Then my father received a terrible little flat in the Victory Square, where we lived for 14 or 15 years. Our life was pure suffering there. There was no toilet even outside – only in the next yard.
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Displaying 35761 - 35790 of 50826 results
Maria Yakovlevna Komarovskaya
Father’s brother Leibl Komarovsky was killed at the front. Both of his sons Boris and Mark Komarovsky were killed as well.
Can be the same paragraph! Father’s brother Gersh Komarovsky stayed in Kiev as part of the antiaircraft defense troops. But he failed to retreat together with his troops and was killed in Kiev, in Babiy Yar. His family was in evacuation.
Can be the same paragraph! Father’s brother Gersh Komarovsky stayed in Kiev as part of the antiaircraft defense troops. But he failed to retreat together with his troops and was killed in Kiev, in Babiy Yar. His family was in evacuation.
Svetlana’s elder sister worked for the Germans, but was spying for the guerillas and helped them a lot.
One of my friends Fanya was killed in Babiy Yar – she and her mother did not evacuate in time. I also had a Russian friend – Svetlana Yershova, who stayed in Kiev during occupation. Svetlana’s elder sister worked for the Germans, but was spying for the guerillas and helped them a lot. Right before the liberation of Kiev she was arrested together with Svetlana and their mother. They were all shot in Babiy Yar.
The village elder told him he knew he was Jewish, but did not let him down.
In the last years of their lives my parents began to keep the traditions of the Jewish nation. They began to go to the synagogue and celebrate the main Jewish holidays.
When the war was over, we all returned to Kiev. When we came to Kiev we had no place to live in because our flat had burned. Our whole house burned down, only one part with another entrance was whole.
We all lived in a small room in a dormitory: my mother and me, the wife of my mother’s brother Shimon with two children, my mother’s sister Liza with her daughter and two mother’s cousins.
Then the husband of my mother’s sister found my father who was a commissary in an air college in Chkalovsk, not far from Orenburg, and he took us to live with him. Mother went to work at a telegraph. She did not work before the war, but there she learned and began to work at a telegraph.
In Chkalovsk I went to the 9th class. I went there in February, so I had to study a lot in order to catch up with my class because I had missed a lot. I was a good student. And I finished all 10 grades successfully. We had different students at our class: locals and evacuated. There were many Jews too. It is funny, but the local population never saw Jews before, so they were nice to us.
Our life was hard, just like everybody else’s life. We received bread for bread cards. We had to stand in lines since early morning, even night in order to get bread. I remember one time I stood in a line since very early morning, but the local women pushed me out of the line and I could not get my bread. They treated me like an enemy. But it was not caused by me being Jewish; I think they treated me like that only because I was not a local resident.
I finished school in evacuation and entered university. A branch of the Kharkov Institute of Railway Engineers had just opened there; the main office was in Tashkent at the time. In 1944 I went to Kharkov together with other students of that Institute because Kharkov was already free of the Germans. My parents remained in evacuation. My father was badly wounded during the war so he was an invalid.
Then the husband of my mother’s sister found my father who was a commissary in an air college in Chkalovsk, not far from Orenburg, and he took us to live with him. Mother went to work at a telegraph. She did not work before the war, but there she learned and began to work at a telegraph.
In Chkalovsk I went to the 9th class. I went there in February, so I had to study a lot in order to catch up with my class because I had missed a lot. I was a good student. And I finished all 10 grades successfully. We had different students at our class: locals and evacuated. There were many Jews too. It is funny, but the local population never saw Jews before, so they were nice to us.
Our life was hard, just like everybody else’s life. We received bread for bread cards. We had to stand in lines since early morning, even night in order to get bread. I remember one time I stood in a line since very early morning, but the local women pushed me out of the line and I could not get my bread. They treated me like an enemy. But it was not caused by me being Jewish; I think they treated me like that only because I was not a local resident.
I finished school in evacuation and entered university. A branch of the Kharkov Institute of Railway Engineers had just opened there; the main office was in Tashkent at the time. In 1944 I went to Kharkov together with other students of that Institute because Kharkov was already free of the Germans. My parents remained in evacuation. My father was badly wounded during the war so he was an invalid.
I had just finished 8 grades and was going to Oster to my grandparents. But on July 5 we went to evacuation. The husband of my mother’s sister took us to the train station and put on a train with the wives of his colleagues. At the train station we stood for another 5 days, during which my father was taken to the army. So, we traveled all over Ukraine. We went through Donbass and reached Uzlovaya station 200 km off Moscow. Then we were put on heated wagon and taken further on. There were many families in these wagons and all of them sat and slept on their bags and suitcases. When the train stopped we were afraid to get off it, so we just bought foods from the peasants who would come up to our train. We got off in the village of Podgornoye, Tambov region. My mother and I worked in a collective farm there.
