We were very happy when Israel was established in 1948, but we didn’t consider moving there. We believe that the Soviet Union is our Motherland and we shall stay here.
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Major events (political and historical)
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Holocaust
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Communism
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Displaying 37261 - 37290 of 50826 results
Sarra Shylman
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In 1949 I finished the Communications College and I felt a change in attitude toward Jews. My co-students stayed to work in Kiev while I received a job assignment [18] to Southern Sakhalin in 6000 km from home. [The Soviet Union acquired the Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin at the very end of World War II.] There were only few Jews in my group, but they managed to stay in Kiev: they involved their acquaintances to pull strings for them. I decided to fight and managed to receive a job assignment to the east of Ukraine, 400 km from Kiev, in the brick factory of Kharkov. I worked as construction materials production engineer. I rented a storeroom.
My situation was hard there; I had a poor place to live and at work we didn’t complete planned quantities. I fought for completion of plans for 7 months when new director came to the factory. His last name was Volk. He accused me of brick theft. Instead of helping me to clear it up he attacked me. I believe it happened because I was a Jew. I didn’t know what to do and wrote my parents in Kiev. My father went to the Ministry of Construction materials where he told them what happened and I got a transfer to the cement plant in Podol in Kiev.
Shortly after I returned to Kiev I met my future husband Chaim Shyfris, a Jew, at a party. It happened in 1950. A year later we got married. We lived in our apartment: my parents, I and Chaim. Olia was married and had moved to her husband, Michael. We didn’t have a Jewish wedding. Chaim was a Komsomol member and my father was a Communist and observation of any Jewish traditions was out of the question. We didn’t even celebrate Jewish holidays.
I remember the period of ‘doctors’ plot’ [20] when Mikhail was small. I heard how they accused saboteur doctors on the radio when I walked the streets. I knew many doctors in Kiev. Fortunately, none of them suffered during this period. On 5 March 1953 Stalin died. I didn’t associate the events of 1937 and the ‘doctors’ plot’ with Stalin’s name. His death was a big shock for me: we loved Stalin and believed him. We got to know the truth about the ‘doctors’ plot’ only after the 20th Congress of the Party in 1956 [21].
The cement plat where I was working was closed. I lost my job and my father’s acquaintance helped me to get a job of a lab assistant in the factory of musical instruments. I had a small salary, but I liked my job. There was a clasp in tape recorders. It had to be solid enough and my task was to inspect its solidity. I began to modify the process. I was a beauty and my chief fell in love with me. He arranged for my transfer to the quality assurance department. I was responsible for determining thickness of units and accuracy of turner work. But I was a production engineer with higher education and had to do such unqualified work! I felt hurt and I quit.
There was a Stroyindustria Design Institute in Kreschatik [main street in Kiev] and my father’s acquaintance helped me to get a job there. I worked as a production engineer for designing of brick factories in Kiev region. I often went on business trips and I got familiar with the process in no time and soon I was doing work on the level of chief engineer.
There was a Stroyindustria Design Institute in Kreschatik [main street in Kiev] and my father’s acquaintance helped me to get a job there. I worked as a production engineer for designing of brick factories in Kiev region. I often went on business trips and I got familiar with the process in no time and soon I was doing work on the level of chief engineer.
My husband’s cousin brother lived in the little town of Pyrnovo in 20 km from Kiev, on the Desna River and we took Mikhail there every summer 8 years in a row. I took vacation in June and then my husband took a vacation and we stayed with Mikhail there.
Once I returned from another business trip and got to know that my management had increased my salary and promoted me. The next day I was fired. Besides me, Luba Bencionova was fired. Her father-in-law Bencionov was chief modeler in Kiev. Chief engineer of the institute Sokolovski asked Bencionov to make a nice coat for his wife. That modeler was probably too busy and didn’t make a coat. They fired us both: Luba due to her father-in-law and me because I was a Jew. Some time before this chief of our estimation department offered me a job. I went to talk to him. There were about 20 employees in the room. He took my passport and began to read aloud ‘Shylman Surah-Leya Duvidovna’. I was still Surah by my passport. I changed my name to Sarra later. ‘Shylman Surah-Leya, you know, we have no vacancies left’. I turned my back to him and walked out, I was walking along the street crying. I changed my name in 1961 for convenience and simpler pronunciation.
My son Mikhail finished school in 1969. He always had excellent grades in all subjects, but it came to putting marks in school certificates they put him ‘4’s in Russian and Ukrainian. [the equivalent of ‘B’] They did it to not have to give him a gold medal. Mikhail knew that it was impossible for a Jew to enter a college in Kiev.
Since Mikhail finished the college with all excellent marks he had the right to choose his job assignment. He and Valia wanted to go to Siberia, but then they got an offer to go to Riga. [Latvia] We were so happy. They went to Riga and became superintendents at a furniture factory.
When in 1980s perestroika began [22] Chaim and I had a small hope for positive changes in our country and even if they take place after we die our granddaughter will live to see them. Of course, there are many hardships during this turning period, but I still believe that Ukraine will become a democratic, free and prosperous country.
Mikhail died when Evgenia was 15. She finished a music school well, then she finished a secondary school and entered the Faculty of Philology at the University. Se gave music lessons in a kindergarten when she was a student, then she gave English classes. She is very good at languages. Now she has a Master’s degree. She works at the Israeli Embassy in Riga.
My husband and I lived a happy life. We had many friends and we traveled a lot. Every summer we went to the seashore. We went to concerts and theaters. Our friends and colleagues visited us on holidays and birthdays.
When my husband was alive he and I often went to celebrate Jewish holidays in the Hesed. We attended the synagogue and a course on Torah studies that our rabbi’s wife conducted. We got together once a week at the synagogue. She read an article from the Torah and then we had discussions about it. We were not really religious with him: we didn’t celebrate Sabbath or follow kashrut, but we liked to be involved in observation of Jewish traditions. When I lost Chaim I had a sudden change in my heart: I began to believe in God. It’s difficult for me to go to the synagogue or Hesed alone. Hesed assists me with medication and food packages and I am grateful to them. I light candles every Saturday, celebrate Sabbath, pray, observe kashrut and fast at Yom Kippur. I do not forget to celebrate all holidays, however small celebrations they are, but it is my heart’s need.
Tsyliya Spivak
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My brother Irma volunteered to the front on the first days of the Great Patriotic War. His division lasted only few weeks suffering great casualties. Irma was one of the unfortunate: he was severely wounded and it resulted in gangrene. Irma went to hospital where doctors rescued his life and his leg. The only thing was that he became lame. In 1942 Irma was released from the hospital. He found us and joined us in Orsk. It was a happy reunion since we survived and sad at the same time when Irma heard about his father’s death. Seeing our routines and our living on the floor Irma went to the town executive committee and being a veteran of the war the managed to arrange for another accommodation for us. My mother and I got a lodging in a small room adjusting to another room three-bedroom apartment in 20, Komsomolskaya Street. There was an old woman living in this next room and an evacuated family from Stalingrad (present Volgograd, today Russia). Then Irma went to study. His college evacuated to Tashkent (today Uzbekistan) and Irma went there, too.
Minna, my stepsister, stayed in Leningrad. She became a flak gunner and stayed in Leningrad during the siege 16. Occasionally we received letters and cards from Minna, cheerful and optimistic. She never wrote about the horrible days of siege. Minna even managed to sent us money: 100 rubles. We received the last card from Minna on the New Year eve of 1943. My sister sent us greetings and wishes of victory. This was the last time we heard from Minna. Later an acquaintance of hers wrote us that on 8 August 1943 Minna got into the fiercest battle for Leningrad. A group of flak gunner girls came out of a theater at noon. Minna was one of them. Many perished. Minna lost her arm, her leg and was severely wounded in her stomach. She died a few hours after.
