My grandfather had a brother whose name was Schechter. My grandfather’s name was Soifer, the other’s name was Schechter – that’s how the registrar’s office worked back then. And they were brothers. My grandfather’s brother lived in Dorohoi. I can tell you that he attended the synagogue on a regular basis, he was learned in the field of religion. He didn’t have a position at the synagogue, but he was known as a learned man.
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Displaying 47761 - 47790 of 50826 results
Sura Milstein
My grandmother’s maiden name was Rabinovici, for my mother had a cousin in Paris, France – Patainic Rabinovici –, and my mother’s mother and his father were brothers. That’s how it was in those days, before World War II, those who had financial means would send their children to study abroad in France, to learn. And he settled there. He was an economist, an accountant.
They used to tell us this and that about the war. My grandmother [from my mother’s side] used to tell us stories about the war as well. She told us that her son, Nathan, had fought in the war too, and she told us terrible things. It reminds you of Rebreanu, of ‘Itic Strul as a Deserter’ – he wrote a short story about a Jewish boy who was persecuted by an anti-Semitic officer. My uncle suffered too, but not as much as her. He told us about a Jewish classmate of his who was killed. There were utter horrors.
,
Before WW2
See text in interview
My father, David Sulimzohn, was born in Dorohoi. He fought for the Romanian army during World War I. He did his military service during the war – I don’t know how many years the military service lasted in those days, 2-3 years. He also received a medal that he had framed and he kept it on the wall. He wasn’t wounded during the war. My father told me he was kept prisoner by the Germans for a period of time. And when the war was over they let him return home.
My father, David Sulimzohn, was born in Dorohoi. He only attended primary school, he did not continue his studies. He probably attended the cheder.
The family ties with them weren’t that great, as the Sulimzohn sister-in-law from Saveni was greedy and she dragged us through law-courts with inheritance lawsuits, things like these. This is why the family connections never improved afterwards. My father has always been tormented by this sister-in-law and her lawsuits. There were two houses. A house where the store was as well, and another one-storied house farther [up the street]. And they fought over these two houses. In the beginning we lived in the one-storied house, it was more spacious, more beautiful. Afterwards, we moved in the house where the shop was, and the other house was offered for rent, after which it was sold, I don’t even remember how it happened. And she kept asking and asking, she always wanted more money, the margin for the house, that is. Then the war was upon us and Jews didn’t have time for lawsuits anymore.
Afterwards, during the war [World War II], when the racial persecutions began [1], she and her family also moved from Saveni to Dorohoi and they were reconciled. They didn’t live with us, they found something to rent. Their financial situation was better than ours. I don’t think they were deported to Transnistria [2], as we were, they stayed in Dorohoi.
Afterwards, during the war [World War II], when the racial persecutions began [1], she and her family also moved from Saveni to Dorohoi and they were reconciled. They didn’t live with us, they found something to rent. Their financial situation was better than ours. I don’t think they were deported to Transnistria [2], as we were, they stayed in Dorohoi.
Romania
My father had only 1 brother, Haim Sulimzohn, who lived in Saveni, here, in the county of Botosani. He too was a shopkeeper, he too ran a hosiery store.
My grandmother had a sister whose son – I forget his name – was a physician in Bucharest. His sister-in-law, the sister of his wife – Zeli Suliteanu – was a folklorist, she worked at the Folklore Institute. I know that she too is very old at present – she is probably assisted by the Community.
My father was born in Dorohoi. [I believe his mother’s name was Estera Sulimzohn and his father’s name was Usher Leib Sulimzohn. My grandfather was a shopkeeper, he had a hosiery store – he sold hats, stockings, shoes. My father inherited his store. I didn’t get to know the grandfathers from my father’s side. They died when I was very little [in the early 1920’s].
David Wainshelboim
In the mid-1930s we moved into another apartment provided to my father by the association. It had five or six rooms. Mama and grandmother did the housework. We never had housemaids. It was against Jewish ethical principles to use hired work.
I went to a Romanian elementary school at the age of seven. My father knew that to be able to enter a college and deal with science – and this was the only future he could imagine for me – I had to study the state language. I don’t remember the elementary school. After finishing it, I passed entrance exams to the Romanian state-owned gymnasium. I received the highest grade in the exam, and the teachers were good to me. There were many Jewish boys at school, and I can’t remember a single incidence of prejudiced attitude or anti-Semitism towards any of us. What mattered was the attitude of the boys to their studies, and it was even more important than the grades they received. I had the highest marks and my teachers and fellow students respected me all right.
