My father left the home early. He took part in the civil war. He was making his own life. During the civil war he fought somewhere in the south of Ukraine.
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Displaying 35791 - 35820 of 50826 results
Maria Yakovlevna Komarovskaya
In city was not much Jewish family. In Oster there were Ukrainians living around. Living all much amicably. Besides Yiddish and Russian, Ukrainian often sounded at our home. The town was small – two or three central streets with stores and town buildings. Farther on there were typical Ukrainian village houses. [This were small wooden buildings, on 2 or 3 rooms, with the toilet on the street. Roof was it usually covered by straw. In the house was a stove, which sank firewood’s. Usually near by the house was a garden with fruits by trees and vegetable garden, where grew vegetables for its family. In the courtyard always was a pit, whence took water and small wooden building, for the piglet and fowl.
the grandfather owned a metalwork shop. He repaired various tools, such as ploughs and holdfasts for the peasants. I remember that the workshop was across from the house where grandfather lived, and I often ran to the workshop to see how he worked.
Grandfather and grandmother lived in a one-floor house for a long time. The house had four or five rooms. They occupied a half of the house. The second half was occupied by the doctor of Oster by the name of Vegeratsky. I remember that house well. I was born there. From the entrance led a big hallway, from which was an entrance to the doctor’s rooms (to the right) and on the left were two rooms where my grandparents and parents lived. My mother told me that there was a pear tree right outside the window and she was in bed after delivery, the pears dropped almost in the room. There was a stove to heat the house, but the toilet and water were outside the house. There was also a big outhouse with a garden. And then grandfather bought another house, or rather also half a house in the central street. That house had five rooms, two of which were immediately rented out, and three were occupied by our family. There was also a fruit garden outside the house.
In city was not much Jewish family. In Oster there were Ukrainians living around. Living all much amicably. Besides Yiddish and Russian, Ukrainian often sounded at our home.
My husband and I read Jewish papers, go to the Jewish charity “Khesed” center, and receive free meals and other kinds of help.
This synagogue is located in the territory of one of the Kiev plants, and the plant restituted it to the Jewish community.
I try to pass to my grandchildren those little things that I still have in my life – the love to the Jewish people, their history and traditions.
Now, in independent Ukraine, it became possible for every nation, including for the Jews, to identify themselves as a nation. There are Jewish religious communities in Ukraine, there are three synagogues in Kiev, one of which we attend. This synagogue is located in the territory of one of the Kiev plants, and the plant restituted it to the Jewish community. My husband and I read Jewish papers, go to the Jewish charity “Khesed” center, and receive free meals and other kinds of help. We try to note Jewish holidays, though, if speak honestly, do not know as this needed to do. Keep post in Yam Kippur, light candles on Chanukah. It is certainly a great pity that we are beginning to identify ourselves with the Jews so late, but it is probably a destiny typical to the Jews of my generation in this country.
Now, in independent Ukraine, it became possible for every nation, including for the Jews, to identify themselves as a nation. There are Jewish religious communities in Ukraine, there are three synagogues in Kiev, one of which we attend. This synagogue is located in the territory of one of the Kiev plants, and the plant restituted it to the Jewish community. My husband and I read Jewish papers, go to the Jewish charity “Khesed” center, and receive free meals and other kinds of help. We try to note Jewish holidays, though, if speak honestly, do not know as this needed to do. Keep post in Yam Kippur, light candles on Chanukah. It is certainly a great pity that we are beginning to identify ourselves with the Jews so late, but it is probably a destiny typical to the Jews of my generation in this country.
Now, in independent Ukraine, it became possible for every nation, including for the Jews, to identify themselves as a nation.
My younger daughter Yevgenia is more inclined to Russian and Ukrainian cultures; she has little Jewish in herself. To be honest, it seems sometimes that Jews irritate her. Her husband is Ukrainian and her children, my grandchildren, were baptized and are raised as Orthodox Christians.
