When our son turned 16 he went to the passport office to get his passport. My husband and I didn't ask him any questions. When it was time for him to fill out the application form for the institute I asked him what nationality was written in his passport. He said it was Russian. I asked him, 'How come you are Russian when your father is Ukrainian and your mother a Jew?' My son said that he took this decision to hurt no one's feelings. Of course, my son was aware that his mother was a Jew, but he didn't care about it. There was an air of internationalism in our family.
- Traditions 11756
- Language spoken 3019
- Identity 7808
- Description of town 2440
- Education, school 8506
- Economics 8772
- Work 11672
- Love & romance 4929
- Leisure/Social life 4159
- Antisemitism 4822
-
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
- Post War Allied occupation 7
- 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
- German occupation of Hungary (18-19 March 1944) 45
- Józef Pilsudski (until 1935) 33
- 1956 revolution 84
- Prague Spring (1968) 73
- 1989 change of regime 174
- Gomulka campaign (1968) 81
-
Holocaust
9685
- Holocaust (in general) 2789
- Concentration camp / Work camp 1235
- Mass shooting operations 337
- Ghetto 1183
- Death / extermination camp 647
- Deportation 1063
- Forced labor 791
- Flight 1410
- Hiding 594
- Resistance 121
- 1941 evacuations 866
- Novemberpogrom / Kristallnacht 34
- Eleftherias Square 10
- Kasztner group 1
- Pogrom in Iasi and the Death Train 21
- Sammelwohnungen 9
- Strohmann system 11
- Struma ship 17
- Life under occupation 803
- Yellow star house 72
- Protected house 15
- Arrow Cross ("nyilasok") 42
- Danube bank shots 6
- Kindertransport 26
- Schutzpass / false papers 95
- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) 24
- Warsaw Uprising (1944) 23
- Helpers 521
- Righteous Gentiles 269
- Returning home 1090
- Holocaust compensation 112
- Restitution 109
- Property (loss of property) 595
- Loss of loved ones 1724
- Trauma 1029
- Talking about what happened 1807
- Liberation 558
- Military 3322
- Politics 2640
-
Communism
4468
- Life in the Soviet Union/under Communism (in general) 2592
- Anti-communist resistance in general 63
- Nationalization under Communism 221
- Illegal communist movements 98
- Systematic demolitions under communism 45
- Communist holidays 311
- Sentiments about the communist rule 930
- Collectivization 94
- Experiences with state police 349
- 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 14671 - 14700 of 50826 results
sophia vollerner
My father died in 1968. He went to visit my brother in Kiev. He fell ill all of a sudden and my brother brought him to a recreation center, where my father died. The autopsy showed gullet cancer that had never disturbed my father before. We buried him in the Jewish section of the town cemetery in Kiev. There was a Jewish funeral.
I retired from the bank when my time came in 1970. At last I could do what I liked and I became a librarian at the library in the bank. I didn't receive any salary for my work. It was like a public activity. I quit doing it in 1990.
When perestroika 33 began in the USSR in the 1980s I looked at it as just another 'action' of the Soviet power, but later my attitude changed. Of course, life has become more difficult in some respects, but on the other hand, our country became open. There is a freedom of speech that was just empty talk in the constitution before. There were books published that were forbidden before. There was an avalanche of information. One can buy any book at a bookstore now. Newspapers published articles about things that we weren't even allowed to think about. Anti-Semitism hasn't vanished from our lives. Even speaking about someone people have the tendency of saying, 'Ah, he is a Jew', regardless of the subject of discussion.
When Ukraine became independent in 1991 the Jewish life revived. I haven't gone out in ten years and I don't know any details about the life outside. In 1996 Hesed was organized in Chernovtsy. This organization became a part of our life. Jews like me, who are not so old yet, go there. Hesed became a center of Jewish spiritual life. Unfortunately, I haven't left my house in recent years. Hesed supports me a lot. I get food packages, meals and medications from Hesed. Doctors and volunteers from Hesed visit me. Whenever possible they take me to concerts or meetings. I still read a lot and it's my only entertainment. I wish I could read faster.
Michael Kotliar
I terminated my membership in the party when I turned to the Jewish way of life in the 1980s.
When Ukraine gained independence in 1991 Jewish life revived. There are Jewish organizations, and Jewish culture has returned to our life. I began to take an interest in our roots in the 1980s after my parents died. I recalled prayers, holidays and traditions. At that period I wasn't interested in any party activities any longer. In the 1980s there were many TV programs and publications about various aspects of life in the country. We also got an opportunity to read about life in developed Western countries. We realized how much misery there was in our country. I knew that in a country, where the life of a human being belonged to the state and where industries and land didn't have owners to take care of them, there could be no order or improvements. I got disappointed in communist ideals.
