Tag #148292 - Interview #95114 (Lazar Sherishevskiy)

My father Veniamin Sherishevskiy was the youngest son of his father Aron Sherishevskiy. After finishing cheder my father could study at a gymnasium with his older brothers’ support.  My father was well educated: he knew Hebrew and Yiddish (they spoke Yiddish in the family), and French and German. After finishing his gymnasium he took an accounting course and went to work as an accountant. In 1913 he was recruited to the czarist army and served in Siauliai at the border of the Russian Empire and Eastern Prussia. When WWI began, my father’s unit relocated to Eastern Prussia in August 1914 where they took part in a fierce battle. They suffered a terrible defeat: general Samsonov shot himself after the battle, many Russian officers and soldiers were captured. My father was in captivity for 5 years. The captives lived in barracks in a camp.  There were English and French prisoners, and my father mastered his French and German in the camp. He said there was no national segregation in the camp. He was just another Russian prisoner for them. Germans sent prisoners to some farm works.