Moise and Adela Springer

These here are my paternal grandparents, Adela and Moise Springer. The photo was taken in 1935, I think, just before grandmother died. It was taken here, in Brasov.

My paternal grandfather was born in 1871 in Baraolt, but for as long as I knew him, he lived in Brasov, where he worked as a dentist. He moved to Brasov in 1920. His mother tongue was Hungarian, and I think he studied at some medical school in Budapest in order to become a dentist. He wasn't a very religious man. He was Neolog, a rather modern man for those times, but on Sabbath he went to the synagogue and didn't work. Of course, he also went to the synagogue on the high holidays. He fasted on Yom Kippur. Also, on Saturdays there were traditional dishes served at lunch. I don't know if the kashrut was observed in the house, but I know, he never ate pork.

My grandfather had a good financial situation, which enabled him to buy the house he lived in for the rest of his life with his family, here, in Brasov. It was a two-storied house in the very center of Brasov, with running water and electricity, and with a garden. His practice was in the house as well. He had two servants and he could also afford three or four technicians who worked for him. I remember that at one time, one of the technicians lived in the house.

My grandfather had no sense for politics; he was passionate about his work and about his family. But as a good Jew, he had in his house the Keren Kayemet Leisrael [3] box. He was a well-read man. He had a huge library, which consisted mainly of books on philosophy and history, but he also had religious books like the Siddur, which I found later. He got along well with his neighbors, but I believe most of his friends were Jewish people he met at the synagogue.

I never met my paternal grandmother, she passed away a year before I was born, in 1936. From what I heard about her, she was a very severe woman, especially with the children. She never hired a fraulein [governess] to take care of them, not to my knowledge at least. She was fond of the garden, where she planted jasmine, roses and lilacs. My grandfather sat shivah after my grandmother's death in 1936.