English - Red Shirley

440 0:00 - 0:28

♪ ♪

29281 0:29 - 0:34

I want to say a few words about this film.

33934 0:34 - 0:37

If I may, I want to dedicate it

37420 0:37 - 0:41

to my old town Brestovitz

40906 0:41 - 0:44

who was a thousand years old,

44526 0:45 - 0:48

who was a Jewish town

47734 0:48 - 0:51

that was wiped off by the Nazis.

50762 0:51 - 0:56

The town still exists, but no Jews exist.

57177 0:57 - 1:04

And I want to speak about my family
that perished in the Holocaust,

63990 1:04 - 1:07

with all the Jews of Brestovitz.

67295 1:07 - 1:12

And I thank my cousin for the opportunity

71937 1:12 - 1:18

to give me this chance,
my cousin Sid Reed.

79502 1:20 - 1:22

(Lou) Is that the statement?

82568 1:23 - 1:24

(Lou claps)

84084 1:24 - 1:26

Ok, that's all.

85543 1:26 - 1:35

♪ ♪

95315 1:35 - 1:40

(Shirley) And this is sort of a connection
of how can life you know?

100331 1:40 - 1:54

♪ ♪

114148 1:54 - 1:57

(Lou ) Can you say the name
of that town again?

116806 1:57 - 1:59

(Shirley) Mm?
(Lou) What's the name of that town?

119492 1:59 - 2:02

(Shirley) Brestovitz.
(Lou) Brestovitz?

122504 2:03 - 2:06

(Lou) So you were telling me that
that's where you grew up?

127173 2:07 - 2:10

(Shirley) That's right, that's
where I was born.

129757 2:10 - 2:11

(Lou) What year?

131477 2:11 - 2:14

(Shirley) 1909.

134128 2:14 - 2:15

(Lou) What month?

135198 2:15 - 2:17

(Shirley) April of 1909.

139275 2:19 - 2:21

(Lou) So, World War I is when?

142721 2:23 - 2:25

It was 1914.

145585 2:26 - 2:27

(Lou) To 1920.

147380 2:27 - 2:29

To 1920.

148871 2:29 - 2:30

(Lou) Ok.

150021 2:30 - 2:35

(Lou) Now, were they
killing the Jews then? You said no.

155424 2:35 - 2:36

What?

156254 2:36 - 2:39

(Lou) Are they killing the Jews during
World War I?

159312 2:39 - 2:40

No.

160240 2:40 - 2:41

(Lou) No.

160980 2:41 - 2:47

No. There were programs in some towns
where they killed the Jews,

166670 2:47 - 2:49

but not in our town.

169334 2:49 - 2:53

(Lou) Ok. And you were five years old
World War I starts.

173495 2:53 - 2:57

Yes. And I remember it very well.

177057 2:57 - 3:00

(Lou) How many brothers
and sisters did you have?

180071 3:00 - 3:06

At that time, I only had
about three sisters.

186976 3:07 - 3:11

(Shirley) My fourth sister and my brother
weren't born yet

190614 3:11 - 3:15

when World War I broke out.

196356 3:16 - 3:21

About the war, I could tell you that
the civilian population

200920 3:21 - 3:25

suffers maybe more than the soldiers.

205482 3:25 - 3:29

They suffer from lack of freedom.

209134 3:29 - 3:32

they suffer from lack of food,

212472 3:32 - 3:35

they suffer from the shootings,

215706 3:36 - 3:39

the bombs and things that were thrown,

218816 3:39 - 3:43

and we had to run every time
to the Russian church,

223325 3:43 - 3:49

because that was a brick church,
a brick heavy wall.

229033 3:49 - 3:51

That was our shelter.

231159 3:51 - 3:56

So my mother used to take a blanket,
with the little tots.

235895 3:56 - 4:02

And we would work and sit there
until the shooting was over.

242440 4:02 - 4:05

But there was shooting almost every day.

