On 2 June 1941 all the Jews in our village were assembled and sent to Transnistria; we weren’t allowed to take any belongings with us. There were 12 Jewish families in our village. We were assembled by a forest ranger who kept in touch with the Romanian troops and already knew what would happen to the Jews when the Romanians would get there. As soon as the Russians withdrew and the border patrol left, that forest ranger took us out of our homes. His son, who was 18-19 years old at the time, later apologized to us for what his father had done. In 1944 he fled to Germany, fearing the Jewish revenge.
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Displaying 45421 - 45450 of 50826 results
Samuel Eiferman
When war broke out, in 1941, we felt it directly, because we were so close to the border. On a Sunday morning, German planes bombed the headquarters of the Russian border patrol. The noise woke us up. 10 days later, Hitler [that is, the German Army] marched into Kiev [19 September 1941].
In 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland [7], the Romanian Army held parades. An infantry regiment was particularly noteworthy – they were wearing new uniforms and were equipped with the latest weapons. It was the way in which Carol II [5] showed that he wasn’t going to yield to the Russians. But Hitler ordered the surrender of Bukovina and Bessarabia [8] and the king had no choice but to comply. The Army held its last parade in the fall of 1939. A major addressed the troops and the audience, which included children that had been summoned for the occasion. He said: “All around our borders, the gunpowder is drawing near. It will soon light up and we have to be prepared for that.” Then, after the surrender of Bessarabia, the Romanian Army slowly withdrew. There were plenty of troops stationed in the area, for the Polish border was only 25 kilometers away.
, Ukraine
Anti-Semitism wasn’t an issue in our area. Even though the Cuzists [6] came to power in 1937, the Ukrainians weren’t aggressive to us. This went for the Romanian gendarme and the Romanian priest too. When it was time for the religion class, the priest would ask the two Jewish boys, one of whom was me: “Would you like to leave?” – “No, Father, we’ll stay.” So we stayed with the others and watched the Christian Orthodox class being taught. I made friends with everyone, regardless of their faith. We didn’t know what racial hatred was. Even when Cuzist supporters spent one month in our village, with clubs, swastikas and everything, they didn’t harm anyone, despite the fact that they were already in touch with the Gestapo.
We would go hiking in summer, during our training as watchmen. In 1938 we even received the visit of Minister Sidorovici, accompanied by some 8 cars. [Ed. note: While the King [5] was the watchmen’s supreme commander, Maj. Teofil Sidorovici was his lieutenant, as executive commander of the Watchmen’s Guard. On 28 June 1941 he was appointed minister of national propaganda, a short-lived office which he held until 3 July of the same year.] Back in those days, Romanians paid special attention to the territories that used to belong to Austria-Hungary. We, the watchmen, would often serve as guides for the groups of tourists that came from the Kingdom. We took them hiking in the mountains for as much as 7-10 kilometers.
As a kid, my favorite pass time was playing with the ball and hiking in the mountains in summer, and sleighing and skiing in winter. The skis were made of beech by our village carpenters. The sleigh was essential, due to our long winters that lasted from September to May.
I really can’t remember whether I had my bar mitzvah or not. We were already living in Braila when two Jews who had come from America put those sacred scrolls called tefillin on my forehead and on my left arm and read to me in Hebrew, while I repeated after them. I suppose that was it.
I didn’t want to learn Hebrew. We were two Jewish boys in school and were supposed to study Hebrew, but, being a couple of spoiled brats, we said no. Our parents didn’t force us. And this is why I never got to learn Hebrew.
After the Russians invaded Bukovina, classes were taught in Russian. In 1940-1941, we completed 7 grades in one year. I actually enjoyed the stories and the poems of the Russian authors.
