Tag #151799 - Interview #84041 (Yacob Hollander)

There were many Jews in Beregovo after World War II. They returned from concentration camps or work battalions and moved from other places when they couldn’t stay in their homes like me. There were abandoned houses where they could live. In 1945 all synagogues in Beregovo were still operating. There were 8 synagogues in Beregovo. Hasidim had 3 synagogues and the Jewish community had 5. In 1946 Soviet authorities started their struggle against religion closing the synagogues. They gave the biggest synagogue to the Philharmonics. They made a store in another synagogue where there was a building of the shochet and a market in the yard. The mikveh became a public bathroom. So they closed 7 synagogues and there was only one big central synagogue operating in Beregovo. At first the authorities wanted to turn it into a storage facility like they often did with synagogues and churches. The Jews of Beregovo guarded it on the 24-hour basis. They made the schedule for guarding it. My relatives and I also went there. Probably the local authorities decided to avoid open confrontation and left the synagogue alone. All Jews of Beregovo except those who moved there after World War II from the USSR went to the synagogue on Sabbath and Jewish holidays. The synagogue operated until the middle of the 1960s. There were 3 Jewish communists holding high official posts in Beregovo. They were director of the meat factory, director of public bathroom and director of the town trade department. They wrote a letter to the town executive committee [Ispolkom] [8] asking permission to use the synagogue for the needs of residents of the town. The town executive committee opened a town house of culture in the synagogue.