We had a nanny and a housemaid. My father was rather wealthy.
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Displaying 37591 - 37620 of 50826 results
Yefim Volodarskiy
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They told me that during a pogrom made by Denikin [9], or Petlyura [10] gangs we took shelter in the basement. There were our acquaintances and neighbors there, too. My mother failed to hide and they ordered her to stand by the stove and kept shooting at the stove. She was brave and joked and snarled at them.
When my mother died, our housemaid, who was as quiet as a mouse when my mother was with us, stole everything valuable from the house.
Of course, my father needed a mistress in his house and he remarried shortly afterward. My stepmother’s name was Hava. She was younger than my father.
My stepmother died in evacuation. I think, it happened in 1943.
Our family was religious. My father was sure to celebrate Saturday, Pesach and all other holidays. They followed all religious rules. He went to the synagogue and I was carrying his tallit and the Torah. My father prayed and then we went home together. We asked our Ukrainian or Russian neighbor to light the lamps at home. We followed kosher rules and made matzah. Now the synagogue produces matzah, but at my time few Jewish families got together to make matzah. Almost all Jewish families cooked gefilte fish on Friday. I was told that it was the same before the revolution in 1917 [11]. Then Jewish families bribed the policeman giving him gefilte fish on Saturday. I don’t know why they wanted to bribe him. People always believed it was good to establish friendly relationships with authorities, just in case. He liked it very much. They also cooked chicken. At that time Jewish housewives bought living hens. We had a cage at home where we kept hens. Only this chicken was kosher. There was a special slaughterer since families were not allowed to slaughter themselves. The slaughterer slaughtered the chickens on Friday. Every family used to have a cage with chickens.
He was very talented. He studied in cheder and finished a Jewish school in Belaya Tserkov. At the age of 15 Matvey entered the affiliate of Kiev Polytechnic College in our town, but my father had to bribe director of this affiliate since they didn’t want to admit Matvey due to his young age.
Later Verlinskiy organized a theatrical studio in Belaya Tserkov, and advanced Jewish young people began to attend it. Verlinskiy also enticed my brother there. Matvey quit his college and began to work in this studio. Their employees earned little money since they were funded by sponsors. My brother earned five or ten rubles. It was a sufficient amount. It was possible to buy a piece of clothing and have some money left for cigarettes and food, for example, a bun cost 3 kopeck. Matvey spent day and night in this studio rehearsing and acting.
In the morning he sent me to the butcher to buy sausage cut offs. The name of this sausage maker was Novikov. You won’t find sausage like that anywhere today! I bought 100 grams sausage cut offs for my brother. I can still remember the smell of this sausage. There were no soy beans in it! There was a clock shop on the way to the sausage store and Matvey taught me to ask them what time it was. Matvey or I didn’t have watches. Only our father had one.
Some time in the late 1920s – early 1930s this theatrical studio was closed. There were Jewish theaters in Kharkov [500 km from Kiev] and Moscow and studio actors moved to these theaters. Matvey became a producer in the Kharkov Jewish theater. He knew Jewish culture and Hebrew very well from cheder. Later this theater moved to Kiev. My brother left the theater and began to lecture in the Kiev Theatrical College. Later the Academy of film producers opened in Kiev. The first admission was about 12 students. Matvey finished this academy and became a film producer. At first my brother worked as film producer the film studio in Kiev and later, before the great Patriotic war, he moved to Moscow to work at the ‘Mosfilm’ studio.
At first my brother worked as film producer the film studio in Kiev and later, before the great Patriotic war, he moved to Moscow to work at the ‘Mosfilm’ studio.
Matvey was recruited to the army during the Great Patriotic War. His commandment knew that he was a film producer and sent him to Chkalov [about 2000 km from Kiev, Russia] in the rear. Matvey became chief producer at the house of officers. His family joined him there.
After the Great Patriotic War my brother and his family returned to Moscow and Matvey continued his work at the ‘Mosfilm’ studio.
Matvey’s son took after his father: he finished school with excellent marks and entered the Faculty of Fine Art in Moscow University.
