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When Jews started to move to Israel in the 1970s neither my family nor I had any thoughts about moving to another country. I mean, there were talks about it, but my father nipped them in the bud. He believed people that were leaving to be traitors, and said that nobody should leave this country and that everything here was good and correct. He argued that education was free, and so were medical services, that everything was just fine and if people left it would be a big mistake.
One of my school friends was among the first to leave. There was a special Komsomol meeting at school where she was condemned of treachery. I believed that everybody had the right to make his own decision. If children were leaving their family behind, their parents had to give consent to their emigration in writing. I know that my father would have never given his consent to my departure. I sympathized with these people and envied them a little. They could make a choice in life, I couldn't.
One of my school friends was among the first to leave. There was a special Komsomol meeting at school where she was condemned of treachery. I believed that everybody had the right to make his own decision. If children were leaving their family behind, their parents had to give consent to their emigration in writing. I know that my father would have never given his consent to my departure. I sympathized with these people and envied them a little. They could make a choice in life, I couldn't.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
faina minkova