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In March 1944 Soviet troops began their victorious march. Farmers that came to father on Sunday brought us news. Once, when my father was shaving the commander he said that Romanians were leaving the ghetto in few days. Then German retreating troops marched across Tomashpol. Few of them stayed overnight in our house. One of them said that Germany had lost this war. He said he was a shoemaker and had three children. He spoke negatively about Hitler. We understood that our liberation was near. Inmates of the ghetto were afraid of murderous actions that Germans or Romanians might take before leaving, but it didn’t happen. On 16 March 1944 Soviet troops entered Tomashpol. All Jews came into streets. They were happy about liberation. Of 5 thousand Jews that were in the ghetto at the beginning of the war only about a thousand survived. Our happiness was spoiled by a tragic accident. There was a young couple that were in love in the ghetto. I don’t remember the name of the young man. He was a son and assistant of Chatzkel’ Portnoy, a blacksmith from Tomashpol. The girl came from a neighboring village. They were together during occupation. They were going to get married after liberation. They were a beautiful couple. They both came out to meet the Soviet troops. A Russian officer came to them and said that while he was at the front this guy was hiding away with Germans and now he wanted him to give his girl to him. The boy replied that he wasn’t in the ghetto by his own will and he didn’t think it was worse to be at the front than here. The officer asked ‘Well then, you don’t want to give her to me? He took out his gun and shot the boy. He took the girl with him. We were terrified. Women burst into crying. They said ‘Germans were killing us and now Russians continue to kill us. Who can we believe then?’ After the Soviet troops left the boy was buried at the Jewish cemetery.
Period
Interview
Arkadi Yurkovetski