In my husband's family they cooked Jewish food very well. Stuffed fish and hamantashen - 'Amman's ears' -little triangle pies with poppy seeds cooked at Purim) were always the best. They didn't follow the kashrut, though, and they rarely went to the synagogue. My husband's older daughter took her mother to the synagogue several times after the war. When my husband's mother was strong enough and had an opportunity she used to go to the synagogue by herself.
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Displaying 13231 - 13260 of 50826 results
Ada Dal
Yiddish was the main language of communication in my husband's family. Nehama Leikovna's Russian was very poor. She switched to Yiddish at any moment when she saw that she could be understood better. My daughter likes the memory of her grandmother: when she was speaking to herself loudly in a language unknown to my daughter while cooking in the kitchen.
, Ukraine
In 1957 I met my future husband Mihail Ben, or Musiy as I called him, at this institute .
It was during the period of the campaign against cosmopolitans [12]. Jews were not accepted to higher humanitarian educational institutions. I was eager to get a profession related to the humanities, but I realized how slim my chance was and went to a technical institute. I became a chemical production engineer. I was the only Jew in my group. It made almost no difference in the course of our studies. But when we received [mandatory] job assignments [13] it turned out that all other Kievites stayed in Kiev and my assignment was to the small Ukrainian town of Sumy. I didn't stay there long - there was no work for me, and I returned to Kiev.
In 1953 Stalin died. Mama and my stepfather were happy about it. They understood that it was a liberation from the terrible dictatorship of repression. I didn't have the slightest idea about what was going on and grieved sincerely after him.
In Saratov I studied at the girls' school #2 [11]. I had a good friend named Dina Chopova from Tallinn. We corresponded for several yeas after the war. There was also a Jewish girl from Kiev named Genia Terk. Many years later, in 1994-5, I met her in Kiev and we recognized each other. She lives in Israel now.
, Ukraine
There were many incidents in the streets. Boys were teasing me all the time. I remember one boy following me and throwing stones when I was going to see a friend of mine. At first I didn't understand what it was all about. Girls often teased me. They had a nickname for Jews - 'uze-uze'. Perhaps, this word combination was a slang in their language, but I know that it must have been something very abusive. I heard it often when I was on my way to the store. Or they called Jews 'zhydy' [kike]. It's interesting that I never heard anything regarding anti-Semitism from my parents.
In evacuation I faced real anti-Semitism. There were very few Jews in Saratov. The local people didn't know who we were. But they got interested when there were more and more people coming into evacuation. They believed that Jews were monsters with horns. Our window was on the ground level and people peered in to look at us. Later, when many more Jews arrived, they began to act hostile.
Uncle Aron sent his family away as soon as he got the opportunity. They had privileges as NKVD employees and their families left at the beginning of July. As my parents didn't know when they would be able to evacuate they sent me along with Aron's family. We went from Kiev to Kharkov on a truck. The organization where my father worked evacuated at the end of July. My father received a certificate that released him from his service in the army and went to Saratov with his organization. They went via Kharkov. In Kharkov they met with my uncle's family and took me with them. My uncle's family went to Chkalov/Orenburg and our family went to Saratov by train. We stayed there until we were able to return to Kiev.
This was on 22nd June 1941 [the beginning of the so-called Great Patriotic War] [8]. Papa was at the recreation center in Vorzel, a small town near Kiev. We were planning to go see him in the morning. In the morning there were bombings in Kiev. We didn't know anything for sure, but we still went to see my father. When we arrived they were all listening to the speech of Molotov [9]. I vomited on the bench from terrible fear. I understood that Papa would have to join the army and it horrified me. We felt far from taking a rest at the center.
In 1941 the war began and my grandparents decided that if Germans didn't do any harm to the Jews during WWI in 1914 it would be the same this time. Besides, my grandmother had a stroke and could hardly move. They stayed in Kiev. According to one of the stories that we heard as soon as the Red army left Kiev the janitor of the building broke into the apartment and threw them out of the window. Our neighbors buried them in our yard. When my father returned to Kiev in 1944 he reburied them at the Jewish corner of one of cemeteries in Kiev.
