Tag #150126 - Interview #97046 (Evgenia Gendler)

I didn’t know my father’s parents. They lived in the outskirts of St. Petersburg – I don’t know exactly the place. My grandfather’s name was Motl Yacub, but I don’t know my grandmother’s name. My grandfather and grandmother were born in 1870s. My grandfather was a craftsman and my grandmother was a housewife. My father told me almost nothing about his childhood. He was a taciturn man. My father’s parents were religious. They spoke Yiddish, observed Jewish traditions and celebrated Sabbath and Jewish holidays. Grandfather and his sons went to synagogue on Saturday and Jewish holidays and grandmother went to synagogue only on holidays. They were not wealthy. They had three children. The oldest daughter Chava was born in 1893. My father Arl-Itzhok was born in 1896. My father’s younger brother Vladimir was born in 1898. His Jewish name was Velvl. My father and his younger brother studied at cheder. I don’t know whether they studied in secondary school too. Chava and Vladimir had the last name of Yacub and my father’s surname was Krut. My grandfather’s distant relatives adopted my father to enable him get a release from military service since young men that were the only children in their families were not subject to service in the army. When my father turned 14 he became an apprentice of a roofer. He finished a three-year training before he became a professional. He worked in his tutor’s crew.  

My grandfather and grandmother died during the revolution of 1917[1]. I don’t know whether they died from hunger or typhoid that swept over Russia. They were buried at the Jewish cemetery in St. Petersburg. Chava got married. She was a housewife. Chava and her husband had two children. Chava’s husband died in late 1930s. She went to work as a laborer in a shop. During the Great Patriotic War [2] Chava and her children stayed in the Leningrad blockade [3]. During the blockade they managed to escape from the city via the ‘Road of Life’ [4]. They were evacuated to Central Asia where they stayed until the end of the war. Afterwards Chava returned to Leningrad where she died in the1950s. 

My father’s brother Vladimir also had a family. His wife’s name was Manya [short for Maria]. They had two daughters: Ania and Luba. I don’t remember what Vladimir did to earn his living. During the Great Patriotic War he was at the front and his family was in evacuation. After the war Vladimir and his family returned to Leningrad. Vladimir was severely wounded at the front. This wound lead to his death in early 1950s.