1932-33 were hard years. This was the period of terrible famine [23] in Ukraine. Many people were starving to death. My grandmother managed to feed us during this period and we survived. The shop where my mother was working provided free meals to its employees, this was rather miserable food: a slice of dipped bread, some poor soup with potato peels, but we appreciated even this little food that we were provided. Mama shared her lunch with me. Now I know that she gave me a bigger part of it. Mama always waited for me to come home before sitting down for a meal.
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Leonid Aptekar
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In 1936 arrests [Great Terror] [24] began. None of our relatives was arrested or declared an ‘enemy of the people’ [25]. I don’t think any Jews were arrested in Skvira at that time. They only arrested Russian and Ukrainian residents. They arrested director of a Ukrainian school and few others, but that was all. Of course, we believed those people were guilty. Nobody could even imagine that Stalin, the ‘father of all peoples’ was a horrible criminal.
At one time I was on the edge of becoming ‘an enemy of the people’. I was in the 4th form and was a terrible naughty boy and a fidget. There was a portrait of Stalin in our class where he was painted sitting at the table wearing his military kittel. The other boys and I were throwing paper balls into one another and my ball incidentally hit the portrait of Stalin. Of course, there was no evil intent of mine, but really what a mess it caused. Mama was invited to school, I was crying, the management wanted to expel me and I was trying to explain that it was not my fault. Fortunately, they left me alone some time afterward.
When the 1932-33 famine was over, life started to improve gradually, though the state introduced high taxes on those who kept livestock and had gardens. These taxes could be paid in money or agricultural products. I remember my grandmother saving eggs to pay the tax. We fed pigs for sale. Mama’s brother Gersh slaughtered them and sold at a market in Kiev. This helped us to make ends meet. Later mama’s brothers and their families moved to Kiev. Teviye worked as a tinsmith in the construction agency of the Council of Ministers. Gersh went to work at the industrial trade trust. Gersh supported or family. He often visited Skvira bringing us clothes, food products and things for home.
In the late 1930s the situation with food grew worse again. This was caused by the need to feed the army fighting against Finland [Soviet-Finnish War] [27], and then the need to create state food stocks in case of a war with Germany.
As for the population, it had no big concerns about the war after the Finnish campaign and particularly, after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact [28] was executed. We were convinced there would be no war and that ‘who came with a sword would die from sword’. We were patriots and believed in the strength and invincibility of our army.
I finished the 8th form of my Jewish school in 1940. This was the last graduation before the school was closed. One could tell that the authorities intended to eliminate anything Jewish from our life.
In summer 1940 all guys of 1923-1925 years of birth were gathered in a Ukrainian school. I was to be recruited to the army 2 years from then. This was the so-called ‘labor mobilization’. We were to be under the command of veteran of the Civil War Dubyrintsev, a representative of the military registry office. We were given food ration, which I gave my mother. I knew I would manage somehow, but I also understood that it would be difficult for my mother and grandmother. We walked to Donetsk region. On the way we were provided meals. We walked across villages where we stayed overnight. When we reached Stalino [ 620 km from Kiev], we were assigned to different sites: some went to mines and the others were sent to work at plants or in kolkhozes. I was sent to work in the Stalino kolkhoz. I worked there for about a year.
When I heard that Germany attacked the USSR on 22 June 1941 without an announcement of the war, my first thought was about my mother and grandmother. I did not know what was to happen to them. I still believed that the war would be instantaneous and victorious for us. When Germans advanced as far as Donetsk region, we were told to move out of Stalino. We were given shoes and food rations for few days. I took a train to the Caucasus. The trip was long, it took about 10 days considering that I changed trains and there were long stops. At a station in the Caucasus I bumped into my acquaintances from Skvira and joined them. We had some money to buy food products and were also provided meals at stations. Everything was organized well. However, it was not safe to stand in lines at railway stations. Local authorities had an order to send certain numbers people to the arrangement of trenches, and militia just captured people from lines to send them to the digging of trenches. I hardly managed to escape once. Of course, this was illegal, but there was nobody to complain to…
I arrived at a settlement in Andijon region in Uzbekistan over 6000 km from home. I was short and did not look my age of 16. I was sent to a local boarding school. There were not many children at the boarding school and we had sufficient food. Some time later a children’s home evacuated from Nemirov Kiev region [220 km from Kiev] arrived at the boarding school.
Later I was sent to a vocational school in Tashkent. I was assigned to a construction group. In the morning we had classes and in the afternoon we went to work at the construction site. The students were involved in the construction of an aircraft plant. I worked as a bricklayer.
In autumn 1941 I finished my vocational school and got an assignment to work at the construction of a metallurgical plant in Zlatoust town Chelyabinsk region. I was a foreman at the construction site. It was given the status of a military construction site since metal was to be produced for army needs. We were provided 3 meals a day and 700 grams of bread. An old foreman working at this construction site supported me. His sons were at the front and he treated me like his own son. I worked at the construction till December 1942.
