In 1936 we visited Aunt Mania in Berlin. She, her husband and children lived in the center of the city. We stayed in Berlin for about two weeks, but I was too young to remember any details of this trip. That same year I went to the preparatory class at the gymnasium where my brother Azriel also studied. Jews constituted about 30% of the total population of Kaunas, and there were several Jewish schools there: a Yiddish Jewish school, the technical Jewish gymnasium, the humanitarian gymnasium and a religious school. In my gymnasium the subjects were taught in Hebrew. Soon I started talking to my parents and my brother in Hebrew. I had Jewish friends. One of them, Zandel, was my classmate and so were the girls Tanur and Soloveichik. These were their last names; unfortunately, I don’t remember their first names. Regretfully, our communication didn’t last long. Zandel and Tanur perished during the occupation, and Soloveichik and her family were deported to Siberia. I don’t know what happened to her. I also played with other children of different nationalities, and we got along very well.
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Displaying 30481 - 30510 of 50826 results
Tobijas Jafetas
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I don’t remember my nanny. My governess was a nice lady from Austria. She spoke German to me, and this was the first language I learned. My parents spoke Russian and Yiddish to one another. My brother, who studied in the old Jewish gymnasium, spoke Hebrew to them, and I also learned it. I spent most of my time with the governess and my brother. Mama also often spent time with us. She took us to an ice-cream shop and to the Jewish children’s theater performances.
We celebrated Jewish holidays, though. As a rule, our relatives Mikhail and Alexandr and their families visited us on such occasions. On Yom Kippur my parents fasted, and, what is surprising, the children also followed the fasting, though it wasn’t mandatory for children to fast. I can hardly remember any fall holidays. I remember well that we had no sukkah. On Sukkoth we visited Uncle Mikhail. My uncle made a sukkah in his yard. I liked Chanukkah, like all children. The house smelled of potato pancakes and pies with jam filling, which were made in the kitchen. The children were given petty cash. I also remember Purim, the funny costumes and Purimspiels, organized in our house. The cook made hamantashen with poppy seeds and delicious rolls with raisins and nuts under my mother’s supervision. I have the best memories of Pesach. The house was thoroughly washed, cleaned and scrubbed before the holiday. There were fancy curtains hung and lace tablecloths put on tables. There was a big basket with matzah brought to the kitchen by a courier from the synagogue. Mama put on her fanciest dress, and helped us into lovely velvet suits with ribbons. There was delicious gefilte fish that Mama made herself, stew, chicken, and also salads and cakes on the table. There were also various tsimes dishes, yimberlakh and other traditional Jewish food on the table. Our daily meals were also delicious and plentiful, but there was no such variety as we had on Pesach. My father conducted the seder according to the rules and I, being the youngest child, asked him the four questions. Often my cousin brother Lev Frenkel and his father visited us. Lev was my best friend. We often played together. I also visited him, accompanied by my nanny.
My mother didn’t work. She had a cook and a housemaid to help her about the house. Mama made daily menus, supervised the cook, tried the dishes and added spices to them. Mama knew all culinary secrets of the Jewish cuisine, but we also had European dishes for our meals. My parents were not religious Jews, though they were both born into rabbis’ families. My father had a tallit, tefillin, Talmud and Torah. On big holidays he attended the big choral synagogue of Tallinn and took me with him, when I grew a little older. My father prayed at the synagogue. He knew Hebrew and also, he knew prayers by heart. However, Jewish traditions were not strictly observed in our house. On Saturday my father had to work, and therefore, on Friday we had no festive preparations for Sabbath like they had in other Jewish homes. My father only wore a kippah when he went to the synagogue. Mama had nice hairdos, and she didn’t wear a wig or a kerchief. Mama honored Saturday, wearing a white lace shawl and lighting candles in the silver candle stand. This was all we did for the Sabbath celebration. We didn’t follow the kashrut in our family. Though we didn’t eat pork and meat was bought in special kosher stores, I don’t remember that we had separate dishes or sinks for meat and dairy products. But since I never went to the kitchen, I cannot be quite sure about it.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
The furniture was plain, while in the other rooms it was luxurious. My father ordered it in Berlin. It was shipped in two freight cars to our town. It was made from mahogany, which was very popular at the time. The beds were huge and had beautiful lace curtains. There was also a four-door mirror wardrobe, full of my parents’ clothes. Mama also had her desk with a marble top in the bedroom. Mama did her housekeeping calculations, wrote letters and read books sitting at this desk. There were two huge handmade cupboards in the dining room. Mama told me that when they were delivered, they had to break the wall to take them in. When I was a child, I liked touching the carved cupboard doors ornamented with little birds, flowers and angels. They were made in the rococo style, popular at the start of the 20th century. There was also a smaller cupboard, a table and chairs and a big mirror made in this same fashion. There was a small round table with a silver candle stand on it in the corner of the room. Mama lit candles on Sabbath. In my father’s room there was his desk, bookcases and a floor clock where I liked to hide, when a child. There was the marble bust of Mercury, the God of Commerce, on a high narrow table, our only belonging that survived the Great Patriotic War. It decorates my living room now.
I had a beautiful childhood, and I would wish my grandchildren and great-grandchildren, if I’m lucky to live long enough to see them, to have a happy childhood. Our family was rather wealthy. My father owned two houses. We lived in one, and I can’t describe that other house. I don’t remember it, but I remember the one we lived in very well. It was a big stone house in the center of Kaunas. It had five rooms and a kitchen. There was a dining room, a living room and a big kitchen on the first floor. There was a beautiful wooden staircase to the second floor. There was also my father’s room, where we had to ask permission to come in, my parents’ bedroom and the children’s room that belonged to Azriel and me. I can’t remember our brother Fima. He died when I was just three, but I think he must have slept in this children’s room as well. There were two wooden beds with nice covers and a desk where Azriel liked to paint and draw. Azriel demonstrated amazing talents with regards to painting and drawing of houses and structures since he was a young child. There was also a bookstand with our children’s books and a wardrobe in this room.
In 1925 Mama gave birth to my older brother Azriel, named after my father’s father. In 1927 Yefim was born. He was called Fima in the family. At the age of six Fima caught a cold and died of pneumonia in 1933. I was born on 31st March 1930. My parents were thinking of giving me the double name of Tobijas-David after my mama’s brother, who disappeared during World War I, and after Mama’s father. However, the Lithuanian authorities refused to allow the double name, and I was registered as Tobijas. At home my family called me David or Dodik. My surname was registered in the Lithuanian way with the grammatical ending of ‘as’ [Lithuaniazation of names] [11], and I’ve lived my life with the surname of Jafetas.
My father became a dealer for British textile companies. Britain manufactured wonderful woolen fabrics, known all over the world, and exported them to Lithuania. My father was a wholesaler.
My mother didn’t work for some time after finishing the gymnasium. She went to Riga from Perm. In Riga she entered the university, but she didn’t study there long. Shortly afterward she met my father. They got married and moved to Berlin. I don’t know whether my father managed to take a part of his capital to Berlin, or whether my parents went there having nothing. One thing I know for sure is that in Berlin my father started his own business. Lithuania was devastated at that time. There were no essential goods or products being produced. Taking advantage of this situation, my father opened a small store in a little town near the German and Lithuanian border. My parents were doing well. At least I know that they managed to help their brothers and sisters. However, my parents, particularly Mama, missed their motherland. Since there was no threat of communist repressions, as Lithuania and Latvia became independent bourgeois countries, my parents moved to Kaunas in Lithuania in 1923.
Mama’s youngest sister Hilna, much loved by all brothers and sisters, was born in 1907. Hilna married Lazar Frenkel, a Jewish man from Kaunas. She gave birth to their son Lev, but she didn’t enjoy her family life. She died in 1933. Her husband never remarried. He hired a nanny for his son. This lady became Lev’s second mother. Lev and his father were prisoners in the Kaunas ghetto [10]. They perished during its liquidation. I know that Mother had another sister, but I can’t remember her name. She lived in Perm with Grandmother Genia and had two sons. One became an architect and artist, and the second one was a TV producer. They live in Perm, but I don’t know them.
