All boys in the Klain family studied at cheder in Grabovo and went to synagogue with their father.
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Major events (political and historical)
4232
- Armenian genocide 2
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- 151 Hospital 1
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- Annexation of Bukovina to Romania (1918) 7
- Annexation of Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union (1940) 19
- The German invasion of Poland (1939) 86
- Kishinev Pogrom (1903) 7
- Romanian Annexation of Bessarabia (1918) 25
- Returning of the Hungarian rule in Transylvania (1940-1944) 43
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Holocaust
9645
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Communism
4464
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- Life after the change of the regime (1989) 493
- Israel / Palestine 2176
- Zionism 835
- Jewish Organizations 1190
Displaying 50041 - 50070 of 50504 results
Tobiash Starozum
I was a pensioner and Natalia went to work at a store.
, Ukraine
We could only arrange an exchange. In the process of evaluation of options we got an idea about Lvov. I went there and heard Polish spoken in the streets. I liked the town, its architecture and culture and we decided to move here.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
There were Jewish construction managers were we worked. When we told people about how Germans treated Jews, they sympathized with us, but I don’t think they believed it could be true.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
Our family got to Cheliabinsk, in 3000 km to the northeast from Poland in December 1940 where we were given a room.
, Russia
We learned to understand Russian in no time and nobody paid any attention to our Jewish and Polish accent.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
My mother, my father, my sister and I worked on housing construction sites. I was a plaster worker, my father made lath and my sister painted the walls. My mother stayed at home. The temperature dropped to minus 40 at the beginning of winter in this area. We worked five days a week and at weekends we made clothes for our new customers. They paid us money for our work, so things weren’t too bad for us.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
We stayed in Belostok for about a month in terrible conditions. We slept in the streets or entrances of the houses. We spent few nights at a cultural center of a factory.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
The eastern part of Poland was occupied by the Soviet army, but everything was such a mess that one could cross the border to and for some time. We reached Belostok, a big town of textile workers that belonged to the Soviet Union. There were crowds of Jewish refugees in Belostok. Many of them slept in the streets.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
He and I decided that it was time to save our lives. I didn’t go home. On the 3rd day we set on our journey to the East. There were 4 of us. We walked at night.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
Germans occupied Lodz without a single shot. Germans didn’t take any actions during the first few days and then they started capturing Jews. I don’t know how they knew Jews from non-Jews. Perhaps, they looked at their appearance. Polish people are different: fair haired and fair-eyed. Besides, Germans probably got the lists of Jews from the town authorities. I was captured in the street and out? on a truck.
,
During WW2
See text in interview
Tatiana Tilipman Biography
My parents came from Dzygovka, a small Jewish town [Dzygovka was a town in Yampol district Podolsk province, Vinnitsa region at present. Its population in 1897 was 7 194 people, 2 187 of them were Jews]. Dzygovka was located on the slopes of a small ravine and all streets descended to the center. There was a market square and shops in the center. There were fairs in Dzygovka on Thursday and Sunday. Farmers from surrounding villages brought vegetables, fruit, milk and butter to sell at the market. On Thursday evening the square was cleaned and on Friday night the holiday began. It was a Jewish town indeed. There were two synagogues in Dzygovka in the 1920s. My parents went to the synagogue that was constructed as rules required: men were on the first floor and women upstairs. There was also a Catholic cathedral and a Christian church in the town. There were a few two-storied buildings in the town. All houses were kept clean, even the ones with thatched roofs. There was Jewish, Ukrainian, Russian and Polish population in the town.
Grandfather Iehil owned a small tobacco shop where they cut tobacco leaves.
My mother finished a primary school in Dzygovka. She could write in Russian and Yiddish. She boasted that her teacher was Bloch, a renowned teacher in Dzygovka. Before she got married my mother worked in her brother’s shop cutting tobacco leaves. She was raised religious and she kept our household in accordance with Jewish rules.
Grandfather Meyer owned two stores: drapery and grocery stores.
My grandmother followed kashrut, went to the synagogue on holidays and wore a kerchief.
I don’t know what kind of education my father had, but he could write in Russian and Yiddish. My father inherited grandfather Meyer’s business: he owned a drapery and grocery stores in a two-storied building at the market square. The drapery store was on the second floor and the grocery store was on the first floor.
My parents got married in 1905. Their marriage was arranged by matchmakers. They had a traditional wedding with a chuppah according to all rules. I remember my parents’ photograph after their wedding where my mother had a wig. They settled down in my father’s home.
The house was in the center of the town. There were flowers and acacia growing near the house. There were four rooms: two bedrooms – one of grandmother Rieva and another one of my father and mother. We, children, lived in a big room. The fourth room with a back door and a door to the big room was a storeroom for keeping corn, sunflowers and wheat. The house was heated with stoves. One stove heated the rooms and there was a Russian stove in the kitchen where my mother cooked and baked bread. We ate plain food: chicken broth, fish, stewed meat and boiled cereals.
The house was in the center of the town. There were flowers and acacia growing near the house. There were four rooms: two bedrooms – one of grandmother Rieva and another one of my father and mother. We, children, lived in a big room. The fourth room with a back door and a door to the big room was a storeroom for keeping corn, sunflowers and wheat. The house was heated with stoves. One stove heated the rooms and there was a Russian stove in the kitchen where my mother cooked and baked bread. We ate plain food: chicken broth, fish, stewed meat and boiled cereals.