Upon graduation from the Kiev Institute of Public Economy my father worked as a lawyer at various Soviet offices including the metal sales headquarters. This sales office was responsible for metal supplies to various plants. My mother told me that in 1937-38 they were expecting every night that my father would be arrested. They understood but too well what was happening around and had no illusions. Fortunately, he wasn't arrested. In 1939 when the Soviet army was 'liberating' Western Ukraine my father was summoned to the army, but his service didn't last long - he returned in 1940. My father was a member of the Communist Party.
My mother finished grammar school in Berdichev. When the family moved to Kiev in the 1920s she entered the Department of Biology of Kiev State University. She earned her living giving classes in mathematics. She was very good at it. She was also fond of French. In the late 1920s Mama fell ill with tuberculosis. She had to quit her studies and work. She was severely ill but she survived. She had to quit her studies and work until her full recovery in the early 1930s. As soon as the doctors allowed her to have children I was born in Kiev on 30th July 1932.
, Ukraine
Mama got married for the second time in 1953. My stepfather Sergei Shmaria Gershevich Landau was a very interesting man. He came from the family of a Jewish millionaire from Mogilyov, who was a citizen of honor in town. Bolsheviks expropriated their fortune, but he and his older sister Revekka never regretted it and lived like any Soviet common clerk. He received a wonderful education before the Revolution. He studied in Germany and in Moscow, in the famous Gnesinyh School of Music. He had a higher education and was a very intelligent man. He knew French and German. He worked as a lawyer and also translated German fiction into Russian. He read a lot.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
Mama couldn't leave her work. She was chief accountant assistant at the metal supplies office Snabchermet. They supplied metal goods to enterprises and her boss didn't want to let her go. She was a good employee and he didn't have a replacement. She managed to return much later, in winter 1944-1945.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
I returned to Kiev in the summer of 1944 with the family of my uncle Aron. They returned from evacuation via Saratov and I was hurrying to be back before September to return to school in time.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
My father didn't manage to do any work in Kiev. He died in an accident in 1944. On the morning of 4th November 1941 he was walking to work past a building destroyed during the war and the cornice of one of them fell on him. He died. We buried him near our grandparents in one of the cemeteries in Kiev. We lived from hand-to-mouth from then on.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
Our apartment was occupied by some other people. Papa received another apartment with no comforts whatsoever. There was no power, no toilet or bathroom. It was an old brick house. This apartment was a part of another apartment. We only had a kitchen and a stove; that was all. Our old apartment had been robbed. There was only a wardrobe and a cupboard left. Our neighbors told us who had taken them. We created a big scandal when we took it away from another neighbor of ours. When we were taking back our possessions this neighbor was swearing and cursing at Papa. We failed to get our apartment back. It was occupied by a Hero of the Soviet Union.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
My father was summoned to come to Moscow and got an assignment to reestablish the metal sales headquarters and become its director.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
Kiev was liberated in 1944. When my father returned to Kiev in 1944 he reburied his parents in the Jewish section of one of the cemeteries in Kiev.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
My father worked as a secretary of the party unit at a big plant. When the bombings began he walked to the plant crossing the whole town. Mama and I were very concerned about him.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
My parents met two families that became their good friends in Saratov. One family lived on the street where we lived. My parents saw them every now and then. They didn't have much time for social meetings. They were working from morning till late evening. A working day for laborers was twelve hours and I don't remember how long clerks had to be at work. Anyway, my parents returned late in the evening.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
In Saratov I studied at the girls' school #2 [11]. I had a good friend named Dina Chopova from Tallinn. We corresponded for several yeas after the war. There was also a Jewish girl from Kiev named Genia Terk. Many years later, in 1994-5, I met her in Kiev and we recognized each other. She lives in Israel now. There were many evacuated children in my class. I remember very well how cordially they congratulated me on the liberation of Kiev. Only one girl, Bella, was born and lived in Saratov.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
It was my responsibility to go to the stores. It was far away. At times they didn't have any bread at all. I went to another store, but they didn't always give you bread for cards. I returned home with nothing at all. Sometimes they gave me dough instead of bread. We made flat bread from it. I remember sweets before the war. During the war I forgot the taste of candy or cookies. In 1944 my parents' acquaintance visited us and brought some candy, but I didn't even feel like having one. Mama brought some flower seed wastes from her workplace - it was used as food for cattle. During the day I used to bite on them when I was hungry. It made me feel less hungry.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
1941-1942 were hard years. I was constantly hungry during daytime. We only had breakfast and dinner after my parents came back from work. There was nothing to eat in-between. We had potatoes or cereals. There was little bread that we received in exchange for bread cards. We could also get some sugar for cards.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
In evacuation I faced real anti-Semitism. There were very few Jews in Saratov. The local people didn't know who we were. But they got interested when there were more and more people coming into evacuation. They believed that Jews were monsters with horns. Our window was on the ground level and people peered in to look at us. Later, when many more Jews arrived, they began to act hostile.
