Selected text
In 1953 the Doctor's Plot [18] began. This was the outburst of anti- Semitism. I was so depressed that I was hardly touched by the death of Stalin. I was only glad that my father died unawares, because Stalin was his idol. The speech of Khrushchev at the Twentieth Party Congress [19] in 1956 came as a shock. I thought that it must have been a mistake and what Khrushchev said couldn't be true.
I didn't face any anti-Semitism during my life in Chernovtsy. I worked at a Ukrainian school. It's difficult to say whether I made the right choice back then. My pupils didn't forget me. The good part of my profession was that my pupils remembered and visited me. They were all Ukrainian children, but they visited me. This school was my family, and I gave all my warmth and care to the children.
I don't want to discuss my personal life. Work at school took all my time. My mother did all the housework. We were very close. We didn't observe any Jewish traditions. We celebrated Soviet holidays. Regretfully, we were always busy. I wish I had asked her more about her life. My mother died in Chernovtsy in 1972. I buried her in the town cemetery in Chernovtsy, which isn't a Jewish cemetery.
I didn't face any anti-Semitism during my life in Chernovtsy. I worked at a Ukrainian school. It's difficult to say whether I made the right choice back then. My pupils didn't forget me. The good part of my profession was that my pupils remembered and visited me. They were all Ukrainian children, but they visited me. This school was my family, and I gave all my warmth and care to the children.
I don't want to discuss my personal life. Work at school took all my time. My mother did all the housework. We were very close. We didn't observe any Jewish traditions. We celebrated Soviet holidays. Regretfully, we were always busy. I wish I had asked her more about her life. My mother died in Chernovtsy in 1972. I buried her in the town cemetery in Chernovtsy, which isn't a Jewish cemetery.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
izolda rubinshtein