Tag #129256 - Interview #78769 (Mariasha Vasserman)

In late 1944 Tallinn was liberated from the Germans, and evacuees started coming back home. I turned 16, but I didn’t want to receive a passport in exile. I procrastinated with that in order to come back home and get a passport as a citizen of the Soviet Estonian Republic. I was small and lean, so I looked much younger than my age. Thus, my aunt took me to Estonia without passport. My sister and brother stayed in Sovetsk. After some time, my sister and her husband managed to get the permit to move to Kirov. My brother was not willing to go to Kirov, as he dreaded the idea to address the NKVD to get the permit. He lived with Sima in Sovetsk until 1956. Their three sons were born in Sovetsk. The elder, born in 1947 was named Naftole after our father. The second son, Benjamin, was born in 1949, and the third, Avigdor – in 1954. My sister didn’t have children. After working in the quarry very many women became barren.

My aunt and I returned to Tallinn. Other people occupied the apartment we used to live in before our exile. My aunt got our apartment back by a ruling of the court. I lived with her. Now we also lived in the communal apartment [22]. I wasn’t entitled to live in Tallinn : there was a law at that time: people were not permitted to settle in the place, wherefrom they were exiled. I couldn’t get a passport in Tallinn either. In general, there was no way the passport could be issued without a residence permit [23].