245709 4:06 - 4:07

(Lou) Shooting who?

247318 4:07 - 4:12

The Russians were fighting the Germans.

252898 4:13 - 4:18

(Shirley) And at that time,
they were defeated, the Russians.

258408 4:18 - 4:23

(Shirley) And the Germans occupied
our part of the country.

264269 4:24 - 4:28

So we had the Germans for four years.

269832 4:30 - 4:33

That's what happened during World War I.

273755 4:34 - 4:35

(Lou) Okay.

274504 4:35 - 4:37

(Shirley) There was shooting every day,

277073 4:37 - 4:41

and our house was hit by a bomb.

281597 4:42 - 4:48

It didn't explode fully, but I was
standing with my mother near the table,

288353 4:48 - 4:52

and the big thing fell in the table,
right there.

292250 4:52 - 4:53

(Lou) You're joking.

293304 4:53 - 4:56

We could have been killed in a moment.

296396 4:56 - 4:57

(Lou) What happened?

297439 4:57 - 5:00

It just missed us by a few inches.

300163 5:00 - 5:02

(Lou) Well did it explode?

302685 5:03 - 5:07

It made a big hole in the table,
it was a heavy table,

307470 5:07 - 5:10

so it made a big hole.

310116 5:10 - 5:13

(Lou) So it was like a cannonball?

312966 5:13 - 5:16

I don't know. We didn't see it.
(Lou) It didn't explode.

317452 5:17 - 5:21

There was part of it
that remained in the wall.

321068 5:21 - 5:22

[Lou laughs]

322054 5:22 - 5:24

It didn't come out.

323622 5:24 - 5:25

(Lou) This is terrible!

324724 5:25 - 5:28

Only part of it hit the house.

328086 5:28 - 5:35

♪ ♪

334658 5:35 - 5:39

Those Germans were not the same like the Nazis.

339211 5:39 - 5:42

They were civilized people.

341503 5:42 - 5:45

What they did is
they confiscated all the food,

345409 5:45 - 5:48

and we didn't have much food to eat.

348481 5:48 - 5:55

But all of us, they built a school,
they built a bathhouse,

355284 5:55 - 5:58

they kept this town clean.

358268 5:58 - 6:01

It had to be cleaned every day.

361724 6:02 - 6:07

They brought in a lot of
sanitary improvements to that town.

367267 6:07 - 6:10

That was World War I.

369712 6:10 - 6:11

(Lou) You said they took the food.

371984 6:12 - 6:16

They confiscated the food
from the whole population.

376662 6:17 - 6:18

(Lou) Not just Jews?

377970 6:18 - 6:19

Huh?

378758 6:19 - 6:20

(Lou) Not just Jews?

379869 6:20 - 6:22

Not just Jews,

381570 6:22 - 6:24

(Shirley) but we didn't have none Jews.

383881 6:24 - 6:26

We didn't have many.

385953 6:26 - 6:29

We just had a few families.

389013 6:29 - 6:32

(Lou) But then, you get to World War II.

392763 6:33 - 6:36

At World War II, I was here.

395760 6:36 - 6:38

(Lou) How did you get here?

397843 6:38 - 6:41

What do you mean how?

401220 6:41 - 6:43

Like all the immigrants get.

403963 6:44 - 6:46

(Lou laughs)

406133 6:46 - 6:47

Right?

407226 6:47 - 6:58

♪ ♪

418299 6:58 - 7:01

(Lou) But who decided
you're the one who's going?

421429 7:01 - 7:03

My father.

422967 7:03 - 7:06

(Lou) And he said you're going because?

425768 7:06 - 7:08

I didn't want to go to America

428152 7:08 - 7:13

because I read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

433526 7:14 - 7:16

And when I read that book, I said,

436149 7:16 - 7:20

"I don't like such a country.
I don't want to go there."

440762 7:21 - 7:23

But I went anyway.

