Since my husband was a famous scientist – he continues to work, and the local papers write articles about him – we didn’t have a bad life, maybe lived in better conditions than many others. First we had a big apartment in the very center, and later, in 1981, we moved to our new three-room apartment, where we still live today. We could afford a trip to the Black Sea or to a sanatorium.
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Displaying 26311 - 26340 of 50826 results
Anna Dremlug
And then, thanks to the protection of my husband’s pal Jacob Katznelson – by the way all of Valentin’s friends, are Jews – I started to work at the State Institute of Examination of People’s Working Abilities, in the department in charge of finding jobs for people with special needs. Later the director of the clinic department advised me to write a dissertation. I was interested in people suffering from heart-vascular diseases and chose the topic of ‘Finding a job for people with myocardial infarct’: I studied heart-vascular pathologies, made an experiment on the Kirov factory [one of the largest metallurgical factories in whole country] and completed the dissertation in January 1971.
After I turned 55, I became a part-time employee in a clinic, where I worked till 1981, when we moved to our new apartment. Here I got a part-time job in polyclinic #51; I became a social researcher in the rehabilitation department and worked there for ten years. So far I have quite an impressive work experience.
After I turned 55, I became a part-time employee in a clinic, where I worked till 1981, when we moved to our new apartment. Here I got a part-time job in polyclinic #51; I became a social researcher in the rehabilitation department and worked there for ten years. So far I have quite an impressive work experience.
,
1971
See text in interview
When the Doctor’s Plot [25] started, I worked at the sanitary epidemiological station and we had quite a few Jews over there. Only two Jews remained: the main epidemiologist and I. All the others were dismissed on grounds of staff reduction. And among them was the head, Rosenshtein, who came to me and said, ‘Anna Matveevna, please write a letter of resignation to free the working place.’ You see, they threw him out because there ‘were no vacancies.’ And my husband also said, ‘Leave your work, you won’t be so nervous anymore.’ Anyway, in 1952 I resigned and didn’t go to work for a couple of years. My husband earned enough, and I didn’t want to suffer from anti-Semitism. When the situation stabilized and changed for the better, I began to work again.
When the Doctor’s Plot [25] started, I worked at the sanitary epidemiological station and we had quite a few Jews over there. Only two Jews remained: the main epidemiologist and I. All the others were dismissed on grounds of staff reduction. And among them was the head, Rosenshtein, who came to me and said, ‘Anna Matveevna, please write a letter of resignation to free the working place.’ You see, they threw him out because there ‘were no vacancies.’ And my husband also said, ‘Leave your work, you won’t be so nervous anymore.’ Anyway, in 1952 I resigned and didn’t go to work for a couple of years. My husband earned enough, and I didn’t want to suffer from anti-Semitism. When the situation stabilized and changed for the better, I began to work again.
But, to be frank that was the only situation, when I experienced anti-Semitism: never ever, never again did something bad happen to me because I’m a Jew. They never oppressed and never insulted me. I lived in a Russian family, among Russians and worked where there were both Russians and Jews.
But, to be frank that was the only situation, when I experienced anti-Semitism: never ever, never again did something bad happen to me because I’m a Jew. They never oppressed and never insulted me. I lived in a Russian family, among Russians and worked where there were both Russians and Jews.
, Russia
As for Stalin, I remember the following incident. Zhenya, my father’ sister, went to Leningrad and stayed at our place. And suddenly she noticed that a picture, which I liked very much, a picture of Stalin holding a girl, hung next to my son Igor’s bed. And she said, ‘How come you put this monster near your child’s bed?’ I was surprised, but I took the picture off. And after Stalin died [in 1953], I cried, and we all cried. Later, of course, we began to understand what was going on.
She is Jewish, and they went to Israel some years ago. He said that this trip changed his life and he wants to go to Israel one more time. He lives together with his second wife and their beloved cat, Mars, in her apartment in one of the new districts of the city.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
Igor was married twice: his first wife Natalia, the mother of his son, is half-Jewish, like him. She is an architect, and she lives in Petersburg not far from us. His second wife Irina was an engineer, and after perestroika she was involved in insurance business too.
After perestroika [24] he left science, and now he is involved in insurance business.