Then, in autumn, we moved eastward on. The Germans were approaching, and we evacuated to Orenburg. Our far relatives lived there and we stayed with them for a few months.
Then, in autumn, we moved eastward on. The Germans were approaching, and we evacuated to Orenburg. Our far relatives lived there and we stayed with them for a few months.
,
1941
See text in interview
And a few hours later Molotov addressed the nation on the radio and said that the war had begun.
On June 22, 1941, Kiev was bombed at night. For some reason I did not sleep well that night and heard everything. But I thought it was military training. In those years all men were called up to the army for 2-3 months for training. In the morning, when we had our breakfast, our neighbor breakfasted with us because my mother invited him after his family had gone to the village for the summer. This neighbor was a Communist Party member. So, over breakfast some man came to this neighbor, whispered something into his ear – and the neighbor left immediately. We became anxious but did not link his leaving with the bombing. And a few hours later Molotov addressed the nation on the radio and said that the war had begun. Then we listened to the famous speech of Stalin, “Dear brothers and sisters, I turn to you, my friends…”.
He and all of his co-students were sent to the Finnish war.
,
1940
See text in interview
My father worked as a chief accountant at the printing shop of the People’s Commissariat of the Interior. It was considered a very prestigious job. When arrests began at the end of the 1930-s, my father was very afraid that he might be arrested. I remember he would come home sad from work, worried; he talked to my mother in whisper a lot but would not tell me anything. Many people around us were arrested; we even had a new term – “the enemy of the nation”. Fortunately, arrests did not touch our family. I only remember worrisome talk about somebody from our house who was arrested. It happened very often because our house was big and many people lived in our yard.
Only on the eve of the Second World War our life became a little better.
Our flat was small. It was on the first floor and had one room with high ceiling that was divided in half by a wooden wall. The entrance was from the yard. There was some kind of a small wooden tambour, so the entrance led through that tambour into the room. The tambour contained a small kitchen. At the end of the room was a small door with a small premise on the one end of which was a tap and on the other – toilet and bathroom. We washed in a big basin: just heated up water on a primus stove and washed. We heated the flat with the stove too. Behind the wall of our room was a drug store, and for some reason we had very unpleasant smells from it in our room sometimes.
Our flat was small. It was on the first floor and had one room with high ceiling that was divided in half by a wooden wall. The entrance was from the yard. There was some kind of a small wooden tambour, so the entrance led through that tambour into the room. The tambour contained a small kitchen. At the end of the room was a small door with a small premise on the one end of which was a tap and on the other – toilet and bathroom. We washed in a big basin: just heated up water on a primus stove and washed. We heated the flat with the stove too. Behind the wall of our room was a drug store, and for some reason we had very unpleasant smells from it in our room sometimes.
As I grew older, I understood that famine in Ukraine was due to the fact that all harvest was taken from peasants by force.
The very next year after I started to go to school, great famine began in Ukraine. My parents did their best to protect their children from starving. We did not have enough to eat, but we did not understand why. I remember that father got some food at his work. If he had a candy in his food “parcel” he kept it to give me. My elder brother Iosif also tried to treat me with any delicious stuff he could get. I loved my brother very much.. As I grew older, I understood that famine in Ukraine was due to the fact that all harvest was taken from peasants by force. But our life in general was so poor that we thought hunger and a lack of normal clothes was a normal thing in life, that it was how all people were supposed to live.
We all were Soviet children. I remember how I became a young pioneer, I even remember the words of the oath we took, “I, a young pioneer of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in front of my comrades give a solemn oath…” We wore pioneer ties of red. I was in charge of a pioneer unit in our class and organized different meetings. We sang songs at those meetings and I liked it. I could not become a member of Komsomol because the war broke out.
But I should say that people in those years refused to celebrate not only Jewish, but also Christian holidays. I can say so because even though I often visited my Russian friends, I never saw them celebrating any Christian holiday at home. All religions were forbidden then, that is why I saw neither matzo on the Jewish Passover nor cakes on the Christian Easter at my Russian friends’ houses.
I remember that we celebrated every Soviet holiday though – May 1, October Revolution Day, etc. These holidays were celebrated both at home and at school.
