Everything else I see around me brings me both joy and fear. It is nice to see the blooming of the Jewish life in Ukraine. I'm proud that my son plays a great role in this - he is an organizer and the director of the Kiev- based Jewish Studies Institute.
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Lilya Finberg
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I can't say that our whole family accepted her way of life, up to keeping kashrut.
At the same time, in the past eight to 10 years, Jewish life entered our house with the confident walk of my granddaughter, Marina. I can't say that our whole family accepted her way of life, up to keeping kashrut. All of us, from me to the youngest Arsen, are free in our choices. And our different choices did not cause us to quarrel. We care for each other very much.
In the 1990s, the formation of independent Ukraine and transition from Socialism, to which I had been accustomed since my childhood, did not affect me too much. By that time, I had long since retired. However, my pension was inadequate, considering the 40 years I worked. But I live with my children, while lonely pensioners immediately turned absolutely poor.
I was, and still am, afraid of the paramilitary situation in Israel.
Our family unambiguously decided on this issue. We did not want to leave. I was, and still am, afraid of the paramilitary situation in Israel. The United States was too far and unrealistic, and we could not even think of moving to Germany. The feeling and comprehension of the Holocaust became a firm part of our lives then.
My mentality was Soviet, rather than Jewish, with its two main characteristics: first, atheism; second, internationalism. There was simply no place for Jewish traditions or faith. We all believed in Communism and feared nothing. The war and the Holocaust radically changed my mind.
, Ukraine
Thanks to my mother-in-law, keeping the main rituals and attending synagogue became a normal thing for us.
In general, people did not like talking about the tragedy of the Jewish people in the first decade after the war. Words like "Babi Yar" could only be whispered.
I was 17, and before the war I finished only eight grades. During the evacuation I had no chance to study, and after evacuation I could not study - I had to earn my living. My mother lived with Bebah, who was very ill and needed permanent care. I went to work at a trust company; then, while I was working, I studied and got a bookkeeper's diploma. For the rest of my life until my retirement, I worked as a bookkeeper in various establishments.
Without permission, somebody occupied our two-room pre-war flat in Tverskaya Street. The former owner of that house, a Ukrainian - Petro - let us stay in his flat. Six months later, my mother managed to get our home back through the court, which was a unique case at the time.
In fall of 1943, after Kiev was liberated, we returned home. It was not so simple; we had to have a special invitation. I remember Kreschatik Street being leveled - there was only a narrow board, on which two men could hardly walk together; the rest was broken glass and bricks.
We did not get a single letter from my father from the front. We learned about his death, somewhere in Austria, only after the war.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
In September we reached Udmurtiya, west of the Urals. Our family was split up. My mother and uncle were sent to one section, I was sent to another section, which was 18 kilometers away. From the time I was 15, until my mother's death after the war, I never had a chance to live with her again. We were settled in barracks that had rooms for men and women, about 10 persons in each. I worked in the office, while Soviet prisoners and German prisoners of war worked in peat production. This was the first time I saw them; I remember they would fall down, dead, in 40-degree frost, wearing hardly any clothes. At night they were taken outside the village and thrown into a special pit for the dead. They all were not older than 25. We had no particular hatred toward them then.
In the office I worked with papers, wearing special winter boots and a padded jacket; ink would freeze in the ink pot. I worked for 10 hours a day. It was a little warmer in the dorms. I remember nothing but work there. I remember getting sick with jaundice. I also remember planting potatoes and turnips to eat. Our salaries were tiny, not enough to buy food. On the only day off - Sunday - I went to see my mother, walking 18 kilometers through wild woods.
There were practically no military personnel in our territory - only camp guards and guards for the German prisoners. Somebody would always escape from the camp and get caught. I remember practically nobody from the local population. I only remember that people who were evacuated lived there.
We knew little about the course of the war, and had no idea what the Germans did to the Jews. We did not get a single letter from my father from the front. We learned about his death, somewhere in Austria, only after the war.
