In 1931 I finished 7th grade and went to work at the garment factory. I was a laborer.
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Displaying 1861 - 1890 of 50826 results
rachel persitz
In 1933 there was a famine [12] in Ukraine, caused by the Bolsheviks. The situation in Kiev was a bit better than in other Ukrainian towns and villages, and many people came here looking for jobs and food. In the mornings, on my way to work, I often saw people sitting or lying in a park. It was hard to say whether they were dead or alive. At that time Sorl stopped giving me any food, although I gave my father part of my wages. I often went to Aunt Zlata for dinner. She cooked delicious meals, even in those hard times.
In autumn 1934 I entered the Rabfak [13], a school for young working people, at Kiev State University to finish my secondary education. In order to enter a higher educational institution I needed to complete my secondary education. During the day I worked at the garment factory in Podol, and in the evening I went to school, which was located in the city center near the university. I finished school and entered the Faculty of History at Kiev State University in 1937. There was no anti-Semitism back then. I passed all exams and was admitted.
I liked to study. I quit work and received a small stipend.
I liked to study. I quit work and received a small stipend.
My father divorced Sorl.
My father worked, I received a stipend, and we could manage all right.
I had many friends at university. We didn't care about nationality. We just didn't think about it. We celebrated Soviet holidays and went to the cinema or theater together. I became a Komsomol [14] member.
I studied ancient history, the Middle Ages and contemporary history at the university. I was always fond of history. We spent much time studying Marx, Engels and Lenin. We also studied works by Stalin about the building of communism in our country and the advantages of communist society. I spent much time at the central library. Once the librarian gave me Lenin's 'Letter to the Congress' in which he criticized Stalin, his rudeness and ruthlessness, and recommended not to elect him General Secretary of the Party. She probably gave me this work by mistake. This was sensitive information at the time and only became known to the public after the denunciation of the cult of Stalin [at the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party] [15]. This work implanted strong doubts in the official propaganda of Stalin, stating that he was a follower of Lenin's ideas and his integral friend. I kept my doubts to myself. It wasn't safe to share such ideas at the time.
Gershl was a shoemaker in Podol [2].
When the war began only Eva and her two sons managed to go into evacuation. Gershl, his wife Sorl and Zyunia stayed in Kiev. Zyunia had tuberculosis and Gershl was afraid to move him. Rosa and her two children also stayed. They were all killed in Babi Yar [3]. Eva and her sons returned to Kiev from evacuation.
She worked in a bakery before the 1970s.
My mother's sister Zlata became a widow during World War II. Her husband perished at the front.
He was a tailor before the war.
They lived in Chernobyl. During the war Zlata and her son Zyunia were in evacuation.
In the early 1970s Zlata, her son and his family moved to America.
My mother, Bella Lagotskaya was born in 1892. She didn't get any education. She lived in Chernobyl with her parents and helped her mother with the housekeeping and gardening.
When my mother turned 18 she left her parents' house. My grandfather Haim was very ill and couldn't provide for his big family any longer. His sons and his older daughter Rohl were living separately already, and my mother decided to go to Kiev. She became a seamstress in a tailor's shop, owned by Abram Persitz, the older brother of my father, Moshe Persitz.
I knew my father's brothers very well though. They all received religious education, finished cheder and were religious people. They didn't serve in the tsarist army. The service term was 25 years. Perhaps, they didn't go to the army because of their religious beliefs, or because they just didn't want to go. They bribed the authorities and were relieved from service.
He was a wealthy man before the revolution. He lived in a beautiful big apartment. His tailor's shop was still open during the NEP [4], but was expropriated later. Also, two other families got accommodation in Abram's apartment. This all had a dramatic impact on my uncle. He fell ill and died from a heart attack sometime in 1925.
Abram had three sons: Mikhail, Boris and Shlema. His older sons graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute and became engineers. His younger son, Shlema, studied at a technical college.
During the war they were all in evacuation and returned to Kiev afterwards.
He moved to Kiev in the early 1920s and lived with his brother Abram. Lazar was a tailor and made women's clothes.
Lazar was in evacuation during the war, and then he returned to Kiev.
Lazar's son Iosif was an engineer. In the late 1920s Iosif was sent to England by train, and he lived there several years. Later he lived and worked in Moscow, and now he lives in America.
Janina Duda
He was connected with the supporters of Pilsudski, with Sanacja and also had PPS [22] roots. So his daughter, Wanda Lewicka, was accused of communism. So what this was all about, speaking in plain terms, harassing this Lewicki and his family.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
The caretaker, who sometimes came round, used to say to my mother, ‘Mrs. Perelmut, this cupboard is just like at Pilsudski’s [13]!
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
In 1968 [Anti-Zionist campaign in Poland] [37] he suggested to me – let’s leave. I told him, ‘No, my place is here.’ And in 1968, in the office, in the company where I was working, in international commerce, one of the men had just returned from the Far East when the Israeli war [Six-Day-War] [38] was going on and he talked about what was happening there. They threw him out of the party [Polish United Workers’ Party] and they told me, ‘You have to repeat what he said.’ I really didn’t remember and, even if I did, I wouldn’t have said it.
,
1968
See text in interview
Bialystok was a half-Jewish town. Industry was mostly in Jewish hands, although I have to say that Mr. Komorowski [Mrs. Duda actually means Ryszard Kaczorowski (born 1919): Polish politician, after WWII emigrated to Great Britain. 1986-1989 minister of national affairs in the Polish government in exile; 1989-1991 President of the Republic of Poland in exile; cf. president-in-exile [11]] was a former accountant in one of the factories in Bialystok. I knew many Jewish workers, I remember these Bialystok factories, the rags would stink so you could smell it from a long distance… because since the middle of the 19th century Bialystok specialized in the production of materials from rags, from wastes. There were piles of waste in front of the factories, the workers sorted them and then they would be processed. These products were later sent to Far East markets, Manchuria, so even to China.
Then Fania got married. Her sweetheart, Gorzyczanski, left somewhere and she married his friend – Mosze Rojtman.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
My sister Fania graduated from gymnasium, she passed her final exam at Szperowa’s in Lublin. And Dina – we called her Dinka – attended Druskin’s gymnasium in Bialystok.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
Easter [Pesach] holidays were the same. There was seder, so I said, ‘Ba ladem alisztama halajla haze’ [‘Mah nishtana ha-lailah ha-zeh mi-kol ha-leilot?’: ‘Why is this night different from other nights?’, first question at seder], because there were three girls in our family and the youngest one was too small. [Editor’s note: the four questions are traditionally asked by the youngest child.] Mother made cake for the holidays and I licked the bowls clean. This was in the period when Father worked, there was money at home, so Mother baked cakes for holidays… Yes, all holidays. We celebrated all of them at home.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview