Our family had a more tolerant attitude to religion and Jewish traditions. I remember how we celebrated Pesach. I remember the major cleaning, the Pesach plates and dishes and certainly, matzah and other Jewish meals. I think that matzah came from the bakery. My aunt Revekka’s husband, Kusiel Abramovich Levin, was an Orthodox Jew. He even worked at the Jewish cemetery for some time. He took me to the synagogue a couple of times and I was present at the religious service. I liked it very much. My sisters and I loved to visit our uncle. Though not our blood relative, he was closer to us than our own aunt. He celebrated all holidays, observed Jewish traditions and all rituals. We saw him pray and we found it very interesting. My aunt’s family liked to receive us as guests very much. They did not have children of their own.
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Major events (political and historical)
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Holocaust
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Displaying 26791 - 26820 of 50826 results
Alexander Mussel
I was summoned on 21st June 1941. We were lectured about the international situation at the recruiting center. The lecturer told us that we had very good relations with Germany. The next day when I was preparing for exams at the Military College together with my friend, we heard that the war had begun. I went to my school and helped to evacuate the small kids. Later we were ordered to dig tank ditches in the Luga district. I was summoned to the military registration and enlistment office in July 1941 and assigned to the Antiaircraft College, though due to my sight problem, I suited the task even less than at the Military Medical Academy.
Our college was evacuated in August 1941. We didn’t even know where we were going. We were loaded onto the train along with the college equipment and departed. We found ourselves in Omsk [Siberia] where I stayed at that Military College until September 1942. After that our course graduated ahead of the study schedule – we were on an accelerated training program – and sent to the Caucasus. The Caucasus was cut off by attacking Germans. We got there through Siberia and Central Asia, crossed the Caspian Sea at night on a tanker. I served in the antiaircraft defense forces for the city of Baku [today Azerbaijan] until the end of the war. Baku was the main source of oil for our country. We were kept in constant alertness up to 9th May 1945 and were always on duty.
There were Jews at the college, in the army, in the antiaircraft defense forces; however, there was no big difference between the Jews and officers/representatives of other nationalities. Our relations were absolutely normal. There was no nationalism. Internationalism prevailed among our subordinates. Those who served were mostly people enlisted in the army in the Caucasus. They were Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians, Azeris, Armenians, and Georgians. There was no distinction. Though we did feel some hostility between the Armenians and the Azeris, they never displayed such dislike. There was a huge district in Baku, called Armenikend and there were more Armenians than in Nagorny Karabakh [disputed region of Azerbaijan, inhabited mainly by Armenians]. But there was no antagonism.
During the siege my mother, father and sisters were starving, of course. They told me how they ate cats and cooked joining cement. My sisters worked in military organizations as civilians and this saved them, because they received a certain ration [16] there. Father also received a ration as a factory worker though it was much smaller. They divided all food into equal parts. Mother had scurvy and lost almost all of her teeth – absolutely healthy teeth. She was cured only because Father managed to find meat somewhere. She was fed with chicken soup and got well.
They did not get evacuated because Dad worked at the factory named after Gorky, which was not subject to evacuation, so my parents had no one to evacuate with. They hoped that Leningrad would not be surrendered to the Germans. They continued to live in the communal apartment, in two our rooms.
They did not get evacuated because Dad worked at the factory named after Gorky, which was not subject to evacuation, so my parents had no one to evacuate with. They hoped that Leningrad would not be surrendered to the Germans. They continued to live in the communal apartment, in two our rooms.
After the war she worked at the Hydro-Meteorological Service for the Baltic Navy. Chasya worked at the Hydro-meteorological Observatory, while Liya was an employee of the Hydro-Meteorological Service. An observatory is a scientific-research institution, which specializes in producing systematic stellar and planetary observations, as well as experiment and theoretical investigations. Meteorological Service does not do any research. The Service is occupied only with telegraph transmission of data, received from the observatory, i.e. transmission of weather forecast data to airports, various enterprises, to the radio and television companies, etc., as per request. Liya worked as a radio operator all the time and worked for a very long time.
I entered the Military Academy after the war. I had a hard time graduating from the Academy in 1952. The Doctors’ Plot [18] as well as increasing anti-Semitism influenced both the assignment and the career. People of Jewish nationality were assigned regardless of their desires, capabilities and talents [19]. I, Kruchinetsky, Dlin and several other officers were assigned to an antiaircraft-missile range in Kapustin Yar, Astrakhanskaya region, into almost a dessert, a dry plain. Missiles were allowed to be tested only in low-populated areas. We did not even know where we had been assigned. When we came to the interview before departure, we were told that the location was ‘three to four hours from Moscow.’ We were not told that it was by plane. Such a cunning move. We didn’t have any choice though. I served in this wild plain for six years. I wanted to get transferred to Leningrad, but it was very difficult. I think that my nationality [20] was also a reason for this difficulty.
