In 1910, my father married my mother, Mira Yakovlevna Slutsker.
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Major events (political and historical)
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Displaying 7711 - 7740 of 50826 results
rachel rivkina
After Aunt Mussya graduated from a chemical technical school, she started working as a foreman in a chemical co-operative in Gomel [450km south-east of Minsk]; they produced violet ink.
She didn't get married. When my mother got married, Aunt Mussya had a fiancé, Meir, who was my father's younger brother. But according to Jewish laws, blood sisters can't marry blood brothers of another family. Therefore, she parted from him.
Simon Gonopolskiy
My father's father Israel Gonopolskiy was born in the late 1860s in the village of Petroverovka, Kherson province. I remember him well. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man. All men of our kinship were tall and had wide shoulders; people even said: the breed of Gonopolskiy. Grandfather Israel was a reserved and self-confident man. He wore traditional dark clothes: a black cap, a long jacket and boots. He had a big dark beard. My father told me that my grandfather was a farmer in Petroverovka. I don't think he owned a plot of land - I guess, he leased one. The family wasn't rich. There population in Petroverovka before World War I was Ukrainian and Jewish. There were no conflicts. My parents told me that during the Civil War [1], when various gangs [2] made pogroms [3], other villagers gave shelter in their cellars to the members of our family.
My grandmother was of average height, but she seemed tiny beside my grandfather. She always wore a long dark skirt and a kerchief - I don't ever remember her without a kerchief. She was a housewife and kept a kosher household.
By the late 1920s, when agricultural cooperatives [see collective farm] [4] were organized in villages, my grandfather and his wife moved to their children in Odessa. They settled down in Moldavanka [5]. I don't know what my grandfather did in Odessa. My grandparents had a room on the first floor with an entrance from the street - they lived separately from their children. There was no kitchen - just a kerosene stove in the corner by the front door. They only had the most necessary furniture: beds, a table and chairs.
Grandfather Israel was a religious man: he went to synagogue and prayed at home. He always celebrated Sabbath. I remember it well since we traditionally visited him at Sabbath. I remember very well how my grandfather put on his tallit and prayed shaking his head and bowing from time to time. There were candles burning. Grandmother Mariam made finely cut onions sprinkled with sunflower oil; with brown bread it was considered to be a specialty. When we visited them my grandmother used to give me 10 kopecks and I bought mint tablets in a pharmacy that I ate like candy. My grandfather and grandmother communicated in Yiddish, but spoke Ukrainian to me since I didn't know Yiddish. I remember that my father treated grandfather Israel with great respect.
My father Nusia Gonopolskiy was born in Petroverovka in 1901. He received elementary education.
My grandfather on my mother's side Simkha Weiser was born in Petroverovka in the 1860s. My grandmother and mother told me about him. My mother's family was wealthier than my father's. Grandfather Simkha was an intelligent man with education. He was a Talmud interpreter.
The name of my grandmother on my mother's side was Tsylia Weiser. I don't know her maiden name. She was born in Petroverovka in the late 1870s. She was a short and lively woman. She always wore a kerchief. They lived in a house with three rooms and a kitchen. I don't remember any details about the house or furniture. My grandparents kept a cow and poultry. There was a big orchard around the house.
My grandmother lived in Petroverovka until 1935. My mother and I spent the summer before I started school at my grandmother's home and when we were leaving we took her with us. I guess she followed the kashrut when living with us since I remember that she was selective with the food she ate. On Friday Grandmother Tsylia lit candles and, as I understand now, she went to the synagogue. Grandmother spoke Yiddish and I picked up some of the language.
My mother Rosa Weiser was born in Peroverovka in 1903. She was beautiful and had black and very expressive eyes. My mother finished Russian elementary school. She spoke fluent Russian and read a lot.
My mother's and my father's parents were neighbors and my parents knew each other since they were children. They had a traditional Jewish wedding in the late 1920s. The newly-weds moved to Odessa. They managed to find accommodation in the vicinity of Privoz market. My father went to work at the buttery. He was an operator of the pressing unit that pressed oil from sunflower seeds. My father was a hardworking employee and was respected by his management. He joined the Party. My mother was a housewife.
I remember when in 1933 my father came home and said that all communists were sent to villages to help collective farmers since they were having a hard time [The interviewee is referring to the time of the famine in Ukraine] [8]. He was explaining to my mother that it was necessary to take every effort to get good crops. He left and in some time my mother and I joined him in the village of Grossulovo, Odessa region. It was fall and we went by train - I remember this was my first trip by train.
