In 1956 we moved to Paplaka in Latvia. It was a district town. There were an artillery and tank regiments near this town. They had a medical unit, a bakery and a bathtub. I served as chief of medical unit in the rank of a major. We stayed there for over a year.
- Traditions 11756
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- Education, school 8506
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Major events (political and historical)
4256
- Armenian genocide 2
- Doctor's Plot (1953) 178
- Soviet invasion of Poland 31
- Siege of Leningrad 86
- The Six Day War 4
- Yom Kippur War 2
- Ataturk's death 5
- Balkan Wars (1912-1913) 35
- First Soviet-Finnish War 37
- Occupation of Czechoslovakia 1938 83
- Invasion of France 9
- Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact 65
- Varlik Vergisi (Wealth Tax) 36
- First World War (1914-1918) 216
- Spanish flu (1918-1920) 14
- Latvian War of Independence (1918-1920) 4
- The Great Depression (1929-1933) 20
- Hitler comes to power (1933) 127
- 151 Hospital 1
- Fire of Thessaloniki (1917) 9
- Greek Civil War (1946-49) 12
- Thessaloniki International Trade Fair 5
- Annexation of Bukovina to Romania (1918) 7
- Annexation of Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union (1940) 19
- The German invasion of Poland (1939) 94
- Kishinev Pogrom (1903) 7
- Romanian Annexation of Bessarabia (1918) 25
- Returning of the Hungarian rule in Transylvania (1940-1944) 43
- Soviet Occupation of Bessarabia (1940) 59
- Second Vienna Dictate 27
- Estonian war of independence 3
- Warsaw Uprising 2
- Soviet occupation of the Balitc states (1940) 147
- Austrian Civil War (1934) 9
- Anschluss (1938) 71
- Collapse of Habsburg empire 3
- Dollfuß Regime 3
- Emigration to Vienna before WWII 36
- Kolkhoz 131
- KuK - Königlich und Kaiserlich 40
- Mineriade 1
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- Waldheim affair 5
- Trianon Peace Treaty 12
- NEP 56
- Russian Revolution 351
- Ukrainian Famine 199
- The Great Terror 283
- Perestroika 233
- 22nd June 1941 468
- Molotov's radio speech 115
- Victory Day 147
- Stalin's death 365
- Khrushchev's speech at 20th Congress 148
- KGB 62
- NKVD 153
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- Józef Pilsudski (until 1935) 33
- 1956 revolution 84
- Prague Spring (1968) 73
- 1989 change of regime 174
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Holocaust
9685
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- Ghetto 1183
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- Yellow star house 72
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- Danube bank shots 6
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- Warsaw Uprising (1944) 23
- Helpers 521
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Communism
4468
- Life in the Soviet Union/under Communism (in general) 2592
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- Prison/Forced labor under communist/socialist rule 449
- Lack or violation of human and citizen rights 483
- Life after the change of the regime (1989) 493
- Israel / Palestine 2190
- Zionism 847
- Jewish Organizations 1200
Displaying 49201 - 49230 of 50826 results
Boris Molodetski
I think glory to Khrushchev 22 that he was brave enough to speak the truth about Stalin on the 20th Congress 23. Khrushchev had many imperfections. He was a voluntary and made a mistake with his corn ideas: I saw corn fields in Latvia when I served there: the plants were maximum half meter high. [During Khrushchev’s rule corn was widely grown in the USSR without consideration of climatic specifics of regions]. In the early 1960s I read ‘One day of Ivan Denisovich’ by Solzhenitsyn 24. It made a big impression on me.
At the age of 6 my son fell ill with asthma and I requested a transfer to Belgorod-Dnestrovsk town in Odessa military regiment in 1958. They reduced me in the rank, though. In 1962 I was appointed senior doctor of the regiment. The Party organizer of our regiment exhausted me with his talks that I should join the Party. I saw how shaky a position of Jews in the army was. The policy was to put no obstacles to resignations and to not promote. Deputy political officer Frolov used to tell me that I had to be the best being Jewish or they would pick on me if they got a chance. I understood that if I didn’t demonstrate my loyalty to the party they would force me to quit, but I had two children to think about. Chief of headquarters and commander of the regiment gave me their recommendations and three months later I was elected a Party organizer of the headquarters. I had 48 party members under my supervision.
In Belgorod-Dnestrovsk our children studied well at school and had many friends. They didn’t face any anti-Semitism. In their birth certificates in the line item ‘birth origin’ Russian was written.
In 1969 Grisha finished school. He tried to enter the Law Faculty in Odessa University twice. They required some work experience for admission to this Faculty and preference was given to young militiamen. After working in a social insurance department for a year Grisha managed to enter an evening department. I insisted that he went to work. Grisha worked as polisher/joiner in Prodmash plant. He worked night and shifts sometimes, but this helped him to become mature. Upon graduation from University Grisha worked as a lawyer at the Centrolit plant. He was in conflict with his boss (who was a Jew). He mistreated Grisha and didn’t give him an opportunity for promotions and provoked minor conflicts. Grisha quit his job and went to work as a legal consultant in the construction department of Odessa military regiment.