443039 7:23 - 7:25

(Lou) Who went to Canada with you?

444849 7:25 - 7:26

(Shirley) Huh?

445579 7:26 - 7:28

(Lou) Who goes on the boat
with you to Canada?

450369 7:30 - 7:32

I don't know.

452278 7:32 - 7:35

(Lou) No, I mean, did anyone go with you?

454780 7:35 - 7:36

No.

455548 7:36 - 7:38

(Lou) Like if Shirley
went with so-and-so?

458101 7:38 - 7:41

I was nineteen years old,
I went on my own.

461742 7:42 - 7:44

(Lou) How many suitcases did you have?

463948 7:44 - 7:45

Two.

466964 7:47 - 7:49

(Lou) And that was everything.

469264 7:49 - 7:50

Yeah.

470580 7:51 - 7:52

(Lou) And you didn't speak English.

472506 7:53 - 7:55

No. Just a few clothing.

475185 7:55 - 8:00

(Lou) What were you thinking at nineteen,
you were on a boat with two suitcases

479744 8:00 - 8:03

going to a country with a language
you don't speak?

484242 8:04 - 8:09

Well, on the boat,
I wasn't thinking about it

488806 8:09 - 8:11

because it was interesting, you know?

491820 8:12 - 8:15

But I was thinking about it
when I came here.

495490 8:15 - 8:19

And I was standing
by the window and crying.

499072 8:19 - 8:26

I'll never know English, I'll never
learn to type. I want to go back.

507913 8:28 - 8:30

(Lou) Why did you leave Canada?

511106 8:31 - 8:33

I didn't like it either.

513341 8:33 - 8:37

I was there six months,
and I didn't like it.

517378 8:37 - 8:40

It was too provincial for me. (laughs)

520835 8:41 - 8:42

(Lou) Too provincial? Canada?

522232 8:42 - 8:45

Yeah, coming from a small town.

524708 8:45 - 8:46

I didn't like it.

525737 8:46 - 8:50

(Lou) Coming from a small town in Poland,
you thought Canada was too provincial?

529541 8:50 - 8:53

Too provincial,
Montreal was too provincial for me.

533221 8:53 - 8:55

I didn't like it.

535000 8:55 - 9:00

I liked New York when I came here,
with all the hustle and bustle.

539649 9:00 - 9:01

That I liked.

542403 9:02 - 9:04

(Lou) So you didn't learn French?

544877 9:05 - 9:07

Six months?

547107 9:07 - 9:08

(Lou) You're smart.

548477 9:08 - 9:10

I bought a mandolin.

550481 9:10 - 9:12

(Lou laughs)

551775 9:12 - 9:14

And I taught myself
how to play the mandolin.

554081 9:14 - 9:16

(Lou) Oh come on!

555617 9:16 - 9:17

(Shirley I taught myself.

557309 9:17 - 9:19

(Lou) Who were you living with?

559421 9:19 - 9:22

(Shirley) With a family.

562016 9:22 - 9:25

(Shirley) I paid so-much
on so-much a month.

565345 9:25 - 9:28

(Lou) You had money with you
or they mailed the money?

567917 9:28 - 9:32

I had a few dollars, I didn't
have much money with me.

572311 9:32 - 9:35

(Lou) So your father made
these arrangements? He gives you-

575517 9:36 - 9:39

But I started working in Montreal.

579496 9:39 - 9:41

(Lou) As what?

580987 9:41 - 9:45

A dressmaker.

586198 9:46 - 9:50

With an old machine that I could work on.

589708 9:50 - 9:52

We had a machine in the house,

592304 9:52 - 9:55

so I could work on an old machine,

595001 9:55 - 9:57

but not an electric one.

597884 9:58 - 10:01

And I earned five dollars a week.

601258 10:01 - 10:05

And that was enough for board and food.

