Their family was rather well off and they were trying to educate their children. Zinoviy studied at the commerce school and Solomon went to grammar school.
- Traditions 11654
- Language spoken 2994
- Identity 7761
- Description of town 2422
- Education, school 8442
- Economics 8743
- Work 11560
- Love & romance 4913
- Leisure/Social life 4127
- Antisemitism 4785
-
Major events (political and historical)
4218
- Armenian genocide 2
- Doctor's Plot (1953) 178
- Soviet invasion of Poland 27
- Siege of Leningrad 84
- The Six Day War 1
- Yom Kippur War 1
- Ataturk's death 5
- Balkan Wars (1912-1913) 35
- First Soviet-Finnish War 37
- Occupation of Czechoslovakia 1938 82
- Invasion of France 9
- Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact 64
- Varlik Vergisi (Wealth Tax) 36
- First World War (1914-1918) 215
- Spanish flu (1918-1920) 14
- Latvian War of Independence (1918-1920) 4
- The Great Depression (1929-1933) 20
- Hitler comes to power (1933) 123
- 151 Hospital 1
- Fire of Thessaloniki (1917) 9
- Greek Civil War (1946-49) 12
- Thessaloniki International Trade Fair 5
- Annexation of Bukovina to Romania (1918) 7
- Annexation of Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union (1940) 19
- The German invasion of Poland (1939) 85
- Kishinev Pogrom (1903) 7
- Romanian Annexation of Bessarabia (1918) 25
- Returning of the Hungarian rule in Transylvania (1940-1944) 43
- Soviet Occupation of Bessarabia (1940) 59
- Second Vienna Dictate 27
- Estonian war of independence 3
- Warsaw Uprising 1
- Soviet occupation of the Balitc states (1940) 147
- Austrian Civil War (1934) 9
- Anschluss (1938) 66
- Collapse of Habsburg empire 3
- Dollfuß Regime 3
- Emigration to Vienna before WWII 36
- Kolkhoz 131
- KuK - Königlich und Kaiserlich 40
- Mineriade 1
- Post War Allied occupation 7
- Waldheim affair 5
- Trianon Peace Treaty 12
- NEP 56
- Russian Revolution 350
- Ukrainian Famine 199
- The Great Terror 282
- Perestroika 233
- 22nd June 1941 463
- Molotov's radio speech 115
- Victory Day 146
- Stalin's death 364
- Khrushchev's speech at 20th Congress 147
- KGB 62
- NKVD 153
- German occupation of Hungary (18-19 March 1944) 45
- Józef Pilsudski (until 1935) 33
- 1956 revolution 84
- Prague Spring (1968) 73
- 1989 change of regime 174
- Gomulka campaign (1968) 81
-
Holocaust
9591
- Holocaust (in general) 2774
- Concentration camp / Work camp 1228
- Mass shooting operations 334
- Ghetto 1169
- Death / extermination camp 637
- Deportation 1051
- Forced labor 780
- Flight 1391
- Hiding 577
- Resistance 119
- 1941 evacuations 866
- Novemberpogrom / Kristallnacht 33
- Eleftherias Square 10
- Kasztner group 1
- Pogrom in Iasi and the Death Train 21
- Sammelwohnungen 9
- Strohmann system 11
- Struma ship 17
- Life under occupation 803
- Yellow star house 72
- Protected house 15
- Arrow Cross ("nyilasok") 42
- Danube bank shots 6
- Kindertransport 24
- Schutzpass / false papers 94
- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) 24
- Warsaw Uprising (1944) 23
- Helpers 513
- Righteous Gentiles 269
- Returning home 1082
- Holocaust compensation 109
- Restitution 108
- Property (loss of property) 594
- Loss of loved ones 1711
- Trauma 1029
- Talking about what happened 1806
- Liberation 552
- Military 3288
- Politics 2612
-
Communism
4462
- Life in the Soviet Union/under Communism (in general) 2592
- Anti-communist resistance in general 63
- Nationalization under Communism 220
- Illegal communist movements 98
- Systematic demolitions under communism 45
- Communist holidays 311
- Sentiments about the communist rule 927
- Collectivization 94
- Experiences with state police 348
- Prison/Forced labor under communist/socialist rule 448
- Lack or violation of human and citizen rights 483
- Life after the change of the regime (1989) 493
- Israel / Palestine 2165
- Zionism 826
- Jewish Organizations 1186
Displaying 49111 - 49140 of 50340 results
Elena Orlikova
But in 1917 Lev, Leib Orlikov, my grandfather, died of a heart attack, and my father became the head of the family at 21.
