My mother's oldest sister, Sima, married an owner of fishponds from Bendery, Romania. Sima and her husband had three children. In 1940 Moldova joined the USSR. The Soviet power expropriated the fishponds of Sima's husband.
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Displaying 12061 - 12090 of 50826 results
faina shlemovich
Bendery was in Transnistria [5]. Sima and her children were in ghetto in Transnistria until 1944.
My mother's older brother, Israel, lived and worked in Mohilev-Podolsk. He was a nurse, a surgeon and a very good specialist. He was very popular with his patients. He didn't ask for any money for his services from the poor and often left them some money to buy some food and medication.
My mother's second brother, Velvl, moved to Chernovtsy, which belonged to Romania then, after finishing financial college and in the 1920s. He worked as an accountant and later as an economist at a plant.
My mother's youngest brother, Elia, moved to Kiev after finishing financial college. He and worked as an accountant at a metallurgical plant.
On 29th September 1941 the Germans shot their whole family in Babi Yar [6] in Kiev.
My mother's brothers and sisters grew up atheists. They studied in higher educational institutions. It wasn't popular to be religious at the time. Religious people were considered old-fashioned. Religiosity was ridiculed by society.
My father continued to work as chairman of the village council in Zhvantsy.
She didn't want to live with my father's parents, so they rented an apartment first, and later my father received a dwelling.
He became human resource manager at the sugar factory.
My mother came from a poorer family than my father, but her family paid attention to giving education to their children. All the children finished secondary school. Sima and Israel studied at the Jewish school for eight years, and the other children studied at the Russian school.
After school Israel finished medical college and became a nurse. Nurses didn't have the right to operate at that time, but they were qualified to prescribe treatment., etc. Velvl finished financial college and became an accountant. Ilia, the youngest, finished the same college.
, Ukraine
The daughters didn't continue their studies after school. My grandfather believed that women had to learn to do housekeeping and get married.
My mother told me how she met my father. In the early 1920s he came to Mohilev-Podolsk on business. He met my mother's sister Reizl, who was a very beautiful girl. My father fell in love with her, but she was engaged to a Romanian Jew from Bucharest, who owned several stores. I don't remember his name. My grandfather didn't want his daughter to break off her engagement and marry a poor man from a small village. He expedited his daughter's wedding. It took place in Mohilev-Podolsk, and on the following day Reizl and her husband left for Romania.
Mohilev-Podolsk was on the right bank of the Dnestr River. The newly-weds had to cross the river. They were to cross it on a boat. There was another boat crossing the river. A man and his wife, older people, were on board. In the middle of the river they decided to change places, lost their balance and fell into the river. My mother's sister Reizl swam well. She grabbed both old people and managed to reach the bank with them. My mother said that those were scaring moments when she was watching her sister from the bank helplessly. The brothers ran to get another boat, but it all took time. They were all so happy to see Reizl and the survivors safe on the river bank.
My future father was also there when this incident happened. He was comforting my mother. When it was all over they threw themselves into one another's arms. Afterwards they started seeing each other. After some time my father asked my grandparents to allow him to marry their daughter.
Mohilev-Podolsk was on the right bank of the Dnestr River. The newly-weds had to cross the river. They were to cross it on a boat. There was another boat crossing the river. A man and his wife, older people, were on board. In the middle of the river they decided to change places, lost their balance and fell into the river. My mother's sister Reizl swam well. She grabbed both old people and managed to reach the bank with them. My mother said that those were scaring moments when she was watching her sister from the bank helplessly. The brothers ran to get another boat, but it all took time. They were all so happy to see Reizl and the survivors safe on the river bank.
My future father was also there when this incident happened. He was comforting my mother. When it was all over they threw themselves into one another's arms. Afterwards they started seeing each other. After some time my father asked my grandparents to allow him to marry their daughter.
In less than a week my parents had a civil ceremony in Mohilev-Podolsk. My mother's parents insisted that they had a traditional Jewish wedding, but my father was a Soviet official and couldn't have a religious wedding. My father had given up his religious views, and my mother was under the influence of his revolutionary ideas and became an atheist, too. My grandmother made dinner and the newly-weds left for Zhvantsy.
