DALLETT:

My name is Nancy Dallett, and today I'm speaking with Elizabeth Friedman on Friday, November 3rd, 1989. We are going to begin this interview at about 11:00 AM, and we're going to talk with Mrs. Friedman about her immigration experience from Russia in 1914.

FRIEDMAN:

We started in 1913.

DALLETT:

You started in 1913.

FRIEDMAN:

Yes. DALLETT; And came through Ellis Island in 19--

FRIEDMAN:

Uh. '14. DALLETT; Fourteen. Okay. Let's start back at the beginning of your story, and could you tell me where and when you were born.

FRIEDMAN:

I was born in Kiev, Russia.

DALLETT:

And what year was that?

FRIEDMAN:

On February 14, 1902. And, um, I was born into a family of, how many were us, there were ten of us. I was the seventh, the seventh child. And it was a very loving, close family. I had a wonderful, warm father, very concerned, very caring, as was my mother. They were unusually fine people. And father was an interior, exterior decorator and upholsterer, and he had a shop with workmen there, and also a seamstress to sew the curtains or drapes. It, we weren't rich, but we were in comfortable circumstances. And mother always had help. But the conditions in Russia were not very, they were not what you'd say, not very pleasant, not a climate where you could feel free, where you could feel that your, yo can say anything. And being Jewish was one of the worst things that could happen to you. But father had a status there, so we were allowed to live there and without any police or anybody coming in and checking up on us. And we had quite a family there, my father's family. His stepmother, brother, sisters, and in-laws, and cousins. And it was very pleasant. It was nothing doing, but there was always a feeling of insecurity. We didn't know. And father and mother started talking about going to America. During this time, there were families that my father and mother helped to leave to go to America because they had to go through Kiev and father arranged papers for them, and things like that. And little by little there were quite a few relatives that settle in America. And father started thinking, because mu older sisters had to go to, one went to art school, institute, and another one was a musician. And my brother, the oldest one, was, I think he was studying for accountant. And we started, father started making arrangements, getting a passport. And every time we were ready to go, one of the children would come down with a serious illness like scarlet fever, diphtheria, and what else, whatever it was. Always something. And that, the passport would expire. And that kept on for years. And then it was time, getting close to the time, I don't know if you remember. You wouldn't remember. Beilis case where they said that a boy was killed before Passover, that Jews killed him for blood, you know. So it was a very strenuous time, very bad. And then it was clear that, that found that the man was drunk and he killed the boy, and there was no murder. But in the meantime there was a pogrom and I remember father helping a woman, he brought her into the house. She was bleeding. Her hair was loose, came out, you know. And they placed her on the couch and administered first aid. And then they took her to the hospital. So father and mother took care of her. And then another time that passed and then it, another pogrom. It was an uprising, too. That, uh, we had a maid, very devoted. Her name was Maria. And when they started going down the street and breaking into the home of Jews, she took an icon from her bedroom and she stood in front of our house holding the icon saying I am, you know, crossing herself and saying, "This is my house." So she saved us, really, anyway, from getting hurt, or destruction, whatever. So father compensated her by sending, giving her a ticket and papers to go to America. She wanted to go to America. She was intelligent enough to know, you know, that wasn't the country she wanted to live in. We lost touch, of course, later. And then the last time we had a passport, and there was talk of war, an undercurrent of unrest, that was, we were all ready to go and my sister, oldest sister, came down with scarlet fever. So it was just touch and go, practically out of the hospital she went, we went to the train. I think we left the apartment just as it was. Of course, my brother was left there because when he had scarlet fever he had a mastoid and they did surgery and somehow they, it was done in our house because they couldn't even move him. So his optic nerve, I think, was touched, and he needed treatment after that. So because of that, they continued treatments, and the fact that he was almost military age, they would not let him go for another six months. But by that time the war started, and he never came. He was killed during that time. That was already when we were settled in Milwaukee. And we left Christmas Eve. Was it Christmas Eve? Yeah, Christmas Eve, in the evening. And we went to Germany by train. And, of course, all the terrible wrenching goodbyes between my brother and mother and father was heart breaking. And, uh, then we went to Berlin and we were there, I think, for a couple of weeks, for a while. And then we went --

DALLETT:

The whole family went together.

FRIEDMAN:

Oh, yes.

DALLETT:

Everyone together.