There were Zionist organizations in the town. There was Maccabi [12] for young people, and many students were fond of these ideas. All I cared about was science and I took no interest in politics. I remember posters, announcing the arrival and meeting with Jabotinskiy [13]. My father, who was fond of Zionist ideas, went to this meeting and then discussed it with Mama, but I took no interest in their discussion. In 1938 Fascism began to spread in the Romanian society: the Cuzist parties [14] and legionaries [15] were established. On the other hand, young Jewish people united in the underground Komsomol [16] and Communist organizations, propagating the Soviet way of life and unification of Bessarabia with the Soviet Union.
I remember how my father spoke with horror about the arrest and death of Yakir in 1937. This was probably the only act of terror in the Soviet Union that we heard about. We knew little about the horror happening there. We believed the Soviet society was the real fair Communist society.
On 28th June 1940 the Red Army [18] came to Kishinev. This was a peaceful change of regimes: Romanians left the town peacefully. A Soviet tank stopped near our house. The tank men were talking to the locals quietly. A [Soviet] Communist held a speech in the center of the town. He said that the Soviet power had been established in Bessarabia and there would be no exploitation and injustice in this area. Many people rejoiced, particularly, the Jewish residents, who had always been attracted by the Communist ideas of equality and fraternity. During the first days it was allowed to move from Bessarabia to Romania or vice versa. People were aware of Fascist atrocities in Germany and their attitude towards Jews. Fascism was growing stronger in Romania and many Jews, even the wealthy families, left their businesses and houses to move to Kishinev that belonged to the Soviet Union. My aunt Tsylia and her family also moved here.
Our life was gradually changing. There were positive and negative changes. About three days after the establishment of the Soviet power, food products and other goods disappeared from the stores. There was no sausage, ham, caviar or chocolate left, and even white bread became a deficit. However, this wasn’t the worst thing. Enterprises, stores and shops were subject to nationalization and their owners were arrested and deported. Besides, the NKVD officers [19] didn’t take into consideration whether an owner used hired labor or made his living on his own. The Jew Zolotaryov, our neighbor, who owned a small store, in which he and members of his family worked, was arrested, for example. He and his family were deported and I never heard from them again.
Our life was gradually changing. There were positive and negative changes. About three days after the establishment of the Soviet power, food products and other goods disappeared from the stores. There was no sausage, ham, caviar or chocolate left, and even white bread became a deficit. However, this wasn’t the worst thing. Enterprises, stores and shops were subject to nationalization and their owners were arrested and deported. Besides, the NKVD officers [19] didn’t take into consideration whether an owner used hired labor or made his living on his own. The Jew Zolotaryov, our neighbor, who owned a small store, in which he and members of his family worked, was arrested, for example. He and his family were deported and I never heard from them again.
Active Zionist activists were also arrested and persecuted. To start with, all Zionist organizations were eliminated. The Jewish newspaper ‘Neue Tsayt’ [‘New Time’ in Yiddish] was closed. The Jewish Health Organization was also eliminated. Its leaders, who failed to move abroad, were arrested. The rabbi of the Jewish Health Organization was arrested. People said he was the treasurer of this organization and state authorities demanded that he gave all money to the state. Alexandrowski refused and paid for this with his life: he was executed by the NKVD authorities. Many Zionist leaders, writers and journalists, including my uncle Weinstein, were arrested and deported.
My father was also very nervous about the situation, especially, when it came to his organization. He and Mama often whispered among themselves, stopping in our presence. However, my father got a job offer from the Ministry of Health. He became chief of the department of children health care. This was the first official position my father held and he was grateful to the Soviet power for this.
The Romanian gymnasium was closed. My sister Rahil and I went to the Russian general education school: she went to the tenth grade [age 16-17] and I went to the seventh grade [age 13-14]. It was hard for our other schoolmates to adapt to Russian as the language of instruction. It was all right for my sister and me. Our father had studied in Saint Petersburg for three years. He loved Russia, often spoke Russian, read Russian poems and we could understand Russian well. I became a pioneer [20] and my sister joined the Komsomol at school.