I recalled many things from my life before the war and decided to help people to restore Jewish traditions and culture. I became a volunteer with Hesed and am grateful that I can be of use to other people. However, there are things that I don't like. I think, Jews have been spoiled. Before the Soviet power there was a Jewish community in Chernovtsy that took care of poor and ill Jews, but people still worked hard and tried to support the community rather than waiting for help from the outside. Now, I believe, Jews are turning into parasites waiting for Jews in foreign countries to provide for them. Many of those that proudly call themselves Jews have very distant Jewish roots and would have never revealed the fact that their grandmother was a Jew before.
From the beginning of perestroika I was dreaming about a museum of Jewish history. I saw how people were throwing away their photographs, books and documents before leaving for Israel and other countries. I collected all I could find, sorted things out and kept them. As soon as the Association of Jewish Culture was founded I offered to establish a museum about the Jewish history of Chernovtsy.
Beltsy was a Russian town. In 1918 it became part of Romania. Beltsy was a bigger town populated by Moldavians and Jews. There were also Romanians and Gypsies in town. Jews lived in the center and Moldavians on the outskirts. They were farmers and wine makers. Jews were craftsmen and merchants. There were several doctors and lawyers among the Jewish population. There were a few synagogues, cheders and a Jewish school. Besides, there were a few Romanian secondary schools, a lyceum and a grammar school. People of all nationalities got along well. There was no everyday or state anti-Semitism before World War II.
My father strictly observed all Jewish traditions even during the Soviet times. I believe he was born to a religious family. He and his brothers studied at cheder. They spoke Yiddish at home, but they also knew Russian and Moldavian.
My father and Motl became tailors.
My mother's family lived in Orgeyev. It was a small Moldavian town located in the mountainous area of the Kodry River between Kishinev and Beltsy. Jews constituted the majority of the population. There were also Moldavians, Russians and Ukrainians. Jews lived in the central part of the town. There were rich and poor families among them. Jews were mainly craftsmen and merchants. Some of them owned stores and sold everyday goods. Orgeyev was a district town, it belonged to Russia before 1918 and then became part of Romania. It was a beautiful town embedded in gardens and vineries. The Moldavians were mainly wine-growers. They also grew vegetables and fruit. Monday was market day, and farmers from the surrounding villages brought their food products to sell them in Orgeyev. On other days of the week farmers from the outskirts of town brought their products to the market. They also kept cows and milkmen delivered dairy products to people's homes. There were several synagogues, a cheder and a Jewish school in Orgeyev. There were no conflicts between the different nationalities. There were no pogroms 1 in Orgeyev either.
My grandfather on my mother's side, Shoil Moshkoutzan, was a blacksmith. My grandmother's first name was Dvoira. They came from families with many children. Both of them were born in Orgeyev in the 1860s. I didn't know anybody from my grandfather's or my grandmother's family. My grandparents had 14 children: 13 daughters and a son. They were very poor. My grandfather worked hard, but he still didn't earn enough to feed his big family. He owned a forge and had an assistant. He had a lot of work to do for farmers. Whenever the landlord living nearby asked him to do work for him it was a festive event for the family. My grandfather fixed the landlord's carts or horseshoed the horses. The landlord paid him with money and food. This was the only time when the family had enough food, but it happened very rarely. They lived in a small shabby house. There were two rooms and a small kitchen. There were two or three fruit trees near the house.
The daughters got no education because my grandparents couldn't afford to hire a teacher to have them educated at home. Their only son studied at cheder. My mother was a very intelligent woman. I once asked her why she didn't study, and she said that her parents didn't even have enough money to buy notebooks. The girls had to work at the tobacco factory since the age of 10. It was hazardous work - they inhaled tobacco dust that was all around. They all developed consumption. Doctors recommended them to have better food, but it wasn't possible. There were days when the family only had mamaliga, a corn flour meal. Only 5 of the 14 children survived. The rest of them died before they turned 15.
My mother's parents were religious. They went to the synagogue on Saturdays and on Jewish holidays. The synagogue was near their house. Whatever miserable and little food they could afford on weekdays, my grandmother managed to save some money to make challah and gefilte fish on Sabbath to celebrate the holiday according to Jewish traditions. When my grandfather managed to make some extra money before holidays my grandmother also bought new clothes for the girls. They spoke Yiddish at home and Moldavian with their neighbors and farmers.
Makhlia was the most beautiful one of the sisters. She had two sons: Haim and Yasha. They were all shot by the fascists in Orgeyev on the first days of the Great Patriotic War 2.