Our family was not religious. I don’t even remember ever celebrating any Jewish holidays at home. I remember that we celebrated every Soviet holiday though – May 1, October Revolution Day, etc. These holidays were celebrated both at home and at school. I don’t even remember ever having a matzo at home.
I went to school in Kiev in 1932. It was a regular Russian secondary school. Our teachers were Russian, Jewish, and Ukrainian. I studied there for three years and then I moved to another one, which was closer to my house. So, the head of that second school was a Jew by the name of Mikhail Solomonovich Kagan. And there were many Jewish teachers there: our class master Berta Markovna Ruzhinskaya and many others.
Students in our school were of different nationalities, but there were many Jews, maybe a half. We were all friends and nobody ever tried to find out who belongs to which nationality.
Students in our school were of different nationalities, but there were many Jews, maybe a half. We were all friends and nobody ever tried to find out who belongs to which nationality.
During the civil war, when Jewish pogroms took place in Kiev and Petlyura’s and Denikin’s gangs were around, my mother’s uncle was killed. I don’t know where my mother, her sisters and brothers were at that time.
Semen was a military man and a political leader. Prior to the war he was an officer, then he was sent to Western Ukraine when it was annexed. He has gone through the whole Second World War and after the war he served in the occupational troops in Germany for a long time.
My mother was the eldest child in the family. She was born in 1897, studied at a commercial school in Kiev, finished it in 1915 and taught, mostly gave private lessons. After she married my father, she did not work any more but looked after the house and children.
The origin of my mother’s maiden name is very interesting. Her maiden name was Bezprozvannaya.
I’m not sure who exactly – my mother’s grandfather or great-grandfather – was an orphan. This orphan boy ran around begging for money. He was found and sent to the soldiers at the age of 13 or 14. When he was asked about his last name, he always said he was Gendelevich. But the soldiers wanted to baptize him. And every time they would force him to be baptized he would pretend to get crazy. He would bite, kick and yell at the top of his lungs, “I am Gendelevich, I am Gendelevich!” But in his documents it was written that he was “bez prozvanya” – “without last name”, that’s where his last name “Bezprozvanny” came from. So, his children became Bezprozvannies as well – grandfather, mother and father, their sisters and brothers.
I’m not sure who exactly – my mother’s grandfather or great-grandfather – was an orphan. This orphan boy ran around begging for money. He was found and sent to the soldiers at the age of 13 or 14. When he was asked about his last name, he always said he was Gendelevich. But the soldiers wanted to baptize him. And every time they would force him to be baptized he would pretend to get crazy. He would bite, kick and yell at the top of his lungs, “I am Gendelevich, I am Gendelevich!” But in his documents it was written that he was “bez prozvanya” – “without last name”, that’s where his last name “Bezprozvanny” came from. So, his children became Bezprozvannies as well – grandfather, mother and father, their sisters and brothers.
I remember that in the morning grandmother would stand at the window and whisper a prayer in Yiddish.
With children, that is, with their grandchildren, they spoke Russian, but with each other they spoke Yiddish.
With children, that is, with their grandchildren, they spoke Russian, but with each other they spoke Yiddish.
I don’t remember whether any one of them attended the synagogue, but I am sure all of them celebrated all Jewish holidays.
Mother told me that grandparents were religious. Later, my parents moved out of Oster, and I came to visit my grandparents on vacation. I remember that in the morning grandmother would stand at the window and whisper a prayer in Yiddish.
With children, that is, with their grandchildren, they spoke Russian, but with each other they spoke Yiddish. I remember that there was a synagogue in Oster and mother said that grandparents went there on holidays.
Mother told me that grandparents were religious. Later, my parents moved out of Oster, and I came to visit my grandparents on vacation. I remember that in the morning grandmother would stand at the window and whisper a prayer in Yiddish.
With children, that is, with their grandchildren, they spoke Russian, but with each other they spoke Yiddish. I remember that there was a synagogue in Oster and mother said that grandparents went there on holidays.
None of the brothers had university education.
Leva, or Leibl, lived in Chernigov and was a simple worker at a plant. Gersh and Mitya lived in Kiev, but I don’t know what they did and where they worked.
Their sister Rebecca finished some courses immediately after the Revolution and became a junior school teacher.
Leva, or Leibl, lived in Chernigov and was a simple worker at a plant. Gersh and Mitya lived in Kiev, but I don’t know what they did and where they worked.
Their sister Rebecca finished some courses immediately after the Revolution and became a junior school teacher.
But the time was hard, he had two small children and had to provide for the family, so he had to quit studies and think of earning money.
After the civil war my father passed high school exams and entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute.