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I was quite confused about my father's sister: she was Polina for my grandmother while for everyone else she was Lidia. My grandmother told me that Polina married an icon painter and converted to Christianity. When she got the name of Lidia my grandmother couldn't stand it and only called her Polina. Jews converting to Christianity weren't rare in Odessa. When working at university I met Professor Shereshevski, a lawyer. His father was an expert in Jewish philosophy. When Shereshevski junior converted to Christianity before the Great October Socialist Revolution [see Russian Revolution of 1917] [1] for the sake of his career, his father cursed his son in public at the synagogue and forbade him to attend his funeral.
It was different in our family. Aunt Lidia and her husband lived separately from my grandparents, but they got along well with my grandfather and grandmother. Lidia had no children. After the Revolution Lidia's husband, whose name I don't remember, couldn't earn his living by painting icons so he worked as a drawer in a construction company. Lidia visited her mother when she was ill and her husband also visited his in-laws every now and then. In the late 1920s they left for Berdiansk. After the Great Patriotic War [2] Uncle Michael visited them when he was on a business trip. They lived in poverty. He did what he could for them, supported them with some money. They both died in 1946.
My father's brother Miron was born in 1890. He finished a vocational school called Trud [Labor]. He became a cabinetmaker or carpenter. I have very vague memories of him. He was in the army during World War I and was awarded a St. George Cross [3] for bravery in a bayonet battle in the Brusilov [4] breakthrough. After the war Miron returned to Odessa.
It was different in our family. Aunt Lidia and her husband lived separately from my grandparents, but they got along well with my grandfather and grandmother. Lidia had no children. After the Revolution Lidia's husband, whose name I don't remember, couldn't earn his living by painting icons so he worked as a drawer in a construction company. Lidia visited her mother when she was ill and her husband also visited his in-laws every now and then. In the late 1920s they left for Berdiansk. After the Great Patriotic War [2] Uncle Michael visited them when he was on a business trip. They lived in poverty. He did what he could for them, supported them with some money. They both died in 1946.
My father's brother Miron was born in 1890. He finished a vocational school called Trud [Labor]. He became a cabinetmaker or carpenter. I have very vague memories of him. He was in the army during World War I and was awarded a St. George Cross [3] for bravery in a bayonet battle in the Brusilov [4] breakthrough. After the war Miron returned to Odessa.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Victor Feldman