I don’t know any details. All I know is that since then he was involved in some sort of commerce. It was probably more convenient for him to live in Ekaterinoslav - Dnepropetrovsk at present - and he moved his family, his mother and two brothers, to Dnepropetrovsk. They lived in Bazarnaya Street in the center of the city. My father rented a comfortable apartment for them.
I don’t know any details. All I know is that since then he was involved in some sort of commerce. It was probably more convenient for him to live in Ekaterinoslav - Dnepropetrovsk at present - and he moved his family, his mother and two brothers, to Dnepropetrovsk. They lived in Bazarnaya Street in the center of the city. My father rented a comfortable apartment for them.
Although this was a difficult time: the period of revolution and civil war. There were all kinds of gangs all around the country1, many enterprises were closed due to the war and there was not enough food produced.
I don’t know how Solomon, my father’s brother happened to be in Mariupol, but he was shot there by some white guard bandits.
She came from a rich merchant’s family. Her father Zelman Kats was a merchant of guild II2. At that time Jewish people were not allowed to live in Kiev, especially, in its central part, in the neighborhood of Kreschatik3. Only merchants of guilds I and II, doctors and midwives had this right. He lived near Kreschatik, in Mikhailovskaya Street. He owned a butcher’s shop. A shochet was cutting the meat there and it was considered kosher meat.
I only know that he came to Kiev and married Rachil Markovna Kulinskaya, the daughter of a rich merchant in Kiev. My grandmother was about 15 years younger than my grandfather.
She got education at home, she didn’t go to school, she had private teachers at home to teach her to read and write, as well as the rules of conduct in the society, good manners and foreign languages. Of course, she spoke fluent Russian and was an educated and intelligent lady.
My grandparents’ family wasn’t very religious. They only celebrated the main holidays and very rarely went to the synagogue.
After the revolution the newly founded Soviet state expropriated all richer people’s possessions leaving their families in poverty. All people were equal in their poverty. I don’t know exactly how this all went with my grandparents.
She talked (or argued, I’d say) with my grandfather in Yiddish.
They lived in a small room in the wing of the house that they previously owned. Any observation of traditions, rules or just order in the house was out of the question. They became a poor and degraded family. My grandfather worked as a night watch in an office in Kreschatik.
He wore a tyubeteika [a small traditional Tajik cap] cap.
After he came back from work he went to bed and in the evening he went to work and took his violin. He used to play violin at work. Nobody bothered him there.
I don’t know whether he was religious. He never prayed in my presence, but I know that he observed Sabbath and celebrated holidays. On holidays all their relatives were supposed to visit and greet them. There were no festive dinners, because my grandmother was ill and couldn’t cook for a whole family gathering. But it was a must to visit them on all Jewish holidays.
Maria Illinichna Kats, my grandfather’s sister, lived with them. She was born some time in 1870s and she was single. She was a dentist and was a very kind and nice person.
People said that she belonged to such people that could only love once in a lifetime. She loved a man once, but he married somebody else. She did not forgive him and never married herself.
Until her last days she walked to work, some children’s home in the outskirts of Kiev.