Zoya studied in the 9th and 10th grades in school #100 that I had finished. She finished school in 1970 and for 3 years in a row she tried to enter the Faculty of Foreign languages where there was always high competition. Having lost her hope to study there, that same year she married Albert Shenkerman who was born in 1941. He was a foreman at the medical equipment plant. In 1974 their son Misha was born. They divorced. My daughter worked at the library of the Medical College. She was manager of a professor’s department. Her salary was small and Zoya had to earn additionally. She decided to learn a profession of medical nurse. She entered a medical school in Odessa. After finishing it she studied in an acupuncture academy in Moscow where she received a diploma. She made massages very well and earned her living doing this work. Wealthy clients paid her $5-6 for one massage at home.
In 1994 her son Misha moved to Israel at the invitation of coach of the Israel handball team. Now he is a professional sportsman and plays in the team of Israel. In 1996 Zoya followed her son. They live in Nes Ziyon near Tel Aviv. She passed exams and got a massage license. Now she is learning cosmetic massage and children’s massage. I have positive attitudes toward Israel. The people of Israel built a prosperous country in a deserted area. I’ve visited in 1999 my daughter and I know what I am saying. I stayed there for two months.
In the 1970-80s I gradually began to develop a critical attitude toward life and rules in our country. I was interested in politics and subscribed to at least 10 newspapers and magazines reading and analyzing and situation. I understood that this wasn’t a socialist system, but a dictatorship of the ruling Party clique. In 1977 my wife and I visited aunt Minna in America and I saw how much worse our life was.
Every year my wife and I spent vacations hitchhiking. In 1980-83 we went on horse riding trips to the Altay mountains. We traveled to Bashkiria, Georgia, Subcarpathia, Yerevan and Petersburg. We bought tours to Czechoslovakia, Germany and Poland.
Gorbachev’s 25 perestroika 26, in my opinion was a high-minded effort with wrong tools. Gorbachev was too weak and started reforms without appropriate persistency or giving a thought to peculiarities of the people. Perestroika was a progressive process, but it had to be implemented with different methods and more resolutely.
I am not religious and do not observe any Jewish traditions or holidays. I think that when former Soviet citizens demonstratively observe Jewish or Christian traditions, they are not sincere. However, I respect charity efforts of Jewish organizations. In 1998 one of my acquaintances who worked as a volunteer in Gmilus Hesed advised me to ask for their assistance. I did and they offered me aid at home. A social worker helps me to do my apartment. This assistance is very important to me considering my health condition. Besides, I receive food packages once per month. They deliver it to my home. There is a cultural center in the Gmilus Hesed where I read lectures about soviet poetry.
Alexandr Nepomniaschy
Elizabeth and her husband got a job assignment in Odessa. They lived there before the war working at the department of commerce. In 1938 their son Yury was born.
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Before WW2
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Elizabeth entered Department of Economy at the Novgorod Institute of Commerce after finishing school. She met there a Russian young man Pavel Liapunov and they got married. My parents welcomed their marriage regardless of their religious convictions. It was a common idea after the revolution that there should be no nationalities in the new world free from rich people and that we were all Soviet people. My sisters didn’t have any wedding parties. They had civil ceremonies to register their marriage.
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Before WW2
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Tsylia married Aron Grossman and moved to Leningrad with him.
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Before WW2
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After finishing this College I got a job at the Kirovograd agricultural machine building plant. I was 19 years old then. My father went to Petersburg looking for a job. He wrote that it was an interesting and beautiful town.
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Before WW2
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I also became a Komsomol member at College.
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Before WW2
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I got the profession of a turner.
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Before WW2
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After finishing school at 16 I entered the Jewish College in 1926. Besides academic subjects we also studied profession. Teaching was in Yiddish.
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Before WW2
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They convinced me at school that there was no God and that religion was vestige of the past.
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Before WW2
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At home we lived our routinely life celebrating Jewish holidays, going to the synagogue and celebrating birthdays. However, I didn’t observe Jewish traditions any more.
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Before WW2
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Beside cheder I and my sisters, went to a Ukrainian lower secondary school. I became a pioneer at school – we were called young Leninists. I was doing well at school. There were children of various nationalities at school, but I didn’t know any difference between a Jew and non-Jew then. We were friends, played football, went tobogganing in winter and swimming in the river in summer. There was no national segregation.
