Tag #155885 - Interview #78262 (sophia vollerner)

In 1940 Bessarabia 22 and Moldavia [today Moldova] joined the USSR. Before they joined the USSR my husband went to Chernovtsy as a member of governmental delegation. In July 1940 the Ukrainian Ministry of Trade sent my husband to work in Chernovtsy. In September I was transferred to work at a bank in Chernovtsy at my request. I took my son with me. We got a nice three-bedroom apartment in the center of the town. Our son went to school in Chernovtsy. We liked Chernovtsy. It was an old beautiful town. Many people spoke Yiddish in the streets. There was a big synagogue and several smaller ones, a Jewish school and a Jewish theater. Before the Great Patriotic War the majority of the population was Jewish. There were no conflicts and people treated each other nicely.