He was scientific secretary of the Tretiakov Art Gallery for a long time.
They were wealthy. My father’s father Leib Shul Volodarskiy owned a transportation office in Belaya Tserkov. He transported loads to and from the railway station, also furniture and other loads in town or took passengers to on business to nearby towns. My father inherited it after his father died.
My father’s family was religious.
During the Great Patriotic War [3] we lost track of her, and this is all I know about her life.
Her son Leibl Rudgaizer was a member of the Central Committee of the Zionist Party [Revisionist Zionism] [4], forbidden by authorities. He was probably born in 1902 – 1903. Leibl finished a Jewish school and took to politics. He was arrested for his Zionist membership in the 1920s and exiled to a camp in Siberia. They promised to release him if he refused from political struggle and Zionism, but Leibl didn’t accept this. He was imprisoned, but he preserved his ideas. After his term of sentence was over he was not allowed to return home and settled down in Siberia. Leibl was released in the early 1930s and was sickly and lame when he returned to Belaya Tserkov. He was still an underground member of the central committee of the Zionist Party of Russia!
Leibl got married and moved to Zhitomir [120 km from Kiev]. When the Great Patriotic War began he stayed in the town with his family and they all perished.
Nese’s second son Lulek Rudgaizer was a hardworking man like all bindyzhniki. He was also a Zionist, but a common one. Lulek may have been born around 1905. I don’t know where he studied, but he had some elementary education. I think, some time in the 1920s the Joint [5] arranged some Jewish school or employment and Lulek moved to Palestine in the 1920s. He joined a kibbutz. In his letters to relatives he wrote that they were developing the land pulling out stones! They had a hard life. There was no money paid in the kibbutz and Lulek wrote that he was already receiving two shirts per year. Later the kibbutz bought a horse and then Lulek was awfully proud that few years later his kibbutz managed to buy a tractor. He stayed in this kibbutz till the end of his life. He was a pensioner, but he couldn’t imagine life without work and Lulek became a shoemaker.
My father’s younger brother Horatsiy Volodarskiy finished a grammar school in Belaya Tserkov. He was considered to be the most talented one in the family. There was a 5% quota [6] for Jews to enter higher educational institutions and the Volodarskiy family decided to contribute money so that the smartest one got a higher education. So they exactly he studied. Horatsiy went to study in France in the 1920s and became an engineer.
Horatsiy went to study in France in the 1920s and became an engineer.
I know that at some time Horatsiy worked as an engineer at the ‘Bolshevik’ instrument-making plant in Kiev.
Arkadi Yurkovetski
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I went to Ukrainian lower secondary school in 1937. I spoke fluent Ukrainian. There were many Jewish children at school and in my class. There was no national segregation. There was no anti-Semitism in Tomashpol. I had Jewish and Ukrainian friends.
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Before WW2
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Grandfather Duvid-Ber Yurkovski died in 1938. He was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Tomashpol according to Jewish traditions. Many people came to his funeral. They respected and liked grandfather a lot. My father recited the Kaddish over my grandfather’s grave. In 1940 my mother’s father Shymshn Treistman died. He was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Tomashpol according to Jewish traditions.
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Before WW2
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Uncle Unchl’s three younger daughters were married and lived with their families in Moscow.
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Before WW2
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His wife Surka [short for Surah] and their older single daughters kept living in grandfather’s house.
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Before WW2
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In 1937 my father’s older brother Unchl died. He was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Tomashpol according to Jewish traditions.
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Before WW2
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Arrests that began in 1936 [16] had an impact on our family. In 1937 our father was arrested after somebody reported on him. He was kept in prison in Vinnitsa for two months. They wanted to know where our father kept gold. They came to search the house, but of course, they didn’t find anything. We were very poor. Our father was interrogated every day. They finally released him, but very few prisoners were blessed with such lucky ending. Many people disappeared for good. I don’t know what were the charges against them. People didn’t ask each other questions. We just noticed that some disappeared every now and then. They were arrested at night and then nobody saw them ever again. They were common folks and I believe they were innocent, but the new regime didn’t quite like them.
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Before WW2
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