Mama’s sister Masha, born in 1891, married Iosif Katinskas from Lithuania. Their daughter Anna was born in 1920. During the occupation Iosif, Masha and Anna stayed in Vilnius. Masha was hiding in her apartment and never left it throughout the occupation. Iosif took every effort to save his wife. Anna was a teacher in a distant village. They survived and supported me. A long period of my life is tied to this family. Masha and Iosif had me in their family after I lost my parents, and actually they replaced my parents. Masha died in the 1980s.
Mama’s older sister Rebekka, born in the 1880s, also lived in Perm. She was a pharmacist. There, in Perm Rebekka got married and adopted the surname of Veksler. Rebekka had two daughters: Sarra, the older one, and her family live in the USA. Frieda, the younger daughter, lives in Hannover, Germany. Rebekka died in Perm in 1969.
Naftoli, the youngest boy in the family, was born in 1905. He lived with his parents in Perm, finished the Oil College and lived in Tatarstan, Caucasus, Crimea, where oil was extracted. When Naftoli retired, he moved to Simferopol [Crimea, Ukraine, 1000 km from Kiev] where he died in the 1980s. He had three sons: Yudel, the oldest, born in 1935, moved to Israel with his family in the 1970s, and we lost contact with him. Iosif, born in the late 1930s, also became an oil specialist, a Doctor of Science. He lectured at Sverdlovsk Oil College. In the 1990s he, his wife and their daughter moved to the USA. Veniamin, the youngest, also an oil specialist, followed his brother. That’s all I know about him.
The next after Max was Mama’s brother Solomon Shustoff, born in the 1880s. He fought in the tsarist army during World War I. He was wounded and was captured. He was in captivity in Austria. In 1922 he was released and got married, but he had nothing to provide for the family. Solomon wrote to my mother in Berlin. My parents advised Solomon to move to the USA. They bought him tickets, and Solomon and his wife, whose name I can’t remember, moved to Chicago in the USA. Solomon worked as a laborer in a printing shop. In due time, he became the owner of a printing shop and a publishing house. Solomon had seven children, born in the USA. The two oldest sons fought in the US Army during World War II. One perished in Europe and the other one died in Japan. Two of Solomon’s younger sons still live in America. In total he has 62 descendants. He died in the 1970s.
David and Genia had many children. They got public and Jewish elementary education, but they didn’t grow up religiously. However, all of them, except my mother’s sister Masha, married Jews. My mother’s brother Tobijas Shustoff disappeared during the Civil War [9]. This is all I know about him; I was named after him. My mother’s oldest brother Max, born in 1880, and his wife lived in Vitebsk [Belarus, 250 km from Minsk]. He died before the Great Patriotic War. Max had two sons and two daughters. I have no information about his daughters. His older son, Tankhu, was a pilot during the Great Patriotic War. After the war he got married and lived in Vitebsk with two daughters. In the 1970s Tankhu and his family moved to Israel. Max’ younger son, Menia, finished a higher educational institution in Moscow and became an engineer. His wife and two children moved to the USA a long time ago.
My mother, Bertha Shustoff, was born in 1893, same year as my father. This Jewish surname appears in Jewish archives. According to some information, my ancestors lived in Lisbon in the 13th century. My mother’s parents, David and Genia Shustoff, born in the 1860s, came from the town of Visginas in Lithuania [130 km east of Vilnius]. My great-grandfather, David Doniakhi, grandmother Genia’s father –his name originates from the old Jewish name of Yakhi with the Spanish attachment of Don, which proves that my mother’s parents lived in Spain – was a rabbi. My grandfather, David Shustoff, studied religion under him. He became his best and favorite student and married Genia. When World War I began, the tsarist government deported Jewish residents from the near-the-front areas, seeing potential spies in them. David and Genia Shustoff were deported to Perm [2000 km from Moscow], where shortly after their arrival my grandfather became the rabbi of the town. When Lithuania gained independence [see Lithuanian independence] [8] in 1918, David’s family stayed in Russia. This was the time of World War I, and Perm was in the rear. It was cold and there was lack of food in the town. Grandfather David died of hunger in 1942. Grandmother Genia survived and lived ten years after the war.
