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From the time of my communist youth activities I believed the Soviet power to be the only regime that would give us freedom, justice and national equality. I joined the Party believing that it was my duty and that being a party member I would be able to do even more to help the Soviet power.
At first I didn’t face any anti-Semitism. I was given a responsible job, and I had support and was praised. When more people began to arrive in Subcarpathia from the USSR, anti-Semitism began to develop. I always wrote in my documents that I was a Jew. When I got my passport, they wrote there my name Neuman as ‘Noyman.’ [Editor’s note: The interviewee means that they put his name down in Cyrillic and according to the Russian phonetic rules.]
Once, the secretary of the regional party committee told me that it would be better for me and for all if I took my wife’s non-Jewish surname. Director of a big plant Stepan Takacs sounded better than Neuman, but although I was a devoted communist and loved my job, I replied that if this was a condition for me to continue my work I did not accept it. I was Neuman during the fascist regime and I survived, so why couldn’t I remain to be myself during the Soviet regime.
The secretary changed the subject of discussion and I thought the issue was closed, but then I began to feel pressure on me. I understood that this was because I was a Jew and they would try to remove me from this position. I became director of this plant because I started this production and was growing with the plant. Local Uzhgorod residents knew me and if they fired me, this might have caused a negative response in the town, but I had to do twice as much as a non-Jew to remain on the right track.
Then the fault finding began and they even blamed me that I didn’t perform my job and that I was not perspective. I was called to the ministry where I told them that if I had made mistakes let them point them out to me and help me to get to the right point, but they didn’t say anything concrete to me. Then I faced state anti-Semitism as an administrator. It was not demonstrated openly, but the ministry gave directions to all managers on which positions they should never employ Jews.
At first I didn’t face any anti-Semitism. I was given a responsible job, and I had support and was praised. When more people began to arrive in Subcarpathia from the USSR, anti-Semitism began to develop. I always wrote in my documents that I was a Jew. When I got my passport, they wrote there my name Neuman as ‘Noyman.’ [Editor’s note: The interviewee means that they put his name down in Cyrillic and according to the Russian phonetic rules.]
Once, the secretary of the regional party committee told me that it would be better for me and for all if I took my wife’s non-Jewish surname. Director of a big plant Stepan Takacs sounded better than Neuman, but although I was a devoted communist and loved my job, I replied that if this was a condition for me to continue my work I did not accept it. I was Neuman during the fascist regime and I survived, so why couldn’t I remain to be myself during the Soviet regime.
The secretary changed the subject of discussion and I thought the issue was closed, but then I began to feel pressure on me. I understood that this was because I was a Jew and they would try to remove me from this position. I became director of this plant because I started this production and was growing with the plant. Local Uzhgorod residents knew me and if they fired me, this might have caused a negative response in the town, but I had to do twice as much as a non-Jew to remain on the right track.
Then the fault finding began and they even blamed me that I didn’t perform my job and that I was not perspective. I was called to the ministry where I told them that if I had made mistakes let them point them out to me and help me to get to the right point, but they didn’t say anything concrete to me. Then I faced state anti-Semitism as an administrator. It was not demonstrated openly, but the ministry gave directions to all managers on which positions they should never employ Jews.
Period
Location
Uzhgorod
Ukraine
Interview
Stepan Neuman