Tag #155418 - Interview #103776 (Efim Shpielberg Biography)

In 1952 I came home on leave. It was right in the height of the Doctor’s Plot [15]. Our friends and acquaintances were scared with the existing situation. There was a Jewish first aid hospital in Miasoedovskaya Street in Moldavanka, one of the oldest hospitals in town. The Jewish community it for Jews and other townsmen back in the 19th century. There were very high skilled doctors working in the hospital. They began to be fired, pestered and accused. I heard people saying ‘We won’t go to zhydy. We don’t want them to poison us’ many times. When this was the governmental policy, how were common people supposed to react? I also remember an incident that happened in summer in Rasumovskaya Street. There was a man walking beside him. Some man approached him and said: ‘Were did you zhydovskaya morda [a Jewish mug], buy this order? The man replied ‘I am a tank man. I went through the war. And you are telling me this?’ and he did hit him hard.