Evacuation began in July. Big industrial enterprises such as the shipbuilding plant, the instrument making plant named after Petrovskiy and light industry enterprises evacuated in the first turn and the smaller ones like the one where my father was working, were waiting for their turn.
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Displaying 36691 - 36720 of 50826 results
Zinoviy Rukinglaz
My father died in December 1946. There were severe frosts and I had to pay the cemetery workers a lot of money to excavate a grave. The factory provided the amount of money that I paid to the workers and also enough to buy the cerement to wrap my father’s body. Old Jewish men buried him according to Jewish traditions: his body lay on the floor wrapped in cerement and they recited the mourning Kaddish over him.
Once, when visiting uncle Ilia, I met a lovely Jewish girl. I liked her at once. She was Rosa’s niece. The girl’s name was Gitl Berman. She told me her story on the first evening when I was seeing her to her home.
After WWI in 1918 Moldova was annexed to Austro-Hungary [ed. note: to Romania, and Moisey and his family couldn’t return to his home town. Moisey had savings and opened a small restaurant in Bendery town.
When the soviet troops came to Bessarabia [19] in 1940 Gitl’s father Moisey was arrested under the charges that he house the Romanian army headquarters in his restaurant. Miron’s wife Anna Palker worked with communists in the underground and he didn’t suffer the arrest. During the soviet regime Anna became a Minister in Moldova. Moisey, Gitl and Ziama were exiled to the Ural. Moisey was put in a camp, and the children were taken to different children’s homes. Gitl was taken to the children’s home in Lialia town near Cheliabinsk [3500 km from Kiev]. Moisey wasn’t kept in the camp for long. In 1942 he was released and sent to work at a military plant in Sverdlovsk.
Gitl also worked at a plant, when she was in the children’s home. She was short and stood on boxes to reach her machine unit. She worked 12 hours per day and was given a loaf of bread and a meal per day for her work. Gitl was selling this bread to save money.
When Kherson was liberated, Moisey and his children moved to Kherson where his sister Rosa, my uncle Ilia’s wife, lived. They bought a very small room on Gitl’s savings.
Gitl and I fell in love with each other and I proposed marriage to her. I bought a big bed on my savings. Grisha wife’s brother gave Gitl a wedding ring. He was a dentist. We had a civil ceremony in a registry office in autumn 1947. We had guests in the evening: Rosa brought apples, Grunia brought cookies, and I had tea and sugar. These made for our wedding party.
We had a quiet life till 1948, when the son of the former owners of the apartment where we lived arrived in Kherson came into possession of his parents’ property. He sold the house and its new owner began to pester us: he removed the stove to force us to move out, but the court decided that he had to provide accommodation to us and he bought a shed in Dekabristov Street. He helped us to repair it . We made two small rooms and a kitchen and Gitl and I moved in there.
My wife didn’t work. My salary was 500 rubles per month. We starved with her. We could only afford to buy kishke and fat at the market. Our son stayed 5 days in the kindergarten, because he could have meals there.
Gitl had finished 5 forms in a Romanian school and 2 forms of a Soviet school. Uncle Ilia taught her accounting and in 1952 Gitl went to work at a storage facility.
Her colleagues treated her well, even during the period of anti-Semitic campaigns in the early 1950s we didn’t face any prejudiced attitudes, though there was terrible routinely anti-Semitism. Once, when my wife, her brother Ziama and I were going on a stroll in the park, a queer man followed us calling us ‘zhydy’. I think, the passers-by enjoyed watching this scene, but nobody stood for us.
We couldn’t afford much. We didn’t travel on vacations. Actually, I spent my vacations trying to earn some additional money.
We didn’t have many friends and socialized mainly with my relatives and my wife’s relatives.
In 1955 uncle Abram’s wife wrote us from Moscow. My uncle was severely ill. After Stalin’s death and arrest of Beriya he began to have problems: he lost his job and had a stroke.
My brother Mikhail lived in Nikolaev after the war. After his service in the army NKVD employed him. He worked there till his retirement.
Yakov Shyshylovskiy moved to Nikolaev after the war and became director of a big military plant.
My wife and I tried to observe Jewish traditions, whenever possible. Of course, we had to go to work on Saturday, when there was a 6-day working week. We were generally not religious, but we celebrated Pesach, Chanukkah and Rosh Hashanah as a tribute to traditions and to the memory of our parents. We had festive meals and talked about the history and traditions of the holiday. We tried to teach our sons to respect Jewish traditions, and I can say, they grew up to be real Jews.
Our older son Igor finished the Ship mechanic Technical School and Kherson Construction College. He is a site manager in a construction company.
Vladimir is a doctor and Yuri is a computer engineer.
In the late 1990s they moved to Israel.
My younger grandson Oleg studies in the Kherson Polytechnic College.
My younger son Mikhail does not do so well as Igor. He has a secondary education. After finishing school he worked at the shoe factory. The factory and other enterprises in the town shut down as a result of perestroika [20] that brought nothing good to working people. My son is a guard at a parking lot. He earns pea nuts for his work.
Their son Yevgeniy studies in the 8th form of a secondary school.
In 1988 the Jewish life progressed in our town and I began to take part in it. A Yiddish school was established. Professor Modiyevskiy and Professor Ruzberg taught it. There were about 30 Jewish activists and we wrote a request to the town executive committee [21] for the return of the synagogue to Jews. We also arranged a meeting in from of the town administration. The synagogue was returned in 1988. It housed a mental clinic before. The Jews of Kherson collected money for its repair. I installed the whole electrical part. The synagogue opened in 1989. I attend the synagogue to pray and study in the yeshivah.
I often ask myself why we didn’t move to Israel, when we were young, but I can find no answer. I was probably too busy having two jobs and didn’t have time to think of changing my life. I feel sorry about it now. I’ve always sympathized with Israel and their struggle. I am very happy that at least my grandchildren will live in their Jewish country.
In 2001 Gitl visited Israel. She was eager to see her brother Ziama and the grandchildren.
I socialize with old people like myself who go to the synagogue. I also attend the Day center in Hesed once a week. It means a lot to me: it means, people have interest in me. I am very grateful for their support. I don’t think I would survive without their care, medications and food supplies.
When the revolution began, Yakov joined the Red army and then went to work in state security bodies. He rose to the rank of general in the course of his service.
My father realized that he had to other things to care about rather than revolutionary ideas. He had to support the family. With the help of two influential people he moved into two next-door rooms and the family had the four-bedroom apartment at their disposal. Life was improving. The Soviet officials needed new suits and their wives wanted fancy clothes and coats. My father had his clients and began to earn well.