If it were not for the assistance of Hesed and Jewish Charity Committee I would be desperate. A nurse from Hesed comes to help me. She is a wonderful woman. She cleans my room and washes me. I get meals from Hesed. At Shabbat Hesed sends me a hala and dinner. Volunteers come to help me stand and walk. They read me Jewish magazines and newspapers and tell me news. They help me to overcome the feeling of loneliness. I know that there is somebody to bury me when I die. They’ve become my family.
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Displaying 50641 - 50670 of 50826 results
Elizabeth Waiser Biography
My grandfather owned a food store. He also had other essential goods: kerosene lamps, candles and clothing and footwear. When there were more than few customers in the store my grandmother or my father helped my grandmother. It was a small store in the house where the family lived. It was a small stone-faced wooden house. The family had 3 small rooms and a kitchen. There was a living room, my grandparents’ bedroom and a children’s room in the house. I remember the living room. There were small windows in the house and it was always dark in there. There was a sofa, a table and six chairs with velvet upholstery and carved legs in the living room.
The Soviet authorities were propagating for getting education in Russia. Our older brother Jacob decided to go to Russia and convinced his brothers to join him. All three of them went to Russia in 1940. They went to different locations in Russia. Jacob became an apprentice at a fire unit in the town of Kaminski, Rostov region. Joseph got a job at a plant in the vicinity of Gorky in Ivanovo region. The youngest Froim became an apprentice of locksmith in the town of Rubtsovsk of Rubtsovsk region. He was 15 years old.
,
1940
See text in interview
On 22 June 1941 the Great patriotic War began. We were woken by the roar of explosions and couldn’t understand what was going on. On Sunday morning we heard an announcement on the radio that fascists attacked the Soviet Union. There were many Jewish families in Bairamcha. And only 2 or 3 families evacuated. The rest of Jews perished. They were slaughtered like sheep. My aunt Frida had 4 small children. Lisa was of my age. The youngest was 9 months old. Frida was holding the baby when a fascist came a stabbed the baby with a bayonet. Frida fainted and fascists shot her. Her husband Berl and three older children also perished. Fascists killed our 28 relatives. Many other people perished on that day. We got to know about it when we returned to Bairamcha after the war.
My father insisted that we left Bairamcha. He said that he could only pray for his sons that were in Russia but he wanted to rescue my mother and me. My father was ordered to evacuate fabrics from the store. He loaded a cart and there was little space left for us to load few pillows and some clothes. We headed for Nikolaev where my father handed all fabric over to the sales and consumer department obtaining a confirmation that he had handed over all goods. My mother egged him to leave some fabric for a dress for me, but my father said that he had never in his life touched something that was not his. He said that if we were in need God would help us to get what we needed. We got on a train and moved on. We reached the town of Guriev in Kazakhstan. I was 13, but I was tall and looked like a 17-year-old girl. There was evacuation agency at the railway station in Guriev and its employees offered me a job of a telephone operator. I agreed. This was how my work career began.
We moved to Novobogatinsk where we found a place to live. It was a 4-room hose. Our landlords lived in two rooms. We moved into one room and another room was occupied by a family from Moscow: a mother, a grandmother and two children. My father got a job at a store. My mother didn’t work. She was a housewife. She spent her time receiving bread and cereals per our food coupons. She had to get up early to stand in lines. Sometimes she had to stand in lines a whole day. My mother didn’t have any warm clothes with her. My father got a pair of pressed wool winter boots and we took turns to wear them. It was a very cold winter and my mother had continuous colds. She also had to bring and cut wood for the stove and fetch water from the ice-covered well. My mother was doing her best to make something eatable from what was available. I was a telephone operator and was doing well at work. Most of operators were married women whose husbands were at the front.
I didn’t go to school. I had to earn my living. My father and I had certificates of employees and my mother had a dependant card. We could get 600 grams of bread per day per our cards. This was different bread of bran and peas. It was heavy and when shop assistants were weighing it there were always smaller make-weights. My mother always told me to eat make-weights as I was growing up and was constantly hungry.
