After my son was born I continued working in the consumers' association for some time. During this period my husband's people convinced him to join the Communist Party. This wasn't what he wanted, but his position required him to be a member of the Party: my husband was the director of the consumers' association. In the early 1950s he was invited to visit the district party committee where they explained they wanted to employ me. The party authorities were in need of Russian speaking employees. I was employed as a typist. Some time afterward I was promoted to the typists' office manager. I worked the last years of my career as an accountant. I came to work at the district committee in January 1953. This was quite amazing, considering that in those years most Jews were fired and accused of all mortal sins [17]. I wasn't involved in any party activities. I belonged to the support staff, but the Communist ideology did influence my personality.
- Tradíciók 11756
- Beszélt nyelv 3019
- Identitás 7808
- A település leírása 2440
- Oktatás, iskola 8506
- Gazdaság 8772
- Munka 11672
- Szerelem & romantika 4929
- Szabadidő/társadalmi élet 4159
- Antiszemitizmus 4822
-
Főbb események (politikai és történelmi)
4256
- örmény népirtás 2
- Doctor's Plot (1953) 178
- Soviet invasion of Poland 31
- Siege of Leningrad 86
- The Six Day War 4
- Yom Kippur War 2
- Atatürk halála 5
- Balkán háborúk (1912-1913) 35
- Első szovjet-finn háború 37
- Csehszlovákia megszállása 1938 83
- Franciaország lerohanása 9
- Molotov-Ribbentrop paktum 65
- Varlik Vergisi (vagyonadó) 36
- Első világháború (1914-1918) 216
- Spanyolnátha (1918-1920) 14
- Latvian War of Independence (1918-1920) 4
- Nagy gazdasági világválság (1929-1933) 20
- Hitler hatalmon (1933) 127
- 151 Kórház 1
- Thesszaloniki tűzvész (1917) 9
- Görög polgárháború (1946-49) 12
- Thesszaloniki Nemzetközi Vásár 5
- Bukovina Romániához csatolása (1918) 7
- Észak-Bukovina csatolása a Szovjetunióhoz (1940) 19
- Lengyelország német megszállása (1939) 94
- Kisinyevi pogrom (1903) 7
- Besszarábia romániai annexiója (1918) 25
- A magyar uralom visszatérése Erdélybe (1940-1944) 43
- Besszarábia szovjet megszállása (1940) 59
- Második bécsi diktátum 27
- Észt függetlenségi háború 3
- Varsói felkelés 2
- A balti államok szovjet megszállása (1940) 147
- Osztrák lovagi háború (1934) 9
- Anschluss (1938) 71
- A Habsburg birodalom összeomlása 3
- Dollfuß-rendszer 3
- Kivándorlás Bécsbe a második világháború előtt 36
- Kolkhoz 131
- KuK - Königlich und Kaiserlich 40
- Bányászjárás 1
- A háború utáni szövetséges megszállás 7
- Waldheim ügy 5
- Trianoni békeszerződés 12
- NEP 56
- Orosz forradalom 351
- Ukrán éhínség (Holodomor) 199
- A Nagy tisztogatás 283
- Peresztrojka 233
- 1941. június 22. 468
- Molotov rádióbeszéde 115
- Győzelem napja 147
- Sztálin halála 365
- Hruscsov beszéde a 20. kongresszuson 148
- KGB 62
- NKVD 153
- Magyarország német megszállása (1944. március 18-19.) 45
- Józef Pilsudski (1935-ig) 33
- 1956-os forradalom 84
- Prágai Tavasz (1968) 73
- 1989-es rendszerváltás 174
- Gomulka kampány (1968) 81
-
Holokauszt
9685
- Holokauszt (általánosságban) 2789
- Koncentrációs tábor / munkatábor 1235
- Tömeges lövöldözési műveletek 337
- Gettó 1183
- Halál / megsemmisítő tábor 647
- Deportálás 1063
- Kényszermunka 791
- Repülés 1410
- Rejtőzködés 594
- Ellenállás 121
- 1941-es evakuálások 866
- Novemberpogrom / Kristályéjszaka 34
- Eleutherias tér 10
- Kasztner csoport 1
- Jászvásári pogrom és a halálvonat 21
