This video is currently only available in German. Below you will find an English translation of the audio track.
“We were members of the company Abeles and Popper.
My maiden name was Abeles and that was a social arrangement that I have not come across anywhere else.
It started in 1887 when my grandmother was very homesick for her home in the Domaželice area and after her letters of complaint, her brother decided to propose to my grandmother’s husband - my grandfather - that they join the company.
So: they do and give everything together, they work together, everyone works on a different farm, but: there are no accounts, you just don’t use what you think is necessary anymore. And you save and improve the farms.
So it was all farmers. And they also supported poor relatives.
But I’ve never heard much about club life.
The company was our world.
I should explain that the two original members and their wives, of course, each had three children, two sons and a daughter. The four sons together then continued the company.
We felt just as at home in the apartments of the other companies as we did at home. I also spent a year with my uncle and aunt to help the son with his schoolwork. It didn’t really matter. We ate everywhere, we stayed everywhere. And that went on and on in Canada for some time.”