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In 1939 my mother entered the College of Foreign languages in Odessa. In summer 1941 I finished the 7th form with all excellent marks, got an award of honor and my parents sent me to aunt Rosalia, my father’s sister, in Kratovo, near Moscow. I arrived at Kratovo on 17 June and on 22 June the war began. I heard about it on the radio sitting at the table in the yard of my aunt’s house. All I remember is that there was a lot of fuss. All became nervous. Aunt Rosalia decided that we had to go to her older son David who worked in Tashkent [Uzbekistan] after finishing the Faculty of Astronomy and Land Survey of Moscow University. Her son Mark also lived there. A month later my aunt’s family and I went to Tashkent by train. My cousin brother David went to the front. We were staying with Mark. My father was already at the front. My mother and brother followed us from Odessa: they reached Kharkov by truck first and from there they traveled to Tashkent by train.
From Tashkent my mother, my brother and I went to Dzhambul region in Kazakhstan [3 800 km from Odessa] where we lived at Burnoye station in 62 km from Dzhambul. We rented a room and the owner of the room and her daughter lived in this same room, too. The comforts were in the yard. My mother went to work as English teacher at high school of the railroad department. She received a one-bedroom apartment in a house near the railroad. There was a big room heated with wood stoked stove. There was a pump and a toilet in the yard. We were very poor and didn’t have anything to eat. My mother made borsch with beet leaves and flat cookies from potato peels and bran. My mother bought a goat. My brother Yuri and I took it to a pasture. I milked it and we had milk. We used to buy some food products at the market. My brother went to the second grade and I went to the eighth grade at the school where my mother was working. There were highly qualified teachers in this school. I remember our teacher of physics from Leningrad, an intelligent and cultured man. The schoolchildren were children from neighboring villages. We were in bad need of money and I worked as a librarian at school. Since I studied and worked I didn’t have time to socialize and I only had few friends. There were many Jews that had evacuated from Poland. Polish Jews observed Jewish traditions. A friend of mine, a Polish Jew, invited me to his wedding. I remember very well that there was a chuppah on this wedding. I finished school in Burnoye.
From Tashkent my mother, my brother and I went to Dzhambul region in Kazakhstan [3 800 km from Odessa] where we lived at Burnoye station in 62 km from Dzhambul. We rented a room and the owner of the room and her daughter lived in this same room, too. The comforts were in the yard. My mother went to work as English teacher at high school of the railroad department. She received a one-bedroom apartment in a house near the railroad. There was a big room heated with wood stoked stove. There was a pump and a toilet in the yard. We were very poor and didn’t have anything to eat. My mother made borsch with beet leaves and flat cookies from potato peels and bran. My mother bought a goat. My brother Yuri and I took it to a pasture. I milked it and we had milk. We used to buy some food products at the market. My brother went to the second grade and I went to the eighth grade at the school where my mother was working. There were highly qualified teachers in this school. I remember our teacher of physics from Leningrad, an intelligent and cultured man. The schoolchildren were children from neighboring villages. We were in bad need of money and I worked as a librarian at school. Since I studied and worked I didn’t have time to socialize and I only had few friends. There were many Jews that had evacuated from Poland. Polish Jews observed Jewish traditions. A friend of mine, a Polish Jew, invited me to his wedding. I remember very well that there was a chuppah on this wedding. I finished school in Burnoye.
Period
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Remma Kogan