I met my wife to be, Anna Movshevna, at a railroad station in Sochi in 1953. I was on vacation in Sochi in the Caucasus. I wanted to send a parcel of fruit to my elder sister in Leningrad. I bumped into a woman at the station, my wife to be, and asked her to deliver my parcel. So this is how our acquaintance started. She left her address and we began to correspond. Later on we came to know each other closer. She turned out to be a Jewess. She really doesn’t look like one and I didn’t know at first that she was Jewish. Later I invited her to our military station, where I lived near the Kapustin Yar range. She stayed with me for some time, and when I came for a vacation to Leningrad we got married. We had Jewish meals at our wedding; however, we didn’t observe Jewish traditions at the wedding. Actually some of our elder relatives, who were present, knew Jewish traditions. We had no chuppah, we didn’t pray or invite a rabbi. Everything connected with religion was prohibited in the country since the Soviet regime had been established in 1917 [21].
Now my son Mikhail is married. His wife is Russian and they have two daughters. He didn’t become a religious Jew; however, he takes great interest in the history of the Jewish nation. His friends and schoolmates left for Israel and observe all Jewish traditions. They work there now, are very gifted programmers. They attend the synagogue, pray and celebrate all Jewish holidays. They also observe the kashrut and do not work on Sabbath.
I was an Oktyabrenok [22], a pioneer [23] and a member of the Young Communist League [24] from the age of 14. I became a member of the Communist Party after the YCL.
Until I visited Israel in 1990 I had no correct idea about it. Our propaganda gave us a one-side illustration of the state. When I visited the country and saw with my own eyes what kind of a state it was, my opinion changed significantly. My cousins, Moisey and Itskhak, invited me and I went to visit them. I have seen a lot thanks to them. We visited a lot of places; I have seen Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I visited a city where Muslims, Circassians live and I also saw Bedouins’ settlements. Those who practice Islam have all the rights of Israeli citizens and live in good conditions. They serve in the Israeli Army and protect the interests of the state. There is no antagonism with the population of Israel. Circassians and Bedouins have no antagonism with the Jews either. Quite the contrary, Bedouins express antagonism towards the Palestinians, since they do not agree with many of their actions and their way of living. Bedouins are cattle-breeders, a very hard-working nation. Seemingly both Jews and Arabs are Semites. There is no ‘biological’ racial foundation for hostility. Their relations are an issue of upbringing.
I remained a secular person; however, I take an interest in Jewish history. I have a connection with the Moscow Institute of Judaism; I receive literature from them and correspond with them. I am very much interested in the history of the Jewish nation as well as in the history of the Torah. So I study the history and celebrate holidays. I love the merry spring holiday of Pesach, the celebration of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. We do not arrange any special celebrations at home, but we have been attending the synagogue on these holidays for the last several years.
When Hesed [26] was established, we started to receive Jewish calendars with holiday dates. We like it very much, because it keeps one disciplined and reminds one when and what to do.
Galina Natarevich
I can remember quite well, that while my grandfather Iosif Lazarevich was alive, we couldn’t even allow the possibility of skipping those two seders during Pesach. This was like a law! Grandfather read the prayer, and all of us sat and waited until he finished, and the prayer was rather long. Nobody touched any food. In general we always had matzah. Grandmother used to bake it herself. It was a whole procedure. We started to make matzah only after the war. I also took part, rolling out the dough, making small holes with a special rolling-pin. We were helped by a housemaid, everybody participated. I always liked Pesach, it was all very solemn.
We had a very kind housemaid, a Russian woman named Zhenya. The neighbors also had a housemaid. They shared a small room in the kitchen. They helped around the house and took care of the children. It was a difficult situation with children, since after the war there were no baths, and Zhenya would go to banya [13] with me. Later her boyfriend returned from the army, and they got married and left.
We celebrated, as everyone around, the New Year Day, 7th November [14] and 1st May. We sometimes went to see Grandmother’s friend Raisa Abramоvna Font on these holidays.
Sometimes in summer I was sent to a pioneer camp, because it was not always possible to rent a summer cottage [15]. I had been to pioneer camps when I was a small girl. Certainly I was sent from VTO [the All-Russia Theatrical Society] to the camp for actors’ children. One summer Mom taught me to swim.
I have absolutely unforgettable memories of March 1953. It was on 5th March when Stalin died. And this very day is my mom’s birthday! Just imagine, what kind of atmosphere we had in our house: Grandfather was dead, Mom divorced my stepfather; Mom, Grandmother and I in those large rooms waiting, how things would turn out. Only women, the three of us, no support, no protection from anywhere. First of all, Mom was expecting that she would be dismissed from the theater, that she would lose her job, her piece of bread, as a Jew. Thank God, it didn’t happen.