Igor, of course, always knew that he is a Jew, that his grandparents were Jews. I don’t know for sure, when or how he learned it. I remember only that once he came home and said, ‘Mom, you don’t know the Jewish language yourself and didn’t teach me either.’ However, theoretically, we didn’t have any reasons to teach him the language, or the traditions, which I didn’t know myself. He didn’t ever suffer from the fact that he was a Jew, because, when he turned sixteen, he got a passport, where it was written that he was Russian [23].
,
After WW2
See text in interview
He worked in the Highest Arctic College until his retirement in the 1980s. He was assistant professor there and he held lectures.
My husband Valentin entered the Hydrography Institute even before World War II but he didn’t have a chance to graduate. He passed his finals in Krasnoyarsk [big city in Siberia]. After the war finished, he went to get a PhD degree in Leningrad; in 1949 he fulfilled his academic program and got a job as the head of a sub-faculty.
We got married in January 1947. First there was a wedding without any registration, and then we went to ZAGS and registered our relations. [ZAGS: ‘Signing-up the acts of civil conditions’ – the state establishment, where marriages, divorces, births and deaths are registered.]
My father didn’t like my husband at first, not because he wasn’t Jewish, but due to the fact that he wasn’t a tall and strong man. He even blamed my mother, who went to Leningrad to check my choice before the wedding took place. But later they had good relations, and we never had any troubles because of his nationality.
My father didn’t like my husband at first, not because he wasn’t Jewish, but due to the fact that he wasn’t a tall and strong man. He even blamed my mother, who went to Leningrad to check my choice before the wedding took place. But later they had good relations, and we never had any troubles because of his nationality.
When I studied in the third year of my Institute, in 1946, Father bought a voucher to the health resort ‘Shirokoe,’ which was lucky from all points of view. They put me in a club, called ‘monkey place.’ And my future husband, Valentin Dremlug, lived just opposite – at the so-called ‘blue dacha [21].’ After I arrived, he said, ‘One more monkey has come to the monkey place.’ The next day, in the morning, I went to the dining room, raised my eyes and saw a puny man walk before me. I passed him and paid no attention. After breakfast I went back and saw him again. He stopped and said, ‘Excuse me, are you staying here too? Do you live in the club? Did you come a long time ago? I see you for the first time.’ That was the very beginning. I stayed in this health resort for two weeks, and he left a bit before my holidays came to an end.
Then he went to Leningrad, and I came back to Bologoye. And we made an agreement that he would meet me at the railway station. I arrived in Leningrad, walked a little and saw that everyone was meeting people with flowers. Of course, like a provincial girl, I was trying hard to find the biggest bouquet; however, he wasn’t among the ‘big bouquets.’ I found him finally just near the railway station building with a small bouquet in his hands. Well, so we met, he took me to my campus on Kirillovskaya Street, gave me the flowers: there were red pinks and asparagus, a very elegant bouquet for those times.
And so we began being friends, and then, in November he proposed to me, although we knew each other for three months only.
Then he went to Leningrad, and I came back to Bologoye. And we made an agreement that he would meet me at the railway station. I arrived in Leningrad, walked a little and saw that everyone was meeting people with flowers. Of course, like a provincial girl, I was trying hard to find the biggest bouquet; however, he wasn’t among the ‘big bouquets.’ I found him finally just near the railway station building with a small bouquet in his hands. Well, so we met, he took me to my campus on Kirillovskaya Street, gave me the flowers: there were red pinks and asparagus, a very elegant bouquet for those times.
And so we began being friends, and then, in November he proposed to me, although we knew each other for three months only.
After World War II none of my relatives left the country. And where could we go? To America? With no money? And there was no Israel at the time. And they didn’t discuss the foundation of the state of Israel [20], and I can’t even recall when I learned about it.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
In 1944 I went to Leningrad to apply for the Medical Institute. My friend Rebecca, who had entered the Philological Faculty earlier, during the evacuation, advised me against entering this faculty: ‘It is necessary to read a lot, and you have poor eyesight. Now after the war, there are plenty of injured, you should go to the Medical Faculty, and you’ll always have a piece of bread, and it’s a useful job.’ I obeyed her, entered with no exams – I had an excellent school leaving certificate – and they even wanted to admit me to the Dentist Faculty, but I decided to apply for the medical one. That one was also in Leningrad.
