Propaganda in Transylvania

[Text: David recalls the increase in antisemitism in Bistrița, Transylvania after the influx of Nazi propaganda after 1940.] 

David Ehrlich: German propagandists came to our hometown to infiltrate or to indoctrinate the local Germans and indeed did a magnificent job. Your friends became your enemies all of a sudden. My brother and I came home from Hebrew school in the afternoon between five and six. And I was about eight or nine, and he was two years younger. And just before we got home, we were ambushed by two German teenagers who beat us. And I mean, there was no contest because they ambushed us. And they were so much bigger than we were. And by the time we got home, we were bloody, and we were muddy and everything. And [my] mother, who was making dinner, took one look at us. She asked, “Who did that?” And we told that it was the Brandt brothers. There was, two or three doors down from us, there was a family by the name of Brandt. They were butchers, the richest people in town. They’re the only ones that had a car that I was aware of. And they had a butcher shop downstairs, and they lived upstairs. So, my mother with her apron still on, led us by the hand and off we went [to] the Brandts’. We went upstairs, they were all sitting at the table. A lot of people, not just the family, there was about four or five on either side, and at the head [of the] table there was the master, with a big stomach like that. And my mother says, “Mr. Brandt,” and pointing to us, “is that the way you’re bringing up your children? Or is Hitler bringing them up for you?”