the Jews prayed in their private homes. The synagogue was built within a garden surrounded by a wall and did not face the street, because the community preferred to keep it modest. They did not want trouble with the laws, because it was forbidden to build houses of prayer facing the street which were not Catholic, the official religion.
We knew we were different from the other children. Our parents talked German with each other, because they thought that we would not understand, but we had learned German quickly. Of course, we spoke English very well, and our parents told us that it was very important, because Portuguese was less known in other countries. “One day we may go to Israel”. We didn’t understand the meaning of those words, but we understood that it was important to know English very well. David and Esther didn’t know what the future would bring, but now it seems as if they had a foreboding. When the skies darkened over Europe, they were ready to face the situation.