From there I was recruited to the army. I received a food ration for the trip to the military registry office. I had flat feet and was not fit for the army service, but it was the wartime and I believed it to be my duty to go to the front line. The medical commission confirmed that I was fit for service and I was sent to a sniper school. We lived in barracks and were trained in accurate shooting. We also studied military disciplines.
I studied 10 months. In November 1943 we were given military uniforms, warm underwear and winter jackets. We lined up and marched to the railway station to the music. We boarded a train. I was to go to Rechytsa [250 km from Kiev] town Gomel region in Belarus where the 48th army headquarters were located. I was assigned to the 291st regiment, 170th infantry division, Army 48, as a private. I was sent to the front line without delay. There were minor battles occurring, the so-called combat survey. Our regiment was in defense. No snipers were needed and I became a machine gunner.
In 1944 an overall offensive in Belarus began. Our 170th division went first. We beat the Germans as efficiently as they beat our troops at the beginning of the war. There were marshes on our right and left and this was advantageous for us. The Air Forces also supported us. I marched as far as Warsaw with my division. I had joined Komsomol before my first battle. Our colonel used to say: ‘If one is to die, one better dies a Komsomol member’. During this offensive I was wounded in my leg. Severely wounded patients were taken to rear hospitals, and the others could take treatment in a front-line hospital. I was taken to the army hospital and when I recovered, I was assigned to a reserve regiment where I was promoted to the rank of sergeant. We also took part in combat actions. It was good for me to have been taken to the army hospital since I managed to return to my regiment afterward. I was wounded again near Warsaw on 15 February 1945. My battalion commanding officer sent me to the combat position. I came onto the road, when a bullet hit me on my arm. This was severe injury and I was taken to a rear hospital in Orekhovo-Zuyevo near Moscow by the sanitary train. There was skilled medical personnel on this train and everything arranged for taking good care of the wounded. When I was released I was assigned to the 91st infantry division belonging to the 39th army. We were urgently relocated to Konigsberg [Konigsberg battle] [29]. There were severe battles in this area. The Konigsberg fortress was bombed day and night, Soviet, English and American Air Forces, all of them, but in vain. There was one circumstance, of which nobody was aware. Our commanding officers had detailed maps of the area, showing the roads, paths and even wells, but nobody knew that there was a whole underground town with the military forces, tanks and mortars in the forest surrounding Konigsberg. There were underground passages that Germans knew very well. In early April 1945 storm troops began to be formed reassigning a battalion or a company from each regiment. Of course, those were the strongest and bravest soldiers. Storm troops were to advance ahead of the army. On 6th April our storm troops went into attack and perished. There was a deep channel before the fortress: when our troops went in attack, the Germans filled the channel with water and our soldiers drowned. Then German tanks were released from underground passages. They attacked us and we had to retreat. Our next offensive took place on 15th April and on 16th April 1945 we moved into Konigsberg. Our division took part in these battles.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
Of course, there were intervals between operation on the front line. During such intervals one of 3 regiment divisions was left in defense and the two others were in its rear. We undertook military training, running, shooting and overcoming obstacles. Here was mandatory political training. We had political information in each class. Later we had to answer when Lenin or Stalin was born. There were concerts and each concert started from the ‘Cantata about Stalin’ [Composed by M. Inyushkin and Alexandr Alexandrov in 1937 it was to be glorifying and praising the leader.], which we sang in choir.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
When the term of my service on the Kwan Tung peninsula was over, another order was issued. It required guys of 1925 year of birth to serve 3 years of mandatory service. I was to serve at the Lazo station in the Primorskiy Krai. I demobilized in April 1950.
I headed to Skvira after my army service was over.
Jews had already returned from evacuation and from the army. Two residents of Skvira were Heroes of the soviet Union [32], one of them was Colonel Margulis, a Jew, commanding officer of an artillery brigade. He was a nice, decent and fair person. He undertook responsibility for making arrangements for the Jews who were returning from evacuation.
If there were other tenants in their houses they went to see rabbi Zavele to resolve this kind of issues. They did not have to go to court. Even Ukrainians followed the rabbi’s decisions.
Meyer Treletskiy, another Jewish man from Skvira, started his persecution of German accomplices, when he returned from the army. He tracked down policemen of informer in villages to have them prosecuted. Many of them were executed.
It was very difficult to obtain a residence permit [33] to stay to lie in Kiev. My uncle Teviye, who was a roof maker in the Council of Ministers, managed to obtain a permit for me to reside in his place. I wanted to rent a room, but my uncle insisted that I stayed with him. I went to work at the ‘Kist’ company [‘hand’ in Russian] as a founder. The state anti-Semitism was quite visible already, but there were still many Jews in the shop. They were readily employed as workers: the management knew they were decent and dedicated employees. Workers were not so oppressed as intelligentsia. Besides, Jews did not drink alcohol while many people drank after the war, even at their work places. So many managers preferred to employ Jews. Besides, managers were reluctant to employ those who had stayed on the occupied territory while Jews were returning from evacuation and had a more advantageous position than those Ukrainians who had stayed in Skvira during the rule of Germans.