605424 10:05 - 10:08

(Lou) You earned five dollars a week,

607604 10:08 - 10:09

Five dollars a week-

608854 10:09 - 10:11

(Lou) operating a non-electric
sewing machine?

611074 10:11 - 10:12

Yeah.

611854 10:12 - 10:14

(Lou) So what'd you do, with your feet?

613764 10:14 - 10:14

Huh?

614464 10:14 - 10:16

[Lou taps shoes]
You do it with your feet?

616494 10:16 - 10:17

Yeah.

618204 10:18 - 10:19

(Lou) Like in the movies?

619432 10:19 - 10:20

Yes.

620166 10:20 - 10:37

♪ ♪

637206 10:37 - 10:40

(Shirley) I, how do you say it ?

640183 10:40 - 10:44

I went over the border illegally.

645071 10:45 - 10:47

They packed me in a car,

647649 10:48 - 10:50

and covered me up
with all kinds of things.

650296 10:50 - 10:54

(Lou) Oh Shirley,
they packed you in a car?

653873 10:54 - 10:55

Yes

654694 10:55 - 10:58

(Lou) Covered you with all kinds of
things and drove across the border?

658085 10:58 - 10:59

Yes.

659645 11:00 - 11:01

(Lou) Like a movie?

661325 11:01 - 11:03

We smuggled at night.

663264 11:03 - 11:07

It took several hours
until we reached the border.

666846 11:07 - 11:10

(Lou) So you get across the border,
and where do they go?

669666 11:10 - 11:12

They put me into the train

672854 11:13 - 11:14

(Lou) What train?

674312 11:14 - 11:16

There was a train.

676068 11:16 - 11:17

(Lou) A train?

677478 11:17 - 11:20

Going to New York.

679585 11:20 - 11:22

So they put me on the train,

682142 11:22 - 11:26

and I had a mandolin in my hand.

685806 11:26 - 11:28

Nineteen years old.

688396 11:28 - 11:30

(Lou) You still had the two suitcases?

690389 11:30 - 11:31

Huh?

691169 11:31 - 11:33

(Lou) I said, you still have
the two suitcases?

693395 11:33 - 11:34

Yeah.

694533 11:35 - 11:36

(Lou) And a mandolin?

695761 11:36 - 11:36

Yeah.

696487 11:36 - 11:38

(Lou) You're carrying by hand?

697923 11:38 - 11:39

By hand.

698636 11:39 - 11:41

(Lou) You can't be serious,
you're joking, right?

700976 11:41 - 11:47

So the conductor saw a young girl
with a mandolin, so he took care of me.

707036 11:47 - 11:52

All the travel to New York,
it takes a long time by train.

712744 11:53 - 11:55

So he took care of me, you know?

716208 11:56 - 11:59

And then when we arrived in New York,

718965 11:59 - 12:02

my Uncle Mendel was waiting for me.

721856 12:02 - 12:03

(Lou) Your uncle?

722988 12:03 - 12:04

Yeah.

725318 12:05 - 12:07

Your grandfather.

726847 12:07 - 12:08

(Lou) Mm-hm

728376 12:08 - 12:26

♪ ♪

746039 12:26 - 12:29

So how did you end up
in the Garment District?

750325 12:30 - 12:32

When I came here,

752435 12:32 - 12:36

there was nothing else
for a new immigrant to do.

757196 12:37 - 12:39

There were no other jobs, you know?

759371 12:39 - 12:42

This was the only place you could go

762037 12:42 - 12:44

and learn a trade.

764480 12:44 - 12:47

So I went and I learned a trade.

767099 12:47 - 12:48

Who brought you there?

768318 12:48 - 12:49

Huh?

769057 12:49 - 12:51

Somebody must have brought you there?

772588 12:53 - 12:55

My uncle sent me myself,

775451 12:55 - 12:59

in New York, to look for the street,

779449 12:59 - 13:02

and I found it. (laughs)

782762 13:03 - 13:04

You're kidding.

