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We didn't face any anti-Semitism in Chernovtsy, because the majority of the population of this town was Jewish. It's an old and cultural town. Even now there are many different nationalities in the town. There have been no conflicts or national segregation. Local people told me that even before the war a janitor had to speak three to four languages in order to be employed. There could be Jewish, German, Romanian and Russian families living in one building, and janitors had to communicate with them in their own languages. I understand Romanian, German and Moldavian, too.
My mother and I continued to observe Jewish traditions. There was one synagogue operating in Chernovtsy after the war. There was no good selection of food after the war, but my mother managed to cook traditional food on holidays by saving money from our everyday expenditures. We didn't celebrate Sabbath, because Saturday was a working day at that time. My mother and I both worked. On Saturdays my mother went to pray at the synagogue after work. On holidays we went to the synagogue together.
At the beginning of 1952 I was recruited to the army. I was in the army when Stalin died. We were summoned to a meeting. There were official speeches about the sorrows Soviet people were going through. I didn't feel any grief, though. I didn't live under the Soviet regime for long. I knew that Stalin was a terribly guileful man. I knew that anti-Semitism and the Doctors' Plot [2] were initiated by him. He should have been aware of what was going on in the country that was completely in his power. He was exterminating specialists and decent people. He exterminated unique professors, doctors and experts. He exterminated Jewish, Russian and Ukrainian intellectuals. [The interviewee is referring to what is called today the Great Terror.] [3] He sent people that were doing well and working hard into exile in Siberia. So many of them died. I hated him for his evil deeds. When he died I said that he had lived too long anyway. If he had died 30 years earlier, there wouldn't have been so many deaths.
My mother and I continued to observe Jewish traditions. There was one synagogue operating in Chernovtsy after the war. There was no good selection of food after the war, but my mother managed to cook traditional food on holidays by saving money from our everyday expenditures. We didn't celebrate Sabbath, because Saturday was a working day at that time. My mother and I both worked. On Saturdays my mother went to pray at the synagogue after work. On holidays we went to the synagogue together.
At the beginning of 1952 I was recruited to the army. I was in the army when Stalin died. We were summoned to a meeting. There were official speeches about the sorrows Soviet people were going through. I didn't feel any grief, though. I didn't live under the Soviet regime for long. I knew that Stalin was a terribly guileful man. I knew that anti-Semitism and the Doctors' Plot [2] were initiated by him. He should have been aware of what was going on in the country that was completely in his power. He was exterminating specialists and decent people. He exterminated unique professors, doctors and experts. He exterminated Jewish, Russian and Ukrainian intellectuals. [The interviewee is referring to what is called today the Great Terror.] [3] He sent people that were doing well and working hard into exile in Siberia. So many of them died. I hated him for his evil deeds. When he died I said that he had lived too long anyway. If he had died 30 years earlier, there wouldn't have been so many deaths.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Leonid Krais