I had no time for that, I spent all my spare time in the Kirovsky Theater. All the Jewish influence on me was exerted not only by my grandfather Iosif, but also by the family of our relative, Yakov Abramovich Tverskoy, who was the son of a provincial rabbi from Tver region, and who suffered because of it, because his father, the rabbi, was put in jail in 1922 or 1924, and when he wanted to protect his father and restore justice, they sent him to jail. That’s why Yakov Abramovich didn’t receive an education, but he strictly kept to Jewish traditions. He had some rare Jewish books, which I looked through at his home.
After leaving school I entered Mukhina Art School. First, the preparatory courses. Now this school is the Artistic and Industrial Academy named after Vera Ignatievna Mukhina. Before the revolution, it was Baron Stiglitz School. I was a student of the department ‘Interior and Equipment’ at the Textile Faculty there. I first entered the evening courses in 1962, and then switched over to the day-time studies. I graduated in 1968.
I married Arkadiy Mikhailovich Natarevich in 1967.
My husband is an artist, a member of the Union of Artists, and he is dealing with stained-glass windows.
Despite my son’s condition, I was able to give him a high school education, he actually studied by himself, I just saw him off to school and back. It was a school in Zvenigorodskaya Street, a school for deaf persons, but with a normal program. That is, the program was a little bit stretched out in time, but otherwise it was a usual high-school program. So I went to school with him for about four years.
I went to school in 1947. The school was in Proletarian Lane, nowadays Grafsky Lane. It is the city center, the corner of Rubinshtein Street and Proletarian Lane. The school exists until now, with a profound study of the Polish language. But it was an ordinary school back then, and we studied the English language. My favorite subject in school was History. We had an absolutely charming teacher called Galina Markovna Rekhter, whom we all loved and respected. In the last years we studied serious things, when the program was aimed at the new and most contemporary history. She was Jewish, a very clever woman, behaved herself perfectly and knew how to conduct the class. When I met her later, she always remembered us all, and always asked me about everybody.
Especially by 1953 because the spirit of anti-Semitism was literally in the air [11]. To say nothing of Mom, who was worrying that she would be dismissed from the theater, and on the whole, that they would take us all one day, put us in railway cars and exile us somewhere [12].
Sara’s sister, Rosalia Yankelevna Furmanovа, nee Reizl Shamesh, was born in Kharkov, too. She didn’t receive any education. She got married very early, at the age of 18 or 19. Her husband Furmanov was the son of a lishenets [lishenets – a man deprived of civil rights in the Soviet period before Stalin], a manufacturer in the past. His factory used to produce beds. He was arrested in 1936 after a denunciation, subjected to repressions and died in prison.
My paternal grandmother, Dinora Gdalievna Dombrovskaya, was born in Tomsk in Siberia in 1885, and died around 1960. She kept her maiden name after marriage. She came from a large family, she had many brothers. I don’t remember their names. After finishing grammar school at the age of 18, she entered the St. Petersburg Medical Institute and became a dentist. She had dentist’s equipment installed in her apartment, and she received patients there.
Leib Borisovich Zilber was an engineer. He left with his family to work in the city of Mariupol in Ukraine, where they stayed for a rather long period, and then returned to Petrograd. He died in Leningrad in 1941, at the beginning of blockade, at the age of 61.
My father, Boris Leibovich Zilber, was born in 1912 in Petrograd. His mother was a dentist, his father an engineer. He had problems with acquiring an education afterwards, because he was the son of intellectuals. [Editor’s note: In the times when Boris was trying to enter an institute, there existed an official quota for applicants: mainly they admitted the children of workers and peasants. Each applicant from the intellectuals’ family encountered obstacles if he wanted to enter a college. It was not about your nationality, it had to do with your social status.]
Because of his origin he could enter only three institutes in Leningrad: the Institute of Physical Culture, the Agricultural Institute and the Textiles Institute. He chose the Textiles Institute, when he was about 18. Kosygin was a student of the same institute in the same period. [A.N. Kosygin (1904-1980): a prominent Soviet public figure, from 1964 to 1997 – the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR] Grandfather was his classmate, they were in the same year and even had very close relations. Boris graduated from the Textiles Institute and worked at the ‘Red Thread’ factory. Boris was a dispatcher of the quality control department, though he wanted to do something different, but it was impossible.
Because of his origin he could enter only three institutes in Leningrad: the Institute of Physical Culture, the Agricultural Institute and the Textiles Institute. He chose the Textiles Institute, when he was about 18. Kosygin was a student of the same institute in the same period. [A.N. Kosygin (1904-1980): a prominent Soviet public figure, from 1964 to 1997 – the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR] Grandfather was his classmate, they were in the same year and even had very close relations. Boris graduated from the Textiles Institute and worked at the ‘Red Thread’ factory. Boris was a dispatcher of the quality control department, though he wanted to do something different, but it was impossible.
Then the war began in 1941, he went to the front as a volunteer and died in 1942. I never saw him. I don’t know very much of his love affair with Mom.