783747 13:04 - 13:08

I was enterprising, you know? At nineteen.

789116 13:09 - 13:11

- Very!
- Not now. (laughs)

791275 13:11 - 13:14

- But still no English.
-No.

793962 13:14 - 13:19

It took me a few years until
I started speaking English.

799314 13:19 - 13:21

So what did you do there?

801345 13:21 - 13:24

You knew fabrics, you told me.

803977 13:24 - 13:28

It had nothing to do with my knowing fabrics.

808988 13:29 - 13:32

The boss put me next to a man,

811997 13:32 - 13:35

and the man was showing me how to work.

815228 13:35 - 13:37

And he would say at the end of day,

817552 13:38 - 13:40

"You'll never learn how to work."

820386 13:40 - 13:43

He said to you,
that you would never learn?

823047 13:43 - 13:44

Yeah.

823888 13:44 - 13:49

And I came home, and I used to cry,
because I'll never learn.

829371 13:49 - 13:51

Oh God!

831105 13:51 - 13:53

(laughs) But I learned.

833476 13:53 - 13:57

You would go home and cry
because you would never learn?

836804 13:57 - 13:59

- Yes, that's right.
- And in Canada,

838598 13:59 - 14:03

you cried cause you
just couldn't stand being there?

842983 14:03 - 14:04

A rough life.

844321 14:04 - 14:05

Yeah.

845640 14:06 - 14:11

It wasn't an easy life for a
new immigrant, for a young person.

851429 14:11 - 14:14

It was pretty hard.

853836 14:14 - 14:15

It sounds terrible.

855326 14:15 - 14:16

Yeah.

856666 14:17 - 14:20

- But adventurous.
- But we didn't know any better, you see?

860274 14:20 - 14:22

You didn't know any better.

861794 14:22 - 14:24

- Right.
- Okay.

871074 14:31 - 14:37

This pillow I embroidered
when I was fourteen years old. (laughs)

876725 14:37 - 14:39

- Oh come on!
- Yes.

879230 14:39 - 14:42

- This pillow?
- And I kept it hidden all the time-

881711 14:42 - 14:44

- You embroidered this at fourteen?
- Yes.

883877 14:44 - 14:47

- This part too? Not this!
- Yes, the whole thing.

888001 14:48 - 14:52

I embroidered this pillow, but
it's falling apart now.

891718 14:52 - 14:55

(Lou) At fourteen! Wait a minute,
how could you still have it?

894638 14:55 - 14:57

(Lou) You brought this in
one of the two suitcases?

897078 14:57 - 14:59

- Yes.
- You brought a pillow?

898541 14:59 - 15:01

Yes. I had several ones.

900927 15:01 - 15:05

I had another one, I gave it to Barbara.

906543 15:07 - 15:08

She has some of them.

908131 15:08 - 15:12

(Lou) I don't understand
you come over with two suitcases,

911956 15:12 - 15:17

and you have two pillows in the suitcase?
Two pillows in the suitcase?

916745 15:17 - 15:19

- Pillows? No.
- This is a pillow!

918859 15:19 - 15:22

But I had it without the pillow,
I just had the case.

922463 15:22 - 15:24

(man offscreen laughs)

923923 15:24 - 15:26

The pillow I put in here.

925713 15:26 - 15:29

- Oh, you just had the fabric top.
- Right.

929363 15:29 - 15:32

You're a seamstress again now.

932436 15:32 - 15:33

Yeah.

933419 15:33 - 15:35

And you worked how long at the machine?

935423 15:35 - 15:38

- Forty-seven years.
- Wait a minute.

938302 15:38 - 15:45

Wait a minute. You worked for
forty-seven years? At that machine?

945301 15:45 - 15:48

At a machine, not at that machine.

947956 15:48 - 15:49

(Lou laughs)

948715 15:49 - 15:52

They changed around, you know?

