In summer 1942 military censorship was transferred to Karelian front. I could not be transferred as I had a small child. I was offered to go through training in NKVD intelligence instead of working as a censor. The training was to last half a year and then I was promised to be given a military rank, promoted and offered a job in the rear. Of course, mother was appalled. But I cried saying that I had to take a chance to learn anything. I was sent to NKVD school in Gorky. Mother stayed in Kirov with Sarah and little Ilia. Sarah went to school, mother was at home с my son. They received food cards [25], but they were not enough, of course. I got allowance as a cadet of NKVD school, and sent it to my mother. All cadets were girls and young women. Men were in the lines. We were taught the methods of counterintelligence rather than reconnaissance. We had studied there for four months, and there was an order of the commander to send everybody to the lines. What were we to do ? Some ladies had to leave children in orphanages. We were promised that we would come back , and here we were to be drafted in the lines, and no objections were accepted. I knew that there was a Lettish division [26] in the vicinity of Gorky and I asked to send me there. The commander sent a request in Moscow and I was permitted to go to that military unit. I came there, found the headquarters and introduced myself. They were happy to see me as they needed cryptographer, we were taught cryptography at school as well. I was good for me to be in the rear, not far from my family – only twenty four hours in a car on a highway. I did not stay there for a long time.
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Displaying 44131 - 44160 of 50826 results
Rosa Linger
In winter 1943 our troops started attack by Stalingrad [22], and I was sent there as a translator. People who were fluent in German were needed, as there were a demand for military translators. They searched people by reviewing personal records. Thus, they found me. I was housed in the hostel and I had to work for 12-18 hours per day. There were a lot of captives and a lot of documents.
I was called to Moscow after Stalingrad. I worked there as a translator in the headquarters for a while.
Then I was transferred to Ukraine, в 58 army of the 3rd Ukrainian front. We had to get to Odessa through liberated from Germans Kiev. After Stalingrad I was conferred with the rank of junior lieutenant, and I was heading to Odessa in the rank of lieutenant. I had covered the entire South of Ukraine with the 58th army.
Yakov Bunke
On Rosh Hashanah grandpa carried out kaporez rite. He rotated rooster over our head and read a prayer. On the New Years day shofars were played and we had a very festive mood. On Yom Kippur all Jews of the town went to the river to wash off their sins accumulated within a year. We liked autumn holidays. Sukkah was set up in grandfather’s yard and we went there for lunch every day. There was a removable room, which we put on the holiday. Boys often pranked coming to the garden of one of the rich merchants. The roof of his sukkah was tied up to the fence with the ropes, and managed to untie those ropes and the roof fell on their heads. When father found out about it, he was very strict with me and I never did it again. Father never beat us. It was enough for him to have a strict and fair conversation with us.
Simchat Torah was one of the most mirthful. Everybody went to the synagogue, wherefrom torah was taken out and carried around the synagogue with songs and dances. A huge sponge cake was baked in the synagogue and everybody got a piece. We also had a lot of deserts at home. We drank a lot of wine on that holiday. In winter on Channukah the windows of all houses were twinkling with candles, one of which was lit on each evening of the holiday. I loved that holiday – presents, money from grandparents, uncles and aunts, tasty potato latkes and treilach, whirligig. I made nice whirligigs from wood, carved them and gave to my friends and relatives. On Purim we had all traditional things at home- a lot of hamantashen baked by mother for a large family of 9 people. Besides, some of them should be left for shelakhmones.
There was a melamed not far from house. Jewish boys went to his cheder. My father, being a rather modern man, decided not to give me in cheder, thinking that religious education was the matte of the past. Boys and I even mocked melamed as we did not like him for some reason. Now I am ashamed of it.
I went to elementary Jewish school when I turned 6. Studies were in Yiddish and I did pretty well. I went here for 4 years and having finished it went to lyceum in Plunge. Here studies were in Ivrit and it was hard at first. All subjects were taught in Ivrit and even textbooks were in Ivrit. In couple of weeks I started understand a lot and after the first semester I was pretty good at Ivrit.
I joined Ashomer Ahatsir” [8], but did not stay there for long.
At that time it was next to impossible to find a good job in Plunge and in 1934 our family moved to resort maritime place Klaipeda. Father was offered a job in painting workshop at textile factory. The enterprise also belonged to Jew Israilevich. Father was an ordinary worker, was paid well, but still living in Klaipeda was more expensive. We started renting apartment against- two small rooms.
There were a lot of Jews in prewar Klaipeda. There was a large beautiful synagogue not far from the house, where we lived. Parents went there on holidays. We marked Sabbath, observed kashrut the way it was in Plunge. Though, when father was at work, he had to eat all he could get in canteen. I do not remember if there were Jewish schools and lyceums in Klaipeda. Most like there weren’t as I continued my education in Lithuanian lyceum. I was enrolled in the 5th grade. There were 4 or 5 Jews in my class and we tried to stick together. I got along with the Lithuanians as well. Teacher did not treat Jewish students differently.