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Before WW2
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I went to the cheder when I was 8. Cheder was only for boys and my sisters didn’t go there. Our teacher was teaching us to read and write in Yiddish and Hebrew. We studied arithmetic and knew our prayers by heart. When I reached 13 I had Barmitsva at the synagogue. I read my prayer by heart. I don’t remember the whole ritual, but I remember feeling myself very mature after it was over. I believe it was for the ceremony that my father gave me his thales and tfillin, but at that time it was a mere formality for me and I never put them on afterward.
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Before WW2
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We rented an apartment in the center of Kirovograd. My father worked as a blacksmith.
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Before WW2
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In 1918 there were Jewish pogroms[1] in the town. The gangs of Ataman Grigoriev attacked the town most often. My father had weapons and could fight well. When the gangs of Grigoriev were in town he defended our family and other Jewish families that were hiding in our house. When the bandits were trying to break into the house my father started shooting and the bandits went away, saying that those should not have been Jews if they were shooting. They killed many Jews in the synagogue. After this pogrom my father decided to leave this town. He realized that the bandits would be back to the house where they faced resistance. My father’s brother Leib, Lyova, lived in Elisavetgrad. My father took his family there in 1918 leaving their belongings in the house. There were no pogroms in bigger towns. Bandits attacked smaller towns where they found no rebuff.
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Before WW2
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The revolution of 1917 was appreciated by the population of the town. They trusted the promises of the new power about a better life for the working people.
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Before WW2
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On Friday morning the housemaids (non-Jewish) cooked Saturday dinner and meals for the following day. It wasn’t allowed to start a fire on Saturday to heat the meal; so, they made a dish with meat, potatoes and beans in a big ceramic pot to leave it in the stove overnight. It stayed warm until the following day. White halas were mandatory for Sabbath dinner. The dough was getting ripe in a big oak tub from morning, and the baking was done in the evening. They were still hot when they were served. They were supposed to be broken rather than cut. At Pesach the house was to be thoroughly cleaned. They were sweeping and burning pieces of bread and bread crumbs. The Easter dishes were taken down from the attic – Pesach was the only time when we were using it. We brought big bags of matsa from the synagogue. We had no bread in the house during these days. My mother and housemaids were cooking all traditional Pesach dishes: chicken broth and stuffed fish. I always helped them to crush matsa in a big copper mortar. It was sifted and then they made sponge cakes and cookies from this flour. At Hanukkah we, kids, always got the Hanukkeh gelt. I also remember the Purim holiday. There were always performances of Purimshpil in the town. There was a stage installed in the middle of the town and actors came from Elisavetgrad – it was all so interesting. My mother always made delicious triangle little pies with poppy seeds at Purim – gomentashy. They had a funny name – Aman’s ears. When I was small I couldn’t understand why such an evil creature would have such delicious ears.
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Before WW2
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When I grew older my parents began to take me to the synagogue with them. I had a black suit with long trousers tailored for me and I was very proud of it. We celebrated Sabbath and all Jewish holidays.
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Before WW2
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My father was a tall, strong and broad-shouldered man. He looked very handsome to me when he put on his black jacket and his black wide-brimmed hat to go to the synagogue. My mother had two fancy gowns to wear them to the synagogue. She wore the black woolen gown in winter and the black silk one in summer. My mother covered her head with a black lace shawl before leaving home.
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Before WW2
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My parents were religious people. Each Saturday my father and mother went to the synagogue.
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Before WW2
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Approximately two thirds of the population was Jewish. Dmitrovka and a few neighboring towns were built as Jewish colonies in XVIII century. During the reign of Elizabeth II the population was Jewish. The Jewish families that were willing to move received allowances from the treasury to start their life in the colony anew. Each family received a house and a plot of land. Each town had one or two synagogues, cheder and a hospital. Gradually representatives of other nationalities were joining the Jewish population of the towns. However, the Jews were prevailing. There was a synagogue in Dmitrovka. Around the middle of the XIX century a Christian church was built in the central street of the town. There was a market near the central square where the local people were selling their products. My mother rarely went to the market – it was the responsibility of the housemaids. Besides, my father often received food products as payment for his work. My mother sometimes went to the market taking me with her to help her carry her bags. I remember the long rows of stands made from planks. The stands were always washed and the planks were almost white. Elisavetgrad was a southern town and there were lots of products at the market. I was always happy to go to the market, because I enjoyed the bright colors of vegetables and fruit. Each vendor had his or her own customers. I remember the poultry row where they were only selling live chicken. These hens had their legs tied and were all in big baskets. Sometimes they started flapping their wings. I knew that after someone bought them they took them to the shoihet to have the chicken slaughtered. I felt sorry for them and each time had a hope that at least one of the hens would manage to fly away. I even remember the local chicken breed – they were of bright colors, especially roosters. The hens were red and there were dark-blue, green and black feathers in their tails. I also remember vendors selling pieces of butter wrapped in big cabbage leaves. There were drops of water on green leaves and the little rainbows were playing in them. I have never forgotten those reminiscences from my childhood.
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Before WW2
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