952354 15:52 - 15:55

Ok, but that's what you did for 47 years?

954974 15:55 - 15:56

Yes.

955724 15:56 - 15:58

And how long did you live here?

957678 15:58 - 16:03

Forty-six, but I moved here
when I retired already.

965276 16:05 - 16:08

Just so people understand,
we're in West Chelsea somewhere.

968355 16:08 - 16:13

I just worked a few years here,
and then I retired.

973524 16:14 - 16:16

At sixty-six years, I retired.

976721 16:17 - 16:18

From this machine?

979852 16:20 - 16:22

Did you do the same thing every day?

983401 16:23 - 16:28

You know a little about
the fashion industry.

987766 16:28 - 16:31

It's not the same thing.
Every day it's something else.

992380 16:32 - 16:35

- It's fashion.
- Mm-hm

996671 16:37 - 16:40

You did high-end fashion,
somebody told me?

999785 16:40 - 16:42

Yes, I did high fashion.

1004066 16:44 - 16:50

Liza Minnelli was wearing one
of our dresses that I made. (laughs)

1009861 16:50 - 16:52

- Who?
- Liza Minnelli.

1013293 16:53 - 16:58

She wore a dress that you made.
How do you know that?

1018313 16:58 - 17:04

And I was very proud, I saw it on TV.
I saw the dress!

1024346 17:04 - 17:07

And you helped make the dress.

1028930 17:09 - 17:12

And I used to see our dresses
in Lord & Taylor in the window.

1035078 17:15 - 17:18

- Lord & Taylor!
- Yeah.

1038192 17:18 - 17:44

♪ ♪

1063513 17:44 - 17:48

(Lou) So your parents,

1068894 17:49 - 17:53

(Lou) I was wondering why they
didn't go with you to Canada?

1073769 17:54 - 17:59

I told you, my mother was afraid
to leave her riches.

1079021 17:59 - 18:01

- Her riches?
- Yeah.

1081369 18:01 - 18:05

They weren't poor people,
they were middle class.

1086165 18:06 - 18:10

(Shirley) And she was afraid
she'd lose her fortune.

1091612 18:12 - 18:16

Their two sisters were in Palestine,
and I was here,

1095968 18:16 - 18:19

so they still had three children there,

1099034 18:19 - 18:24

two daughters and a son, and my parents.

1103627 18:24 - 18:28

(Lou) You go away and live, and
they stay there and die.

1107610 18:28 - 18:28

Yeah.

1108343 18:28 - 18:30

(Lou) Is that what happened?

1109676 18:30 - 18:30

Yeah.

1110399 18:30 - 18:32

(Lou) The whole family?

1111507 18:32 - 18:35

The whole family,
and Hitler took care of them.

1115814 18:36 - 18:41

♪ ♪

1121254 18:41 - 18:48

(Lou) Now you have a sister
Rochel and Rosa.

1128274 18:48 - 18:50

(Shirley) Rosa was in Palestine.

1130313 18:50 - 18:56

(Lou) And Rochel? Rochel? Rachel?

1136401 18:56 - 19:00

She was in Palestine too,
the two of them were in Palestine.

1139872 19:00 - 19:02

(Lou) And how did they get there?

1142509 19:03 - 19:07

They were Zionists.
They were pioneers.

1147033 19:07 - 19:11

(Shirley) They were socializationist pioneers.

1151288 19:11 - 19:14

(Shirley) So they volunteered, you know?

1153669 19:14 - 19:18

(Shirley) And they were trained
to work and live there.

1159315 19:19 - 19:21

(Lou) So why didn't you go there?

1161098 19:21 - 19:22

(Shirley) Huh?

1161824 19:22 - 19:23

(Lou) Why didn't you go there?

1163285 19:23 - 19:26

I didn't want to go to Palestine.

1167490 19:27 - 19:29

(Lou) The weather.

