Our voyage from Munkacevo via Prague to Jerusalem

extracted from the memoirs of Josef Ami, April 1990

Translated by Dani & Noga Oshrat

The Salzbergers - according to their name, originated from around the city of Salzburg in Austria and we also know that there was small town in the Munkacevo area by the name of Salzberg. The name Salzberger is very rare and this would be the clue that the geographic origin is common to all.

It is interesting that the name appears in between several families who lived in the area of the Austrian aristocracy, mostly the Schöbrun’s and others.

The Graf von Schöbrun arrived to the area of Munkacevo during the time of the empress Maria Tereza that ruled in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in the second period of the 18th century.

This empress started the process of germanization of her empire and handed out conquered lands, as it was usually done at that time, between the Austrian aristocracy. We know that according to tradition in the commercial and financial businesses, the empire leaned on the Jews who were called “The yard Jews”. They administrated mansions, sold products, collected taxes and helped the aristocracy to call up the army and it’s equipment as one of the duties of being a Feodalic authority.

There are concrete facts that support the assumption that the Salzbergers were the yard Jews of the Graf von Schöbrun. The Graf had a hunting castle about 40 Km north of Munkacevo in a village called Pasika. The village and the city of Munkacevo were built on the bank of the Laturitsa River. On the southern part of Pasika by the bridge, on a crossroads that led to the castle from one side, to a village called Volovatz towards north and to Munkacevo towards south, was an ancient inn. A beautiful stone structure, with thick walls, heavy doors made from pine wood and fortified windows, with farm buildings in the backyard. The innkeeper was close to the Salzberger’s.

The late grandfather Itzchak Saltzberger and my late father Eliezer Salzberger told me that their origin was from Pasika, from that inn on the river on the crossroads.

We know that when the Jews got their civil rights in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the royal family and the aristocratic families gave honor titles to their yard Jews. The honor title that was given to the Salzbergers in the area of Munkacevo disappeared and erased by unknown reasons, but there were Salzbergers in the areas of the Schöbrun family that their honor titles are kept until today. For instance, there was a Doctor Salzberger in Jerusalem whose children are still alive that their origin was from the city Chernovich in Bukovina. They told me that their grandfather had kept the title Von - a known German-Austrian aristocratic title. I heard of a Salzberger family in Slovakia who lived in one of the villages in a castle near a palace owned by the Schöbruns and they also kept the title.

The Salzbergers in their looks looked very much like the Spanish - dark skinned, black eyes, short and round. These body signs relate us to the Jews of south Austria who lived as neighbors to the Jews of north Italy and Yugoslavia. Those were all Spanish Jews rooted there for many generations. The Salzbergers were different from the other community members whose origin was Ukraine, Galizia or Hungary.
The home of my grandfather Itzchak and grandmother Sarah was a very clean house with a nice garden in the backyard, which was a very rare thing in Munkacevo and in houses of Jews who lived there. Life was organized by a routine: Morning, noon and evening, a precise time for meals, special dishes I never tasted anywhere else and didn’t know from the other side of the family - the Farbenblums. The food was less spicy, less Slavic, and tended more to be western in its taste and quality.

Grandmother’s kitchen had old copper pots and pans that were constantly cleaned and polished. They were hanging on kitchen shelves, and were never used. I never saw such pots and pans in any other house, not Jewish nor Hungarian or Russian. Later, when I arrived at Bohemia and west Europe and saw those utensils in antique stores and in houses of the well-established families I remembered the copper utensils that belonged to grandmother Salzberger. This for me was evidence and proof to the connection with the Austrian aristocracy and to their origin from the area of Salzburg.

Grandfather Iitchak Salzberger, according to the stories I heard from my father, from the Salzberger family and from the residents of the city, was occupied in businesses related to the Graf’s family, his estates and his forests. He worked in producing wood from the forests in the areas of Pasika. He was relatively short and everyone called him “Itzchkale”. His oldest son Yosef, was called “Yosale” for the same reason, continued in the practice of purchasing forests and preparing the wood for the needs of heating and industry. Only several families were engaged in the business of forestry and production of wood, they all were related in some way to the aristocratic families of the area.

The Salzbergers had vineyards and this again was a profession and businesses that were dominated by the Schöbrun family and other aristocrats. Trade in wine and alcohol was actually a governmental monopoly that was in the hands of the aristocracy. Alcohol in general and wine in particular was the only effective and traditional means of collecting taxes from the population.

It is interesting the Farbenblums, the family of mother, were also venires.

It was told that grandfather had relations with the military in that area, because he was one of the main suppliers to the military that parked in the mountains and in the city. I heard from people in the city that grandfather helped them discharge from military service. The Jewish people didn’t have much will power to fight for the Caesar and for the Graf. Parents were afraid that their sons will be exposed to bad habits while in military service, and did their best to discharge them from the military. It is interesting that the four sons of grandfather Salzberger didn’t serve in the military, while all the Farbenblums were soldiers.

When I was a child I heard stories that my grandfather had books and documents that showed a strong connection between his family and the Schöbrun family and the local administrations.

Grandfather’s house was located in the same street in which grandfather Frabenablum built his house where we lived. According to family tradition, children went with their parents to bless their grandparents on Friday afternoons before lighting of candles.

I will now describe such a visit:
Everything was very clean, including the pavement and the road near their house. Starting from the small door in the big gate and until the guestroom, all the pavements were covered with papers taken from newspapers in order to prevent dust from coming in. When we came, dressed all in white, our parents held our hands so we won’t get of the paper and ruin the garden. We went past the clean house until we finally reached our grandparents big and beautiful living room. Grandfather Itzchak was a smiling, warm and kind Jewish man welcomed us, kissed our foreheads. We kissed his right hand and then all family members got close to grandmother who was sitting on a big sofa in the corner of the living room near the big mirror. We went towards her, one by one, she kissed our foreheads and we kissed her right hand. She asked how we were and then gave us the “Sabbath Obst” (fruits for Saturday) which usually were candies and seasonal fruits. We sat in chairs around those two nice and full of grace old people who were beautifully dressed. By the way, their clothes were more western then any “Hasid” from Munkacevo. Grandfather Itzchak was one of the only people that wore a tie and his coat was short than usual and not 3/4 as it was customary in between the city’s “Hasidim”. He didn’t wear a Streymel (black Hat) or silk black Bakasha (a long coat). They both were very clean and the first thing we always felt was that they checked us with their eyes from head to tows and with a smile looked at mother and confirmed that they were happy and we passed this routine and important test.

8 September 2002; pml