Tag #148320 - Interview #95114 (Lazar Sherishevskiy)

Director of the plant was an NKVD [33] major – Abramzon, a Jew and there were civilian technicians and engineers. This was the way the empire worked – it wanted its technical work resources to wear NKVD uniforms. I will always be grateful to the civilian engineer Zakhar Gurevich, a Jew, who worked in the design office of the construction department. He took my letters past the censors and sent them for me. There were many Jewish prisoners. There were Russian and other nationalities. I will tell about two Jews I met in this camp. They were workers and had been sentenced under political convictions. One of them was Abram Fux, a high-skilled gauger. He had been released, but then imprisoned again – NKVD needed his logistic skills. Another Jew was Zelik Polonskiy from Chernovtsy. He was a high-skilled bricklayer. All incentives for good work in the camp were stomach-related. They gave additional bread or cereal, called ‘cream-dish’ for good work. Zelik’s photo was on all boards for distinguished workers. He came from Western Ukraine. His mother tongue was Yiddish and he spoke fluent Ukrainian. There are lots of talks that Jews do not like workers’ professions, but these two were highly qualified workers. Here were no anti-Semitic moods among prisoners, though there were routinely matters of arguments. The management of the camp was still ‘contaminated’ with Jewish elements: major Abramzon, Colonel Zfas, also a Jew, deputy director of the camp, and there was a number of Jews among key personnel. They didn’t distinguish between prisoners, though. They didn’t dare. Medical chief Boris Feldman, major of medical service, did have a better attitude towards Jewish prisoners, though.