We heard from Molotov’s [22] speech on the radio on 22nd June 1941 that the Great Patriotic War began. We had a radio in our apartment and a few neighbors joined us to listen to the speech.
Several days later Kishinev was bombed. My father was waiting for the official evacuation to be arranged by the Ministry of Health, but our departure was delayed. My father hired a wagon, we loaded our luggage on it, whatever we could pack: food, water, warm clothes. My mother, father, grandmother, my sister and I departed. I remember a long line of wagons and people, consisting of civilians and the retreating Soviet forces. We were bombed on the way, and then people scattered around in the fields of sunflower and corn. Only Grandmother Sarrah stayed in the wagon, refusing to leave it. So we walked for about a week till we reached Krivoy Rog [today Ukraine, 370 km from Kiev, 300 km from Kishinev]. My father paid the cabdriver. We stayed a few days at the railway station, waiting for a train to the east till we managed to board an open train loaded with iron ore. This iron ore was to be delivered to a metallurgical plant in Lugansk region. We arrived in the town of Alchevsk [today Ukraine, about 780 km from Kishinev, 680 km from Kiev].
This was July 1941. Alchevsk was in the rear and it seemed that the Fascists were never to reach it. Our family decided to stay there. My father went to the town department of health and was appointed chief doctor of a hospital. We received a room at the hospital and settled there. There was little space to live, but we didn’t fret, having a roof over our heads and also, my father had a job. My sister, who had finished school, went to work as a receptionist at the hospital. I went to the eighth grade of a local school. Soon I became the best student in my class. However poor my Russian was, I studied better than many local classmates, helped them with their studies and made friends with them. Of course, we didn’t have sufficient food and this was a common situation, but we managed somehow. My father managed to get food products, received a food ration and once he brought home a bag of cereal. We even celebrated Jewish holidays. We fasted on Yom Kippur and celebrated Rosh Hashanah. We didn’t have any matzah for Pesach, but Grandmother baked something like it on the stove. We lived like this for a year.
The front line was approaching and German troops were already in the vicinity of Debaltsevo [Donetsk, today Ukraine]. I still can’t understand why my father failed to arrange for us to depart farther to the east. He was probably too busy at work. There were flows of the wounded delivered to the hospital from the front. Anyway, on 12th July 1942 the Fascist tanks and motor units entered Alchevsk. We were at home. A German trooper broke into the room: ‘Juden, Uhr!’ [‘Jews, watches’ in German] I gave him a watch and he left.
A few days later an order was issued: all Jews were to gather near the town hall under the threat of execution. We didn’t sleep the night before, packing our belongings and talking about the past life. Nobody mentioned what we were up to: in our family we were used to caring about the feelings of each other. The Jews were gathering near the town hall. We were lined in columns and convoyed to the barracks located in the northern part of the town, near the metallurgical plant. There was a camp arranged there, I never heard any name of this camp. We slept on planks on the floor of the barracks. Some time later my father managed to make cloth partials to separate us from others.
Every day we were taken to work, cleaning toilets in the town, dragging logs and cleaning the territory of the plant. We weren’t given any food or water. Many inmates starved to death. Ukrainians came to the camp bringing potatoes, vegetables, bread or pork fat to exchange them for clothes. Many inmates were getting ill. My father supported people, but the only help he could offer was a kind word. There were no medications available. So we existed for about half a year.
A few days later an order was issued: all Jews were to gather near the town hall under the threat of execution. We didn’t sleep the night before, packing our belongings and talking about the past life. Nobody mentioned what we were up to: in our family we were used to caring about the feelings of each other. The Jews were gathering near the town hall. We were lined in columns and convoyed to the barracks located in the northern part of the town, near the metallurgical plant. There was a camp arranged there, I never heard any name of this camp. We slept on planks on the floor of the barracks. Some time later my father managed to make cloth partials to separate us from others.
Every day we were taken to work, cleaning toilets in the town, dragging logs and cleaning the territory of the plant. We weren’t given any food or water. Many inmates starved to death. Ukrainians came to the camp bringing potatoes, vegetables, bread or pork fat to exchange them for clothes. Many inmates were getting ill. My father supported people, but the only help he could offer was a kind word. There were no medications available. So we existed for about half a year.
