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One year before I was to go to school my mother sent me to a Frebelichka [10] group: graduated of the Frebel College teaching children were called so. My Frebel instructress was German, though she spoke fluent Russian. There were four kids in the group. My mother took me there each morning and gave me my lunch to go. We spent our days with our Frebel teacher: went out, had lunch and slept in the afternoon. In the park we met with another group. Their Frebelichka didn’t speak Russian and had a teenage girl with her who was her interpreter. Our Frebelichka also taught us reading and writing.
In 1936 I went to the first form of a nearby Russian school. I knew that there was a Jewish school in Kiev – my father’s distant relative studied there, but my parents probably didn’t think it necessary for me to get education in the Jewish language. In five years that I studied before the war I changed 5 schools: every year the district educational management transferred us to another school. I don’t remember my teachers – so often they changed. I studied well and at the end of each academic year I was awarded a certificate and a book. I was one of the first in my class to become a pioneer. The ceremony usually took place on the eve of Soviet holidays: I became a pioneer on the October revolution Day [11]. I remember that my mother arranged a party for me and my schoolmates. She served cakes, cookies and lemonade to us. There were also my favorite sweets: my mother often made sugar and honey sweets at home for me. It was one of Jewish foods, but I don’t remember the word for it. Generally, I had a happy and fair childhood. I cannot remember anything sad about it before the Great Patriotic War. I had Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish friends, but I never thought about the nationality then. Of course, I knew that I was a Jew, but I didn’t think anything special about it: just another nation like any other, no worse and no better.
In 1936 I went to the first form of a nearby Russian school. I knew that there was a Jewish school in Kiev – my father’s distant relative studied there, but my parents probably didn’t think it necessary for me to get education in the Jewish language. In five years that I studied before the war I changed 5 schools: every year the district educational management transferred us to another school. I don’t remember my teachers – so often they changed. I studied well and at the end of each academic year I was awarded a certificate and a book. I was one of the first in my class to become a pioneer. The ceremony usually took place on the eve of Soviet holidays: I became a pioneer on the October revolution Day [11]. I remember that my mother arranged a party for me and my schoolmates. She served cakes, cookies and lemonade to us. There were also my favorite sweets: my mother often made sugar and honey sweets at home for me. It was one of Jewish foods, but I don’t remember the word for it. Generally, I had a happy and fair childhood. I cannot remember anything sad about it before the Great Patriotic War. I had Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish friends, but I never thought about the nationality then. Of course, I knew that I was a Jew, but I didn’t think anything special about it: just another nation like any other, no worse and no better.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Isabella Karanchuk