I didn’t go to school. I had to earn my living. My father and I had certificates of employees and my mother had a dependant card. We could get 600 grams of bread per day per our cards. This was different bread of bran and peas. It was heavy and when shop assistants were weighing it there were always smaller make-weights. My mother always told me to eat make-weights as I was growing up and was constantly hungry.
We had no information about my brothers. My mother kept crying. Once we received a money transfer for 1000 rubles. I went to the post office and saw that the sender was Jacob Braverman. That was how we got to know that Jacob was alive. He was wounded at the front and stayed in hospital. He found us through the evacuation inquiry office. My brother got a two-week leave after he was released from hospital and he came to see us. How happy we were to see him! However, we didn’t know anything about Froim and Joseph until the end of the war.
In 1944 when Odessa region was liberated we returned to Bairamcha. Half of the town was ruined. There were very few locals that survived. All Jews were exterminated by fascists and non-Jews perished during air raids and bombing. Many houses were empty. We moved into one of such houses.
When Chairman of the town council heard that we were back he called my father and said to him: “ Isaac, you have a beauty of a daughter. Look, she won’t even find a match to marry in Bairamcha, because fascists killed all Jews. I feel sorry for the girl and you have to take her out of here”. My father decided to move to Chernovtsy. Chernovtsy wasn’t destroyed by the war. Shops were open; there was plenty of food and goods.
People treated Jews nicely in Chernovtsy. There was no demonstration of anti-Semitism. We felt there at home soon. The local people told us that it had been so for ages. The Jews were patrons of arts and music. This area initially belonged to Austrian Hungary, then Hungary and Rumania.
There was a Jewish school and hospital for poor Jews and a Jewish children’s hospital in Chernovtsy before the war. There were 67 synagogues! At present there is one synagogue in town. At one time Chernovtsy was called “a small Paris”, because it was a very culturally developed town.
There was a Jewish school and hospital for poor Jews and a Jewish children’s hospital in Chernovtsy before the war. There were 67 synagogues! At present there is one synagogue in town. At one time Chernovtsy was called “a small Paris”, because it was a very culturally developed town.
, Ukraine
We packed our things and moved to the village of Storozhenets not far from Chernovtsy. We were allowed to move into an empty house. My father went to work at the hardware store. I got a job of telephone operator in Storozhenets. My mother didn’t work. She became very sickly in evacuation.
Shortly after we moved to Storozhenets my three brothers came to see us. They wrote to the town council in Bairamcha and got our new address from there. They were at the front during the war, but they survived.
After leaving their parents’ home my brothers forgot all about Jewish traditions. They got fond of communist ideas instead propagating equality and brotherhood of all people. They became Soviet people that had no nationality. Their families didn’t observe Jewish traditions or celebrate holidays, either.
, Ukraine
Joseph had a Russian wife. He met her at the front. She was a nurse.
, Russia
My younger brother Froim lived in Rubtsovsk. He had a Jewish wife. His beautiful wife Fania and he had a daughter. In early 1970s Froim and his family moved to the US.
My older brother Jacob went to Guriev after the war. Americans worked on construction of a plant there. Jacob worked at the construction and upon its completion he went to the US. He settled down in Brooklyn, New York, where he opened a store “Yasha Braverman”.
In March 1953 Stalin died. I cried a lot. But I din’t understand the extent of our loss. Life was much better during the Stalin regime than it is now. It was a good and merry time. I miss this period. There was no unemployment. People had work and received salary with no delays. Stores were full of goods and products. People could afford to buy what was sold in stores. As for now, I can only recall this good old time thinking of how to manage with my small pension. They say there was anti-Semitism during Stalin regime. I don’t know, I never faced any myself. I could get a job and I never heard the word “zhyd”.