- Sammelwohnungen 9
- Strohmann rendszer 11
- Struma hajó 17
- Élet a megszállás alatt 803
- Csillagos ház 72
- Védett ház 15
- Nyilaskeresztesek ("nyilasok") 42
- Dunába lőtt zsidók 6
- Kindertranszport 26
- Schutzpass / hamis papírok 95
- Varsói gettófelkelés (1943) 24
- Varsói felkelés (1944) 23
- Segítők 521
- Igazságos nemzsidók 269
- Hazatérés 1090
- Holokauszt-kárpótlás 112
- Visszatérítés 109
- Vagyon (vagyonvesztés) 595
- Szerettek elvesztése 1724
- Trauma 1029
- Beszélgetés a történtekről 1807
- Felszabadulás 558
- Katonaság 3322
- Politika 2640
-
Kommunizmus
4468
- Élet a Szovjetunióban/kommunizmus alatt (általánosságban) 2592
- Antikommunista ellenállás általában 63
- Államosítás a kommunizmus alatt 221
- Illegális kommunista mozgalmak 98
- Szisztematikus rombolások a kommunizmus alatt 45
- Kommunista ünnepek 311
- A kommunista uralommal kapcsolatos érzések 930
- Kollektivizáció 94
- Az állami rendőrséggel kapcsolatos tapasztalatok 349
- Börtön/kényszermunka a kommunista/szocialista uralom alatt 449
- Az emberi és állampolgári jogok hiánya vagy megsértése 483
- Élet a rendszerváltás után (1989) 493
- Izrael / Palesztina 2190
- Cionizmus 847
- Zsidó szervezetek 1200
Displaying 13501 - 13530 of 50826 results
feiga tregerene
Hanna didn't get along with her husband. She divorced him, but stayed to live in Kaunas. Hanna was a member of the Communist Party. She was the director of the passport office and retired from this position in due time. She married Yashgur, a Polish Jew. My sister must have been born unfortunate. Her second husband wasn't an easy-going man either. She lived with him for over 20 years. He died a few years ago. Hanna lives alone in Kaunas now. Her son Rimas identifies himself as a Lithuanian. He doesn't recognize any Jewish traditions. He married a Lithuanian girl and raises his children according to Lithuanian traditions.
There were few Jews left in Birzai, but they stayed together, remembering their deceased friends. They collected money to install a monument in their memory at the burial place. My father didn't work. He received a pension for his sons. In the middle of the 1950s Hanna's husband arrived in Birzai. He made an attempt to make up with her. As it turned out later, he wanted this for the sake of the apartment. My sister believed her husband. She, her son and her husband moved to Kaunas where they received a nice apartment. My father moved to Zarasai to live with me some time later. He was of great help to me. He was my best friend and companion. He lived many years before he died in 1976 at the age of 85. We buried my daddy at the Jewish cemetery.
My father didn't work after he returned from evacuation. He was helping my sister to raise her son. When Simon was born, he moved in with us. When I went to work, he was babysitting. My sister didn't get along with her husband. She decided to get a divorce. In 1948 Hanna and her son moved to Birzai. Formerly we had made up our mind to never go back to our hometown, where even stones seemed to have been soaked in the blood of our dear ones and acquaintances, but then my mother decided to join my sister. She wanted to be of help to her. As for my father, he decided to stay with me. My mother never recovered from her sons' death. She walked along the streets recalling who lived there and what happened to him or her. One day she had a stroke right there in the street. My mother died. This happened in 1949. After her death my father moved in with Hanna.