FRIEDMAN:

Yes. Nine of us, nine of us. And we went to Berlin, and then from there we went to Bremen. And we took, let' see, Bremen and we took the boat, uh, George washington, The George Washington. The crossing was terrible. It was so bad. And I guess at the beginning, we were like in third class, and it, the families just couldn't take it. Mother and father arranged for a cabin which was at least private, you know. And we could eat there, and stay there. I guess it took quite a lot of money because that was really meant to be for living expenses here. But that's, that was forgotten, because it was terrible, really terrible.

DALLETT:

Was everyone affected by it, or just some of your family members?

FRIEDMAN:

All of us. You mean seasickness? Mother and my sister Sarah and I were the worst. Mother was very, very bad. In fact, the ship's doctor came down a few times, she was so bad. I really can't understand how we all managed, but we stayed in the cabin. And there was a Christmas tree left over, with the red and green ornaments, and the rocking, and that Christmas tree with the ornaments. I couldn't look at them for years afterward, I would get nauseated just remembering the rocking. It was just terrible. Then we came, it must have been more than two weeks, or two weeks. We came to the harbor, and then we took the, another boat that took us to Ellis Island. And there was no toilet. Or, if there was, God knows where it was. And one of my sisters got just terribly sick. I think her stomach was affected the rest of her life because she, you know, we were all brought up in, not snobbish, but more genteel, intellectual atmosphere. We had music, we had everything that, uh, intellectual people like to have. And there were no niceties like that on the boat. It was awful. So we, when we got on it and closer to Ellis Island, we saw the Statue of Liberty. And we just hugged each and cried. I know my mother was, she couldn't believe that we got there. And then we got off the boat and always mother managed to keep us, you know, and the older sisters, to keep up clean and neat, you know. And they let us through, first exam, I think it was the eyes, and we all passed. And then they examined our heads and that passed. And believe me, if we would have been in third class there, I don't know if we would have passed with that. So there was no requirements for de-lousing and, you know, showers. In fact, I don't remember staying there overnight. I just don't. I don't know where we spent it, because my nephew, my cousin, mother's nephew, who was a physician, met us. But that was after we were examined and then they listened to our chest and, you know. And all of us passed.

DALLETT:

Did they keep you together as a family?

FRIEDMAN:

Oh, yes.

DALLETT:

You went through the whole thing together?

FRIEDMAN:

Together, yeah. I remember we were holding on to each other. Mother always said, "Hold on to." We were together, and they kept us together. There was no-- DALLETT; How did you communicate with everyone who was examining you?

FRIEDMAN:

My father knew some German. He knew some German because he, at one time he went to Berlin to get, to have his appendectomy. Even at that time they didn't trust the Russian doctors too much. So he learned some there. And between Jewish and German, you can get along. So he managed. And money to show that we had enough to, he had. And they, um, really, one was, one doctor was passing onto another, and they started to look at us, you know, a big family like that. And not one detained. So when we, uh, we were, we had to go upstairs. I remember a wide stairway and we were, then we, they let us, okayed us, so we came down the steps. Before that, all the, one of the doctors said, "Hooray for Milovsky family." So when we came down, the others said it too. So that was, you know, very unusual. But in the meantime, you know, you had to wait. And there were some that were sent back. It was terrible. It was terrible. Children, you know, separated from their parents, or mother, mostly mothers, because the fathers were here already. So it was an awful experience to live through to see them crying. And it really, they had partitions, wire partitions, to separate different classes with different diseases or whatever. It looked like cattles were separated. And benches to sit at. And usually children were sleeping on the benches. And then, uh-- DALLETT; Let me ask you, when, uh, just to go back a bit, you mentioned that your father and mother had helped, they were sort of a network that helped other people to immigrate before you came.

FRIEDMAN:

Yes, yeah.

DALLETT:

Was it usual, do you remember, for whole families to come together, or--

FRIEDMAN:

No. It was mostly, uh, mothers going with their children like--

DALLETT:

Fathers would have gone first?

FRIEDMAN:

Yes. Like my aunt, my father's half-sister, she was left with three children. Her husband was in Boston, and then he sent for her. So my father, of course, helped her. And he also helped those that came before, my mother's sisters. They went with their husbands and they had children, maybe one, in Russia. So it wasn't so bad. They went, the three of them. And grandpa came and grandma, they came to Superior, Wisconsin. Their--

DALLETT:

Before you came?

FRIEDMAN:

Yes. They came with the two older daughters.

DALLETT:

So you had family in--

FRIEDMAN:

Superior and Duluth and Minneapolis. And then mother's sister and a brother lived here in Milwaukee. In fact, my granddaughter visited her great-grandfather's grave in Superior. She was in Superior and she remembered that I told her that my grandpa was in Jewish, and old Jewish cemetery. There's only one. And she found him. She says next time she goes she'll send me a picture of that, a snapshot of. So she found him.

