He was good at music, learned to play the violin and dreamed of becoming a musician. After finishing school my father went to Astrakhan, where the cousin of my grandmother's sister lived, and entered the Conservatory.
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Displaying 5611 - 5640 of 50826 results
leonid rozenfeld
Then World War I began. My father was on vacation in Boguslav and from there he was recruited to the army. His unit stayed in Boguslav, then they went to the front and returned to Boguslav for training. My father was promoted to the rank of ensign in the tsarist army. My father had many friends among the young officers. When they were in the rear they had a good time knowing that soon they were to go to the front. My father also served in a military unit near Chernigov.
In June 1941 I finished the 9th grade and was planning to spend my summer vacations in Boguslav. At 5am on 22nd June we heard the roar of planes and explosions. We ran outside and so did our neighbors. There were no planes in the sky and we returned home. The roar came from another part of Kiev and we decided this was some kind of military training. At 12 o'clock we heard Molotov's [22] speech on the radio. He announced that the war had begun. Germany was attacking our country. On the next day I ran to school. There was a hospital set up there. Beds were put into the classrooms and hallways and there were people in white gowns running to and fro with their faces expressing concern.
All medical personnel was subject to military service and my mother was recruited by a subpoena from the military registry office on 25th June. On that same day she was sent to a front line hospital.
My father was very busy preparing his school for evacuation. In early July 1941 he sent me to Boguslav. I stayed in Boguslav for about ten days.
In the middle of July teenage boys who were of under recruitment age were lined up at the order of the military registry office to march to Donetsk. The government needed recruits for the future. Naum and I said goodby to our family and joined the others for the march. We walked about 200 kilometers, as far as Kryukovo near Poltava. There was an air raid and German troops landed nearby. Our commanding officers ordered us to spread in the area hoping that it would be easier for us to survive if we separated. We already had an understanding what a war was like. There were people killed or wounded around us.
Naum and I decided to move in the direction of Chuguyev where our aunt lived. We walked several days. Sometimes we got a ride on a horse-drawn cart or a truck. We also boarded a train. We came to Kharkov dirty and hungry with our clothes torn. On the first day there I saw a young man wearing the uniform of a student of a vocational school with the abbreviation '1KRU', first Kiev vocational school, on his tab. This abbreviation stood for the school where my father worked. I stopped that boy and he told me that their vocational school along with my father had been evacuated to Kharkov. This boy took us to my father. We were so happy to see him.
In the middle of July teenage boys who were of under recruitment age were lined up at the order of the military registry office to march to Donetsk. The government needed recruits for the future. Naum and I said goodby to our family and joined the others for the march. We walked about 200 kilometers, as far as Kryukovo near Poltava. There was an air raid and German troops landed nearby. Our commanding officers ordered us to spread in the area hoping that it would be easier for us to survive if we separated. We already had an understanding what a war was like. There were people killed or wounded around us.
Naum and I decided to move in the direction of Chuguyev where our aunt lived. We walked several days. Sometimes we got a ride on a horse-drawn cart or a truck. We also boarded a train. We came to Kharkov dirty and hungry with our clothes torn. On the first day there I saw a young man wearing the uniform of a student of a vocational school with the abbreviation '1KRU', first Kiev vocational school, on his tab. This abbreviation stood for the school where my father worked. I stopped that boy and he told me that their vocational school along with my father had been evacuated to Kharkov. This boy took us to my father. We were so happy to see him.
On the next day my mother found us in the same way as I had found my father. Her hospital moved via Kharkov and she also saw a boy whose uniform indicated that he was a student of my father's school. On that same day the director of the hospital released my mother. She was almost 50 and he felt sorry for her.
Kharkov military registry school sent my mother to Novosibirsk hospital behind the Ural. My mother and I left a few days later. We headed to Frunze where my mother's brother Nuchim was. We went on a passenger train. The trip was long since the train often stopped for a long while to let military trains pass.