I turned 13 in Klaipeda. I got ready for bar mitzvah before hand. The teacher from synagogue prepared me. I learned how to put on tefillin, learn a big passage from torah. I will always remember it. After the rite we had a feast at home. My uncle Nehemia Ril gave me watch on that occasion. That watch was brought from Switzerland and special engraving was made.
I had a good voice. Rabbi, liked my singing, when he heard me in the synagogue. Shortly after my bar mitzvar a man from synagogue came to us. He started talking my parents into studying at heshiva in Telsia so that I could become a rabbi or shochet. It was good for both of my parents as they did not have to pay for my tuition and boarding. Father resisted a little bit, but I found it interesting. Besides, grandfather Mende wanted me to become a true religious man. He decided to take all expenses on Telsia. In 1937 I went to Telsiai to study in heshiva.I rented a room with two guys from Plunge, who were also studying inn heshiva. We had meals in Jewish families. In Telsiai community there was a plan for us to have meals in certain rich Jewish family on certain day of the week. I learnt Ivrit very well there, as well as torah. I was knowledge in Jewry both in religious and in amenities.
During Pesach in 1939 I also visited my parents. It was alerting time as Poland was occupied, [9], and Klaipeda which was nearby German town Konigsberg [10] in March 1939 was now under jurisdiction of fascist Germany. Fascists were openly walking around in the streets and the youth greeted them in a fascist way. Propaganda against Jews commenced, though I did not know any blatant cases of anti-Semitism. Our landlord, German, openly welcome fascists and her son became the member of organization Gitleryugend [11]. Klaipeda was getting ready to meet Adolf Hitler who was going to pay a visit to the town. My father was perturbed and he could not help expressing his thoughts. In his conversation with the landlord he said that as during the civil war Lithuanian volunteers would get together for rebuffing Hitler. In spite of her fascist views, our landlord helped us out. Probably in a day after that conversation she whispered to my mom : ”Tell your husband to leave Klaipeda immediately. That evening on 19 April father left Klaipeda on food. We all took a cab and left after him. We reached Kretingi and waited for father there. Grandpa Mende sent a cart there to pick us up. I went in Telsiai in heshiva and the rest members of my family moved to grandfather Mende again. Soon we found out that Hitler came to Klaipeda and held a speech. Fortunately, all Jews left Klaipeda. Some of them settled in Plunge.
In June 1940 regular troops of Soviet Army [12] entered Lithuania. Uncle came to heshiva to take me. He understood that in soviet country rabbinical education was not only useless, but also dangerous.
I was apprenticed by a joiner Noel. At that time soviet regime nationalized large enterprises, but small workshop of the joiner was untouched. I had worked here for a year and became a good joiner. At any rate, the owner let me do my job independently.
It was alarming time, we understood that the war was imminent. Fugitives from Poland came to our town and to other parts of Lithuania. Those were the Jews who escaped Nazi persecutions.
At night 21/22 June 1941 we were awoken by sound of the bombing. We ran to the cemetery, where all Jews got together hoping that the cemetery would not be bombed. But the bombs were released on graves. That terrible day was over and on the и 23rd of June we left the town.
In several day the throng of fugitives, which we joined, reached Zagare – the border with Latvia. Here we were detained. They clarified some issues on the phone and finally let us through. We spend 2-3 nights in some school in Riga. Then we headed farther, to Russian town Velikiye Luki. It was a very miserable way- bombings took lives of fugitives and saw death for the first time in my life.
There was a train with fugitives at the train station. We got on locomotive car and headed towards the East. We had been on the road for 2 months due to the long stops when we had to let military trains go first. There was boiled water in the train, and at the stations we were given small slice of bread and a plate of soup. Some evacuees from Russia, who had more time to pack, took some food with them. My younger siblings came up to them and asked them for food. They gave them bread – people shared the last thing they had. Train was being bombed on our way. People died and the survivors did not even have a chance to bury the dead.
Then we were housed in with some local family. There was a bathhouse in every yard. So we settled in the warm bathhouse. Father went to work as a shepherd. There was a special store for the evacuees, where people could get things by food cards [16]. We had a very good living here.
In December 1941 16 Lithuanian division [17] was founded and all citizens of Lithuania, who reached draftee age, were sent in the lines. Father and I got notifications and on 22 February 1942 we were in the lines. Abram, who was younger than me, was drafted a year later. We were sent in Balakhna, where division was being formed. We went there independently. The winter was cold and it was a real ordeal. We were on trainings in Balakhna for a year. I became a gunman, and my father a marksman.
