Tag #155750 - Interview #103947 (Faina Volper Biography)

My father’s family lived in Starokonstantinov, Khmelnitsk region. My grandfather on my father’s side Haim-Usher Volper was born in Starokonstantinov in 1840s. My grandfather died from twisted bowels in 1907. I don’t know what he did for a living. All I know is that his family was very poor living from hand to mouth. I remember my grandmother Brukhe, my father’s mother. I don’t know her nee name. She was born in Starokonstantinov in 1846. I have no information about my grandmother’s family. I remember my grandmother slim and straight. She had very smooth face without any wrinkles. She wore a kerchief low on her forehead. She wore a dark skirt and a light polka-dot blouse buttoned up her neck. She also wore a dark apron. My grandmother was a strong-willed and severe woman. She had a hard life.

The majority of population in Starokonstantinov was Jewish. They were mainly handicraftsmen. There were also lawyers and doctors. It was a problem for Jews to get a higher education in the tsarist Russia (1). Jews got along well with the Russian and Ukrainian population of the town. There was no anti-Semitism before the war. There was a synagogue, cheder and Jewish primary school in this town.
My grandmother and grandfather had four sons. The oldest Yukl was born around 1885. The next son Duvid was born around 1888. Then Shmil-Lobe was born in 1891 and my father Lipe, the youngest, was born in 1895.