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We spent most of our free time in the yard. We had a wonderful yard. I even have pictures of my friends from my backyard. We had mostly Jewish friends. There was only one German girl, Kaufman, but she was older than us. There was also a shoemaker who lived under our flat. He was a drunkard but a very nice man. He had a daughter, Nastya, who visited him often, and I made friends with her, too. The rest of my friends were Jewish: Sonya Grif, Luba Grif, Sarah Shkurovich (they moved to America). We played different games, but our favorite one was hide-and-seek. We also liked to stage different plays in the yard. We played in the yard, our audience was made up of other children, and we came up with ideas for the plays. Most of the plays were about fairies and queens.
I don't remember any Jewish traditions in the yard, but my father took my brother and me to the synagogue - not often, on major holidays only. Once my friend Sonya invited me to the wedding of her aunt Tanya. There for the first time I saw a chuppah. There were also boys of our age who helped with the wedding. It was a rich family, they had a store where they melted figures for tombstones, made decorations and sculptures. It was right next to our house. They had a wonderful signboard, but the workshop was in the basement.
On the other side of this store was a store that sold furs. It belonged to Rozenberg who had a daughter called Khaya. They lived in our house on the fourth floor, if I'm not mistaken, and they were very rich. They had a dacha, and once their mother took me to the dacha with them but I didn't like it there, it was a very different atmosphere.
I don't remember any Jewish traditions in the yard, but my father took my brother and me to the synagogue - not often, on major holidays only. Once my friend Sonya invited me to the wedding of her aunt Tanya. There for the first time I saw a chuppah. There were also boys of our age who helped with the wedding. It was a rich family, they had a store where they melted figures for tombstones, made decorations and sculptures. It was right next to our house. They had a wonderful signboard, but the workshop was in the basement.
On the other side of this store was a store that sold furs. It belonged to Rozenberg who had a daughter called Khaya. They lived in our house on the fourth floor, if I'm not mistaken, and they were very rich. They had a dacha, and once their mother took me to the dacha with them but I didn't like it there, it was a very different atmosphere.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
lubov ratmanskaya