I didn't follow him, because for me my only inheritance was my name, and my task was for them to continue through me. I didn't follow him in joining the Party either, not because I didn't believe in the ideals of socialism, but more out of inertia, dislike of organizations and associations of all kinds.
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Displaying 6961 - 6990 of 50826 results
Asaf Auerbach
In the spring of 1950 I married a girl that I had been going out with since my last year of high school, near the end of the year our first son, Ivan, was born, and in 1956 a second, Pavel.
No, I didn't have any problems at work due to the fact that I'm a Jew, even though it was generally known. How could it not be, when I've got such an exotic name, which many wondered at. Those were more due to the fact that I wasn't in the Party, which of course had an influence on my career, in that I was no exception.
When in 1954 after my army service they outright offered it to me and gave me a membership application to fill out, I did take it home, but after a few days I politely declined, that while the idea of socialism is near to me, after all as a Jew I can't and won't join a party that expresses anti-Semitism.
I was badly off in terms of finances, I had an orphan's pension after my father, less than 600 crowns, and on top of that from the Joint American Jewish organization [24] I got 1000 crowns a month via the Prague Jewish community. That's about 2000 in today's crowns. But during the week I went to Smichov for lunch, usually I had supper with Aunt Mirjam, so in this way I managed. Within four years I finished statistics at CVUT and started working in power generation, I've worked in it in various economic functions my whole life.
Naum Kravets
The history of my paternal relatives goes back to my great-grandfather Peter Kravets. He was a thoroughbred Ukrainian. He lived in Uman [Ukraine, 200 km south-east of Kiev]. The family of my great-grandmother Rahil, Ruhl, also lived there. My great-grandmother's father was an acolyte in a small Jewish prayer house on the outskirts of Uman. Rahil was the youngest child. She was the only daughter in the family; there were three more sons. Great- grandfather Peter Kravets was the eldest son in a large peasant family. Back in tsarist times it was provided by the law that only the eldest son was to be drafted into the army, and the rest of the sons were to be drafted only during war. Great-grandfather Peter and my great-grandmother Rahil fell in love with each other when they were young. They probably understood that it was next to impossible for them to get married due to the difference in nationalities, but their love was very strong.
Peter was drafted into the army. At that time the term of the army service was 25 years [see Nikolai's army] [1], and my great-grandmother was waiting for her beloved for 25 years. Back in that time it was impossible to picture the only daughter of a very pious Jew, the acolyte of the Jewish prayer house to marry an alien, a Ukrainian. I think for the family of my great-grandfather it was also hard to approve of such a marriage because they also were very religious, Orthodox.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
When Peter came back from the army, he went to Rahil's father and asked for her hand. Rahil asked her father to bless them. Of course, Rahil's father didn't give his consent very quickly, but neither he, nor Peter's parents managed to make them change their minds. Peter said if their parents hadn't blessed them, they would have eloped together. At that time it was even a more grievous sin than marrying a person of a different belief, so both families gave their consent. Though, Rahil's father insisted that the marriage should be in accordance with the Jewish rituals, and Peter was supposed to profess Judaism. But it didn't stop the beloved. Peter accepted giyur [proselyte] and the rabbi timely carried out all rites. The wedding took place under a chuppah, in accordance with the Jewish tradition.
My grandfather, their only son, was born after Peter's death. I don't know exactly when he was born, it was in the 1860s. Great-grandmother named her son Peter [common name] [2] after her husband, the deceased father. His Jewish name was Pinhas. Great-grandmother had enough money to get by, and when Grandfather became adolescent, she sent him to study in Odessa [3]. Grandfather became the apprentice of a merchant [of Guild I] [4] who sold fabric. He became an expert in fabric; he was especially knowledgeable about woolen cloths.
Grandpa came back to Uman and started working for a Polish merchant as an appraiser.
Grandpa came back to Uman and started working for a Polish merchant as an appraiser.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
Great-grandmother died in 1927, when I was two. She was buried in accordance with the Jewish traditions in the cemetery in Uman. Her grave is still there.
My grandparents were religious people. The family observed all Jewish traditions. Uman was a Jewish town; about 40 percent of the population was Jewish. Grandfather took his children to the synagogue when they were very young. All Jewish holidays were marked at home. Sabbath was observed. Yiddish was spoken at home. All sons got Jewish education; they went to cheder.
