Tag #145484 - Interview #92161 (Sofia Furman)

I walked in the school corridor and heard behind my back, ‘Jewess!’ Some people treated us very well and some said, ‘These so-and-so came and ate all our food!’ But in general I was treated well for some reason. I was always a naughty child, like a boy. I had a friend, a Jewish girl. She was always teased, though she was half-Russian. The teachers were no anti-Semites. Our primary grades’ teacher always protected me and scolded my little torturers. She even told me, ‘Don’t tell anyone that you are a Jewess.’ Some children, especially from uneducated families, could say something bad. Especially when we were in the junior grades. I remember how boys from our class fought with other boys, defending me, if someone had offended me. Mother always tried to smoothen such conflicts and told me not to pay attention. We had a big communal apartment, so we tried not to focus on the Jewish issue. But sometimes I thought to myself, ‘I will never marry a Jew, I don’t want my children to suffer.’ I cried so much when I was a little girl! Later when I grew up, I didn’t feel this children’s anti-Semitism, people treated me well.