We were in evacuation until Chernigov was liberated in late 1943. My mother applied for obtaining permits for reevacuation, but we left home before we had any documents issued to us. Somehow we managed to make arrangements at the railway station to get on a train. My mother couldn’t even take her employment records book from her work since we were going almost illegally. I only had my school record book. Our trip lasted for a long time. We had to change trains in Moscow and we stayed there at the railway station for a few days.
Chernigov, my hometown, was in ruins. Fortunately, cathedrals and major historical monuments, were not destroyed. A bomb hit our house, however, and there were only iron bed frames sticking from ashes.
Chernigov, my hometown, was in ruins. Fortunately, cathedrals and major historical monuments, were not destroyed. A bomb hit our house, however, and there were only iron bed frames sticking from ashes.
About two months later aunt Sima, who went to work at the woolen yarn factory received a room in a three-bedroom communal apartment 17, and our whole big family went to live with her. So we lived removing mattresses and pillows from the floor in the morning making the room look different. At night we slept on the floor like we did in evacuation. Even a dinner table served as a bed for one of us. Then Sarrah and Alik moved out and aunt Zelda and her children followed them and there was more room.
I went to school and had all excellent marks, as usual. I became a pioneer in evacuation and now I joined Komsomol and took an active part in public activities. At one time I was chief of the Komsomol unit of our school. My mother went to work as a nurse in hospital. Since I was used to helping around in hospitals I went to my mother’s work almost every day after classes. I washed floors and helped patients.
In 1970 Irma and his family moved to Israel. He worked there many years longer and now he receives pension as an invalid of the Great Patriotic War. His son Mark lives in the USA.
In 1949 I finished 10 grades with a good certificate. I could go to any higher educational institution like Kiev University, for example, considering its high prestige, but I had to start work to earn money as soon as possible and this made me go to Chernigov 2-year Pedagogical College. Actually, I was fond of literature and wanted to become a teacher since childhood. I studied well. Firstly, I liked it, and secondly, I was stimulated to receive a stipend for advanced students [Editor’s note: students who had all excellent grades in the institutions of higher education were entitled to receive the so-called “Lenin’s stipend,” which was somewhat more than the regular one]. It was very important for our poor family. Besides, when I entered this college, my mother and I rented an apartment near the college so that Sima and her children felt more comfortable in their room. I studied during the period of state anti-Semitism, so called struggle against rootless cosmopolites 18. I didn’t face it, but many Jewish lecturers were fired from the college. I remember our lecturer on Marxism-Leninism asking for our notes to prove that he didn’t say anything seditious to his students. It didn’t help him: he was fired.
I chose Zagoryanovka village near Kherson hoping to be able to often go to Kherson. When I came to the regional department of education its chairman looked at me (and I was a thin short girl) and said: ‘I don’t think it’s worth for you, girl, to go to Zagoryanovka. It’s not the place a young girl would like to be at. I will send you to Tehinka. There is big construction there. They need teachers with diplomas and this place is better than Zagoryanovka’. So I went to Tehinka. They welcomed me warmly and showed me the school. I rented a room from nice Ukrainian people: Marusia and Kolia who liked me, too. The department of education paid my rental fees and gave me money for wood and kerosene. So I was a desirable tenant. Three weeks later my mother joined me. She lived with me ever since.