David had a good position: he was deputy director of the district consumers' association. However difficult this period of time was, David was doing well. He managed to get the wedding rings for us. His cousin made a crepe de Chine gown for me. We arranged a wedding party at my home. My husband and I shared the room with my parents. The Treger family house wasn't damaged during the war, but there was a Lithuanian woman living in it. Fayvel was a rough man. He went to the house and threw this woman's belongings out of the window. We moved into my husband's family house. Some time later Fayvel went to visit his relatives in Tashkent. He came back with his fiancée Irina. She was a Jewish girl from Ukraine. They got married and moved in with us. In 1947 my son was born. We named him Simon after my husband's father.
My husband, David Treger, was born in Zarasai in 1920. His father Simon was a craftsman. His mother Chaya was a popular dressmaker. She even had clients from Kaunas. Chaya had her own dressmaking school, and her trainees worked in many Lithuanian towns. David had a good education. He finished a Jewish gymnasium where he got fond of Zionist ideas. The establishment of the Soviet rule prevented him from moving to Palestine. When the Great Patriotic War began, Chaya, Simon, my husband's sister Pesia and his younger brother Leibl stayed on the occupied territory and were killed like all the other Jews of Zarasai on 26th August 1941. This happened in the vicinity of the town. David and his older brother Fayvel left the town with other Komsomol members. They joined the 16th Lithuanian division. They were wounded several times and received a number of awards. Fayvel lost his leg, and David had three fingers of his right hand missing.
My sister was very kind to me. She helped me to get a job. Though I had lower secondary education, I had a good command of Russian. There were few people who knew Russian at the time. I went to work as a secretary at a district consumers' association. Hanna decided to take care of my personal life as well. She had two Jewish friends, veterans of the Lithuanian division. They were brothers. They reminded her of our brothers. One of them was even called Fayvel. One day David and Fayvel visited us. David liked me and I liked him as well. We decided there was no point in waiting. A few weeks later we registered our marriage in a registry office.
Her husband was rather prejudiced against us. He wasn't an easy-going person. He worked in the accounting office of an NKVD body [15]. Though he wasn't involved in arrests [16] or interrogations, the atmosphere itself must have affected his personality, which was not easy, anyway. I wouldn't say he was a manifest anti-Semite. I never heard a word of abuse from him, but he was treating my parents and me with resentment. In early 1946 there was a fire in our street, and this fire caused severe damage to our house. We were given separate apartments, though in one building. We finally had our own lodging.
We celebrated the Victory Day in Glazov in May 1945 [14]. It was full of joy and tears. This was a day off. People marched the streets. My sister was already making arrangements for us to go back home. Riva left in early 1945. In August I said 'good bye' to my friends, and my parents and I headed to our homeland. We arrived in Zarasai where my sister and her husband met us. She already had a boy. He was given the Lithuanian name of Rimas. My sister was very happy that we arrived. She put us up in a room in her two-room apartment.
,
1945
See text in interview
In early 1944 Hanna was sent to a training course at the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow. She finished her training in July 1944. Immediately after Vilnius was liberated my sister went to our home country. She was offered the position of manager of the passport office in Zarasai. In 1944, that same year, my sister married Andrushis, a Lithuanian man, whom she met at the training course.
,
1944
See text in interview
Finally, Hanna decided to tell us the truth to save us from the pain of uncertainty. She found out that Fayvel, Falk and a large group of Komsomol members were detained at the former Soviet border in a small Latvian town. It turned out that the Soviet authorities didn't let everybody across the border. We were lucky that Riva had a party membership card. Younger and stronger men and women were left to create a living shield on the way of the enemy. My brothers had a chance to cross the border, but they decided to wait for Hanna. They didn't know that Hanna had already left without them. Then Fascist landing troops killed all the Komsomol members: my brothers and many of our acquaintances and friends. Learning this terrible news was very hard for us. Mama was grieving and never found peace till the end of her days.