The Dentist Faculty was situated on the street named after Peter Lavrov [one of the oldest streets in the city, today it has its pre-Revolution name Furshtatskaya], in a very beautiful building. And I went to the 7th November [day of the October Revolution] Ball.
The Dentist Faculty was situated on the street named after Peter Lavrov [one of the oldest streets in the city, today it has its pre-Revolution name Furshtatskaya], in a very beautiful building. And I went to the 7th November [day of the October Revolution] Ball.
Besides, her husband David Ilkovsky was a Communist, he graduated from the High Party School [19] in Moscow, and I never heard any ‘anti-Sovietchina’ [speeches against Soviet power and Communist order] from him.
Fortunately, during the Holocaust almost all of our family survived: my sisters, mother and father. However, my cousin Zusya, the son of my mother’ sister Tatiana, was killed near Leningrad. On my father’s side only Dad fought, and on my mother’s side Uncle Isaac was a colonel of railway troops. The husband of Aunt Bertha was arrested in 1938 [during the period of the Great Terror]; she was exiled too.
That meant that both the war and the concentration camps, thank God, passed them by. Besides, her husband David Ilkovsky was a Communist, he graduated from the High Party School [19] in Moscow, and I never heard any ‘anti-Sovietchina’ [speeches against Soviet power and Communist order] from him.
That meant that both the war and the concentration camps, thank God, passed them by. Besides, her husband David Ilkovsky was a Communist, he graduated from the High Party School [19] in Moscow, and I never heard any ‘anti-Sovietchina’ [speeches against Soviet power and Communist order] from him.
When we came back from evacuation to Bologoye, our neighbors were very glad to see us. Some of them didn’t even leave; they lived under the bombing, made kitchen gardens everywhere, and ploughed up where it was possible. The evacuation, apparently, wasn’t obligatory. However, we certainly wouldn’t have survived: we were not afraid of hunger as much as of the Germans that could have come to kill all Jews.
We returned from evacuation by train, in regular passenger wagons. I don’t remember if we had to pay for the tickets. And there was some Moscow couple in front of us, so Mother asked them to accompany me in Moscow. That’s why I dropped off in Moscow and spent a whole day there. I had to do that because we had a ration, and my mother wasn’t sure that we could get food at home in Bologoye. So she decided that I’d better try to do that in Moscow.
At first they employed us at the motor-transport station and I became a weigher. It was a night job, and it was very cold, Mother muffled me in ‘valenki’ [traditional Russian felt boots] and a sheepskin. We used all winter clothes that we had taken with us. We sold Father’s clothes – he had a ‘bekesh’ [short sheepskin] – as it was necessary to buy food. After I found a job, I got a food ration.
Then, my pal Sarah Sigal, who repatriated to Israel later on, worked as a head bookkeeper in ‘raizemotdel’ [regional land department] and invited me and Sophia, one of my cousins, to be accountants. We even learned about external courses for accountants, and I applied for those courses. Later they moved us from Tarkhany village to a village, where I was employed as an accountant. We got a separate house over there, while our grandparents stayed in Tarkhany. We bought a goat, a couple of pigs, some chickens, and organized our own husbandry.
Then, my pal Sarah Sigal, who repatriated to Israel later on, worked as a head bookkeeper in ‘raizemotdel’ [regional land department] and invited me and Sophia, one of my cousins, to be accountants. We even learned about external courses for accountants, and I applied for those courses. Later they moved us from Tarkhany village to a village, where I was employed as an accountant. We got a separate house over there, while our grandparents stayed in Tarkhany. We bought a goat, a couple of pigs, some chickens, and organized our own husbandry.
On 19th October 1941 we left for evacuation in goods wagons. My mother and sisters and I went on the upper deck, and Grandfather with Grandmother on the lower one. They gave us some food at certain stations and in certain wagons: bread and something else. We went under bombings, because we left after the Germans took Kalinin [today Tver, regional center 175 kilometers from Moscow]. They bombed the railway rolling stock in front of us, and we stopped very often.
Before we departed, Mother made flannel-wool dressing gowns for us, and we all had knapsacks with documents. Mother said, ‘My daughters, you run and I’ll manage somehow with Lilia.’ Lilia was four months old, when World War II started, and seven months, when we departed for evacuation. Finally, we happily arrived in Chuvashia on 7th November 1941. The Chuvash people [a Turkic ethnic group, living mainly on the Middle Volga] met us.
