Tag #147626 - Interview #94561 (Zinoviy Rukinglaz )

In 1930 I went to a Russian school. There was one Jewish school left in the town, but it was far from where we lived. There were children of different nationalities in my class: Russian, Ukrainian, Jewish and Greek. We got along well. However, there was one anti-Semitic incident with me. I was in the 7th form, I think. I liked geography and wanted to become a traveler, but that time I didn’t do my homework. My teacher called me to the blackboard, but I told her honestly that I wasn’t prepared to the class. The teacher knew that I was an industrious pupil and didn’t put me a bad mark. Then she called a Ukrainian boy, but rather than telling her honestly that he wasn’t prepared he began to wriggle answering something irrelevant to the subject. She put him a bad mark and when going to his desk he said that she didn’t put me a bad mark because I was a ‘cunning zhyd”. The teacher, who was Ukrainian, called both of us to the blackboard and asked the class: ‘which of them is cunning: the Jewish boy who honestly said that he wasn’t ready for the class, or the Ukrainian boy who was trying to tell me a lie?’ The class kept silent, but I had a feeling that they were on my side. I had a valid excuse for coming to the class unprepared. My mother was seriously ill and was in hospital and I visited her there every day across the town.