There was a kolkhoz 22 named after Kalinin 23 in Tehinka. It was a poor kolkhoz. Its members were paid with food coupons for work. Since I had a regular salary I also became a desirable fiancée. Young people proposed marriage to me, but my mother and I declined them joking about it. Teaching was easy for me. I taught in the 5th, 7th and 8th grades. The 8th grade was the first year of higher secondary school. They were the children who wanted to have a complete secondary education. They listened to me with attention and I was eager to inspire love to the Russian literature in them. As for the 5th grade those children didn’t bother to listen to me. Why did they need Russian? They were noisy and caused problems. Once I lost my temper and pushed one of those hooligans. I forced him out of his desk and pushed him out of the classroom. They began to respect me then: ‘Hey, she can fight!’ and were quiet at my lessons. After working for a year I got a transfer to Daryevka, a neighboring village, since a new doctor came to Tehinka and his wife who was a teacher, needed this vacancy. I didn’t mind since Daryevka was even bigger than Tehinka and there were more comforts there.
There was a kolkhoz 22 named after Kalinin 23 in Tehinka. It was a poor kolkhoz. Its members were paid with food coupons for work. Since I had a regular salary I also became a desirable fiancée. Young people proposed marriage to me, but my mother and I declined them joking about it. Teaching was easy for me. I taught in the 5th, 7th and 8th grades. The 8th grade was the first year of higher secondary school. They were the children who wanted to have a complete secondary education. They listened to me with attention and I was eager to inspire love to the Russian literature in them. As for the 5th grade those children didn’t bother to listen to me. Why did they need Russian? They were noisy and caused problems. Once I lost my temper and pushed one of those hooligans. I forced him out of his desk and pushed him out of the classroom. They began to respect me then: ‘Hey, she can fight!’ and were quiet at my lessons. After working for a year I got a transfer to Daryevka, a neighboring village, since a new doctor came to Tehinka and his wife who was a teacher, needed this vacancy. I didn’t mind since Daryevka was even bigger than Tehinka and there were more comforts there.
Naum Spivak was born in Kherson on 22 April 1925. His father Tsala Spivak was a really religious man. Although Naum was a Komsomol member, he used to go to the synagogue with his father before the war and knew Jewish customs, traditions and holidays well. However, Naum wasn’t religious and didn’t observe traditions, but he knew them.
Before evacuation Naum finished 8 grades at school and when back in Kherson he passed his exams for a higher secondary school extramurally. At the age of 16 he entered the Agronomist Faculty of the Agricultural College. After finishing it he went to work as chief agronomist in a kolkhoz and in 1952 he already was an agronomist of the agricultural department in Kherson.
I fell in love with him and we got married on 3 October 1952. Almost the whole village was invited to our wedding. It was a joyful wedding party. Many young people attended it.
Almost immediately after the wedding he was sent to support agriculture improvement following the decision of Khrushchev 25 to send specialists to villages. We went to Sadovo, a big village where I went to work at school.
This was a hard period of time: everybody was talking about the Kremlin ‘doctors’ plot’ 26. We were so worried about it and never believed one bit of the official propaganda. I need to mention that neither my husband nor I faced any of anti-Semitic demonstrations. Perhaps, this was because we were working in a village where people were nicer and more sincere.
Stalin’s death in 1953 was a shock for us. We were whining: how were we to live without him? My husband and many others submitted their applications to the Party. A year later my husband joined the Party.
I was very happy with my husband. He was an amazing person: kind, cheerful, very smart and an erudite. It seemed there was no existing subject of discussion that he couldn’t talk about and no questions he didn’t know answers to. My husband always had good positions and earned well. We had an interesting life going to the cinema, to theaters and spending vacations at resorts. I had everything I ever wanted. I was always in public as a teacher and later deputy director at school. I joined the Party and was secretary of the Party unit. I wouldn’t have made a career otherwise. I always dressed in trend and beautifully. Naum enjoyed buying me new things.
In the last years before perestroika 27 Naum worked at the machine building plant as an engineer, although he didn’t have an engineering education. When perestroika began he established a cooperative manufacturing construction materials. His cooperative was one of 15 other cooperatives at the plant that survived and developed into a successful company. I can say that perestroika gave my husband a full opportunity to reveal his talents and skills. Our life improved even more. We bought nice furniture and a dacha and supported our children even more.