My mother had potatoes and some other food with her. When we came to the house where my father was staying and my mother asked the mistress of the house whether she could cook dinner, the mistress of the house closed the door immediately so that her neighbors didn't notice that there was food cooked. My mother peeled some potatoes and the mistress of the house didn't allow her to throw away those peels. She explained that they could be utilized, too. I remember people swollen from starvation and I also remember that people were buried without coffins. That winter was full of hardships. People ate acacia flowers in spring. I was too small to know what position my father was holding, but I remember that people treated him with respect. In summer my mother fell ill and was taken to Odessa. I stayed with my father. I remember how we went to the slaughterhouse where my father asked for a piece of meat to cook for me. In the fall of 1934 after harvesting was over we returned to the town. I remember that my father's bosses were reluctant to let him go. He went back to work at the plant, but he got into an accident and injured a joint of his finger. He began to do some administrative work.
My mother had potatoes and some other food with her. When we came to the house where my father was staying and my mother asked the mistress of the house whether she could cook dinner, the mistress of the house closed the door immediately so that her neighbors didn't notice that there was food cooked. My mother peeled some potatoes and the mistress of the house didn't allow her to throw away those peels. She explained that they could be utilized, too. I remember people swollen from starvation and I also remember that people were buried without coffins. That winter was full of hardships. People ate acacia flowers in spring. I was too small to know what position my father was holding, but I remember that people treated him with respect. In summer my mother fell ill and was taken to Odessa. I stayed with my father. I remember how we went to the slaughterhouse where my father asked for a piece of meat to cook for me. In the fall of 1934 after harvesting was over we returned to the town. I remember that my father's bosses were reluctant to let him go. He went back to work at the plant, but he got into an accident and injured a joint of his finger. He began to do some administrative work.
I started school in 1936. I studied in a Ukrainian school. There were children of various nationalities at school. I remember that we didn't care about issues of nationality.
. I also attended a chess club at the housing department. I read a lot and was fond of science fiction and historical books. Later I became fond to meet with girls.
Boys got together to play football and the so-called 'mayalki' - pieces of fur with weight - hitting them up with a foot, at a spot behind Privoz market. There was an old Christian cemetery that was removed before the Great Patriotic War and the area was turned into a park. Winters were cold with lots of snow and we skated. We made skates from wooden bars that we tied to boots with a piece of cable. There was an asphalted street in our neighborhood - Ekaterininskaya Street. We used to jump on vehicles from behind to get a ride. There were few cars in the town. People rode coaches in summer and sleighs in winter.
Boys got together to play football and the so-called 'mayalki' - pieces of fur with weight - hitting them up with a foot, at a spot behind Privoz market. There was an old Christian cemetery that was removed before the Great Patriotic War and the area was turned into a park. Winters were cold with lots of snow and we skated. We made skates from wooden bars that we tied to boots with a piece of cable. There was an asphalted street in our neighborhood - Ekaterininskaya Street. We used to jump on vehicles from behind to get a ride. There were few cars in the town. People rode coaches in summer and sleighs in winter.
So at the beginning of the 1940s we lived in the same neighborhood, but in another apartment. We had the biggest room in a three-bedroom communal apartment. The windows faced the south and in summer we had shutters on the windows for protection from extremely strong sunshine. The room was modestly furnished: there was a wardrobe, a bookcase with books in Russian, my parents' bed and my folding bed. There was a sofa where our frequent guests, friends of my parents, slept sometimes. A young girl, our relative from Petroverovka, stayed in our room when she studied at university. We got along well with the Volkovs, our Russian neighbors. We lived just near Privoz [market]. There were Russian and Jewish traders. They often spoke Yiddish, but always argued in Russian. Our neighbor Manya was an irrefutable authority in our house. She watched that everything was in order in our yard and would even reprimand young housewives that got too carried away with a chat and forgot about making lunch for their husbands, or a newly-wed spouse coming home late. Nobody felt hurt for being told off.
Since my father was a communist, he didn't go to the synagogue and we didn't observe any Jewish traditions, although we always visited Grandmother Mariam and Grandfather Israel on holidays. I didn't take any interest in the names of these holidays and nobody explained any details to me. I only remember the festive atmosphere in my grandparents' house.
Of course, we celebrated Soviet holidays: I remember the mandatory parades on 1st May and October Revolution Day [10] to which my father took me. I remember the election campaign for the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. There was a meeting with many people involved where Khenkin, a Jew, candidate for the deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and a well-known loader in the port, made a speech.
We weren't wealthy. I remember my father and I went to buy 200 grams of 'tea time' sausage and it was a luxury. My mother made jam for winter. My father and I had sweet teeth and enjoyed eating this jam secretly when mother was at work. We had only necessary clothes, but clothes weren't of any importance at that time. In summer my father, mother and I used to go to the seashore in Arkadia or Luzanovka [town beaches] for a whole day. We took our Primus stove and food with us. I had holidays in pioneer camps at the seashore several times. It was a tradition there to make a fire in the evening, swim in the sea at night when the seawater phosphoresces and so does human skin. My first outings with girls were in the camp. We went hiking and worked in collective farm fields. I took part in all activities.
