Tag #149016 - Interview #78036 (Mendel Kreimer)

At this time the Soviet troops came to Bessarabia [also see Annexation of Bessarabia to the Soviet Union] [17] and I went to work as an accountant in the Border Forces Construction Agency on the bank of the Prut River, the new borderline between Romania and the USSR. This was construction site 12 of the Kiev military department of the NKVD [18] USSR. This organization was responsible for the construction of barracks and fortifications. They paid well and offered good working conditions. There was an earthquake in 1940 in Kishinev. It destroyed the roof of the neighboring two-storied house and ruined the ceiling in our house. I requested my boss Zyrianskiy, also a Jew, to help me repair our house. Stalin issued an order about providing assistance to civilians after the earthquake and my boss promised to help. Two weeks later our roof was repaired. He kept his word: only the best, very decent and honest people served in the frontier troops at that time.