DALLETT:

So when you left, was there any family left in Russia?

FRIEDMAN:

Yes.

DALLETT:

Your brother was there, and who else?

FRIEDMAN:

Yes. My father's half, stepmother. His mother died when he was born, so grandpa married the sister. And they had, I think, three daughters and a son. So they were there with their families. And cousins.

DALLETT:

Do you remember at all before you came, you mentioned before we started this, that it was a world where children were seen and not heard. You weren't part of the decision-making to come, but do you remember and impressions that you had about what it meant that you would be leaving and coming to this country?

FRIEDMAN:

Yes, yes, because usually there were discussions, you know, that it would have to, we'd have to learn a new language and there would be more opportunities to go to school and be accepted without any reservation and that was, their main reason is because my sisters and brother wanted to go on and it was difficult to get into university. A Jew is a Jew.

DALLETT:

As Jews.

FRIEDMAN:

Yes. There was the thing. So there was always talk of America and Castle Garden, they knew that they had to go to Castle Garden first to be examined. And it's a good thing that mother always, she had two maids, but that was very common, you know, to have help there. And, uh, having, the last one we didn't have in the last house because they were so ready to go to America that they got rid, disposed of a lot of things. And we had a smaller flat. And from, that's from there that we left. You know, just talking about it brings it back so much, it's unbelievable. But, um, then my cousin met and we spent many hours with him and I don't know where we spent the night, but I think it was on Ellis Island. I think that we went to a hotel. And the next day we took a train and they gave us boxes, lunch boxes. We didn't know what it was. I saw a man, I was, he took a banana out and he threw the banana away and ate the peeling. He thought, you know, there were some that never saw an orange or a banana. It's, uh--

DALLETT:

Do you remember some of the things that were brand new to you?

FRIEDMAN:

Uh, well, everything, you know, New York, as much as we saw of it, and people seemed a little quicker, more sure of themselves somehow. They knew where they were going. And like mother said, they didn't have to look to see if anybody was following. And just the idea that it was America made it right away special, different. And the train, we kept on looking out of the window during the daytime. And when we saw children waiting for the train to pass, like at noon, so we used to, we waved to them and they waved to us, and it was a thrill to see children. And then--

DALLETT:

Did your nephew come with you on this train ride?

FRIEDMAN:

No, but my mother's brother got on the train along the way. He went by train to get on this train. I suppose they knew, my nephew must have wired them. So he was on the train, and he was walking through the train looking for us. Well, we never saw him before, so, you know. But mother recognized him and he her. And all of a sudden we see this great big fellow hugging my mother and, you know, crying and kissing each other, right in the train. So that was our first introduction to an uncle in America. And then we got to Milwaukee and there was the photographer. I imagine my uncle was the kind that liked, you know, a little glitz. He must have arranged. And--

DALLETT:

I', sorry, where was it that you arrived? Here in Milwaukee?

FRIEDMAN:

Here in Milwaukee, yes. I think it was either Union Station or Northwestern. Wherever, that's where the photographer took the picture of us. And couldn't spell my name, because father said, "Elizeveta." That's Russian for Elizabeth.

DALLETT:

How do you pronounce it?

FRIEDMAN:

Elizevata. Elizeveta. Um, in Hebrew it's L, Leshiba, something like that. But he said it in Russian. He couldn't understand it, so he skipped it. So I'm standing there and, uh, with no name. (She laughs.) And he says, there are so many children, seven children, and there are only six names of the children. So that's why I put that on the picture, you saw.

DALLETT:

Right.

FRIEDMAN:

And then we came to my aunt's house, and there was a lot of crying, hugging and kissing and everything was so new. And, uh, we stayed there several days, I think about a week. And then father rented a place in Fourth Street, in Galina, facing Fourth Street School. And I think one of the Elines was across the street there. They all had their mansions that time. And were registered at Fourth Street School, all of us, except for my youngest sister. She was just a baby then. And, uh, then father started looking for work. DALLETT; I'm going to turn the tape over now, and we'll continue on the other side, okay?

FRIEDMAN:

Okay.

