I also went to Tashkent [the capital of Uzbekistan] soon, and my sister stayed. My sister was suffering from hunger - there was nothing to eat. She was all swollen from hunger, I never asked her the details, it's too painful to think about it. Anyway, later Rose was taken in by a Jewish family in Taldykurgan. She was ill, was in hospital, they looked after her. I returned in 1944 and she arrived later. We arrived in April, the war was still going on. We were a Latvian group in Tashkent. We were gathered in a group of young guys of 14, 15, 16 years of age. We studied in a vocational school. My specialization was in tool mechanic. Then our entire group was taken to Riga, together with our teachers. We completed four years in that vocational school, and finished it. Some of the students got a job at VEF [the State Electrical Factory].
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Displaying 10951 - 10980 of 50826 results
itsik margolis
I finished school and started to work in the Industrial Association of Moskovsky district [16]. By vocation I am a shoe repairman. Then I worked in different places. I worked in a workshop, in a studio, at the factory 'Rigas Apavi,' at the 'Record' factory. Almost all my life I worked at this last factory. I have an uninterrupted work experience; I retired at the age of 60, but worked for five more years. I was a member of the workers' committee of the factory. I traveled a lot all over the Soviet Union. I have been to many places - in Central Asia, the Crimea, Moldova, Moscow, Armenia. Now if I have orders for repairing, I work, if not, I relax.
I continued to live in Riga, in rented apartments, in hostels. I got married in 1961. With much effort I managed to get an apartment - a room of 6.8 square meters plus kitchen of 2.5 meters. The courtyard was beautiful, green, with apple trees and a garden. There were even vegetable beds divided between the residents and I had one too, but we failed to grow anything there except for grass.
We had no chuppah at our weeding. We had only a civil wedding. We have no money and our wedding was really modest.
I speak Russian with my wife, although she perfectly understands Yiddish.
All throughout the long Soviet period I remembered that I am a Jew [17]. I had no negative consequence in my work places for my Jewishness [18]. I have many friends - Jews, Russians and Latvians. But my Jewishness wasn't something special - I could still attend the synagogue, but I worked on Sabbath. My factory worked on Saturday and Sunday. I didn't keep kosher. We kept our Jewish tradition in our family.
Each year, on the third Sunday in August, we go to Ludza, where the Jews shot by the Nazis are buried. I had a friend Arkady - Jewish name Abram - who always wrote the scripts on the stones in Hebrew. But he died recently. Who will organize everything now?! The graves in Ludza are maintained fairly well. There are no unattended graves. There are many graves of those who died during the war, of whom Jews make up 70-80 percent. There is a monument in the city near the lake. And there is a monument in Pogulyanka, too. They take very good care of the graves - better than anywhere! Financing? The administration gives them something before this commemorative event, but people look after the graves even without that. Schoolchildren also help. There are nine to ten Jews left in Ludza now.
Later my daughter had a chuppah, too. The chuppah was set up separately from the synagogue, as was customary. In the Soviet Union Church was kept separate from the State. A wedding ceremony in the synagogue wasn't recognized by civil Soviet law [19]. Of course, there was a violin playing. At the chuppah we got even more drunk than we did at the wedding. I wasn't a Communist, so I could drink as much as I like. Communists weren't allowed to go to the synagogue, either.
My granddaughter's name is Elena or Lena for short. In June she will turn 18. About the time when Latvia became independent [20], the first Jewish school was established in Riga. Lena attended the Jewish school. She is in Israel now - she went under the program 'Alle.' She doesn't want to leave Israel.
. In our family - my wife and me, my daughter's husband and parents - all are pure-blooded Jews from far back in history. We have never had such a thing as 'friendship of the peoples' [mixed marriages] in our family!
I have always attended the synagogue! Not very often, of course, but on holidays for sure! Especially on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Chanukkah, Pesach. How could we observe traditions in this country, if we usually worked on Saturdays? In the old times I worked both on Saturdays and Sundays. But, nevertheless, we tried to support the national spirit a little bit. Now I regularly go to the synagogue. I mean each Saturday. I very rarely miss the occasion. I pray and I have got my own coverlet - the tallit. I have a friend whom I often meet in the synagogue - Mathew, a teacher of history, and we talk only in Yiddish between ourselves. He doesn't want to talk to me in Russian. If I say something in Russian, he is angry with me.
I've never been to Israel, although my wife has been there; her brother lives there.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
Zelik and his wife Bella had their wedding in Riga in 1958, and they had a chuppah, too, in accordance with all the rules. It is a canopy on four posts made of fabric, with which they cover the groom and the bride and lead them to the prayer house, and people are walking around with lit candles. Music plays, serious music, everyone is crying. Then they pour wine in glasses, give a sip to the groom, a sip to the bride. Then they put the glass on the floor, and the groom must step on it and break it into pieces! And at once you hear a burst of cheerful music! Now's when merrymaking starts! The glass is usually wrapped in a cloth to prevent pieces from scattering. But the chuppah was put up not in the synagogue, but at the wedding.
I don't remember when my maternal grandfather, Motl Kopelovich, was born. I only know that in his last years he was completely blind. He died as soon as the Germans came, in 1941 [1]. My grandmother, his wife, Enta, was killed by the Germans.
Grandfather worked as a joiner. As far as I remember, he had a workbench, and was a cabinet-maker.
Granddad was very religious and Grandmother, too. They ate only kosher food. They always observed Sabbath. I remember that Grandfather couldn't see anything any more and I used to take him to the synagogue on holidays.
We spoke only Yiddish at home: Mum, Daddy, Grandmother, Grandfather - all of us!
