Article by Henk Lemmer
S
amuel (Sammy) Marks was
born in Lithuania in a town
called Neustadt on the
Russian border. The town
was also known as Vladislavov.
Being Jewish, he and his people
were confined to what was called a
shtetl or pale of settlement designed by the Russian authorities to
control and prevent freedom of
movement.
Jews were not allowed to own land
and education was restricted. They
lived in what could be described as
hovels and food was quite insufficient. Another interesting Russian
law at the time was that a Christian
(Russian) was not allowed to marry
a Jew. If it did happen the marriage document was considered as
invalid. In this respect it was similar
to the religious law of the Jews.
Nicolas I was Tsar at the time and
seemed obviously anti-Jewish, to
put it mildly.
The difference was that in the Jewish community punishment was
immediately meted out by the head
of the household; all ties with the
transgressor immediately came to
an end. He/she had to leave the
household with no hope of reconciliation. For practical purposes the
person was dead and applicable
rituals took place.
Bertha Marks circa 1906
Another gruesome aspect of family
life was that the Russian army visited the shtetl every year or two to
pick up young boys as young as
nine or ten to work in the army.
The harsh conditions made it virtually impossible for them to survive.
Needless to say households with
young boys always lived under this
cloud. Fortunately fate intervened
when Sammy approached the applicable age, the Crimean war broke
Photo: http://usercontent1.hubimg.com/4227576_f260.jpg
Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Marks
Sammy Marks
1844 - 1920
out and the Russian army had other
things to do.
Still more good news was to come,
Alexander II became Tsar and he
had different ideas than his predecessor – he freed the Serfs and
abolished child labour in any form.
Sammy reaches the age of seventeen and he was fortunate enough
to get a job. This job was to accompany a ship load of Russian
horses to England. At the time the
life of a horse was often more important than that of a human being. For example in war they were
used to move the artillery and they
drew the ambulances. They were
still used intensively for all kinds of
transport in peace time. This was
the first indication that someone
had a high regard for Sammy
Marks.
Sammy was astounded by what he
saw in England - especially in Sheffield, a focal point of the industrial
revolution. He met a business man
who took him under the wing –