DALLETT:

That's the end of side one of Interview Number 423 [SIC, DP-49] with Elizabeth Friedman. END OF SIDE ONE BEGINNING OF SIDE TWO

DALLETT:

This is the beginning of side two of Interview Number 423 [SIC, DP-49] with Elizabeth Friedman. Now, we were just up to the point where you were telling about getting settled in Milwaukee. But before we do that a little bit, and we've talked off the tape a little bit about, you know, we don't want to upset you, and I know it's very emotional, but before we talk about what it was like to be here, if we could just get a little bit more of a picture of what you remember of your life as a child in Kiev that might help to show what the contrast was like in Milwaukee. Could you talk a little bit about, um, you said your father, because he had this skill was, I wouldn't say immune to what other Jews went through, but--

FRIEDMAN:

No, he wasn't immune. He had to take a awful lot of unpleasantness. But, um, he tried to make us feel that he will take care of it. He also went, he was such a good hearted, such a kind father, I can't begin to tell you. No matter how difficult things were, he would always assure us not to worry, that it's not going to last. And there were times that were not pleasant. Even the children could feel the tension. But otherwise we lived, like, in a nice, big house and there was a big yard in the back with a big porch. And we had help. (Referring to playing with the microphone.) Isn't that terrible?

DALLETT:

That's okay.

FRIEDMAN:

And then we played, we had playmates, we had friends, and in front of the building, you see, there's a courtyard and in the front, facing the street, we lived in the courtyard. Nobody faces the street, very few, unless you live in an apartment. There was high school for boys. And the daughter of the master, the one that, the teacher. What do they call them? Master in the school, you know.

DALLETT:

Headmaster?

FRIEDMAN:

The headmaster. His daughter was a friend of my older sister and the younger sister was my friend. And on Sundays we would go to her house and have dinner, their Sunday dinner with them. And on Fridays she liked to come to my house because she liked what mother made, the Sabbath dinner. She used to love the soup, the chicken soup that mother made, whatever else, she loved it. And there was no question. She was as Gentile as you could make it. There was no question of differences. I didn't know that she was any different, and she didn't know that I had a different religion. And we were very close friends. And that's where I got my taste for caviar, because they would have a platter of, bowl of caviar, red and black. And I used to love that. And, of course, other things, perogie and things like that. But that my mother also made, so. But it's, it's different.

DALLETT:

The Jews and Gentiles, you were in school together, then?

FRIEDMAN:

Yes, yes.

DALLETT:

Did you also have separate religious education as well?

FRIEDMAN:

I did not go to, my brother did, yes.

DALLETT:

Not for the young girls.

FRIEDMAN:

Um, we could sit in, we could sit in with him and he did have a bar mitzvah. We had a Jewish teacher coming to the house. He did not go to cheder. And then, what was I going to tell you about, I did not go to school there because, as father said, every year we had to go. He registered me, and my birth certificate remained in school. But I did not go because we left. But I learned, my mother taught me to read and once I knew how to read, there was no stopping. I would read, whatever book was in the house I would read. And, um, we had toys galore, beautiful toys. When father went to Berlin to get his surgery, to have his surgery, he brought us beautiful dolls. And there were other toys that I did not see in America, even. But we had to leave. I just took one doll along.

DALLETT:

Which doll was that?

FRIEDMAN:

Um, it had that, one of the real dolls. Not a cloth doll. And I loved it. And then we had, a friend of the family came to visit while we were in the summer resort. Every May we would go to Dacha, summer resort, and came back in September. While we were in Dacha my, those friends came from America, a mother, with her little girl. And she had those shoes, patent leather, black shoes with--

DALLETT:

Mary Janes?

FRIEDMAN:

Mary Jane shoes. And that was my ambition to get. And mother said, "When you come to America, you'll get them, too." So white socks and that. And that was one of my ambitions to have. I was a very happy child there, really, because I didn't go to school yet, and I had, but I could read, and arithmetic, well, that came, and history was being made before my eyes. It was, we were there when the news of the Titanic came and, of course, that stopped for a minute, for a while. Mother and father, we were kind of worried about taking a risk like that with the whole family. But, uh, that passed. And another crisis came. But, in the meantime, we passed that crisis. And in wintertime we would, when we'd go visiting or go any distance at all, we would go on sled, you know, horse-driven sleds. And that was always a pleasant experience. And then they would take us skating. I was too young for that, and they would have a sled with a back on it, so somebody was pushing me like a stroller. I remember that part. And right on top of the hill, overlooking the River Dnieper. And it's something that you remember always. (Phone rings.) Excuse me. I'll tell them. (Break in tape.)

DALLETT:

Do you remember at all a synagogue?

