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The people treated us nicely. There wasn’t any anti-Semitism. Of course, I wasn’t running around telling everyone that I was a Jew. But I wasn’t ashamed of it, either.
We didn’t know about what was happening to Jewish people in Kiev. It became known after the war. Erenburg [Erenburg Ilya (1891-1967), very known Russian writer, publicist (hiss nation -Jew).] wrote articles on this subject, but it was more a call to be against the Germans than description of what the Germans were doing. Later I found out that my grandfather, my father’s father committed suicide – took some poison in Kirovograd when the Germans came there. He was familiar with chemistry. And his older brother killed two Germans with a bench. When the Germans came to his home he knew what to expect from them. He grabbed a big bench and killed them. The other Germans shot him.
We didn’t know about what was happening to Jewish people in Kiev. It became known after the war. Erenburg [Erenburg Ilya (1891-1967), very known Russian writer, publicist (hiss nation -Jew).] wrote articles on this subject, but it was more a call to be against the Germans than description of what the Germans were doing. Later I found out that my grandfather, my father’s father committed suicide – took some poison in Kirovograd when the Germans came there. He was familiar with chemistry. And his older brother killed two Germans with a bench. When the Germans came to his home he knew what to expect from them. He grabbed a big bench and killed them. The other Germans shot him.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Grigoriy Yakovlevich Husid