There I also met Father Plojhar. Together with fourteen Czechoslovak Jews from the camp he at night brought and then passed under the fence to us a few hot potatoes, for which they had to bribe the cook, and hot water with molasses. While I don't know what Mr. Plojhar did as a minister, in the camp he was very courageous and helped us a lot. It's just a shame that no one mentions this. I don't mean his Communist orientation, but his bravery and humanity, which he showed in the camp.
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Displaying 9901 - 9930 of 50826 results
artur radvansky
We also had to work, in a quarry, where we would walk up and down hills, and where those wooden shoes slipped around nicely. We had to carry heavy rocks uphill, for the construction of army barracks. I always tried to give my father the lightest ones, to make it easier on him. While we worked, the SS and capos [concentration camp inmates appointed by the SS to be in charge of work gangs] beat us.
And so we got to Buchenwald. Buchenwald was a concentration camp built in 1936. It was located in a forest in the mountains. We lived there in a large army tent for 500 people in bunks four high. At night two men would have one blanket together to cover themselves. The tent wasn't heated, so we were constantly cold. They also didn't give us any shoes and so the cold was even worse. For clothing we got a blue and white striped cap, a jacket and pants from Germans, for work in the quarry we then got wooden shoes and instead of socks, rags.
My father and I took some winter clothing, backpacks, food for the road and went to the Ludvik pit, made contact with a flashlight and my friends led us over to the other side. When we had been on the road for three days and were about 40 kilometers from Ostrava, the Polish War broke out [see Invasion of Poland] [12]. We wanted to go to Krakow, to join Svoboda's army [13], but in Jawiszovice, my father's home town, we were stopped by the military police and although we had new identification, they arrested us due to my father's 'Jewish' appearance. So we got into the Ravic collection camp, which lies about 30 kilometers before Katowice.
It goes without saying that the Gestapo beat us brutally both at home in front of my mother, and at the base in Ostrava.
We would signal the people on the other side when the situation was right. Then the refugees were led via connecting mine shafts to Poland on the other side. From Poland they continued on to Denmark or by ship to France. Leftist-oriented refugees aimed in the opposite direction, into the Soviet Union. These crossings were organized by our group of youngsters, and because we weren't even 18 and had no experience with illegal activities, we were exposed. Then the Gestapo came to arrest me at home, and as I wasn't of age yet, and my father was responsible for me, they took him along with me, even though he had no clue about my activities in that respect.
Back then I also had an agreement that I'd start working at Bata's factory in Zlin as an apprentice, and that I would then go to Bata's branch company in South Africa. But it was not to be, because they arrested me about ten days before 1st September 1939, when I had been supposed to start in Zlin.
I experienced anti-Semitism mostly only in verbal skirmishes. I don't remember anyone calling me rude names.
When I was around twelve, I for the first time didn't eat kosher. Before that I hadn't dared, because I was afraid that I'd die. But the first time I went someplace for a visit, where I had been invited for supper, I was embarrassed to say that I don't eat something.
We weren't the only Jews in Radvanice. There were about fifteen Jewish families in all. Their children were around the same age as me, so I could play with them. Mostly they were German-speaking Jews, and you could say that they were a little on the atheistic side. They observed only the main holidays, but perhaps for example not Sabbath.
We also 'trained' dancing during Catholic religion classes. That is, whoever wanted to stay for religion class, could. Father Birek didn't mind, on the contrary, he would sometimes ask me to explain the Old Testament from a Jewish standpoint. When we didn't stay, we'd then go to a singing class. There was a piano there that someone would play, and we'd also dance to the music. I have very fond memories of Father Birek. He was a Semitophile, who could even read Hebrew. Otherwise he taught religion and Latin.
At Christmas I'd go with my friend Walter Knopp to a Catholic church for Midnight Mass, even though I didn't go there to pray, but to meet girls. During Christian Easter I also used to go caroling with a whole gang of boys.
Basya Chaika
The first time I saw tallit and tefillin was with my father's father.
His name was Aaron Pan. He came from the town of Kazatin, Kiev region. The
family of grandfather Aaron was very poor, I never knew what he did, but
his lifestyle was strongly Orthodox Jewish. He and his wife - my
grandmother Hannah - kept their traditions until they died.
His name was Aaron Pan. He came from the town of Kazatin, Kiev region. The
family of grandfather Aaron was very poor, I never knew what he did, but
his lifestyle was strongly Orthodox Jewish. He and his wife - my
grandmother Hannah - kept their traditions until they died.
, Ukraine
I don't remember any Jewish holidays there and at home they spoke
Russian. The oldest generation spoke Yiddish only when they did not want
their children to understand them and their children were never taught it.
Russian. The oldest generation spoke Yiddish only when they did not want
their children to understand them and their children were never taught it.
, Ukraine
remember
almost all of his children, my aunts and uncles: the first one was Isaac,
who was born in 1879 in Kiev and was killed in 1941 during the Holocaust in
Babi Yar together with his wife, Hannah, and daughter.
almost all of his children, my aunts and uncles: the first one was Isaac,
who was born in 1879 in Kiev and was killed in 1941 during the Holocaust in
Babi Yar together with his wife, Hannah, and daughter.
Seraphima Gurevich
In the summer of 1941 I finished the 9th grade. I had the highest marks in all subjects and my parents decided to send me to the best pioneer camp in the country, Artek in the Crimea. I spent only one week there. On the afternoon of 22nd June 1941 we heard the artillery cannonade. Our teachers knew about the beginning of the war but they were not telling the children about it. They didn't get any instructions and were confused about what to do. On the following day the children were to evacuate from the camp. There were quite a few children from Voronezh in the camp, and a representative of the Voronezh Military Division came to take these children home. Our train was bombed on the way to Voronezh. Air raids in Voronezh began about a week after I came there. When an air raid began, we ran to hide in the basement of our building, which was transformed into an air raid shelter.