Hanna wrote to us regularly. Fortunately, she wasn't sent to the front line. She returned to Balakhna after having acute malaria. She was sent to the hospital and after recovering she was assigned to a rear unit. My sister already knew the truth about our brothers, but she kept it a secret from us. My mother kept writing letters to Buguruslan and Kazan. Once we received a response with the return address of Fayvel Glezer. We were so happy and wrote back, but this Fayvel happened to be an older man. He just happened to have the same name as my brother.
However, some time passed and we decided I had to go to work. Riva had a bread card [13], but this bread was insufficient for all of us. My father went to work at a military plant evacuated from Kalinin. He was a worker. By that time I picked up some Russian and could even write in Russian a bit. Having these skills I managed to get a job at the secretariat of the plant. As an employee I was provided with 800 grams of bread. I made friends at the plant. The girls were older than me, but we had common interests. We were fond of reading. There was a library at the plant, and I read almost all the books available there. I discovered the wonderful world of Russian classical literature. I joined the Komsomol at the plant. My mother was babysitting. She also worked at nighttime. Her acquaintance from Siauliai worked at a bakery. My mother worked night shifts with her, receiving a loaf of bread for her work.
When Hanna left, Riva decided to move to the town of Glazov, where she was offered a job. Nadia was to go with her. I also went with them. Riva had to go to work, and I was to look after the baby. Some time later our parents joined us in Glazov. We shared our room with a young Lithuanian woman, who had two children. Her name was Neele. She was older than me, but we became friends. Neele loved a man, who was an officer in the Soviet Army. Neele looked forward to his letters and kept hoping that he would be safe. We got along well and lived like one family. I also looked after Neele's children while she was at work.
My mother and sister couldn't help thinking about my brothers. Hanna decided to join the 16th Lithuanian division [12], hoping to find our brothers there or at least, get some information about them. Mama went to the Lithuanian representative office in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, to arrange for my sister to join the army. In fall 1942 Hanna went to Balakhna where the rear units of the 16th Lithuanian division were formed.
We all went to work. Hanna and I worked at the flax harvesting in a kolkhoz. My father also worked in the kolkhoz, and so did Riva. My mother stayed at home with little Nadia. We were in bad need of food. The kolkhoz provided some gray bread and cereal. Mama started selling our clothes. With a sunken heart she traded a cut of English gabardine that she had bought for my brother to the director of the kolkhoz for a few bags of potatoes. My dresses and even nightgowns adorned with lace were selling well. Local girls wore my nightgowns as they would fancy dresses. Hanna couldn't agree to part with the Swiss watch that our father had given her. One day she came home in tears: her watch had been stolen. Somebody had taken it off her wrist.
Some time later my parents and Riva decided we should go to Gorky region where Lithuanian Komsomol members were, according to what people were saying. We took a train to Gorky, but in the middle of the way it headed in a different direction and we arrived in Udmurtia. We were taken to a kolkhoz and accommodated in a pise-walled hut. There was one room in the hut. The owner of the house had to move to his acquaintances. Mama started the search for her children again. She traveled to nearby kolkhoz villages asking people, when she finally succeeded. My sister Hanna happened to be in one of them. She joined us soon. She told us she had lost our brothers at the border between Latvia and Russia, and she knew nothing about what had happened to them.
We were laughing and crying, hugging and telling each other of our misfortunes. They happened to leave Birzai a few hours after us and kept looking for us. A Lithuanian acquaintance of theirs directed them to where we were. By that time Riva gave birth to a girl and named her Nadia. We still had no information about my brothers or Hanna. Riva didn't know anything about her husband.
