Tag #116056 - Interview #91352 (Chasia Spanerflig)

Our calm, rich and serene life ended in June 1940, when the Soviet army came to Lithuania [16]. I know that many, especially poor Jews, hoped for and gladly welcomed the Soviet Army. The Soviet regime didn’t bring about anything good. Soon goods vanished from the stores. Bread was only of the lowest grade. Our family had products in stock and didn’t feel the need of them. Soon our store was nationalized. Repressions, arrests and deportation [17] commenced and my husband’s parents moved to a smaller apartment, hoping to escape exile. They weren’t disturbed, but Boris, a famous Zionist, had to go into hiding. First he lived with one of his friends. He changed places, but it wasn’t safe as all of them belonged to Zionist circles. I was pregnant again and on 20th April 1941 I gave birth to a boy. I gave birth in a private maternity hospital, in a separate ward. The parturition was normal. I named the boy after my favorite Grandfather Velvl.