They were fine fellows; they welcomed us in a very friendly manner and hosted us well. They came to take us on the sledges, then guided us to the village, put us up in their houses. The Chuvash didn’t speak Russian, and we, naturally, didn’t know any Chuvash. The only way to communicate with them was by using gestures. They placed us with some illiterate peasants – an old woman, her daughter-in law, and the little boy, whose father went to the army, but we learned Chuvash quickly.
Before we departed, Mother made flannel-wool dressing gowns for us, and we all had knapsacks with documents. Mother said, ‘My daughters, you run and I’ll manage somehow with Lilia.’ Lilia was four months old, when World War II started, and seven months, when we departed for evacuation. Finally, we happily arrived in Chuvashia on 7th November 1941. The Chuvash people [a Turkic ethnic group, living mainly on the Middle Volga] met us.
They were fine fellows; they welcomed us in a very friendly manner and hosted us well. They came to take us on the sledges, then guided us to the village, put us up in their houses. The Chuvash didn’t speak Russian, and we, naturally, didn’t know any Chuvash. The only way to communicate with them was by using gestures. They placed us with some illiterate peasants – an old woman, her daughter-in law, and the little boy, whose father went to the army, but we learned Chuvash quickly.
,
1941
See text in interview
In spite of the fact that my husband is Russian, and Sophia’s husband is a Jew, she doesn’t identify herself as a Jewish woman any more than I do.
We celebrated holidays the same as now: gathered with relatives, ate tasty food and talked. We went to demonstrations on 1st May, or on October Revolution Day [16] –they were held on the football field – and sang songs. Usually we celebrated all holidays in school, and I was the main boss over there. We sang pioneer songs at demonstrations, but I don’t remember exactly which ones.
We celebrated holidays the same as now: gathered with relatives, ate tasty food and talked. We went to demonstrations on 1st May, or on October Revolution Day [16] –they were held on the football field – and sang songs. Usually we celebrated all holidays in school, and I was the main boss over there. We sang pioneer songs at demonstrations, but I don’t remember exactly which ones.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
We didn’t feel any particular anti-Semitism. Once at school they called me ‘zhidovka’ [kike], and that was a boy, who was in love with me later. His name was Monka [Edmond] Rogovich and he was Polish. There was a special class meeting, where they discussed his behavior.
I remember that I liked it very much when Grandmother Itka, Father’s stepmother, invited all our relatives to hers before Pesach and they baked matzot. They rolled out the dough on such huge, soft desks; then they put it with the very long oven fork into the Russian stove. I was so impressed by this performance! Of course, they had Pesach celebrations and, probably, conducted seder dinners, but I can’t recall any of those holidays. I told you the story of baking matzah, because I really loved the whole process and it’s such a bright memory that I simply can’t forget it!
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
Of course, Grandmother Zlata kept the Sabbath. I recall one funny episode. In Volochek they had a housekeeper, but she was off on Saturday, and it was necessary to warm up the samovar: to pour in the water, then put coal, and light a match. Grandmother walked around and shouted: ‘Shabes [Sabbath] how can I warm up the samovar, how can I warm the samovar?’ I said, ‘Let me warm it up, you only have to take it down and put it on the floor, and I will put in the water.’
I took a pot, put the water in and said, ‘Granny, you now raise the samovar.’ Basically, I made her do almost everything on her own. Of course, she celebrated Sabbath and, I think, although I don’t know this for sure, that she was a religious person till her death. And the Alperovichs observed Jewish traditions too. I know that Grandfather prayed, but I don’t know, if he did it till his death.
I took a pot, put the water in and said, ‘Granny, you now raise the samovar.’ Basically, I made her do almost everything on her own. Of course, she celebrated Sabbath and, I think, although I don’t know this for sure, that she was a religious person till her death. And the Alperovichs observed Jewish traditions too. I know that Grandfather prayed, but I don’t know, if he did it till his death.
We spoke Russian at home, sometimes putting in separate Yiddish words.
Our Dad had a bar mitzvah for sure, but they didn’t organize any bat mitzvot for us.
At school we didn’t study Hebrew, and there was neither a cheder nor a yeshivah in town.