1171902 19:32 - 19:33

(Lou) How come?

1173137 19:33 - 19:35

Because I wasn't a Zionist.

1176330 19:36 - 19:39

I don't believe in their theory.

1178610 19:39 - 19:42

You know what they were
talking about at that time?

1181706 19:42 - 19:42

(Lou) Tell me.

1182482 19:42 - 19:48

To conquer the land, and to conquer
the work from the Arabs.

1190048 19:50 - 19:55

But I found my sisters through the Red Cross

1194869 19:55 - 19:58

and through the Israeli newspaper.

1198574 19:59 - 20:05

I advertised "my sisters were immigrants
to Palestine in 1935."

1206106 20:06 - 20:11

" I never heard of them. If you could
find them for me, please do."

1210944 20:11 - 20:12

And they did.

1213460 20:13 - 20:15

Who's they?

1215308 20:15 - 20:20

The Red Cross, and the Israeli newspaper.

1220016 20:20 - 20:23

(Lou) They found your sisters for you.
(Shirley) Yes.

1222593 20:23 - 20:27

And they called me up, and they
gave me their names and addresses,

1226963 20:27 - 20:30

and they gave them my address.

1230232 20:30 - 20:33

At that time, I had no family anymore.

1233398 20:33 - 20:39

The family was perished.
This was after the war already.

1239630 20:40 - 20:41

That's how I found them.

1241553 20:42 - 20:44

And when I went to Israel by boat,

1244552 20:45 - 20:51

I was standing on deck, and my sister
was downstairs shouting my name.

1251365 20:51 - 20:55

So I said, "who are you, Rochel or Rosa?"

1254854 20:55 - 20:58

I didn't see them in twenty-five years.

1258449 20:58 - 21:00

I didn't know who they were.

1260863 21:01 - 21:05

And that's how I found them,
and then we became family again.

1265402 21:05 - 21:09

♪ ♪

1269295 21:09 - 21:14

I came to America at the very end of 1928.

1274452 21:14 - 21:16

December, 1928.

1277664 21:18 - 21:25

I came just a few months before
the banks crashed, the Wall Street crash.

1285004 21:25 - 21:31

Times were hard, we worked for -
my wages were $7-$8 a week.

1290919 21:31 - 21:38

No union.
We worked about 48 hours a week.

1297754 21:38 - 21:43

♪ ♪

1302959 21:43 - 21:50

(Shirley) So we were organized,
and the union became sort of a force.

1309613 21:50 - 21:55

They started in a way to improve
conditions in the shop,

1315733 21:56 - 22:04

but very soon they were corrupted and they
worked with the bosses and said reduce.

1324979 22:05 - 22:13

So we the people in the shops
organized an opposition to the union.

1334254 22:14 - 22:19

(Shirley) We had an opposition of
4 or 5 thousand.

¶

1338795 22:19 - 22:26

When they used to make elections every
two years. We got over 5,000 votes

1345967 22:26 - 22:32

and they were afraid that one day
we'll take over the power, the left.

1351961 22:32 - 22:37

So they started persecuting us.

1357276 22:37 - 22:38

How?

1357979 22:38 - 22:40

And discriminate against us.

1360437 22:40 - 22:41

How?

1361317 22:41 - 22:49

And call us all kinds of names and in
the press they called me "The Red Shirley"

1368773 22:49 - 23:00

♪ ♪

1380432 23:00 - 23:02

(Lou) Why you?

1381699 23:02 - 23:04

(Shirley) Because I spoke at the meetings.

1384136 23:04 - 23:05

(Lou) You spoke?

1385285 23:05 - 23:08

(Shirley) Yes. I used to
take the floor and-

1388254 23:08 - 23:10

(Lou) you hardly knew English.

1389959 23:10 - 23:13

No I knew by then I knew English already.

1393293 23:13 - 23:15

It was 1936

1394546 23:15 - 23:18

(Lou) and you could speak in public?
You're a public speaker?