We keep her letters that she wrote in August 1941 as our dearest relic. She described the situation in Kiev before the very German occupation. All 3 of them - my grandfather, my grandmother and Aunt Manya - were shot when Germans entered the city. They didn’t even take them to the Babiy Yar4; they just shot them where they were.
She got involved in the revolutionary movement and was fond of the revolutionary literature. She went to Moscow and worked in the Ministry of Education (ministers were called People’s commissars - narkom5) with Anatoliy Vassilievich Lunacharskiy6. She met Osip Semyonovich Oguz (a Jew and a revolutionary, like herself – he came from the Baltic republics) and they got married.
Very soon they both got disappointed in the revolutionary movement and in the idea of communism and moved to Kiev. They worked in medical institutions.
Her husband Osip Semyonovich lived a very long life and died at 96 in 1990. He worked at the logistics department of Kiev Medical Institute until he was 92. He was a very respectable employee. Everybody liked him.
, Ukraine
We remember how Borukh Kulinskiy, Boris, my mother’s uncle, died. He died in 1937. Unfortunately I don’t know anything about his life. I remember the funeral ritual. It must have been a strictly Jewish ritual, because his body was wrapped in a white cerements and he was on the floor. There was no coffin. There were women sitting around him crying. I can analyze it now, but in those years all such things were called prejudices and we didn't take a closer look to the depth of such things.
Gusta has worked as a children’s doctor all her life. She is over 70 years old but she still works at the polyclinic twice a week as a consulting doctor.
They arranged celebrations for children at home. The children liked Hanukkah most of all. Their acquaintances’ and relatives’ children came to their house. They were mostly other merchants’ or their friends’ children. They had great parties and always enjoyed themselves. Each child got a golden coin and lots of sweets. My grandmother and her housemaids cooked all kinds of confectioneries, strudel, honey cakes, sponge cakes, etc. They celebrated all religious holidays in the family, but my mother didn’t tell me much about it.
My mother and her older sister Rosa studied at the grammar school. They had a music teacher and learned to play the piano at home.
My mother wanted to become a doctor and she went to study at the medical institute. She wanted to become a dentist like her Aunt.
My mother wanted to become a doctor and she went to study at the medical institute. She wanted to become a dentist like her Aunt.
My mother met my father when she was a student. I have no idea how and where they met – I guess it was a party for students. My parents got married in 1923. They needed to obtain a special permission from the rabbi to get married. There was a Jewish law that did not allow two similar names in one family. And in my parents’ case grandfather Kats was Zelman, as well as my father Zinoviy Lvovich. He was Zelman, too. My grandfather had to submit a request to rabbi and the rabbi issued permission for my parents to get married. They had a real Jewish wedding. They had a huppah and followed the kashruth. The celebration lasted several days and there were many relatives and friends on it. I only know that people remembered this wedding party as most beautiful and joyful. The rabbi was present as a guest at the wedding, because my grandfather was a respectable man in Kiev at that time.
Life was difficult and tough. I remember how happy we were when my father or my mother received some kind of pies at work. They were plain pies, no stuffing, made from dark rye flour, but how we enjoyed eating them! Aunt Zhenia and I walked to some collective farm gardens many kilometers away. We picked up apples and brought them home. Alma-Ata is the town of apples and it was always possible to get some apples.
The Moscow Law Institute was in evacuation in Alma-Ata. It was possible to take a preparatory course there and then enter the Institute without exams. I did so. I didn’t want to become a lawyer but that was the only opportunity to get a higher education. In 1944 I went to Moscow with this Institute.
In 1944 I went to Moscow with this Institute. It was very difficult to go to Kiev. People needed special access permits. My father was trying hard to obtain such permit. My family returned to Kiev in 1944. I also joined my family there.
The house where we had lived before the war was ruined. The Russian family of Evgenia Nikolaevna Guzeeva, my mother’s friend that she met in the evacuation, invited us to move in with them. They had a big communal apartment and they preferred to have their acquaintances as their neighbors rather than strangers.