Journey to America Return to Skala Shtetlinks page From Skala to New York Extracts from 1978 Interviews of Skala Emigr s Who Came to New York 1900 1911 1 Maryam Mary Wiesenthal Brill Born 1889 in Skala Emigrated to NY 1900 Died 1985 NY 2 Usha Dvoira Dorothy Wiesenthal Gross Born 1896 in Skala Emigrated to NY 1900 Died 1980s NY 3 Yankel Jacob Wiesenthal Born 1891 in Skala Emigrated to NY 1909 Died 1982 FL 4 Shmiel Samuel Wiesenthal Born 1888 in Skala Emigrated to NY 1908 Died 1978 NY 5 Chana Anna Menchel Born 1893 in Skala Emigrated to NY 1909 Died 1980s FL 6 Hudya Ada Menchel Born 1897 in Skala Emigrated to NY 1911 Died 1980s FL The Decision to Come to America We lived very nicely in Skala We always had a servant and we had a new house that had just been built We lived very nicely until the fire Everybody tried to save their own property and it was windy and the fire spread all over the city Our house didn t go because it wasn t directly in town But all businesses and everything else went Maryam Mary Wiesenthal Brill After the fire it was a time of great migration Usha Dorothy Wiesenthal Gross Note The Great Fire of Skala is believed to have taken place in 1899 I came to America because my father didn t want I should become a soldier and eat not kosher stuff there in their army My brother Sam came before me He sent me the shiffskarte ticket And he sent me some money to come here and I paid him everything when I started to work Yankel Jacob Wiesenthal All the enterprising young men came because they were poor and to escape the army Usha Dorothy Wiesenthal Brill I don t remember my father who died when she was young My mother wanted to come but only the three of us were left in Skala my mother and Ada and me My other sisters who already were in America couldn t afford to take us together So I was the first one I came just because Jake went she accompanied her male cousin otherwise I wouldn t go I was a teen ager thirteen or fourteen I didn t want to come to America I was crying Chana Anna Menchel We came because we couldn t make a living there It would be a shame for the girls to go as maids in Skala There was no way of making a living Hudya Ada Menchel From Skala to Hamburg or Antwerp 7 Emigrants took the train from Skala We went by train all the way from Skala to Hamburg Yankel Jacob Wiesenthal We got the boat in Antwerp First we went by horse and buggy to some neighbors in another town and we stayed overnight there And then we went by train to Antwerp Another thing I remember of course we were third class and they stopped for a while for you to get water There was no water on the train So I remember my mother left us three kids on the train and she had a kettle and she went to get water and I nearly died The others didn t know the difference I felt sure the train was going to start without her Maryam Mary Wiesenthal Brill In Hamburg We stayed overnight in Hamburg before we went on the ship I remember I was really very young I was a kid And when we came to Hamburg I was afraid I only wanted to go to sleep with my cousin Jake So he says to me you can t go to sleep with me Don t forget you re a girl I m a man You have to sleep with the girls This I ll never forget Chana Anna Menchel 8 The emigration hall in Hamburg early 20th century Aboard Ship 9 Aboard ship We were three children and we had one berth All the four of us slept together in one berth With our mother You know how narrow those berths were Maryam Mary Wiesenthal Brill We were in an upper berth And there was a very rabid Polish lady coming to America in the berth below She probably didn t like it that there were four people above her and she started out with a real hatred of us Anyway one day I wet myself and some of it went through So then the woman went to complain to the captain And she said Not only did this woman s child wet my bed but she stole my best blouse She accused my mother of stealing her blouse and they came and looked among my mother s possessions but they didn t find it Usha Dorothy Wiesenthal Gross We came through steerage of course Somebody else was in the room with us and my mother said in Yiddish I hope my daughter doesn t get sick But I was very sick and so was my mother Hudya Ada Menchel I went on the boat twelve days I took care of Anna She was sick already and I had trouble with her We