The village was too small to have a kindergarten, so all the children were brought up at home until they were old enough to go to school. The school was located up on a hill and consisted of seven grades. When I entered the 1st grade I could speak German, Ukrainian and Polish, but I couldn’t speak Romanian, so I had to learn it in school. We were taught by two Jews – a schoolmaster and a schoolmistress. I forgot their names. I later met them in the camp. I started going to school at the age of 7 and I attended 7 primary grades. Classes were taught in Romanian. The teachers were Romanians who had been brought from the Kingdom [Ed note: People living in the territories that were the last to become part of Romania, in 1918 (as is the case of Mr. Eiferman’s native Bukovina), used to refer to Walachia and Moldavia, the two provinces that united to form Romania in 1859, as “the Kingdom”], since our village only had Ukrainians. There were one female teacher and two male teachers. The men’s names were Cozma and Lefter. I can’t remember the lady’s name though. Both men were reservists, wore “pre-military” uniforms and service caps and conducted drills with the boys aged 18-19 in order to prepare them for the military service. Teachers weren’t the only professionals who had to be “imported” from elsewhere; it was the same for priests. The pupils wore whatever their parents could afford. Some were dressed in traditional outfits; others had watchmen’s uniforms [4].
We didn’t eat bread on Passover, only matzah. We also had chicken stew, “meatballs” made of potatoes and a particular type of cake that I can’t remember anymore. We were supplied by people from Berhomet with beef that had been ritually slaughtered and was sure to be kosher. My mother kept a chest as large as a bed in the pantry; it contained special dishes that we only used once a year. Wine consumption was scarce in my parents’ house. We usually had a small glass on Passover. It went the same for ‘tuica’ [plum brandy].
For instance, on Rosh Hashanah, we would have chicken stake, soup and many sweets.
My mother would cook chicken on holidays.
My parents were religious. They had prayer books at home and they read them.
We kept all the major holidays: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Chanukkah, Pesach, meaning the Passover. We celebrated them down in the village, although there were so few of us. But we weren’t the only Jews in the area: other villages down the Siret Valley, all the way to Berhomet, as well as Berhomet itself had their own Jews.
We kept all the major holidays: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Chanukkah, Pesach, meaning the Passover. We celebrated them down in the village, although there were so few of us. But we weren’t the only Jews in the area: other villages down the Siret Valley, all the way to Berhomet, as well as Berhomet itself had their own Jews.
My parents dressed in the Jewish fashion of the time. My father wore a hat called “hut” – it’s called the same in German – or “kopheletz”, but didn’t wear whiskers; he had already become more modern. Women were quite modern too; in summer they didn’t cover their head anymore.
Jews didn’t have a synagogue, but they congregated in a prayer house. My parents would go there too. Men would go every Saturday. Women and children would only attend the place on large holidays. Religious marriages were officiated in the nearest town, because the village only had 12 Jewish families; there were many elderly people and very few children, since many families didn’t have offspring.
Our neighbors were Ukrainians; they were nice people. We spoke in their native language with them. Sipot and Banila [today Banilov] were villages of Ukrainians. There were also villages of Romanians in the vicinity – like Krasnailski [today Krasnoilsk]. The region had been under the Austrian administration until 1918. It was only in 1920 that they started to use Romanian as the official language. In out village, the gendarme, the priest and the teachers were Romanian. The mayor’s office had Romanian and Ukrainian employees – but the latter could speak Romanian too.
The traces of the Austrian administration were clearly visible in the education that people had received. They were simply more cultivated and more polished than the inhabitants in Walachia and Moldavia [3]. Sometimes I would hear the Ukrainians telling my grandmother: “We were better off under the Austrians”. Life wasn’t bad under the Romanian administration either, but they didn’t like the fact that the gendarmes would prevent them from keeping their old holidays. They celebrated Christmas 13 days later than the Romanians and the gendarmes would beat them if they caught them caroling. This tradition wasn’t Austrian, but Slavic. I remember this quite well – I was old enough to remember these things.
The village had a Christian-Orthodox church. Ukrainians had basically the same holidays as the Romanians, only they celebrated them 2 weeks later. There were also Adventists, but they were very few. They held a service every Saturday in a private house.