A short while later I went to work at the photo goods factory where I worked 42 years. I started working with plastic and in due time I became a caster.
Soviet authorities undertook open persecution of Jews in 1948, when I was still in the army. It all started from the elimination of the Jewish anti-fascist committee [35], formed in April 1942. It’s members were well-known actors, artists, musicians and public activists. Solomon Mikhoels [36], an outstanding Jewish actor, headed the committee. During the war the Jewish anti-fascist committee provided great assistance to the front. Members of the committee gathered money in America and England to buy tanks and aircraft. They were almost declared fascist accomplices, arrested, and most of them were executed. The rest of them were sent to the GULAG. Solomon Mikhoels, chairman of the committee, was murdered. It was officially announced that he was hit by a vehicle, but nobody had any doubts that this ‘accident’ was thoroughly planned and executed by NKVD. Then persecution of Jewish intelligentsia began. Lecturers of higher educational institutions, actors and artists were fired. Newspapers published articles denouncing another Jewish cultural or scientific activist.
hen the words ‘rootless cosmopolitan’ were applied to Jews and trials charging ‘cosmopolitans’ [Campaign against ‘cosmopolitans’] [37] were conducted, i.e., a person was just convicted for being a Jew. Everybody, even those who were devoted to the party and Stalin, knew this. This persecution did not affect workers.
In January 1953 the ‘doctors’ Plot’ [38] began. Stalin’s doctors were convicted of an intention to poison Stalin. Almost all of those doctors were Jews. This resulted in another wave of anti-Semitism. At first people just refused to see Jewish doctors, but then Jews were accused of many other crimes. I don’t know what it might have resulted in, if Stalin had not died on 5 March 1953. There were rumors that Stalin intended to deport all Jews to Siberia. It was impossible to ignore this rumor: everybody understood how the Crimean Tatars and Chechen people had been deported [Forced deportation to Siberia] [39]. In one night people were forced into the trains taking them to the virgin lands in Siberia and Kazakhstan. This might have happened to Jew, but God saved them. Stalin died on Purim and people were saying that God rescued Jews from extermination.
However, this was later, but on the day of his death people were crying. The mourning lasted 3 days, and these days happened to be the time of common grief. Everybody thought about the same – how they were going to live without Stalin. Life seemed impossible without him: he was the symbol of the USSR for all, and for this reason he was called the ‘father of all peoples’.
Later, after the Twentieth Party Congress [40], when Khrushchev spoke about Stalin’s crime, we understood what a monster he was in reality. I knew that he had ordered to remove the high-ranked Jews from the army before and during the Great Patriotic War. They were arrested and executed. Since there were many Jewish commanders in the army, Stalin actually beheaded the army. We knew that the wives of many members of the government were taken to the GULAG. I think that Beriya [41] removed Stalin from his way. He did not have to kill Stalin. It was enough to not call a doctor to his attendance, when Stalin had another attack of his disease. Beriya was executed. Of course, I did not believe what Khrushchev said at once. I was thinking and comparing. However, I knew that what Khrushchev said was true, while many people did not believe it then and do not believe it now.
My wife Enna, nee Beilis, a Jew, was born in Kiev in 1921. Her father Volko Beilis was born in a village near Kiev. He was engaged in farming when he was young. Enna’s mother was a housewife. After the revolution of 1917, when the Pale of Settlement was canceled, the family moved to Kiev. Enna was a middle sister of three of them: Tsylia, the oldest daughter, was born in 1916, and Lubov, the youngest one, was born in 1923. Their parents were religious and observed Jewish traditions, but their daughters grew up to be atheists. Tsylia and Lubov were members of the party. Tsylia worked in NKVD before the war. During the war she evacuated to Chelyabinsk region with her family. Her husband Matvey Basilovskiy went to the front. Tsylia had no information about him. When Kiev was liberated Tsylia returned home. Her husband returned in 1945. He told Tsylia that he was in German captivity in a concentration camp and that our army liberated him. At that time the wife of a former prisoner-of-war could not keep her job at the NKVD. Tsylia was fired, but the NKVD office offered her a job in the personnel department of a bed manufacturing factory. Her husband also found a job. People supported and helped them. Only our authorities had the position that former prisoners were traitors.
, Ukraine
Enna and I got married in 1951. Enna’s family was poor and we had to borrow money for the wedding. We had a common wedding. We had a ceremony at the registry office and in the evening we invited our close ones to the wedding dinner. I received an apartment from my plant.