Interview with Aaron Scher, May 27, 1977, Madison, Wisconsin

Partial Transcript: Born on July 4, 1903, in Kobrin, Russia, near the Polish border. One sister, several years younger, who lives in Baraboo, Wisconsin. His father was a harness-maker.

Partial Transcript: Father's harness-making business was large and catered to mostly non-Jews.

Partial Transcript: The Scher family lived in lived in Kobrin, Russia, which had a Jewish population of 17,000. Since the majority of the town was Jewish, the city was not separated. There were more than twenty synagogues in Kobrin.

Partial Transcript: Spent several years in Cheder, until its forced closing at the beginning of World War I. Rabbi of the Cheder refused to let Scher re-enter the school after the war's end.

Partial Transcript: Went to public school after closing of Cheder. School run jointly by Germans and Russians.

Partial Transcript: Worked in the fields after his Bar Mitzvah and had to dig potatoes so the family would not starve. Difficult to find work, and the family suffered because the father was serving at the front.

Partial Transcript: The father was drafted on the same day that World War I was declared, during Tisha B'Av services in the synagogue. Recounts the places the father fought and the length of time between visits. The movement of the front closer to Kobrin caused problems, and more than three hundred civilians were killed during an assault on the village.

Partial Transcript: The family dog saved them from remaining in the house during an assault, and they fled to a nearby church for cover. Their house was destroyed by bullets, and the grandfather helped bury the dead through his membership in the Chevra Kadisha, the Jewish burial society.

Partial Transcript: There was a cholera epidemic, and the peasants suffered from hunger because the Germans rationed flour every week. There was a lack of correspondence from the father at the front until after the Revolution.

Partial Transcript: Father settled briefly in the United States after running away from the Russian Army during the Russo-Japanese War. Had a successful harness-making business in New York City, but returned to Russia four years later because his wife refused to settle in New York.

Partial Transcript: Father returned from the front and witnessed a recurrence of the pogroms. Government gangs harassed the people. After the Polish occupation of the villages, the Jews were forced to leave, and those who stayed were treated harshly by the Polish. In 1919, the Russians routed the Polish from the occupied villages.

Partial Transcript: The Bolsheviks offered jobs to Scher's friends, and got him a job in City Hall. He was the person who informed others of their selection for forced labor and contacted those who would be shot within twenty-four hours if they did not report for work. He also informed those selected for the draft, and was blamed for doing his job.

Partial Transcript: Citizens were arrested daily for no apparent reasons. He tells several short stories concerning the arrests of neighbors and the harsh ways in which they were treated. He arranged the escape of a friend by persuading a guard to look the other way.

Partial Transcript: He was forced to join the Red Army at the front even though he lacked proper training. The front moved close to Kobrin, destroying people and property. He was also called before a military tribunal, but was pardoned.

Partial Transcript: An order given to Scher prompted his escape to his parents' apartment in Kobrin. He destroyed his uniform and gun, and his new boots were taken by a Polish officer.

Partial Transcript: Following a near-fatal meeting with an old enemy, Scher decided to leave Russia. Had difficulties in acquiring a visa to the United States and emigrated instead to Argentina. Recounts his flight from Europe via Amsterdam and the thirty-day voyage by ship to Argentina.

Partial Transcript: Arrived in Buenos Aires after Pesach, and had to sneak into the Argentinian immigration office. He was helped by Russian friends already in the city and boarded with an old Jewish family there.

Partial Transcript: He found work with a Jewish man from Odessa who made novelty tables, and his efforts on the job led to increased salary. He moved into a boarding house run by an English woman.

Partial Transcript: He got a job as an inspector with the government through a connection of the landlady's lover. As a checker of army paints and chemicals, he learned Spanish from the foreman. Recounted his working hours and his steady raises in salary.

Partial Transcript: An anti-Semitic twenty-year-old boy arrived at the factory and provoked a fight with Scher, in which both were slightly injured. An encounter with the youth later that evening resulted in their friendship, which was encouraged by the foreman.

Partial Transcript: His father arrived alone in New York and refused to travel to Argentina to be with Scher. As a result, Scher left his good life in Argentina to be with his family in the United States, and arrived in New York on October 1, 1923.

Partial Transcript: He hated New York City because of the filth and the lack of pretty girls. Although he had trouble with the English language, he landed a job as a helper in a grocery store for twelve dollars a week.

Partial Transcript: He worked at odd jobs until he became a salesman in the Bronx for fifteen dollars a week. After leaving that job, he became a clerk by lying about his experience, was promoted to manager, opened three new stores, and received a salary increase to ninety dollars a week. He continued to save money due to lack of taxes, and quit his job after a new manager was hired.

Partial Transcript: He established his own business and worked only four days a week while making more than one hundred dollars a week.

Partial Transcript: He was introduced to his future wife, whom he married in February, 1928, at the New York wedding of her brother. They became engaged in New York and she asked him to return with her to Madison, Wisconsin, to meet her parents.

Partial Transcript: His family includes a son, now a lawyer, and a daughter who works for the Emporium in Madison.

Partial Transcript: He is now involved with the Jewish burial society, Chevra Kadisha, because of his grandfather's involvement in it in Russia. Although it has problems, the Chevra Kadisha lifts great burdens from the bereaving families.