The traces of the Austrian administration were clearly visible in the education that people had received. They were simply more cultivated and more polished than the inhabitants in Walachia and Moldavia [3]. Sometimes I would hear the Ukrainians telling my grandmother: “We were better off under the Austrians”. Life wasn’t bad under the Romanian administration either, but they didn’t like the fact that the gendarmes would prevent them from keeping their old holidays. They celebrated Christmas 13 days later than the Romanians and the gendarmes would beat them if they caught them caroling. This tradition wasn’t Austrian, but Slavic. I remember this quite well – I was old enough to remember these things.
The village had a Christian-Orthodox church. Ukrainians had basically the same holidays as the Romanians, only they celebrated them 2 weeks later. There were also Adventists, but they were very few. They held a service every Saturday in a private house.
We lived in a large house made of wood beams, like is the custom in the mountains. It had 7-8 rooms. We had a kitchen, a pantry, a large cellar, a henhouse and a stable for the cattle. We grew two cows, a pair of horses and many chickens. Nowadays the village has new houses covered in tin plates. Back in our days, we used shingle. Our furniture consisted of the regular pieces of our time: wardrobe, bed, small couch. Pictures hung on the walls, because Jews don’t have icons and cult artifacts to display. The timber yard had a power generator, but few houses were connected to it. Our family used gas lamps. We didn’t have plumbing – our water supply was a spring nearby. There were many small tributaries of the River Siret in the area and one of them passed by our house.
My parents’ economic situation was average.
My mother was a housewife and my father worked in the timber business. They didn’t have machines back then – they used horses, so the work was harder. The village had timber tradesmen, house builders, carpenters and even a timber yard – plenty of jobs were available.
My grandparents and my parents used Yiddish at home. I can still speak Yiddish. I can also speak German – we lived amidst Poles, Germans and Ukrainians.
I don’t know how many grades my mother had completed in school, but she also knew the Gothic alphabet.
My mother, Gisela Eiferman nee Weiner, was born in 1904 in the village of Sipot, just like my father. I don’t know how they met. They got married in the early 1920’s and I was born in 1925. I was an only child.
Uncle Adolf Weiner was drafted to the Red Army and died during the bombing of Bryansk in June 1944. [Ed. note: Bryansk is a city in Russia located 379 kilometers southwest from Moscow. It is more likely that the bombing Mr. Eiferman refers to took place in 1943.
She’s the one who contacted the mayor in Sipot in order to start the formalities to get the family house back. But neither of us received any answer so far. They won’t give us anything back. But it’s not like I need anything anymore… I’m happy with what I have now.
Coca and Sally survived the Holocaust and left the country – but I couldn’t tell you when or how they left. Coca is now living in Spain; I never met her again. She has a son who was born in 1950. Sally is living in the US, close to New York City.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
Uncle David Dauber and his three girls were deported at the same time with us. My mother ended up in the same camp with Roza, while Coca and Sally were taken to an orphanage, as they were younger. We found out from Sally’s letters how she and Coca witnessed the end of their father. The girls were boarding a ferry when David Dauber rushed to take Sally in his arms, to help her get through the mud; the gendarmes hit him in the back with riffle butts so hard, that his lungs broke. He died the following day. Roza became ill and my mother watched over her in the camp’s infirmary. She died in 1944.
Just like his father, he worked at the forest rangers’ office, where he was a clerk. The office was under the jurisdiction of Count Vasilko, a “grof” [Ed. note: “Grof” is Hungarian for count.] who owned all the mountains in Northern Bukovina. His administration was based in Berhomet [Ed. note: today called Beregomet, in Chernivtsi Region, Ukraine], a larger commune located on the Siret Valley, some 20 kilometers away from Sipot.
The village of Sipot is where the River Siret [Siretul Mare] has its source; back then it was near the frontier with Russia. The village was crossed by a narrow-gauge railroad and a highway that led to Storojinet and to Chernivtsi. The houses bordered the road, but there were also houses uphill. Most of the Jews resided on the same street, but didn’t live next to one another; their houses were 100 meters to 1 kilometer apart. For instance, our house was some 100 meters apart from the closest Jewish house. I don’t know how many Jews had lived in the village when my grandparents were young, but there were only 12 families left by the time I was born.
I don’t know about my grandfather’s education, but I know he worked at the forest rangers’ office in Sipot – the area was all woodland.