We went to Novosibirsk and my father went to the town of Molotov [Penza at present] with his school.
In Novosibirsk my mother got an assignment to the face injuries and stomatology hospital in Frunze. By late summer 1941 my mother and I arrived at Frunze [Kazakhstan], which was 3,000 kilometers from Kiev.
We stayed with my mother's brother Nuchim who rented a room from a local family in Voroshylovka settlement in the suburb of Frunze. He was there with his wife Sarra and their daughters.
Frunze was a big town, but only in the center it had bigger multi- storied houses. There were small private pise-walled houses in Voroshylovka. Nuchim's family lived in a big room in one of those houses. There were no comforts in the house. There was a summer kitchen outside. My mother and I lodged in this room.
Frunze was a big town, but only in the center it had bigger multi- storied houses. There were small private pise-walled houses in Voroshylovka. Nuchim's family lived in a big room in one of those houses. There were no comforts in the house. There was a summer kitchen outside. My mother and I lodged in this room.
My mother worked in the hospital and I went to the 10th grade at a local school, about three kilometers from where we lived in Lebedinka settlement. There were many other evacuated children at school. There were Jews among them. We got along well with the local children.
I joined the Komsomol [23] in the 10th grade. We all wanted to become Komsomol members to be of use to our motherland. There was a ceremony in the conference room where we received our Komsomol membership cards.
In winter 1941 my father came from Molotov. His vocational school was dismissed. My father became the director of the garment factory evacuated from Kharkov.
My mother spent days and nights in the hospital. She wanted to work as much as possible to distract herself from the big sorrow that fell upon us: in August 1941 my brother Israel disappeared. We received a notification about this in late December 1941.
At that time my father received a two-bedroom apartment, but I didn't live one single day in it.
In spring 1942 I was recruited to the army. At that time my father received a two-bedroom apartment, but I didn't live one single day in it.
After two-month training in a military unit I was sent to the military infantry school in Frunze. I studied very well and was promoted to first sergeant. We were supposed to study six months, but a month before graduation we were demobilized to the army.
After two-month training in a military unit I was sent to the military infantry school in Frunze. I studied very well and was promoted to first sergeant. We were supposed to study six months, but a month before graduation we were demobilized to the army.
We were sent to the vicinity of Bryansk near Sukhinichi [Russia], 1,500 kilometers from Frunze. I remember our train stopped in a field. We got off the train and marched to our military unit. We were distributed to various units. I was sent to rifle regiment 407 of the Central Front [it was later renamed Bryanski and then 1st Belarusian Front].
I became first sergeant in a rifle company.
I became first sergeant in a rifle company.
We were ambushed in our first battle. Our unit moved to the area where no German troops were left when all of a sudden we got under fire of German troopers hiding in the woods. My comrade cadet Sasha Andronnikov was wounded in his throat. He shouted something and died in my arms. Many of our military men were wounded or killed. We began to fire back and the fascists retreated. This first battle is still vivid in my memory. There were many more that were also terrible, but this one was the most horrific.
I wasn't a coward and was always among the first attackers. We drank one hundred milliliters of vodka before action on a battlefield and called it a 'frontline shot'. It inspired a feeling of courage. I must say here that bullets or bombs hit those that gave in to their fear. Sometime I was appointed commanding officer of a machine gun platoon and then I received the rank of junior lieutenant.
I wasn't a coward and was always among the first attackers. We drank one hundred milliliters of vodka before action on a battlefield and called it a 'frontline shot'. It inspired a feeling of courage. I must say here that bullets or bombs hit those that gave in to their fear. Sometime I was appointed commanding officer of a machine gun platoon and then I received the rank of junior lieutenant.
