Tag #114364 - Interview #95499 (Blyuma Perlstein)

I didn’t really face anti-Semitism in my life. I began to feel it only after the war [1948-1953] [14]. We all knew that Jews were refused jobs and those who returned from evacuation weren’t registered at their previous place of residence [15]. It was all owing to Stalin’s personal anti-Semitic feeling, as well as owing to the increase of anti-Semitism in the party machinery. Jews were fired from cultural and educational institutions on various grounds and Jewish literature editions and printing houses were shut down. Stalin took revenge on Jews for their perceived lack of patriotism: [The State of] Israel was being established at that time and Jews supported the idea very much. A lot of Jews were subject to repressions. KBG [16] officials visited various enterprises, even factories and plants, hunting Zionists, especially among the management and engineers.