In Balakhna paper “For the Motherland’ was issued in our division. We read there that all the Jews, who stayed on the territory occupied by fascists were executed or exhausted in ghetto. We had almost no doubt that our kin who stayed in Lithuania, perished, father and I were eager to fight in battles seeking a revenge on the fascist.
We were in the lines in February 1943 and were in one of the fiercest fronts –Kursk vicinity [18]. Father served in 156 rifle battalion and I was in the same battalion, though in gun division. The battle in the vicinity of Alexeyevka began on 23 February 1943. It was very cold, and we had wet coats. We did not have a good provision. That is why there were a lot of wounded and killed. It was a fierce battle. There was an open white field covered with snow. There was no place to hide. Germans were shooting everywhere. I hit behind the body of the dead soldier, but I was hit with blasted mine. On 1 March 1943 I was severely wounded. My commander said that I was lucky as he did not know what would happen to the rest in that hard battle. I was sent in the hospital. Father saw me off to the medical battalion and we parted like men without tears. Father promised to calm mother down as she was worried for me. It was the last time I saw dad.
In spring 1943 I accidentally met my pal from Plunge – Tsingler, who was also in the lines. He also was wounded and sent here for treatment. He said that my father died and even gave me the details. Tsingler was an eye witness of the battle on the 8th of March. He saw my father being blown up. I vaguely remember my reaction to this news. There was so much grief around that I took my father’s death as inevitable. Mother got the notification before I found out the news. She did not want to write to me about it for me to be even more hurt.
Representatives of Cossacks corps [19] under general Dovater command came in Chelyabinsk to replenish their troops from the rehabilitation center. I was offered to join them. The matter is that my height and weight parameters suited them well. They did not care that I could ride a horse. They said I would be trained quickly. I was the only Jew among Cossacks. they assigned me in horsed reconnaissance. Since I knew Yiddish I could understand German. I turned out to be in the First Byelorussian Front. It was the end of 1943 and Soviet army was retreating. I started from Gomel and crossed Poland, Germany. I even met Americans on Elba.
We liberated Gomel, Mozer, Kalinkovichi, entered state border, reached Warsaw. I took part in liberation of Polish capital. When we entered Warsaw, German yunkers occupied the premises where they were studying, and they did not want to give up. We had been attacking the building for 3 days until the shooting ceased. When we came in the building, none of them was alive- 32 adolescents were dead. Most likely most of them committed suicide. I got awarded for liberation of Warsaw. I had a lot of awards. By the end of war I had two Great Patriotic War Orders of the First Class.
We liberated Gomel, Mozer, Kalinkovichi, entered state border, reached Warsaw. I took part in liberation of Polish capital. When we entered Warsaw, German yunkers occupied the premises where they were studying, and they did not want to give up. We had been attacking the building for 3 days until the shooting ceased. When we came in the building, none of them was alive- 32 adolescents were dead. Most likely most of them committed suicide. I got awarded for liberation of Warsaw. I had a lot of awards. By the end of war I had two Great Patriotic War Orders of the First Class.
We were in Poland. The four sergeants were told to reconnoiter a small town. We left horses with a peasant and hurried out. On our way we saw some dragging people. First, we thought that those were our guys, but then we understood that it was a group of crashed Germans. There was a skirmish and as a result we took a captive, who turned out to be very talkative and provided a lot of useful information. I and another comrade got the orders and the rest were also awarded. I got my second order for intelligence operation during forced crossing of Visla.
When we crossed the territories, occupied by fascists, we met people who were released from ghetto. One of those camps was in Polish town Pydgocz. I met three girls who had just been set free from the camp. One of them was from Klaipeda, the other two from Tula. They were still wearing striped camp clothes and had no place to stay. We found one of the deserted apartments. At that time there were a lot of vacated apartments full of clothes and foods. So, we housed the ladies in one of them. We spent couple of evenings with them. I heard about such atrocities! I could not imagine that people could survive in such conditions!
On 9 May during our respite we heard the signal of alarm. We thought that Germans had broken through our defense line. We lined up with the horses and started reporting. My report started as follows: I Old Bunke (old was the nickname of my mare). After greeting my commander made a short pause and said: ‘brothers, the war is over!’ Even now I am crying when I go back to this moment. We were rejoicing and crying at a time as I remembered about my brother Abram, who perished almost at the end of war during the capture of Konigsberg, my old grandparents, sister and other relatives who perished during the occupation.
I served honestly. I was offered to join komsomol [21] on a number of occasions. Before the battle many guys wrote the applications to join the party and went in the battle with the words «For motherland, for Stalin». I was not willing to die for Stalin, but to take a revenge on fascist beasts that killed my relatives to fulfill the request of my father.