My mother died in 1953. She was 52 years old. My father and I buried her according to the Jewish tradition at the Jewish corner of the cemetery in Storozhenets. I missed my mother so much. I wore mourning clothing and my eyes were always full of tears.
In 3 months after my mother died I went to see a friend of mine in Chernovtsy. She asked me why I looked so sad. I told her that my mother died and my heart was broken. She poured me a cup of tea and asked me to wait while she went to see her acquaintance. This acquaintance happened to be a sister of my future husband. She lived with her brother and their aunt Rachel. My friend went to see her acquaintance and left a note for my future husband to come and see her as soon as he came home from work. In less than an hour the door opened and my future husband came to see my friend still wearing his working clothes. He wasn’t handsome, but he had a very good and kind face. My friend introduced him to me and he said that he was lonely and wanted to have his life organized. He also expressed 3 requirements to his future wife. She was to be a good housewife(I told him that I was good at housekeeping, I learned everything from my mother. Then he said that she had to know how to handle money. I also learned from my mother to save money and handle it well. His 3rd requirement to his future wife was to be a beautiful woman. I said to him ‘As for this, it will be up to you”. I had long legs and a mop of thick hair. He asked my permission to meet my father and ask for his consent to our marriage.
During the war Clara was in evacuation in Karaganda. She worked at a coal mine.
David was in infantry at the front.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
After the war he returned home where he was told that their house was ruined and his sister moved to Chernovtsy. David came to Chernovtsy and got a job of laborer at the ‘Vostok” factory manufacturing domestic chemicals.
My grandmother and grandfather were religious people. My grandfather went to synagogue every day. My grandmother went to synagogue on Saturday and holidays. They celebrated Shabbat and Jewish holidays at home.
My grandmother was a housewife that was customary for Jewish families at that time. A Jewish woman was supposed to be a good wife and mother. Perhaps, that was why Jewish families didn’t make it their goal to give education to daughters. Jewish boys studied at cheder and girls were taught to read and write, traditions and prayers.
My father’s parents were not rich. They made ends meet in the family and had sufficient food. My grandmother made and fixed clothes for the family. They didn’t have a housemaid.
My grandfather wore a dark suit, a tie and a hat that was customary at that time. He didn’t have a beard or payots. He had a moustache. My grandmother always wore a shawl. She wore long dark skirts and blouses almost covering her neck. Even when it was hot in summer my grandmother still wore long-sleeved blouses. She had a fancy dark blue gown to go to synagogue.
In 1932 my grandfather Shmil-Gersh died. I went to my grandfather’s funeral. All furniture was removed from a bigger room. My grandfather was lying on stray on the floor wrapped in white cloth. We all were sitting on the floor wailing. My mother told me to take off my shoes. She took off her shoes, too. Then I saw that other people also had their shoes off. People were saying that my grandfather was a very good and king man and how well loved he was. Many people came to the cemetery. The rabbi said a prayer. When people were leaving the cemetery a woman at the egress poured water onto their hands. After the funeral my father didn’t go to work for a few days. My mother told me that one couldn’t go to work during mourning.
My brothers and I studied at a Rumanian secondary school. As for Jewish schools, they were primary schools,4 years and our parents wanted us to get a good education and sent us to a Rumanian school to study Rumanian and have no problems with getting further education. I have a good conduct of Rumanian. There were Jewish, Rumanian, Moldavian and Russian children in our school. We were all friends and had no problems with our nationality. I studied 6 years at school when the Soviet power was established in 1940.
I studied 6 years at school when the Soviet power was established in 1940. Few people in the town were arrested including my father’s master. The Soviet authorities explained to employees of the store that there no more masters and everything belonged to the people. My father continued to work as supervisor in the store. Our town of Bairamcha was renamed to Novorossiysk, Saratsk district, Odessa region. My school became a Russian school. I studied there for another year when the war began.
They spoke Yiddish in my father’s family. They also knew Rumanian that was a state language.