Reizl and her husband lived in Bucharest. Her husband owned a few shoe stores. His business was successful.
My parents rented an apartment from a Jewish family.
When my grandfather mastered this profession and could provide for the family, he married my grandmother, Beila Shlemovich. She came from Zhvantsy and was two or three years younger than my grandfather. She came from a poor family with many children. She didn't have a dowry, but my grandfather didn't care. They had a Jewish wedding with a rabbi.
The majority of the population in Zhvantsy was Jewish. They lived in the center of town. Ukrainians lived in the outskirts. They were farmers and kept livestock there, and they supplied food products to the town. Jews were craftsmen and traders. They owned all the stores in Zhvantsy. There was a small market in town, but every family had their own suppliers, who brought their products directly to the houses. There was no anti-Semitism. People were friendly with each other. There was a synagogue and cheder in town. My grandfather's neighbor was a melamed in cheder.
I remember my grandparents' house. It wasn't very big, but it was a solid stone building. There was a shed and a small kitchen garden behind the house. In front of the house there was a flower garden with two or three fruit trees. There was an annex behind the house, which served as my grandfather's shop. There was an entrance door in the center of the house. The house was divided into two parts. There were three rooms and a kitchen on the left, and a small store on the right. They sold clothes made by my grandfather. He had two or three seamstresses working for him. He was rather wealthy. My grandfather worked, and my grandmother was a housewife.
My father's family was religious. There was a synagogue not far from the house, and my grandparents went there on Saturdays and on holidays. My grandfather also prayed at home. He had his tallit and tfilntefillin. They celebrated Sabbath and Jewish holidays. The boys had their bar mitzvah at 13, and the girls had their bat mitzvah at 12. They followed the kashrust in the family, and so they had separate dishes for dairy and meat products.
My grandparents wore casual clothes. My grandfather had a small beard. My grandmother didn't wear a wig or a shawl. She usually wore her hair in a knot and had a beautiful hairdo on holidays. She only wore a shawl when she went to the synagogue. She liked jewelry and often wore some.
There were no Jewish pogroms [1] in Zhvantsy. Perhaps, because it was a very small town and thus didn't arouse the interest of bandits. Besides, local Ukrainians got along well with Jews.
The Revolution of 1917 [2] didn't change life in town dramatically. There were no rich people there, and the authorities took no interest in its inhabitants. My grandfather lost his savings. He was saving for the time when he wouldn't be able to work anymore. I remember going to the attic of my grandparents' home when I was a child. I saw boxes full of fabric shreds, old letters, old toys and many other interesting things. Once I found a box full of bank notes. I believed that I had found a treasure and called everybody up there. My grandfather explained to me that it was old tsarist money, and that he kept it to remember his stupid naivety.
I remember heavy furniture in the rooms and dark curtains covering the windows. I also remember a big family photograph on the wall showing my grandmother, my grandfather and their children.
Iosif married a local girl from a rich family in Zhvantsy. When collectivization [3] began, Iosif's wife and her parents were deported to Siberia. Iosif loved his wife and, although he didn't have to, he followed her. They settled down in Novosibirsk.
Sarah had a love marriage. Sarah and her husband, Gersh Shnaiderman, a Jew, had known each other from childhood. They fell in love and got married. Gersh was a shop assistant. Unfortunately their marriage wasn't happy later. Gersh took to drinking and caused Sarah much suffering.
Shprintsia, her husband, Aron Baron, and their children were living in Dunayevtsy back then. Shprintsia's husband came to Sarah and her husband, and they helped him to get a job in Kharkov. When the war began Sarah asked Shprintsia and her children to come to Kharkov, but Shprintsia refused. Aron went to Dunayevtsy to pick them up. Shprintsia, Aron and their two sons perished in the ghetto in Dunayevtsy.
My father's family spoke Yiddish to each other. They spoke Ukrainian to Ukrainians, but there was a noticeable Jewish accent. Only my father and Iosif spoke fluent Russian. Shprintsia and Sarah's Russian was very poor.
My father and Iosif studied at cheder, and their sisters were educated at home. There was a Ukrainian elementary school in Zhvantsy. All the children finished it.