My mother moved to Beltsy in 1924 because it was a bigger town and easier to find a job there. She got a job at a seamstress' shop and rented a room that she shared with other girls. My father was a skilled tailor by that time. His shop was near the place where my mother worked. My mother told me that she became Miss Romania twice at beauty contests. My father noticed and began to court her. They went to Orgeyev, my grandparents liked my father and they gave their consent to the wedding. They got married in 1927. They had a traditional Jewish wedding with a chuppah and klezmer musicians in Beltsy. My father earned well, and they could afford to have a big wedding party and invite all relatives to celebrate. After they got married he bought a big house in the main street in Beltsy. He quit his job and opened his own tailor's shop. The workshop in the biggest and lightest room in his house. There was an orchard and a flower garden near the house.
My sister, Riva, was born in 1929, and my brother, Haim, followed in 1932. He was named after my grandfather on my father's side. I was born in 1934. In 1936 my mother's father Shoil died. My parents named their next son Shoil, born in 1938, after our deceased grandfather. All boys were circumcised according to Jewish tradition.
My grandmother Dvoira was grieving over her husband. She wore mourning clothes until the end of her life. It was hard for her to stay in the house, where everything reminded her of her husband, so she moved in with us. She was a short fat woman. She always wore a long black gown and a black shawl. She was very kind and caring. She stayed with us for almost four years until she moved to her younger daughter, Makhlia, in Orgeyev in 1940.
My parents were also religious. They observed all Jewish traditions and followed the kashrut. We spoke Yiddish at home. My father worked from morning to night. He wanted to provide well for his family and have a decent Sabbath and other Jewish holidays. I remember Sabbath in our family. My mother went to the market on early Friday morning. She bought fish and a chicken. I took the chicken to the shochet near our house. Then I took it back home, and my mother plucked it and prepared it for cooking. She followed all the rules. Then she made chicken broth. She also made gefilte fish and dough for challah. Challah was sold in Jewish bakeries, but my mother preferred to make her own. She put the pots with food into the oven to keep them warm for Saturday. On Saturdays it wasn't allowed to start a fire to heat the food.
My mother also made cholent in ceramic pots. In the evening the house smelled of freshly baked challah. My mother covered the table with a clean white tablecloth and put challah and wine on it. She covered her head with a white silk shawl, lit candles and said a prayer. Then my father said a prayer saying blessings to Holy Saturday, the food and the children. My mother sang Jewish songs and we joined in. On Sabbath my parents and children over 12 went to the synagogue. They had their own seats in the synagogue. Younger children stayed at home and a non-Jewish woman looked after them. When the family returned we all sat down for dinner.
Before Pesach my mother took special fancy dishes from the attic. All everyday dishes and utensils were taken to the attic. We cleaned the house, removed all breadcrumbs and burnt them in the stove. My mother and my older sister Riva started cooking in advance. My father used to buy a few flax bags of matzah before Pesach. There were quite a few dishes made from matzah: pancakes, pastries and puddings. My mother made chicken, gefilte fish and chicken necks stuffed with liver, onions and brown flour. She made potato, corn and matzah flour and egg puddings. She also made honey cakes, star of David shaped cookies that melted in the mouth and strudels with nuts, jam and raisins.
On the first day of Pesach [at the seder] there were bitter greeneries and salt water on the table. Greeneries were supposed to be dipped into the salt water to remember the bitterness of slavery and Jewish tears shed in Egypt. In the evening my father conducted the seder. We [children] also got a bit of special red wine made from slightly dried grapes that gave it a sweet and strong flavor. There was always an extra glass on the table for Elijah the Prophet. My mother said prayers in Hebrew. My younger brother and I asked my father traditional questions [the so-called four questions]. We learned them by heart in Hebrew and he explained their meaning to us. We hid a piece of matzah [afikoman] and my father had a gift for the one that found it after the meal.
On the first day of Pesach [at the seder] there were bitter greeneries and salt water on the table. Greeneries were supposed to be dipped into the salt water to remember the bitterness of slavery and Jewish tears shed in Egypt. In the evening my father conducted the seder. We [children] also got a bit of special red wine made from slightly dried grapes that gave it a sweet and strong flavor. There was always an extra glass on the table for Elijah the Prophet. My mother said prayers in Hebrew. My younger brother and I asked my father traditional questions [the so-called four questions]. We learned them by heart in Hebrew and he explained their meaning to us. We hid a piece of matzah [afikoman] and my father had a gift for the one that found it after the meal.
My family fasted on Yom Kippur and before Rosh Hashanah. Children began to fast after they turned 5. My mother thought fasting would do a child no harm. We were only allowed to drink water. Before Yom Kippur we made the rounds of our neighbors' and acquaintance's houses to ask their forgiveness for whatever harm we had or hadn't done to them. We also asked forgiveness from our parents for being disobedient and from out playmates for fighting or arguing with them. On the next evening my parents went to the synagogue. They returned home placid and inspired. The family sat down for a festive dinner.