In January 1943 my father was ordered to make his appearance at the camp commander’s office and he never returned from there. We got to know that he had been taken to jail. I never saw him again.
There were rumors in the camp that Fascists were preparing for the massacre of inmates. Mama insisted that my sister and I escaped. In early February we got a chance to do so: a policeman agreed to take us out of the camp for a bribe. Mama hugged me and I ran out of the barrack. This was how we said ‘good bye.’ We were taken out of the camp at night. My sister and I went to the hospital where our father had worked. We came to see the logistics manager of the hospital, a Ukrainian, Kuleshov, with whom our father had worked. He gave us shelter and we stayed in his house for several days.
The night was dark and we managed all right. On the opposite bank Soviet soldiers met us. We were lucky, meeting good people on the Soviet side. The first person we met was a Jewish captain. We told him our story and he believed us. We were given food from the field kitchen. We had a common soldiers’ meal: soup and boiled cereal, but it tasted very delicious after the six-month starvation in the camp. We went on till we reached Lugansk [today Ukraine].
This was a big town where nobody knew us. We went to the regional department of health, where our father was known. My sister and I were given a job as medical registration clerks. We rented a room from an attendant. We received salaries and bread cards [24]. My sister learned to cook from whatever was at hand: soup and boiled cereals, and in spring we gathered greeneries. Our childhood was over and we entered our adulthood before time.
This was a big town where nobody knew us. We went to the regional department of health, where our father was known. My sister and I were given a job as medical registration clerks. We rented a room from an attendant. We received salaries and bread cards [24]. My sister learned to cook from whatever was at hand: soup and boiled cereals, and in spring we gathered greeneries. Our childhood was over and we entered our adulthood before time.
In September 1943 I wrote to my former Tatar classmate Chiitov in Alchevsk, asking him to tell me what had happened to my family. My friend told me that they were dead. My father was executed in the yard of his jail in early February 1942 – later I obtained a certificate of his death from the archive – and that Mama and Grandma were executed at about this same time in a quarry of the plant and so were other Jewish inmates of the camp.
In November 1943 we went to Moscow, having saved a sufficient amount of money to buy tickets. Uncle Rafail, his wife Polia and their two daughters lived in a nice apartment in the center of Moscow. He was already a professor of the Moscow Mining College, received food packages with basic food products and delicacies: ham, smoked sausage, tinned meat and black caviar. I was responsible for getting food products by his cards at the grocery store in Smolenskaya Square near the house. We were given a warm welcome and felt at home. My sister and I were given a room in the apartment. I passed exams for the tenth grade externally and entered the preparatory department of the Moscow Mining College.
After a year of studying at this department I realized I had no talent in the mining engineering industry and I was still attracted to medicine. I went to work as a lab assistant at a department of the Medical College.
After a year of studying at this department I realized I had no talent in the mining engineering industry and I was still attracted to medicine. I went to work as a lab assistant at a department of the Medical College.
I had friends and met my first girlfriend there. I fell in love with her with all the passion of my youth, she responded to my love and we got married soon. We were young and inexperienced and a few months later we separated. I try to forget my first unsuccessful experience. I even forgot my first wife’s name. Her surname was Altman. I never met with her again and this is all I know about her. After the divorce I moved to Kishinev in 1946.
My uncle helped me to prepare for entrance exams to the Medical College of Kishinev. I passed the exams successfully and was admitted. However, I had to pay for education while I had no money. The rector of the college, whom I came to talk to, was very kind to me. He advised me to write a letter, stating that I was an orphan and my parents had perished. I was exempt from all educational fees and given a stipend. The rector also talked to the housing department about providing me with a place to live since I was born in Kishinev. On 28th June I was given a small room in the center of Kishinev. There were no comforts [sanitation] or even a kitchen in this dwelling.
Life was hard: the stipend was too low for adequate living. I worked night shifts at a hospital. This was the period of the outburst of state level anti-Semitism: the murder of Mikhoels [25], disbanding of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee [26] and struggle against rootless cosmopolitans [27]. This affected the heart of each Jewish person and I was very upset about it, but I can’t say it affected my own life in any way. I studied well.
I finished my college in 1951 and got a job assignment [28] to the hospital in a small district town in Irkutsk region in Siberia.