Our elder daughter identified herself totally as a Jew. Her friends were Jewish and she married a Jew.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
At school she felt no biased attitude. But when she took entering exams to university, she saw that on the list of students, there were special checks against every Jewish name, and the teachers were not allowed to give good marks to the Jews. Margarita fell one point short and through some good connections she was taken to the evening department of the Construction Institute. Our younger daughter Yevgenia had the same story repeated – she was flunked by her teacher at the exam and went to Moscow to enter the Communications Institute to study by correspondence.
Our living conditions were poor. We lived in one room with parents, my husband and then my baby. Then we also hired a nanny because somebody had to watch the baby when we were gone. So, all these 6 people lived in one 15-meter room.
When we got married, we had no wedding ceremony. We simply went home and had a party.
I remember when emigration to Israel began, special open meetings were held in our institute to put to shame those who were going to Israel. One time I could be silent no more and told the meeting that such people were not traitors, but they simply wanted to leave with their families, which is their personal business. After that I was summoned to the Communist Party committee, even though I was not a party member, and was warned that if I ever repeat such statements, I would be fired from work.
Even though he was the main specialist near the time of his retirement, he often felt biased attitude to himself as a Jew. Thus, for many years we could not get a flat, even though he was the first in line for flat. Every time the authorities found an excuse to push him back in that line.
I was transferred to the Kiev Engineering Institute and graduated from it in 1949 majoring in industrial and civil construction After graduation from university I was sent to work at the Kiev Design Institute. I worked as an engineer and then as a chief engineer there. Then I moved to another research institute and worked there until retirement. The top of my career was the chief of the group – nothing higher. If I had not been Jewish, I would have certainly been promoted more. But then the authorities thought they should promote those who could change jobs. Since it was hard for the Jews to find a job, they never quit their existing jobs and thus were never promoted.
Rachil Lemberg
I cannot tell whether my family followed kashrut since I was too young and didn’t quite notice things of this kind. On Friday morning my mother baked bread for a week and two challot for Sabbath. She also cooked food for two days. There was always delicious gefilte fish on Sabbath. My mother also made chicken barkhes with kneydlakh and cholent that she cooked in the oven. We always had cholnt on the following day. My mother left it in the oven overnight and it kept warm until our meal on Saturday. On Friday evening my mother lit candles and prayed over them. We, children, were not taught to pray. My father was against it. He believed that since tie had changed and we lived during the Soviet regime that was against religion 8, we had to face this fact and accept it. My father said that Jews had to adjust and be no different from others. My father wasn’t religious at the tome when I knew him. He almost always worked on Saturday. Saturday became a day off only in the late 1960s. It was officially a working day before. Our parents spoke Russian and Yiddish to us. Both languages were native to me.
My mother went to the synagogue on all Jewish holidays. She put on her best silk dress and a silk shawl. On weekdays she wore a plain calico kerchief like many other Jewish and non-Jewish women in Ananiev.
My mother arranged celebration of all holidays at home. She did a general cleanup before Pesach and took down special crockery from the attic. She baked matzah and cooked traditional Jewish food for the holiday. My father didn’t conduct seder at Pesach. I don’t remember celebration of Jewish holidays in our family. I think we just had a fancy meal after my mother came home from the synagogue. At Yom Kippur my mother fasted 24 hours. Nobody else fasted in the family. I also remember Chanukkah. My mother lit another candle in a big bronze candle stand every day. Our relatives visited us and gave us some small change that we spent buying sweets.
I also remember my father brother Bencion’s wedding. He and Ida had a traditional Jewish wedding. My mother made me a new dress to wear to Bencion’s wedding. It was a rare occasion and I remember this event. I remember a chuppah and how a rabbi conducted the ceremony. Then there was a party and guests sang and danced. I also sang a children’s song. I liked singing. I had a good voice and a good pitch.
There were no national conflicts in Ananiev. At Easter our Christian neighbors brought us Easter bread and painted eggs. We gave them matzah and all children enjoyed nibbling at it. There was no anti-Semitism.