FRIEDMAN:

Yes. We had a beautiful little synagogue, a very warm place. It was Dom Zaitzof. And I remember going there for Simchas Torah. DALLETT; When you finish reading the Torah and you begin again, each year?

FRIEDMAN:

No, wait. That was for, we just had that holiday.

DALLETT:

Succath?

FRIEDMAN:

After Succath?

DALLETT:

Simchas Torah.

FRIEDMAN:

That was Simchas Torah. Yeah. They marched with, yes. With flags and apples on top and a candle in the apple, I guess. It was very festive, very happy. And I remember my folks going there. We didn't go steady. We just went like for that holiday. And, uh, it was a very warm place, a very warm rabbi that made you feel somehow that things were okay.Uh, also mother, when she would have to go someplace, she had a distant relative who had a title of, uh, like you'd say, baroness. And she took with her once and she came to say goodbye to her, because she was leaving for America. And I, the lady was very generous and kind of sad to see mother go. She was glad for her, but she knew that circumstances were such. And I remember she gave me something. I just don't remember what, to remember the auntie that she met. And they had some connection, my mother's side, with Brodsky's. They had sugar factory or something. It was, they were quite wealthy and had a high standing in the community.

DALLETT:

And just one other thing about your childhood there, what languages did you speak? Was it Hebrew in the synagogue, or--

FRIEDMAN:

No. Russian.

DALLETT:

Russian.

FRIEDMAN:

Yes. We didn't learn Jewish until we came to America. Russian was all that I remember. There was also German and French that my sisters learned in school, my brothers. But, uh, the older ones. And the two boys, my younger brothers, were sent to kindergarten, and they learned, which they forgot very quickly, German and French.

DALLETT:

Okay. Let's skip forward in time, then, and let's come up, only because of time, come up to Milwaukee and, um--

FRIEDMAN:

Well, father started looking for work. And I guess things were different than now. So he opened up a, got a store, rented the store, and opened up for upholstering. And he had a partner, too, who spoke English and who father trusted. Because my father was a very honest man. He trusted him. But he would do the work. It would be delivered, paid for, but the partner would tell father that they will pay later. He kept the money. And here we needed the money so bad. And father found it out because he went to deliver something and they said, "Why, we paid it long ago. We paid it." Then he found out that that was the case. Once in a while he'd pay him, but not everything that he deserved. And, you know, after a while, the money just runs out. There's just so much, with seven children. And it really got bad. And my sister who's an artist, it's one of her works there, painting, she had to go to work. It's, across the street the Elines, on of the Elines lived. They're from a very wealthy family. And they asked her to do some work, some painting. And they liked it so much. And then she did commercial art which she didn't like doing but she had to. And my sister who was a piano teacher had to do some sewing, which she never did. Mother used to have a woman come and do underwear for us and things, you know, for the house, and here she had to do that. It just didn't work out. And they, eventually the artist left for Boston, and the other one for New York. So, and I went to school and the teachers skipped several grades because, you know, children pick up English very quickly and I did that and of course, you miss it later on. I know I never caught up to mathematics, because you miss the beginning, then it's always going to be hard. But I managed, and then I took up stenographic work because father became ill and he died soon after. So only mother and I were able to work. But there were many nice things, too, during that time. But a lot of hardship, a lot of hardship, something that you just don't forget no matter how easy life becomes later on. It just remains with you. But there were so many advantages being in America that you just felt that it was worth it, it's going to be better later on. Which, than God, it did become better and much better for the children, our children. So it, father was gratified, lived long enough to see that things were going to work out the way he hoped. And then my brother graduated high school and then became a businessman and helped always whoever needed in the family. He was wonderful. My brothers, both of them. My mother felt that she was sorry that father didn't get to see all that pleasure that he hoped for, that at least she did. And she had a more or less peaceful later years, taken care of, she was taken care of. And that's what makes us feel that all that hardship that we went through was worth it.

DALLETT:

When your father and mother settled here with you was it primarily a Jewish community that you moved into in Milwaukee?

FRIEDMAN:

Uh, it was mixed. It was mixed. The Jewish community was further down south. But they were the ones that later moved in the suburbs and all that, because they made money there. But it was a nice community.

DALLETT:

Tell me about the mix of the community where you were.

FRIEDMAN:

Um, there were, from school I had girls that were not Jewish and we were very good friends, going back and forth. And with the Jewish girls too, but they were more settled here. And, you know, they were Americanized. And unlike the Gentile girls, they felt a little superior. But they were also newcomers. So a few years ahead of us. DALLETT; Tell me a little bit about that. How could, you used that word Americanized, but as a child what did that mean? What did you see them doing, the people who had been here for years more?