Grandfather was an educated man; he understood that secular education was necessary. My father finished a Jewish lyceum in Uman. Secular subjects were taught there. There was a profound study of mathematics and foreign languages. The rest of the sons went to a compulsory Jewish school.
The family was well-off. Apart from working as an appraiser, my grandfather acquired his own warehouse for wholesale trade of fabric. After finishing school my father started assisting my grandfather: he brought goods for his warehouse and worked there.
Grandfather was a drayman. He had his own horses and carts. In fall and winter grandfather organized a string of carts consisting of Jewish and Ukrainian draymen. They brought grain to the mills, and took flour from the mills. In fall they used carts and in winter sleighs. In the fall-winter period Grandfather earned money for his large family and starting in spring he took care of agriculture, grew vegetables and grain. Grandfather leased a field from the landlord and the whole family worked in the field. Grandmother was a housewife.
My grandparents were religious. They observed all Jewish traditions, marked Sabbath and Jewish holidays. Only Yiddish was spoken at home, though all children and Grandfather were fluent in Russian. Grandmother didn't speak Russian, though she understood most things. I don't know what kind of education my mother and her siblings got.
After the revolution and the Civil War the family was indigent. The Soviet regime confiscated my grandfather's horses and the skimpy plot of land that the family was given wasn't enough to get food. Mother told me about her love for a neighbor's son. They couldn't get married because both families were poor. When my father wooed my mother, Grandfather was happy to give his consent to their marriage. Father was rich, but he was much older than Mother. They got married in 1921. Father was 30, and Mother was 17. Of course, they had a true Jewish wedding.
After the wedding, my father rented two rooms with balconies on the second floor of the two-storied mansion of Doctor Rafalovich. In a year my parents had their first-born, who died as an infant. I don't even know his name. Shortly after the birth of the baby, Father decided to leave Uman. These were the times of the NEP [11] and my father was afraid that all rich people would be persecuted. Father left for Moscow and found a job as an accountant. Mother temporarily stayed in Uman. When she found out that she was pregnant she decided not to stay in Uman and found money somewhere and went to Moscow. Father rented a room in a communal apartment [12] on Arbat Street.
Father found lodging for us and we moved to a Moscow suburb, Cherkizovo. Father rented two rooms in a private house. The host's family also lived in that house with us. The house was sold several times, but we stayed there under all owners.
Uman was a true Jewish town. The wisest and most educated Jews, tzaddiks, lived in Uman. There were a lot of synagogues and prayer houses in the town. Before the revolution there were several cheders and one yeshivah. Of course, the Soviet regime closed down all those institutions when the struggle against religion [14] commenced, but two large synagogues remained before World War II [see Great Patriotic War] [15]. A lot of old buildings are still there, in the center of Uman. These are mostly two-storied log houses. The logs of the ground floor had a deep clay coating and the top was made of close fitted logs. Uman is surrounded by thick forests, so wood was one of the most affordable construction materials. Rich Jews and the local intelligentsia [mostly Jewish] lived in the center of Uman. There was a large pond far from the center. That was the area, where poor Jews lived. There were one-storied simpler buildings. But there were kitchen gardens, orchards and flower beds by those houses.
In Moscow my father worked as an economist at the military engine-building plants. Mother was a housewife. She took care of the children and the household.
I cannot say that Father was a religious man. For example, our family didn't observe the kashrut. I remember that Mother cooked pork stew. Grandfather Pinhas came to us from Odessa for a couple of days. He liked delicious food, and when Mother treated him with pork, he always kissed her hand after meals and said that the food tasted really good. The only thing Grandfather asked was not to tell Grandmother about it. Both Father and Grandfather went to the synagogue. Sometimes they took me with them. It is difficult to judge how religious they were. I remember that Father didn't pray though he had tallit, tefillin and a prayer book. In the synagogue Father paid some of the religious Jews for them to read a prayer for my father. I remember that once a Jew during prayer turned to my father and asked, 'What is your wife's name?', and a little later, 'What are your children's names?' He must have mentioned us in his prayer. Mother didn't go to the synagogue, but every morning when she got out of bed she prayed mixing Russian and Jewish words. She asked God for health for her husband, son and daughter and all relatives. She also finished her day praying.