We were accommodated in a local house. The mistress of the house was Russian, one of those wealthy people, who were relocated to this town after the revolution [11]. She still hated the Soviet rule and for some reason she associated us with this regime. We could physically feel the hatred that she radiated. Soon my aunt had to go to hospital. Her baby was due soon. I was alone with our landlady. At some point of time I felt so starved that it caused giddiness. At this time our landlady was having tea that she made in a samovar. She never offered me a cup of tea. I spoke not a word of Russian, and this made my situation even worse. I went outside feeling unsteady. A local approached me in the street. She asked me a few questions, but I didn't understand a word. The girl left me and a few minutes later she brought me a glass of milk and a piece of bread. I shall always remember this girl. She probably saved my life. Later I went back into the house and went to sleep. In the morning, when I woke up, somebody knocked on the door. My parents were standing in the doorway.
We headed for Latvia. It took us a whole night before we reached a border side town. A few women from Birzai were with us. We stopped in a forest quite near the railway station. Riva and a friend of hers went to look for some transport to move on. At that time a bombing raid began, causing the explosion of railroad fuel tanks. It didn't take long before the whole town was burning. We had to move on and I realized I had lost Aunt Riva. We walked a few kilometers before I saw a truck. The truck stopped and from there my aunt called my name. We decided to never lose sight of one another for a single minute. We reached a railway station. There was a train on the tracks with all those who had left their homes. My aunt showed her documents and her party membership card, and we took this train. Our trip lasted at least ten days. On the way my aunt traded our belongings for food. I was hungry all the time. My aunt was pregnant and needed more food than I did, and I gave my share to her. We finally reached Kirov [about 1300 km north-east of Moscow], and from there we took a truck to the town of Slobodskoy, Kirov region.
,
1941
See text in interview
In the middle of June 1941 our family got together in Birzai: my sister and brothers came home on vacation. I had finished the fifth grade of school. On the morning of 22nd June I saw airplanes in the sky. This was the first time I saw such a sight and so, I kept watching them. We had no radio, and our neighbors hurried in to tell us that the Great Patriotic War had begun. On this very day a few Komsomol activists left the town. My brothers Fayvel and Falk and my sister Hanna went with them. Aunt Riva's husband had to stay in the town for some time. He and other party leaders had to ensure that all party documents were destroyed. The family council decided to send away Riva and me to support her on the way. Riva's husband found a horse- drawn cart and we left our hometown. We didn't even get a chance to properly say 'good bye' to our dear ones.
When the Soviet Army [8] came to Lithuania in June 1940 [9] and the Soviet rule was established, my brothers and sister were just happy. Poor people were happy. Shortly after the Soviet rule was established many food products disappeared from stores. Nationalization began: property was taken away from those, who had worked hard to make their living. The wealthiest individuals were relocated to Siberia [10]. My school friend Perez's family was sent to Siberia. After the war people told me that Perez survived, returned to Lithuania after the war and moved to Israel later. I never saw him again. In autumn I went to the new Soviet school organized on the basis of our former Jewish school. The term of education was extended by two years. I was happy to go back to school and see my school friends again. My sister Hanna became an active Komsomol member. Shortly before the Great Patriotic War began she joined the Communist Party. She worked in the passport office in Kaunas. My brothers Fayvel and Falk also became active Komsomol members. Fayvel was seeing a Jewish girl from Birzai and was thinking of marrying her.
In those years young Jewish people took an active part in political activities. Some young people were fond of Zionist [7] ideas related to the restoration of a Jewish state. However, the poorest strata of the Jewish community, suffering from the ruling regime, strongly believed in Soviet Russia. My sister and brothers joined the underground Komsomol. My sister and brothers' friends had frequent gatherings in our home. They also gathered in a nearby forest where they played the accordion and danced, and they also read Marxist books and propagated their ideas. My parents were aware of their older children's hobbies. They couldn't help being concerned about them. By that time my father's sister Riva had spent a few years in jail for her underground Communist activities, and my father was afraid his children might suffer the same punishment. One day before the holiday of the 1st of May young people put red flags everywhere in the town. The following day arrests started, and my parents decided that Hanna had to leave town to escape arrest. She went to Kaunas where Falk lived. Hanna went to work at a students' diner.