FRIEDMAN:

Well, they, they had different doings, goings on. We couldn't get into that because we were in no position. They would go to different social centers and all that. I did become a Girl Scout, one of the first, I think. And my sister just, who was just older than I, she was a stenographer, she had already a little older group. And I was somehow in between. But, uh, I fitted in with the American girls and I still have friends here that we went to school together. I still keep in touch, we still keep in touch. There are maybe four or five of us that went to that. And, uh, well, they, their customs were different, their values were different. Let's put it that way. And at that time I had to learn all that. They took, like strawberry shortcake, for granted that everybody knew what it was to eat a t a certain time of the year. They would, say, ketchup with their meat. You know, we did not have that. And it was just different, different way of eating, had to get used to a different culture. It's, but, uh, we did it. And mother learned that, too. She was a very bright woman. She was very, uh, common sense, she had, and intelligence. And feelings, so she really taught us a great deal. And-- DALLETT; Did she learn English here?

FRIEDMAN:

Yes. Not as much as we should have tried to get her to do, but it was difficult. She was in the house and when we'd come with, she's learn from us. You know, we'd speak English between ourselves. In no time, there was no Russian spoken except to mother. And that wasn't fair. But she learned. She, and to read, it was more difficult for her to learn to read. That was. But she listened to the radio, and she heard all those soap operas later on when they came into style. And that way she learned. It really was amazing. And later on when we were married we saw to it that she had more advantages. But it was hard until we ourselves were settled. DALLETT; When did you get your pair of Mary Janes?

FRIEDMAN:

Pair of earrings?

DALLETT:

Mary Janes.

FRIEDMAN:

I didn't. No, I didn't. I never got them, because times were hard and I just had shoes that took me to school and back, did a lot of walking, and nor much partying. It was , there were many things that I missed as a girl, as a child. Something that, you know, we, the children here take for granted that it's got to be, even into marriage there were things that I did not get that others took for granted. But at least I had a marriage that was good and married to somebody who I cared for a great deal, not a marriage of convenience which had been offered, and profitable and all that. That did not appeal to me. So, but it was worth it. And, um, father died much too soon and, um, that was a very sad part. But everybody was very good to mother, as she was to us. So it made it as easy for her as possible. And she lived until she was seventy-seven which is, considering the hard life that she had to lead, it was good.

DALLETT:

I see all these awards around here about all the work you've done with Jewish Family Service and helping Russian families to--

FRIEDMAN:

And with the home for the aged, yes. I, uh, worked, after my husband passed away, I was, I felt very lost and although I started doing some work before, that I spent, I started spending more time volunteering and for the past thirty-three years I've been doing that. And, um, I--

DALLETT:

And you're working with Russian newcomers?

FRIEDMAN:

With the Russian newcomers.

DALLETT:

Helping them to orient to Milwaukee and America?

FRIEDMAN:

As a translator. See, I never forgot my Russian, so I was able to do work in that department. And also with the outreach, with the elderly. And sometimes the American Red Cross call me to do some translating for them.

DALLETT:

Was there any service like that, that helped your family when you came?

FRIEDMAN:

No. No, there was no help, there was no help. And the relatives were in no position to help us. It just, just by, um, perseverance, hard work, and patience, we had to go through that. I wish it was a bit, it would have been easier for my father. He wanted so much for us to be able to get the education that he knew that we wanted and needed, but there was no way. But our children got all those things, and that's all right. We learned from experience, and I think that stays with us. We learned a lot. And I have no regrets. It's, it's been a wonderful life. An--

DALLETT:

It's really impressive. You have all these awards around here. Service to Mankind Awards, and proclamations from every where, the Governor and the City of Milwaukee. You must have done a lot of, a lot of hard work to help people.

FRIEDMAN:

I did. I did. But it was so pleasant that I did not feel that it was work, really. It did a lot for me, too. It did a great deal. And there I have more in the bedroom that I, that the children like to see it when they come, my grandchildren. That's why I have it here. That's where they wanted it. DALLETT; Do you ever visit with them in New York and see Ellis Island or the Statue again?

FRIEDMAN:

Yes. I was chosen to go to Ellis Island and to see the Statue of Liberty. And it was televised on WISN, ABC. And they, uh-- DALLETT; Was that when the Statue of Liberty was refurbished?

FRIEDMAN:

Yes, yes. It was-- (Tape ends without slate.)