Tag #118285 - Interview #88025 (Iosif Yudelevichus)

In 1940 we moved to the apartment in a small wooden house not far from the train station. There were a lot of changes in the life of mine and brother’s. All educational institutions had been shuffled. Some of them were closed down and the assignment of the rest of the students was not clear. In fall 1940 we went to school. Most of my classmates went to other institutions, but I met new boys and girls. I was not pleased with the ongoing, as there were a lot of friends among those who left. I had to get used to new friends and teaches and to teaching in Yiddish. When Soviet regime was in power, there was teachers’ congress, were some of the teachers took the floor against the innovations in the educational system, introduced by Soviet regime. Many participants of the congress were arrested when it was over. In general, the pre-war year was tense. Then many of my comrades turned 13 in 1941. I was invited for celebration of bar-mitzvah and started thinking what I should do next. Father even did breathe a word of celebration of my bar-mitzvah. Brother’s bar-mitzvah had not been marked either. My anxieties were of no importance. My thirteenth’s birthday was in December and on the 22nd of June our life took a sharp turn- Hitler attacked Soviet Union.