There were many incidents in the streets. Boys were teasing me all the time. I remember one boy following me and throwing stones when I was going to see a friend of mine. At first I didn't understand what it was all about. Girls often teased me. They had a nickname for Jews - 'uze-uze'. Perhaps, this word combination was a slang in their language, but I know that it must have been something very abusive. I heard it often when I was on my way to the store. Or they called Jews 'zhydy' [kike]. It's interesting that I never heard anything regarding anti-Semitism from my parents.
There were many incidents in the streets. Boys were teasing me all the time. I remember one boy following me and throwing stones when I was going to see a friend of mine. At first I didn't understand what it was all about. Girls often teased me. They had a nickname for Jews - 'uze-uze'. Perhaps, this word combination was a slang in their language, but I know that it must have been something very abusive. I heard it often when I was on my way to the store. Or they called Jews 'zhydy' [kike]. It's interesting that I never heard anything regarding anti-Semitism from my parents.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
During the first days upon our arrival we stayed in an office at the metal storage facility. It was a big facility. Each family got a plank bed. We ate and slept on these beds. There were many rats at that storage facility. At night rats stole the small quantities of food that we had with us to last for the trip. They even ate soap. We hung our food from the ceiling but it didn't help much. Since then I get panicky at the sight of rats. We lived for a month or two at the storage facility and then we were accommodated in the apartments. My family got a small room in the basement. The bigger part of it was occupied by the stove. We got along well with our host and hostess although they weren't very happy to let out one room of their house. But they felt sorry for us and were nice.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
Uncle Aron sent his family away as soon as he got the opportunity. They had privileges as NKVD employees and their families left at the beginning of July. As my parents didn't know when they would be able to evacuate they sent me along with Aron's family. We went from Kiev to Kharkov on a truck. The organization where my father worked evacuated at the end of July. My father received a certificate that released him from his service in the army and went to Saratov with his organization. They went via Kharkov. In Kharkov they met with my uncle's family and took me with them. My uncle's family went to Chkalov/Orenburg and our family went to Saratov by train. We stayed there until we were able to return to Kiev.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
I vomited on the bench from terrible fear. I understood that Papa would have to join the army and it horrified me. We felt far from taking a rest at the center. We returned to Kiev. Then the war routines began: air raids and windows barricaded with white tape. We watched battles in the air and listened to the radio. We were possessed by fear of war.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
I had nightmares about the Germans because people around were talking about it a lot - I was scared and imagined horrible things that might happen to all of us, Germans coming and me hiding under the table. I woke up in horror. That's why when the war began it was a catastrophe to me. This was on 22nd June 1941 [the beginning of the so-called Great Patriotic War] [8]. Papa was at the recreation center in Vorzel, a small town near Kiev. We were planning to go see him in the morning. In the morning there were bombings in Kiev. We didn't know anything for sure, but we still went to see my father. When we arrived they were all listening to the speech of Molotov [9].
,
During WW2
See text in interview