I was the only Jewish student in my class in this Lithuanian gymnasium. My school mates and teachers were kind to me, but I didn't like it there anyway. It seemed a different surrounding to me. We had to leave the classroom, when the others had their religion classes. A rabbi conducted a common religion class for Jewish students.
There was no place to continue my Jewish education in Birzai. My older sister Hanna became a dressmaker after finishing school. My brother Fayvel went to work in a craftsman's shop in Birzai. My father wanted me to continue my education. There was a Jewish gymnasium in Zarasai, where Jewish children could continue their Jewish education, but my mother was reluctant to have me leave our home. Therefore, after finishing my school, I entered a public Lithuanian gymnasium in Birzai. My brother Falk, who was good at technical things, also studied in this gymnasium. After finishing it he moved to Kaunas where he entered a Jewish secondary school.
I liked preparations for Jewish holidays most of all. We staged amateur performances, which were sketches from the Jewish life, for each holiday. Purimspiel was the merriest performance on Purim. Once I even played the role of Queen Ester, the savior of the Jewish people. Our mothers and older sisters made costumes for holidays in our favorite teacher's apartment, which almost became a sewing shop. Our teacher enjoyed preparations to holidays as well. We also gave performances on Simchat Torah and Chanukkah. I enjoyed going to school, and my school years were happy and flew by quickly.
There was one four-year Jewish school in Birzai. All subjects were taught in Yiddish. When I started this school at the age of seven, my brother Falk had just finished it. We had wonderful teachers. They were truly committed to the idea of Jewish public education. I made a number of new friends at school. They were Jewish boys and girls. Basia was one of them, and there was Perez, whose parents owned a large store in the center of Birzai. He was probably the best provided for child at our school. My mother was an active member of the parents' committee. This committee was established to provide assistance to teachers. My mother attended its weekly meetings. Parents collected contributions to organize celebrations on holidays, buy costumes and supplies and support the needy schoolchildren. Besides general subjects that were taught in Yiddish, we were told about the Jewish history and religion, and this was when I came to know the origin of my people's holidays and traditions.
My ancestors and I come from Birzai, a small town in the east of Lithuania. This was a typical Lithuanian town. There were corner shops and stores in the center of the town, most of them owned by Jews. They were rather small shops, and townsfolk had to go to Kaunas or Zarasai for major shopping.
On Sukkot my father made a sukkah in the yard, using pine tree branches. Inside the tent he placed a portable table to have meals there on these days. On Simchat Torah we ran to the synagogue to watch the festival. When we grew older, we could also participate. I remember numerous lights on Chanukkah, the winter holiday, when Jewish residents lit chanukkiyah candles that could be seen through the windows. Mama lit another candle every day. When I was a little girl, my father used to make me a spinning top, and I played with it with other Jewish children. All eight days of Chanukkah we ate potato pancakes [latkes], cakes and pies made from the dough on vegetable oil. We also had little pies filled with jam. I learned the history of Jewish holidays and rituals, when I went to the Jewish school. Before school I didn't quite realize what they were about.
Pesach was the principal holiday. We also celebrated other holidays. On Shavuot Mama made things from cottage cheese: cheese cakes and pancakes. Rosh Hashanah, symbolizing the start of the year and repentance, started with the kapores ritual. Girls came to the synagogue with a hen and boys carried a rooster each. The shochet circled a chicken over his head, saying a prayer. Our parents went to the synagogue in the evening, and there was a delicious dinner waiting for us at home. Gefilte fish was the main dish that we had on this day, and our father, being the head of the family, was to eat the head of the fish. There were sweets, symbolizing a sweet year to come: apples with honey and imberlach. Besides, Mama also made meat, apple and cheese cakes. On Yom Kippur our parents observed the fast. Before and after the fasting we had a plentiful meal.