I didn't get a Jewish education. When I turned 13, Grandfather and Father took me to the synagogue for my bar mitzvah. I was given tallit and tefillin. I knew what they were for. I still keep those. Mother had kept them even during World War II. Sometimes I went to the synagogue with my father.
At home we celebrated Soviet as well as Jewish holidays. We always had matzah for Pesach. Father bought it in the synagogue. I liked it a lot. I don't think we marked Jewish holidays in accordance with traditions. Once Mother's elder brother Efim came to us for Pesach and he conducted the seder. But it was the only case. Father didn't conduct the seder. I also remember Chanukkah. All adults who came over to see us on that day gave us, kids, small change. That is why I was always looking forward to Chanukkah. When winter came, I kept on asking Mom whether Chanukkah was coming. We celebrated such Soviet holidays as 1st May, 7th November [October Revolution Day] [17], Soviet Army Day [18] and New Year's Day.
t. Grandmother spoke Yiddish. I talked to her in Russian and she understood me. I also understood everything she said in Yiddish, though I didn't speak that language. My parents spoke Yiddish with Grandmother, and Russian with us. When Grandmother wasn't with us, they spoke Yiddish only when they wanted to conceal something from us.
When I turned six, I went to the pre-school of the seven-year Russian school. It was the first time when I came across anti-Semitism on a social level. It was a suburb, Cherkizovo, so there were less educated people, more peasants. Children weren't brought up very well. I was the smallest kid in the class and didn't know how to fight. The other boys often teased me and cried out, 'Yid.' It was very offensive. There were other Jews in our class, but I was the only one who was teased. In two years the church that was close to our house was demolished, and a Russian ten-year compulsory school was built instead. I was transferred to that school. I made friends with boys of different nationalities. Russians, Ukrainians and Jews were among my friends. There was even one Latvian boy.
I was a young Octobrist [19], then a pioneer [see All-union pioneer organization] [20], and then a Komsomol [21] member. Like most children back in that time I was very politically motivated. Political classes were held on a regular basis as well as lectures on international events. We knew that all capitalist countries were enemies of the USSR.
That is why when repressions [see Great Terror] [22] commenced in 1936, we took them as divulgement of enemies of the Soviets, who wanted to undermine the Soviet regime. I remember how at the classes we were painting over the portraits of the state and military leaders who turned out to be enemies of the people [23]. Probably there were children of the repressed in our class, but we didn't know about it. There were no meetings in our school where children of the repressed were stigmatized because they didn't recognize the enemies in their parents. There were such types of meetings in other schools. I think that the director of our school, a Jew named Mikhail Goldstein, deliberately created a benevolent atmosphere in our school. My parents must have discussed such arrests at home, when they spoke in sotto or began speaking Yiddish all of a sudden. They never discussed it with us.
When Hitler came to power in Germany, fascism was condemned in the USSR. We didn't consider fascism to be referred to us. We thought it would be beyond us.
Only in 1939, when Hitler's troops attacked Poland [see Invasion of Poland] [24], our family came across fascism. Mother's elder sister Bronya lived in Poland with her family. When the Germans came to Poland, her husband was taken to the concentration camp, but Bronya and her children managed to come to the USSR. Hardly had she crossed the border, was she arrested and sent to the camp for defectors, and from there they were exiled to Siberia, to the town of Soli. Mother tried to make arrangements for them to be exempt from the camp. She went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to warrant for them. Finally, her attempts were successful and they were released from the camp.
We grew up firmly believing that we had the happiest childhood thanks to Stalin and the Party. We knew that the Soviet regime was the most impartial, the Soviet army was the strongest and invincible and everybody ought to be strong, brave and loyal to the communist ideas, even ready to sacrifice life if needed. At that time there were a lot of militarized circles and organizations. At school I joined the society OSOAVIACHIMA [Editor's note: a society of assistance in defense and aviation and chemical construction, it was a mass volunteer organization of USSR citizens, existing from 1927 till 1948. The aim was to assist the army in military training of civilians and nurturing patriotic spirit in them]. I finished cavalry school.