In the office I worked with papers, wearing special winter boots and a padded jacket; ink would freeze in the ink pot. I worked for 10 hours a day. It was a little warmer in the dorms. I remember nothing but work there. I remember getting sick with jaundice. I also remember planting potatoes and turnips to eat. Our salaries were tiny, not enough to buy food. On the only day off - Sunday - I went to see my mother, walking 18 kilometers through wild woods.
There were practically no military personnel in our territory - only camp guards and guards for the German prisoners. Somebody would always escape from the camp and get caught. I remember practically nobody from the local population. I only remember that people who were evacuated lived there.
We knew little about the course of the war, and had no idea what the Germans did to the Jews. We did not get a single letter from my father from the front. We learned about his death, somewhere in Austria, only after the war.
War broke out unexpectedly. I remember a crowd of people outside the Vladimirsky market. Everybody was listening to Molotov's address to the nation, from big black speakers that were hanging on posts. Women were crying. Men were called up to the army. Our family was getting reading to evacuate, while my father was called up to the army.
And in 1937 we were Pioneers and adored Lenin and Stalin. Our favorite prank was to run into the Catholic Cathedral wearing our red Pioneer ties, shouting, and extinguishing all the candles. When we grew up a little bit, right before the war, we began to keep up a correspondence with boys from the naval academy that was across from our school building. Through windows we would set up dates. At the age of 14, we had little interest in politics, and there were no Communists at home.
, Ukraine
My parents went to the Jewish theater, where Yiddish was spoken on the stage. My sister, our friends and I would go to the "Echo" cinema to watch heroic Soviet films - the same ones, many, many times.
Before the war, you could hear Yiddish anywhere in the street, in the market, in streetcars - however, only from those who were older than 20, who seemed way too old to us. My parents went to the Jewish theater, where Yiddish was spoken on the stage.
A family legend is linked with an arrest: Before I was born, when our family lived in Vasilkov, we had a piano, on which young Bebah played "The Cry of Israel," which created a deep emotional response in the Jewish community. When commissars came to our house to look for gold, the young child told them where Grandfather had hidden it. Grandfather Lazar and his two sons were immediately arrested. They were released two months later - since nobody ever had gold in our family.
I only learned of the arrests of 1937 by hearsay - praise God, there were none in my environment, school.
My first friends outside the house were neighbors - a friendly company of children of the same age who were not divided according to nationalities. We had a yard, and on warm summer nights we would take folding beds and spend nights together under the open sky.
My sister and I went to the Ukrainian school and celebrated Soviet holidays: May 1, the October Revolution, and our favorite, New Year; we all decorated our New Year tree with handmade toys. Family holidays were not encouraged very much. Instead, revolutionary, public holidays were celebrated with a lot of joy. The Day of the Great October Revolution and May 1 were always celebrated with a military parade and demonstrations with red flags, portraits of Soviet leaders, and Pioneer songs. We loved all of that very much. I don't remember celebrating Jewish holidays before the war.
Only after the war, when I got married, my mother-in-law and I went regularly to the synagogue.
I don't remember going to the synagogue before the war; it was not accepted among the urban Jewish youth. Among the Soviet youth, to which my sister and I belonged, any manifestation of religion, in any form, was considered a sign of degradation, illiteracy and shame.
My father was an engineer. In 1937, he was a master of a workshop of some factory in Podol that made plastic items.
My father's name was David Izrailevich Braginsky. He was killed during the war, approximately in 1942.
My sister, Bronislava, was four years older than me. We called her Bebah. In 1940 she graduated from high school with honors and entered the Mechanics and Mathematics Department of the Kiev University without exams. At the time, it was a grand event.
He was religious in an old way. He did not go to the synagogue every day, but regularly. In his family, they kept Shabbat, while in our family I don't remember keeping Shabbat.
My grandparents spoke Yiddish between themselves, and Russian to us.
Grandfather Lazar - his Russian name was Lyonya - died on January 21, 1940. He was a very decent and holy person. I remember his solemn funeral. It was only much later that I realized that it could have turned into trouble and even arrests for some members of our family. Rabbi Ganopolsky led the funeral both in Yiddish and in Russian, so that everyone would understand. A lot of people came. The ceremony was held out in the open; people showed no fear of possible persecution.