In 1940 Moldavia became a part of the USSR and neither my brother nor I studied at cheder. The Soviet authorities persecuted religion 3 and all religious institutions were closed.
I remember how people welcomed the Soviet tanks that came to the country at the end of June 1940. People believed that life was going to change for the better and that this power would give people freedom and equal rights. The illusions didn't last long. Soon arrests began. Wealthier people were sent to prison or into exile. My father managed to escape from being arrested, as he had no employees in his shop. My mother helped him in the shop whenever she had free time. The authorities confiscated my father's tailor's shop and he got a job at this shop. My mother was a housewife.
I remember how people welcomed the Soviet tanks that came to the country at the end of June 1940. People believed that life was going to change for the better and that this power would give people freedom and equal rights. The illusions didn't last long. Soon arrests began. Wealthier people were sent to prison or into exile. My father managed to escape from being arrested, as he had no employees in his shop. My mother helped him in the shop whenever she had free time. The authorities confiscated my father's tailor's shop and he got a job at this shop. My mother was a housewife.
I was to begin my 1st grade at school in September 1941, but on 22nd June 1941 the Great Patriotic War began. The war came as a surprise. We knew that Europe was in war, but we were assured by the propaganda that Hitler wouldn't dare to attack the Soviet Union. German and Romanian armies occupied our town at night on 22nd June. On Sunday the sky darkened from bomber aircrafts flying over the town dropping bombs on the houses, streets and people. The planes were flying low and the bombers shot at people with automatic guns. My father grabbed our younger brother and shouted to us to run into the garden immediately. When we ran into the garden we saw a bomb hitting our house. We lost everything we had. We were hiding in the bushes until the bombers left. My father said that we had to go to the Dnestr River and try to cross it. We ran along the ruined streets. There were people lying or sitting in blood puddles. I can still remember the sickening smell of blood. There were crowds of people on the bank of the Dnestr River. We crossed the river on a boat and my father took us to the railway station.
My parents, my two brothers, my sister an me got on a train. They were only freight railcars for the transportation of cattle but it didn't matter at that time. We were running away from the Germans. The train was bombed several times on the way. It stopped and we got off to hide. We had no food, clothing or documents with us. Whenever the train stopped at a station and there was another train with soldiers going to the front we got some of their food - soup or cereals - that they shared with us. We came to a village in Stalingrad region [500 km from Beltsy]. Evacuated people got accommodation in the houses of the villagers. We were all involved in harvesting. Younger children were picking spikelets falling from a combine harvester. Then the Germans were approaching Stalingrad, and we got on our way again. We arrived at Fergana lowlands in Uzbekistan after covering a distance of 2,000 kilometers from Stalingrad. We were sent to a kishlak [Uzbek for a village] in the mountains in Middle Asia. It was a small village with very few houses. We were accommodated in a mud house with two rooms and a small kitchen with a stove. The Uzbeks treated us kindly. They sympathized with us and tried to help.
My father was recruited to the labor army. Due to his age he wasn't subject to recruitment to the army. He worked at the construction of channels in Uzbekistan throughout the four years of the war. They lived in barracks 10 kilometers outside the village with no comforts whatsoever, but they had sufficient food and clothing. My mother and I stayed in a mud hut. My father came to see us for a few hours once a week. My mother worked at the collective farm. She got flour for her work. We all worked except for my younger brother. I was 7 years old at that time. I was to shepherd sheep. I got a donkey and a stick sharpened at one end. I rode my donkey watching that the sheep stayed together. We were given some food for our work.
In April 1944 we heard that Beltsy had been liberated by the Soviet army and returned home. I was 10 years old, but I went to the 1st grade of the Russian secondary school for boys. However, more than half of my classmates had also missed school during the war.
We didn't have a place to live. More than half of the houses in the town were ruined. We were accommodated in a small room in a barrack near a military unit. My father couldn't get a job in 1945 and decided that we need to move to Chernovtsy. People said there were many vacant apartments there, and the town was almost intact. We rented a horse-driven cab and reached Chernovtsy within a few hours. We liked the town. It was big and beautiful and Yiddish could be heard all around. There was a synagogue and the majority of the population was Jewish. At the beginning we rented a room in the basement of a house in an old Jewish neighborhood. This was the area of the former Jewish ghetto and the owner of the house lived there during the war. This old lady spoke Yiddish and Romanian. It was a cold and damp room with no running water, heating or toilet. My mother cooked on a primus stove. She stayed at home. My father found a job in a garment shop. The money he earned was just enough to live on bread and water. We were always hungry, but we had known worse times during the war and didn't pay much attention to the hardships of postwar life.