The events of 1937 [during the so-called Great Terror] [11] didn't impact our family directly. But I remember how my father came home and complained to my mother that he was forced to write a report on someone, but he had no intention to act against his conscience. Shortly afterwards my father changed his job: he went to work at a felt factory where he became a foreman.
On 23rd June 1941 - the second day of the war - we saw German planes for the first time. All defense facilities were involved: antiaircraft guns and floodlights, and we could see German planes in the crossing light of these floodlights. Germans began to bomb Odessa about a month after the war began. They dropped firebombs in quadrants with typical German pedantry. These bombs weighed about one kilogram, but there were so many of them. We, boys, watched the roofs and dropped firebombs onto stones. Those bombs caused many fires when falling on roofs.
When the threat of occupation became very definite people began to erect barricades. We, boys, also took part in it. Authorities began to give people clothes from storage facilities. My mother and I received a military uniform overcoat and boots. I remember a Cossack equestrian unit arriving at Sobornaya Square: an old man and a bunch of his relatives with weapons. They had very patriotic spirits, but there wasn't much they could contribute to the struggle: many of them perished fighting on their horses against tanks. People had high patriotic spirits: 17-year-old boys volunteered to the front. There weren't enough weapons and most often their first combat action ended in hospital at best. There was a military hospital in the town. We, boys, ran there to look at wounded patients.
My father was in a fighting battalion [12] that fought against German forces that landed in the rear. When the siege of Odessa began my father told my mother, 'Rosa, the situation is serious. I will join the army and you need to leave town'. All I know is that my father was in the Primorskaya army defending Odessa. Sometimes he came home by tram from the frontline. Trams commuted from Kulikovo Polie [a square near the railway station] to the frontline where my father's military unit was deployed. I remember him taking me to have a meal in their military canteen twice: we didn't have enough food at home. On 28th September we got tickets enabling us to board a ship. It was difficult to get to the port. My father took us there along with his sister Hanna and her son Ilia on a military truck. This took place at the beginning of October, two weeks before Soviet troops left Odessa. We never saw my father again. Later our neighbors said that he came to bring them bread several times.
I went to the 7th grade at school in Kustanai. It was housed in a two- storied building. There were representatives of various nationalities in my class: Russian, Kazakh and Ukrainian children. Many came from evacuated families. At the very beginning of my studies local boys decided to test my character. I had never been a brawler before, but when they called me a 'zhyd' [kike] I felt hurt. We didn't have bags and tied books together with a wire. I used this wire to fight with them and this solved the problem. They never teased me again. I finished the 7th grade at the age of 15. I was tall and broad-shouldered and went to work as an assistant worker at the woodworking facility.
When Odessa was liberated in April 1944 my mother wrote to the Volkovs, our neighbor tenants. They replied that we could return to our apartment. I was 17 and I was to be drafted to the army in one year's time. My mother said that when I was to be recruited she would go home to Odessa. I went to the military registry office to volunteer to the army. My mother left for Odessa. She returned to our apartment in Privoznaya Street. The Volkovs lived in the smaller room and my mother lived in the bigger passage room.
In the army I continued serving as an aviation mechanic in the same unit where I had worked as a civilian. I was young and suffered from hunger terribly. I remember how we marched to work at the butchery where we received a bowl of hot soup that appeased our hunger for a short while. In 1945 our military unit relocated to Novosibirsk. It was there that I got to know that the state of Israel was established in 1948. We had little information. But I was glad that at least any talks around me about Jews being poor fighters ceased.
During that time I joined the Communist Party - my faith in Stalin was still firm then. An order was issued stating that all officers that didn't have a higher education could receive it in the military unit. Evening schools for officers were opened. I obtained a permit to attend an evening school even though I was a master sergeant. I went to the 9th grade skipping the 8th grade. Pilots' wives were teachers in our school. Since I lived in a barrack I arranged a little spot for doing homework. I finished evening school in 1951. I demobilized in the rank of master sergeant in 1952.
I arrived in Odessa in 1952. My mother had a hard life. My father's pension was very small and she had to work to make a living. We were very poor. I wore my military coat for two years before I could buy a regular coat. I went to work at Kirov [13] machine tool plant. I learned several professions and was enrolled in one of the first crews of chisel workers that were known for their high qualifications. I got a raise of salary. In 1953 I entered the evening department at Leningrad Industrial Institute. I worked in shifts: one week I worked at daytime and then two weeks at night shift to be able to attend classes.
In 1952 the Doctors' Plot [14] agitated all Soviet people. I was an agitator during the election to the Supreme Soviet and many asked me whether this was true. I couldn't give an unambiguous answer. I couldn't believe this could be true and on the other hand I couldn't help believing. This was a shock. I didn't identify myself as a Jew when I was in the army, but at that period I began to feel it frequently and it hurt. I lacked information to come to the correct conclusion. We received uncorroborated information.