My father finished cheder and went to the Jewish school. He was good at trading since his early years. He started selling pencils, notebooks and other stationery; helping his parents and following his older brother’s example. By 1918 he became a merchant of Guild I [6] which gave him the right to reside in capital towns. He lived in Moscow. In the late 1920s my father met my future mother in Riga or in Moscow. This was the gloomy period of the [Russian] Revolution [of 1917] [7], destruction and expropriation process, which resulted in poverty at best and at the worst it meant exile and death. Therefore, immediately after they got married – they didn’t have a traditional Jewish wedding considering the hardships of this time – my parents moved to Berlin in 1920.
My father’s sister Doba, the youngest daughter, studied at the Medical College in Moscow. When her father moved to Berlin, she followed him. She studied at the Berlin Medical University where she met her future husband. I don’t remember his name. In the early 1930s Doba and her husband moved to Palestine where they worked as doctors. Doba had no children. She passed away in the late 1980s.
My father’s sister Doba, the youngest daughter, studied at the Medical College in Moscow. When her father moved to Berlin, she followed him. She studied at the Berlin Medical University where she met her future husband. I don’t remember his name. In the early 1930s Doba and her husband moved to Palestine where they worked as doctors. Doba had no children. She passed away in the late 1980s.
I don’t know much about my father’s sisters. Two older sisters, whose names I can’t remember, lived in Riga where they perished during the occupation in 1941, as did their families and Grandmother Gita. Mania, five years younger than my father, lived in Raseiniai. In the 1920s, when my parents’ family lived in Berlin, my father’s companion Isaac Dinerman, a Jew from St. Petersburg, who was about ten days older than Mania, had become a widower some time before and had to raise his little daughter. My father introduced him to his sister and they got married shortly afterward. A year later their daughter Mary was born. They had a wonderful family and Mania was raising two daughters. When the persecution of Jews in fascist Germany became unbearable, Dinerman managed to move his family to London in 1937. Isaac was a wealthy man. He founded a company in London. Isaac Dinerman died in 1942. Mania inherited his company and became its successful leader. I don’t know what kind of business she was doing. I know that after the Great Patriotic war my aunt Mania was an active member of the Baltic Jewish Society, established by my father in London. She managed to obtain a license for charity food shipments to Lithuania and Latvia. This was the humanitarian part of her company’s activities. Mania died in the 1970s. Her daughter Mary also passed away. Mary’s children live in England.
Alexandr, or Alex, as he was called, born in 1913, was the youngest in the family. He also had a Jewish name; I think it was Zalman, since his family called him Zisia. Alexandr had elementary education. He also moved to Kaunas where he married the daughter of a sawmill owner. He worked at this sawmill. In 1941 Soviet authorities deported him and his wife Rosa to Siberia [see Deportations from the Baltics] [5]. I think it might have been a mistake. They might have been looking for my father, who lived abroad, and Alex suffered for having the same surname as my father. At least, there were no evident reasons to deport him: Alex’ family wasn’t a wealthy one. Alex’ wife died somewhere on the way. Alex spent over 17 years in exile in Irkutsk region. When he returned to Lithuania, there was none of his kin left there. He and Rosa had no children. He lived in Lithuania till 1973, celebrated his 60th anniversary there and left for Israel where he lived with his sister Doba. Alexandr died in 1988.
Azriel and Gita had three sons and four daughters. From what I know, all of the boys finished cheder and received a Jewish education. My father, Rafail Jafet, born in 1893, was the oldest son. The next son, who was given the Russian name [see Common name] [2] of Mikhail was born many years later, in 1906. There were the girls born in-between. Perhaps, Mikhail also had a Jewish name, but I know him by the name of Mikhail. He moved to Kaunas in 1923. In Kaunas Mikhail married Zina, a Jewish girl. They had two sons: Ariy, born in 1925, and Grigoriy, born in 1933. Mikhail owned a small store, which supported the family well. When the Soviet regime was established in 1940 [see Occupation of the Baltic Republics] [3], the shop was confiscated, and Mikhail found a job in the fire brigade. When the Great Patriotic War [4] began, the family evacuated. They went to Kazakhstan, and when Rostov region was liberated, they moved to Rybinsk. After the Great Patriotic War Mikhail, Zina and their younger son settled down in Riga. After the war Mikhail continued his work as a fire brigadier. He died in the early 1960s, while Aunt Zina lived almost 30 years longer. Ariy, the older son, was at the front. He was wounded in Lithuania in 1944. After the war Ariy moved to Moscow. He worked in the trade unions. He died in the 1980s. Grigoriy and his family moved to Germany in the 1980s. This is where he lives now.
