Tag #147062 - Interview #83426 (Piotr Levitas)

A lot of Jews lived in Mariupol. For some reason, most of the personnel of the factory, where my father worked, were Jews. There were Ukrainians and Russians as well, but they were in minority. So in our house there lived mainly Jewish families.

As compared to other towns, where synagogues and churches were closed down by the Soviet regime [8], Mariupol synagogues continued to operate. There were three synagogues: one for ‘the intellectuals,’ that is, for merchants, doctors, teachers and so on, another synagogue ‘for craftspeople,’ that is, for simple workers and handicraftsmen, and the third one was the so-called Small Synagogue. The Small Synagogue was visited by people regardless of their social status, but it was meant for about 20 persons. It was generally visited by those who rarely went to the synagogue. The synagogue for ‘the intellectuals’ had space for about 50 persons. Seats there were numbered, as compared to the two other synagogues.

I and members of my family visited the synagogue ‘for craftspeople.’ It was the biggest synagogue: it had room for more than 100 persons. The synagogues were situated in different city districts.