My sister and brothers studied at the Jewish 7-year school. I went to this same school in 1928. It was a common Soviet lower secondary school. We studied all subjects in Yiddish. I knew Yiddish since childhood. I studied well at school. I liked mathematic and physics. At school I was called Rusia and since then I was called with this affectionate name. I enjoyed studying at school. I attended a vocal club and took part in school concerts singing in a quartet. We sang folk songs in Yiddish and Russian. I became a young Octobrist 9 and then a pioneer at school. Our pioneer activities involved gathering of scrap metal and waste paper. There was competition between classes and those who gathered the biggest quantities gained the first place. Once a week we had political classes and pupils made reports about political events in the USSR and across the world. We were raised with the conviction that the USSR was the best country in the world and that Soviet children were the happiest in the world and that we owed this to our leaders Lenin 10 and Stalin. We were even taught to say ‘Granfather Lenin’ and ‘Granfather Stalin’. There were their portraits in each classroom and this was a mandatory attribute of our life.
In 1932-33 there was famine 11 in Ukraine. The situation was easier in towns while in villages people were dying of starvation. Our situation was very hard, but I don’t remember anyone to have starved to death. My father went to work in Russia where the situation was better and my mother had to support the family. She went to work in a diner and every day she brought her earnings home: a bowl of soup and half a loaf of bread for all of us. My mother also took a piglet to feed and then sell it. My mother was very upset about having to keep a pig. According to Jewish religion pigs are improper animals, but we had to survive. We didn’t eat pork, but when we sold the pig the money we got helped us a lot. Every now and then my father sent us some food or money. We somehow managed to live through this hard time and then life began to improve.
After I finished the 7th grade I went to the 8th grade of a Ukrainian secondary school. My brothers and sister also went to this school. Two of my classmates went to school with me and the others were concerned about their poor Ukrainian and didn’t continue their education. I did very well at school. I was number three in my class by the end of the 8th grade. In the 8th grade I joined Komsomol 12. I was very proud of it, though actually it didn’t change anything. All I remember about my Komsomol membership was mandatory attendance of dull meetings.
Arrests in 1937 13 had no impact on our family. At our political classes we were informed about political or military leaders who were arrested as enemies of the people. We believed what we were told and didn’t give it much thought. My father was a worker and so were other families that we knew. Those arrests did not involve common people.
I passed my entrance exams with all excellent marks and was admitted to the Faculty of Civil and Industrial Construction. I could live in a hostel. But my aunt Esther insisted that I lived with them. I studied well and took part in the amateur art club and choir. I had a few Jewish group mates, but we faced no prejudiced attitudes. I had Jewish and non-Jewish friends in college. I spent my winter and summer vacations with my parents in Ananiev.
On 20 June 1941, after passing my last exam I went to my parents in Ananiev. On 22 June 1941 we heard on the radio that WWII began. I remember Molotov’s speech 15. He spoke about perfidious attack of Germany. Stalin also spoke on the radio. Stalin said that we would win the war and I believed it.
My parents couldn’t leave my brother and it was impossible to evacuate him. Therefore, they stayed in the town, but they insisted that I evacuated with the family of their good Jewish acquaintance Lev Sheinberg. I allowed my father to convince me. I was sure that nothing bad would happen to them. I was so sure that the war was to be over soon that I didn’t even take my parents’ photographs with me. Lev Sheinberg was director of the mill where my father worked. They had known each other for years. I evacuated on a horse-driven carriage with his family: his wife Golda, three daughters and a niece and Clara Oreshnik, a teacher of history from the Jewish school, and her baby.
We obtained evacuation permits to go to Shap Kungurskiy, a distant village in the Ural mountains. We covered over 3000 km. Nobody ever heard the name of this village. We got on a train for cattle transportation to go on our way again. I cannot remember how long the trip took us, but it seemed very long to me. When we arrived we were accommodated in a local house. Its owner, whose husband and sons were at the front, was alone there. She gave us a big room with a Russian stove. There was no place to sleep. Lev had a big carpet that he took from home. We put it on the floor and slept on it. When we began to unpack I saw that my father packed my mother’s winter coat and our only down blanket. He probably presumed that they wouldn’t need them any longer.