My grandmother from Polonnoye joined us in Voronezh. She came with her neighbors who were evacuating from Polonnoye via Voronezh. My grandfather Gersh refused to go with her. He loved his house and his horses and couldn't leave them. Besides, he had known Germans during World War I and believed them to be civilized people. He tried to convince my grandmother that the Germans were going to struggle only against the communists. But my grandmother wanted to be with her children and grandchildren. My mother's sister Bronia, her husband and son also came to us in Voronezh. Then one of my first cousins, the son of my mother's sister Riva, also joined us and all of us were evacuated together.
My father was not subject to recruitment into the army; he was a railroad man, and railroad men had to provide for the continuous operation of the railroads. However, my father went to the military recruitment office every day, insisting that they send him to the front. Shortly after we left, my father volunteered to the front. He became a battalion commissar.
We reached Kazarinsk station [in Middle Asia about 3,000 km from Kiev] and found accommodation in one room of a house. There were 7 of us. The owners of the house sympathized with us. We received some food on ration cards issued by military registration offices, but this was not sufficient. We were starving. All the people were starving at that time; so, we didn't find ourselves experiencing something extraordinary. News from the front left us bereft of hope for a prompt victory.
,
1941
See text in interview
I entered the 10th grade at the local school in Kazarinsk. The majority of pupils were evacuated children, and there were not so many local children there. There were a few Jewish children in the class. I had a few Jewish friends. The local population was friendly and sympathetic.
In 1942 the Germans retreated from Voronezh and we were allowed to go home. We returned to our apartment in Voronezh.
We didn't stay long in Voronezh. At the beginning of 1943 the Germans began to attack again and we had to evacuate yet again. We went to Kazakhstan. This time we went in railcars used for the transportation of cattle.
In 1944 I entered the Medical Institute in Alma-Ata. There was no anti- Semitism at that time. I passed my entrance exams without problems and was admitted. My father was a war veteran, an invalid, and had many awards. I finished two years at the Institute before we left Alma-Ata.
My grandmother wrote my grandfather in Polonnoye. She was planning to go home. She received a response from their neighbors in Polonnoye. They wrote that their Ukrainian neighbors had been hiding my grandfather in Polonnoye for two years during the occupation. In 1943 somebody betrayed them to the Germans. The Germans shot the Ukrainian family for hiding a Jew and threw my grandfather under a train. This was a terrible thing to hear. Of course, we read in the newspapers and heard on the radio about what the Germans were doing in the occupied areas, but the tragedies were still something distant. This time the tragedy affected our family. My grandmother blamed herself for leaving her husband. My grandmother lived with us for the rest of her life. We were her family.
In 1946 I continued my studies at Chernovtsy Medical Institute. There were quite a few Jewish students and lecturers at our institute. The majority of the population in Chernovtsy was Jewish. Many people spoke Yiddish and it was a novelty to me to hear Yiddish in the streets. There was a Jewish atmosphere in Chernovtsy. I had lived in many towns, but this was the first town where people were intelligent, polite and friendly. It was amazing. Regretfully, this aura of kindness diminished along with the number of Jews left in Chernovtsy. There was a Jewish school in the town and a Jewish theater. There was also a synagogue.
In 1948 the campaign against 'cosmopolitans' [9]. It was also felt in Chernovtsy. Many lecturers at higher educational institutions lost their jobs. Anti-Semitism was forced artificially into the society. The Jewish school and theater were closed at that time. The Jewish anti-fascist committee in Moscow was closed and its members were arrested. Jewish writers were not published. I was particularly sorry that they stopped publishing works by Ilya Erenburg [10]. I was fond of his books and articles, especially his article about Babi Yar [11]. The stronger the anti- Semitism was, the more I felt I was a Jew.
We were all happy that Israel was established. My father said that the most precious dream of many generations of Jews had come true. They finally got their own country after centuries of knocking around the world. We couldn't even dream of leaving the USSR. My parents were very ill and the authorities didn't allow anybody to leave the country legally, and we couldn't move illegally.
I graduated from the Medical Institute in 1948. I got a job assignment in the village of Storozhenets in Chernovtsy region. The village is located not far from Chernovtsy, approximately 30 kilometers away. I came home on weekends. I faced anti-Semitism in Storozhenets. These were incidents in the streets, but nothing of this kind happened at work. Anti-Semitism became more acute in 1953 during the Doctors' Plot. [12] In 1949 I returned to Chernovtsy and got a job as a physician at a polyclinic.
Our neighbors in Chernovtsy liked me a lot. Many of them did their best to introduce me to the young men they knew, their relatives and friends. Once I came home for a weekend and our neighbor came to see me. She was with a young man. It was Isaac Tomengauzer, my future husband. We got married in 1949. We had a civil ceremony and my mother prepared a dinner for our family and closest friends.
My husband's family, his parents, his younger sister Tusia, then a 5-year-old girl, and he were in ghetto in Transnistria [13]. Isaac's mother went insane from the horrors of the ghetto. She became a violent lunatic and was dangerous to the community. I don't know the details of her death. My husband was reluctant to discuss this subject. I know that she was poisoned. I don't know whether she was poisoned by the Romanians or by inmates of the ghetto. Shortly after this event, Isaac arranged an escape from the ghetto, taking his father and sister with him. They were captured. The Romanians were not as violent as Germans. They didn't kill them. They beat them and returned them to the ghetto. Some time afterwards there came a rumor that a German punitive unit was coming to the ghetto to do away with its inmates. Isaac stole a Romanian truck and rescued his father and sister and 7 other inmates of the ghetto. A few days later the punitive unit came to the ghetto and exterminated all its inmates.