In late June 1943 we were moved to the vicinity of Orel [Russia] where our units were in defense in-depth near Kursk. Our commandment knew that the fascists were preparing for a massive attack and gathered the best units in this area. There were four defense lines. Our unit was in the second defense line. On 5th July operation 'Citadel' began. It is known as the Kursk battle [24]. I participated in this battle. Fascists bombed our positions for several days. It was a non-stop bombing. They broke through our first defense line, but then our second line rose. My rifle unit was there, too. The Germans had their tanks moving ahead of the infantry, but we cut them off with aimed fire. We had lots of casualties, but we went into attack. This battle was a turning point in the Great Patriotic War. After this battle our army went into attack along the whole front line.
My parents wrote that Grandmother Menie, who was in evacuation with her cousin in Astrakhan, had died.
I also knew that my uncle Yankel, my father's brother, his wife and their son Naum were evacuated to Frunze. My father helped them to find a job and lodging.
In September 1943 I joined the Communist Party. At the frontline the candidateship term was reduced to three months. I obtained recommendations from the commanding officer of our company and the political chief.
My parents got married in 1920. They didn't have a traditional Jewish wedding since my father was devoted to communist ideas and rejected any Jewish rules or traditions.
Arnold Fabrikant
Nobody in our family can speak the Yiddish language and we've never observed Jewish traditions or celebrated Jewish holidays. I am an atheist and believe in human intelligence. I keep shooting amateur films. My wife and I are interested in all aspects of modern life: we read a lot and have many creative plans that we hope to carry out some day.
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After WW2
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The Jewish life in Odessa is also very diverse. My interests are tied to the activities of Gemilut Hesed [29]. There is a 'Front line brotherhood' group working there and I'm part of it. My wife and I go to concerts and often show our films there. We also receive charity assistance from Gemilut Hesed: monthly parcels and 30 hrivna once every quarter for medications. But the most important thing is that we can find our spiritual interests there.
,
After WW2
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There is no anti-Semitism, routinely or on state-level, as there used to be in the past. I know it.
,
After WW2
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In the 1990s many of our friends moved to Israel, but neither my wife and I, nor our daughter or her husband, had any desire to emigrate. Besides, my daughter's friends wrote that they weren't doing very well there. Many of them still feel sorry that they have moved there. I think that the state of Israel was initially organized in a wrong way. The UN made this mistake. They shouldn't have created the state where the narrowest area is 16 kilometers wide. This strip can be fired through by a mortar. Israel was right to start fighting for land with Palestinians, because they cannot live like that.
,
After WW2
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I was satisfied with the results of perestroika [27]. I personally don't criticize Gorbachev [28]. I liked him. He was the youngest and most cultured and intelligent man of all Soviet leaders. I didn't feel ashamed when he represented our country abroad. His wife, Raisa Maximovna, held herself with dignity. Gorbachev did a great thing. He had the courage to do what nobody would dare to do. It is my opinion that the Soviet Union should have fallen apart a long time before. In my opinion Ukraine has to be independent. This is a rich country and it can manage by itself.
,
After WW2
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My wife and I were friends with Tolia Irbin, my schoolmate, for many years. During the war he was in intelligence. He worked as a servant in a cathedral in Finland collecting necessary information. After the war Tolia finished Kiev Pedagogical College and worked as head of the chief publishing house of political literature. We visited him in Kiev and he came to see us in Odessa. I regularly made reports about my scientific activities in the Imont society in the house of scientists. Imont is the abbreviation for Institute of Methodology, Education, Science and Technical Equipment. Its chairman was Igor Zelinskiy, a scientist, former rector of the university, and a respectable man. We were friends with him. My wife and I took part in all events organized by this institute.
,
After WW2
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Nathalia worked at the department of organization of health care in the Medical College at first, but she found this job boring. She finished a course of rontgenologists and worked as a rontgenologist in the Jewish hospital, one of the oldest hospitals in town, built on the contributions of the Jewish community before the revolution, till she retired. She was a very good specialist, published her articles in the 'Rontgenology' magazine, but she didn't want to defend a thesis and remained a practicing doctor.
,
After WW2
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