My father’s family came from Raseiniai in Lithuania [180 km from Vilnius]. My paternal surname of Jafet originated in Raseiniai in the 17th century. My grandfather, Azriel Jafet, born in Raseiniai in the 1850s, was a rabbi. He died in 1920, long before I was born. All I know about my paternal grandmother, Gita Jafet, Azriel’s wife, is what my relatives told me about her. My father told me that his was a traditional Jewish family. All my grandfather Azriel did was reading the Torah and the Talmud, and he spent the rest of his time praying at the synagogue. Grandmother Gita took care of the house and the children. This was common for all religious Jewish families. My grandmother perished during the first German extermination action of Jews in Raseiniai in 1941. I don’t know where my grandmother’s grave is, but my grandfather Azriel’s grave is in the Jewish cemetery in Raseiniai.
, Lithuania
Mark Epstein
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Sometimes I take part in different events arranged by the Jewish community of St. Petersburg. Once I visited the new building of the Jewish Community Center in Raznichinnaya Street. Several years ago my wife and I received food packages for Jewish holidays. Firstly, it was a pleasure for us to receive them. Secondly, it was significant support for our family. This year I was invited to JCC before Pesach and received only matzot. Taking into account that I am not a young man and JCC is situated far away from my home (it takes one hour and a half to get there), this sort of attention (so to say!) causes a lot of raised eyebrows and disappointment. I can buy matzot in close propinquity to my house.
I often visit the Organization of Jews - War Veterans in Gatchinskaya Street. Sometimes I sing there.
I often visit the Organization of Jews - War Veterans in Gatchinskaya Street. Sometimes I sing there.
After Perestroika my life did not change, because I went on working at the same place and did not change the type of my activity. I am often invited to different schools where I deliver lectures about the war and blockade of Leningrad. It is necessary to say that usually children listen to me very attentively.
Most of our friends are Russian. They are good people.
War in Israel in 1967-1973 did not concern me.
I’ve never been to Israel. Relatives of my wife, some of my friends live there, but no relatives of mine.
I’ve never been to Israel. Relatives of my wife, some of my friends live there, but no relatives of mine.
I mentioned already that at the Palace of Pioneers my chief was in antagonism with me and evicted me out of my post without any reason. In difficult situations I always addressed the local Communist Party committee and they helped me immediately. I was an active member of the CPSU, accomplished their errands without mishap. For example, during many years I was a member of the regional election committee.
I worked in Tula, when I got to know about the Doctors’ Plot and persecution of Jews - doctors. I addressed a meeting and spoke in defence of them. Communists wanted to take away my party-membership card and expel me from the party. I had a hairbreadth escape.
I worked in Tula, when I got to know about the Doctors’ Plot and persecution of Jews - doctors. I addressed a meeting and spoke in defence of them. Communists wanted to take away my party-membership card and expel me from the party. I had a hairbreadth escape.
In 1950s I got to know that Stalin prepared deportation of all Jews somewhere very far from the European part of the country. I guess a lot of them could die on their way there [13]. But fortunately Stalin died in 1953.
Among my relatives there were some religious people. My father was also religious, but he was not fanatic. He attended a synagogue, celebrated Jewish holidays (especially Pesach). Mom was not religious. And I grew up an atheist. In the family of my wife they did not celebrate Jewish holidays.
At present I often visit the Jewish Community Center (the Organization of Jews - War Veterans), when they arrange different cultural events. Jewish traditions were a part of my life only while my parents were alive.
At present I often visit the Jewish Community Center (the Organization of Jews - War Veterans), when they arrange different cultural events. Jewish traditions were a part of my life only while my parents were alive.