Human beings have different kinds of identities - national, linguistic, ideological, gender, age-based, etc. It is similar with Judaism. There are many currents and it has been like that since the moment when Jews also gained basic human rights and stopped being pushed to the margins of society.
And so in Ústí there lived both devout Jews and religiously very lukewarm Jews, national Jews and Jews rejecting Jewish nationality, poor and sick Jews and rich and powerful Jews, Czech-speaking Jews and German-speaking Jews.
Now watch a clip of testimony of Ústí native Joseph Fleischer.
Brief biography of the witness
Joseph Fleischer was born in July 1934 in Litoměřice and grew up in Ústí nad Labem.
After the occupation of the border area, the family fled to Prague, from where they crossed into Slovakia, where they obtained false documents. However, the Slovak guardsmen arrested Josef's father anyway and interned him in the Jewish labor camp Vyhne. After the start of the Slovak National Uprising, the Fleischers fled to the mountains and joined the partisans, and when the German reinforcements called in crushed the uprising, the family hid in bunkers in the settlements of Kaliště and Podkonice. After the liberation, the family moved to relatives in Lyon, France, from where they headed to Australia.
The interview was recorded on April 16, 1997 in Melbourne, Australia.
What does the witness's answer that they had a kosher household mean?