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From my childhood I remember how hard my parents worked from early morning until evening. They worked in the field and about the house and we tried to help them from an early age. The older children took care of the younger ones, and we also weeded the fields, watered and planted plants and harvested crops in fall. We all had a rest on Saturdays. I don't remember our parents reading us a book or telling us stories. They got very tired at work. We spoke Yiddish at home, observed the traditions of ourt people and went to the synagogue. It was a one-storied building constructed with self- made bricks by the first settlers. I don't remember whether there was a mikveh. I guess there must have been one because women strictly observed all traditions. In all families in the colony there was one common language of communication: Yiddish. I could read and write in Yiddish, although I wasn't specifically taught Yiddish. I can still remember poems that we learned by heart at school., but I've forgotten our teachers or their names.
I remember the period of World War I. There was concern in the family that was followed by grief for our brother Zisl and Hana's husband. When Iosif was hiding in the shed in the yard he scared little Vera so that she began to stutter. My mother went to ask the rabbi's advice at the synagogue. I don't know what he told her to do, but she cured Vera.
In 1916 various gangs robbed and killed people. Once a few bandits broke into our house demanding food and wine. My mother slaughtered two chickens and cooked them for the bandits. They sang 'Beat the zhydy [kike], save Russia'. [An anti-Semitic song that was sung in the streets.] They ate and drank and left our house. They didn't do us any harm.
During a typhoid epidemic in 1916-1917 there was no medication nor a hospital. There was only one doctor, and he couldn't manage with all the patients. My mother contracted the disease from looking after our neighbor and died in 1918.
The residence of Nestor Makhno [7] was in Gulyai Pole. He came to Novozlatopol several times, and I saw him. He had long hair, a pock-marked face, was short and repugnant. Once he arrived in a vehicle, and that was the first time I ever saw a car. At other times he came on a cart with a machine gun installed on it and scared people with his anarchistic and anti- Semitic speeches. Anyway, Makhno himself was not nearly as horrific as his gangs beating and killing people during pogroms. They took away valuables, food and livestock. The bandits shot a Jewish family of seven. Three small children were killed in their beds. I have a terrible recollection of seven sleighs with seven dead bodies. What an awful tragedy it was. We were so scared.
They came to our house, too. My father was in bed covered with a thick blanket. He was ill. My sister told them he had typhoid, and they didn't touch him. They took away everything. Colonists had no weapons to protect themselves, so the young people grabbed spades, pitchforks and sticks if bandits came at night. The colony, that had always had plenty of food, suddenly turned into a poor area. People were leaving. We moved to Zaporozhye in 1920, but we were poor there, too. We starved and picked up potato peels in the streets to cook and eat them. My sister Feigele ate some unripe fruit and died in 1920.
We were hoping that the Revolution of 1917 [8] would improve people's lives and bring equality to people. We thought that people would get an opportunity to study, that peasants would receive land to work on it and that nobody would hurt us.
Many villagers were trying to escape to town because of the pogroms. We lived with my older sister, Hana, in a basement in Zaporozhiye. Many people came there from small villages. They had no dwelling at all, therefore this basement was good enough for them. Many people had unbearable living conditions. There were two rooms and two families: Hana's family and another family.
I remember the period of World War I. There was concern in the family that was followed by grief for our brother Zisl and Hana's husband. When Iosif was hiding in the shed in the yard he scared little Vera so that she began to stutter. My mother went to ask the rabbi's advice at the synagogue. I don't know what he told her to do, but she cured Vera.
In 1916 various gangs robbed and killed people. Once a few bandits broke into our house demanding food and wine. My mother slaughtered two chickens and cooked them for the bandits. They sang 'Beat the zhydy [kike], save Russia'. [An anti-Semitic song that was sung in the streets.] They ate and drank and left our house. They didn't do us any harm.
During a typhoid epidemic in 1916-1917 there was no medication nor a hospital. There was only one doctor, and he couldn't manage with all the patients. My mother contracted the disease from looking after our neighbor and died in 1918.
The residence of Nestor Makhno [7] was in Gulyai Pole. He came to Novozlatopol several times, and I saw him. He had long hair, a pock-marked face, was short and repugnant. Once he arrived in a vehicle, and that was the first time I ever saw a car. At other times he came on a cart with a machine gun installed on it and scared people with his anarchistic and anti- Semitic speeches. Anyway, Makhno himself was not nearly as horrific as his gangs beating and killing people during pogroms. They took away valuables, food and livestock. The bandits shot a Jewish family of seven. Three small children were killed in their beds. I have a terrible recollection of seven sleighs with seven dead bodies. What an awful tragedy it was. We were so scared.
They came to our house, too. My father was in bed covered with a thick blanket. He was ill. My sister told them he had typhoid, and they didn't touch him. They took away everything. Colonists had no weapons to protect themselves, so the young people grabbed spades, pitchforks and sticks if bandits came at night. The colony, that had always had plenty of food, suddenly turned into a poor area. People were leaving. We moved to Zaporozhye in 1920, but we were poor there, too. We starved and picked up potato peels in the streets to cook and eat them. My sister Feigele ate some unripe fruit and died in 1920.
We were hoping that the Revolution of 1917 [8] would improve people's lives and bring equality to people. We thought that people would get an opportunity to study, that peasants would receive land to work on it and that nobody would hurt us.
Many villagers were trying to escape to town because of the pogroms. We lived with my older sister, Hana, in a basement in Zaporozhiye. Many people came there from small villages. They had no dwelling at all, therefore this basement was good enough for them. Many people had unbearable living conditions. There were two rooms and two families: Hana's family and another family.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
sima medved
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