Father, as far as I remember, was born in 1890. He was born in Dvinsk. Father's name was Abram Margolis. In what year my parents got married is difficult to say. My sister [Rose] was born in 1924, and I - in 1927. I should think that Mother and Daddy had a chuppah. I mean, I don't know for sure, but I think, there was a chuppah.
Father, too, wasn't an ardent believer. You can say, half and half. But, nevertheless he did follow the traditions a little bit. Father didn't eat only kosher food. Only in Grandmother's house was he a little bit religious. But on Friday challah was baked. Father seldom visited the synagogue. But Mother always lit the candles on Friday night. We recited the Kiddush before the meal. Only my grandparents kept Sabbath, but my father sometimes worked that day. I had my bar mitzvah when I was 13 years old.
My parents' education was minimal. Father worked as a house manager in 1941. He did some sort of a bookkeeping job, they wrote something. Maybe he finished some school in Dvinsk. My mother might have completed four-five classes. I don't know. During World War I they lived in Daugavpils. They didn't leave the town.
My father was a house painter. But basically he glued wallpaper. He didn't have his own company, it seems, he was just a free-lance painter. He had a partner. They repaired whatever they were ordered to. In winter there was little work. Mum worked in a sewing studio before the war. There was a firm called 'Markon.' They sewed clothes of very high quality. They took a whole week to sew one coat.
Father enlisted in the army. I can't remember exactly if it was during the revolution [5] or after, maybe in 1918 or 1919. I remember that he was wounded. I remember he would touch his shoulder and tell me that's where he was injured.
When the Reds [6] came, there was a lunch organized for the children in the club - the pioneer organization [7] - and I went there. There was coffee there. When I went home I was scolded because I had gone there - because in our family we didn't consider ourselves poor. We thought that really poor people were those who lived in basements. I was frequently punished and I really got in trouble that time. Father was very strict. Father didn't keep kosher, but he told me: 'You must eat only at home.
I can write and read Yiddish. There were two schools with teaching in Yiddish in Dvinsk. At first we studied near the Dvina [Daugava in Latvian] River, there was a pre-school institution there. We studied there for about one year, I can't remember exactly. I can't even remember the teachers in that school. We hadn't studied there for long and we were transferred to another school, on Dvoryanskaya Street. In the first grade of school I remember there was a teacher named Maimin. Lern Maimin lived in Daugavpils, she's dead now. She entered the classroom, as I now recollect, and we rose up, and she said: 'Sit down! My name is Haya Maimin. You can call me Lern Haya,' or teacher Haya in Yiddish. I studied up to the 4th grade in that school. Lern Haya used to play the piano and sing and dance with us. She gave us good marks. Our class supervisor in 1940 was called Lern Kats, teacher Kats, her first name I have forgotten.
Every subject was in Yiddish. There was also Latvian language and the history of Latvia. We also had religious classes. We called the religion teacher Rebele. Religious classes were given quite frequently. I remember the teacher, a small rabbi. We had lots of out-of-school activities, too. Our school had a very good choir and dancing club.
Every subject was in Yiddish. There was also Latvian language and the history of Latvia. We also had religious classes. We called the religion teacher Rebele. Religious classes were given quite frequently. I remember the teacher, a small rabbi. We had lots of out-of-school activities, too. Our school had a very good choir and dancing club.
A lot of kids from my class were killed in the German concentration camp in Daugavpils.
I took part in Jewish organizations. When I was small, I was a member of the 'Hertslie' [named after Theodor Herzl] [8], I was six-seven years old then and wanted to get accustomed to Jewish traditions. In the summer we went hiking; I was the youngest, but I didn't look so young. Interestingly, there was also table tennis. Later I was a member of the Hashomer Hatzair [9] - the Zionist scout organization. We were planning to leave for Israel [then Palestine]. Legally it was impossible to go. So we meant to emigrate illegally.
Nevertheless, to be accepted in your people's state it was necessary to undergo a serious preparation. We - members of the Hashomer Hatzair - were assigned a plot of land and we worked on that site. Members of the Hashomer Hatzair worked one or two years in agriculture, and then they illegally sent you to Israel.
Nevertheless, to be accepted in your people's state it was necessary to undergo a serious preparation. We - members of the Hashomer Hatzair - were assigned a plot of land and we worked on that site. Members of the Hashomer Hatzair worked one or two years in agriculture, and then they illegally sent you to Israel.
In 1939 I was only twelve, I worked only one summer, but on 17th June 1940 Latvia became Soviet [10].
Everything changed dramatically as soon as the Soviet power was established. When the Soviets came, schools were not closed but changed. We began to wear pioneer ties and badges. I was a pioneer, later a Komsomol [11] member. From members of Jewish organizations we all changed into pioneers, as if there had never been any Jewish organizations at all! We were so afraid - they could arrest you at once and that's it! The synagogue was closed right away. I remember, there was a pioneer palace or a club of some kind in the synagogue.
Everything changed dramatically as soon as the Soviet power was established. When the Soviets came, schools were not closed but changed. We began to wear pioneer ties and badges. I was a pioneer, later a Komsomol [11] member. From members of Jewish organizations we all changed into pioneers, as if there had never been any Jewish organizations at all! We were so afraid - they could arrest you at once and that's it! The synagogue was closed right away. I remember, there was a pioneer palace or a club of some kind in the synagogue.
evgenia shapiro
Lipa Shapiro was born in Borisov in the 1910s. He studied in cheder and finished Russian grammar school.
He was recruited to the army in 1941 and got in German captivity the same year. The Germans executed him by tying him to two tanks that went in opposite directions. My father heard this story from somebody that witnessed this execution.
Rebecca Shapiro was born in Borisov in 1917. She finished Russian grammar school in Borisov.