1397580 23:18 - 23:25

I could speak, sure and I spoke and used
to expose the conditions in the shop.

1405295 23:25 - 23:28

(Lou chuckles)
You exposed the conditions in the shop?

1408181 23:28 - 23:30

(Shirley) I did!
(Lou) You?

1409814 23:30 - 23:32

(Lou) Didn't they try to beat you up
or do something?

1412314 23:32 - 23:34

They tried to stop me.

1414207 23:34 - 23:40

They only gave me 5 minutes.
How much can you say in 5 minutes?

1420814 23:41 - 23:45

- (Lou) Bail out!
- They took as much time as they wanted.

1424692 23:45 - 23:48

- (Lou) They could.
- And me they gave 5 minutes.

1427985 23:48 - 23:55

But the workers used to start "Let her
speak. She's saying what we want"

1436310 23:56 - 24:03

And my stomach was churning when I spoke.
Don't think I wasn't afraid.

1443047 24:03 - 24:07

We took up the fight for the trade.

1447502 24:08 - 24:11

(Lou) All these workers how did you
become the one who talks?

1450977 24:11 - 24:19

Because I worked in an Italian shop.
The only Jewish woman and

1460570 24:21 - 24:22

(Lou) In an Italian shop?

1462736 24:23 - 24:26

Yes, and the bosses were Italian too.

1466310 24:26 - 24:34

And the boss was everything to them.
Whatever the boss said, they followed.

1474833 24:35 - 24:41

So I would carry on the fight
singlehandedly in the shop,

1481420 24:41 - 24:47

in the union you know? Wherever there was
a progressive worker in a shop,

1487229 24:47 - 24:50

he fought for conditions.
(door bell rings)

1489652 24:50 - 24:56

I wasn't the only one. We were a group of
5,000 people that fought against

1496493 24:56 - 25:04

the corruption, you know? I told them
"You think that we have democracy here?"

1504140 25:04 - 25:12

"You think that we have equal rights?"
No. I am 1 and they have 10 people.

1511873 25:12 - 25:19

That's how it goes here. So one of the
leaders of the Israelis said to me,

1518825 25:19 - 25:24

"You must be the black sheep
in the family." So I said, no,

1524026 25:24 - 25:27

I'm the red sheep in the family.

1526580 25:27 - 25:32

♪ ♪

1531554 25:32 - 25:36

(Shirley) Equal rights for the
black people. I was there.

1535878 25:36 - 25:38

(Shirley) There was a million people

1537702 25:38 - 25:43

(Shirley) and I was among the million and
it so happened that I was in front.

1544165 25:44 - 25:48

- (Lou) How did you end up in front?
- I don't know, I don't remember.

1548155 25:48 - 25:50

-(Lou) What do you mean you don't know?
- Huh?

1549819 25:50 - 25:52

- What do you mean you don't know?
- I don't remember.

1552503 25:53 - 25:56

- (Lou) People probably tried to kill
each other to get in front.

1555598 25:56 - 26:00

- It was a million people, who remembers?
- 1 million people and you ended up front?

1560137 26:00 - 26:08

- Yes. Not the first row, but front.
I saw him and I heard him.

1567834 26:08 - 26:10

(Lou laughs)

1570802 26:11 - 26:13

- (Lou) You heard him ?
- Yeah.

1573510 26:14 - 26:19

- Better than you hear me.
- I heard him and they had a singer

1579318 26:19 - 26:30

whom I liked very much. Mahalia Jackson,
and she sang Spirituals and we were

1589536 26:30 - 26:36

singing in kind. It was so moving
the whole thing, you have know idea.

1596056 26:36 - 26:41

(Shirley) It's like living through
a lifetime. You know?

1601678 26:42 - 27:33

♪ ♪

English subtitles

← Red Shirley

English subtitles

← Red Shirley

Embed video

Share