Tag #129253 - Interview #78769 (Mariasha Vasserman)

My brother, who was studying at Tartu University, had to come back home. He quit his studies to help Father with the store. He worked as an accountant. Though, it didn’t last long. The Soviet regime commenced nationalization of the private enterprises. Father’s store was also nationalized. The process of nationalization was as follows: first the Soviet commissar [13] was assigned, who came to the store, reviewed business processes. Then there was the day, when that commissar should be given the keys to the store, safe and all documents, and that was it. The owner was turned out. Of course, there was no monetary compensation. My father had to go through that. On that day I saw my father crying for the first time, and I was worried. I remember, I climbed on his lap and tried to comfort him. Soon, I saw Father’s tears for the second time. Though his store was requisitioned, Father had to pay a large amount of money. He didn’t have enough to pay the debt.

First, some people came and made the inventory of our property, then they started taking all things from our house. And again I had to see my father cry. Father loved curio things, silver utensils and jewelry. He had collected them all his life and he used to say that those things would later remind his children of him. All those precious things were taken, as well as good pieces of furniture. Only the most necessary things were left: table, chairs and a bed. At that time I expressly understood that our calm and prosperous life was over and we didn’t know what was in store for us. 

In November 1940 my elder sister got married. She met her future husband, Isaac Goldman, in the lyceum. They were classmates and had been in love for a long time. My sister was married in a chuppah in the Tallinn synagogue. Rabbi Aba Gomer [14] led the wedding ceremony and gave them the ketubbah. Then their marriage was registered in the city hall. It was a mere stationary procedure. We had a wedding party at home. There were not a lot of guests, just close friends and relatives. It was in the Soviet time, so there was no way the newly-weds could have rented a separate apartment. My sister and her husband lived with us. Isaac was a good expert. He worked with jewelry, silver in particular. My sister kept on studying at the Arts Institute.

When the store was nationalized, my brother was hired there as an accountant. It was harder for my father to find a job. Finally he went to work in the clock repair shop, which was providing services for the Baltic fleet. Father was a very good clock mender and an honest man. Some of the people who knew Father recommended him for that work. Mother went to work as a cashier in a dish store, and Aunt Breine kept on working in the confectionary, which was also nationalized and taken from the Genovker family.