We followed kashrut rules. We only bought kosher meat from the Jewish butchers we knew. We took chickens to a shochet to slaughter them. There are particular slaughter rules: mentally ill people cannot do it and it cannot be slaughtered with a blunt razor. The razor had to be so sharp that it could cut a hair. Also, if a chicken didn’t die immediately one wasn’t allowed to eat it. On Thursday before Sabbath I took a chicken to the shochet. I waited outside. The shochet kept me behind his door since he didn’t want me to have bad feelings afterward. We never mixed meat and dairy products at home. Utensils and crockery for meat and dairy products were washed in different basins.
We only spoke Yiddish at home.
My mother dressed modestly wearing a black skirt and a dark blouse or a dress, but she always looked nice. She turned gray young. I remember her coloring her hair before the Great Patriotic War. My sister Rosa made a coloring mixture for her. My mother wore a kerchief. I still have her shawl and kerchiefs.
When I was small my family already owned a grocery store on the first floor. My father went to purchase goods in Kishinev (today Moldova), Mogilev and Odessa. He and my mother worked in the shop.
On Saturday my father didn’t work. My father was a very religious man. He always wore a yarmulka or a hat. When going to the synagogue he wore a nice black coat with a velvet collar. Father went to the synagogue on Saturday and on holidays. On weekdays he prayed at home in the morning and in the evening. He had a beautiful black tallit trimmed with silver.
Our family liked books. My father always brought books from Mogilev and Kishinev when we went to make his purchases there. He mainly brought books in Russian. I remember my first book in Russian. There were poems, fables and fairy tales. The book was entitles ‘Russian writers’. My mother darned or knitted socks while I read to her. When my brothers were at home my father played dominoes with them. We also dried sunflower seeds in the oven and enjoyed eating them. Sometimes we had guests: aunt Tsyrl, my mother older brother Shlomo’s wife, and her cousins who loved my mother’s cookies. In summer my mother sent me to bring some water from a stream. The guests had cherry jam, water and cookies.
We celebrated Sabbath. On Thursday evening my mother sieved some flour and made dough. On Friday morning before dawn my mother started baking. She baked bread for a week and it never got stale. When my sister Rosa and I woke up my mother brought us delicious doughnuts. My older sister Ida was doing the house at this time. Rosa and I joined her after getting up. Everything was clean before lunch. My mother made dinner for Friday and Sabbath. She left her cooking in the oven. My father came from the store, changed and went to the synagogue. My mother went to the synagogue on holidays. Mother lit candles and there was no more work done at home. We, children, dressed up and went to walk in the market square that was also cleaned for a fair. In summer on Sabbath we went to an orchard near our school. It was a private orchard. There was an entrance fee to be paid and separate payment for fruit. My friends and I used to stay there all day long. We paid 5 kopeck each to pay a violinist that we invited and one of the boys played drums and we danced.
We started preparations for Pesach in advance. We made matzah in special pans. My mother wore a white outfit. We stored matzah in a special pillowcase with the word ‘Pesach’ written on it. Long before the holiday my mother started feeding two geese for goose fat for keyzele, matzah and potato puddings. The geese were slaughtered and since two geese were too much for us we gave one to aunt Tsyrl. Aunt Tsyrl also gave us one goose when she slaughtered hers. There was a general cleanup done in the house. We took down a barrel with Pesach crockery from the attic and stored our everyday crockery back. It was only allowed to use a mortar and water barrel. My brothers were working in Vinnitsa region, but they came for Pesach. On Pesach eve my father walked the rooms reciting a prayer placing chametz, pieces of bread, and at about 12 o’clock he picked chametz with a wooden spoon and burnt it. We never had any bread left in the house. After 12 we were given matzah to eat. My mother made potato pancakes. She cooked for the coming evening. The first seder was in the evening. My father was at the synagogue. I guess my mother didn’t go to the synagogue. My mother lit candles. When my father came from the synagogue the family sat down to dinner. My father sat in an armchair with a white cover and my mother sat beside him and I reckon they were even called a czar and czarina. My brothers sat on the right and then my grandmother Rivka sat across the table from my father. My sisters and I were sitting on the left side. Well, it was required to drink four glasses of wine eating food. There was a boiled egg, potatoes, and a boiled chicken neck put on a plate, but the neck was supposed to be there through eight days. There was also horseradish, khoroises (ground apples with nuts and cinnamon) served. My father gave each of us a piece of matzah, then another piece with salt, and another one with horseradish, egg, apple and potatoes. While handing this to us he recited a prayer. My brother Iosif posed four questions. This lasted till about 12 o’clock. There were glasses with wine on the table. During the prayer it was required to let prophet Elijah in. I think, my mother went to open the door as if for Elijah to come in and we were sitting there gazing at the door until late evening. This is how I remember seder. We didn’t have guests, but I remember mother always giving matzah to the poor.
At Yom Kippur we fasted and my mother and father spent a day at the synagogue. At the end of service they blew a horn [shofar]. I always stayed near the synagogue and when I heard a shofar I ran back to tell Ida to start a samovar. When my parents returned we had tea and jam. My father blessed bread and honey, dipped a piece of bread in honey and gave us to eat it.
At Sukkoth we used our storeroom for sukkah. My mother covered our food stocks with a tablecloth, there was a table brought in and covered with a fancy tablecloth. There was a folding ceiling and roof. We had meals in this room for a week. We always celebrated Chanukkah. Every day another candle was lit. My uncle Shlomo always gave me some money on this holiday.
I remember Jewish weddings where we were invited. My father wasn’t quite fond of attending such events, but my mother and I enjoyed them. People usually rented a hall and invited a music band to their wedding parties. It was a lot of fun. I remember how a chuppah was installed. The bride and bridegroom went around it. I don’t remember any other details. I liked dancing. They usually danced ‘sher’, a long up-tempo dance that lasted about 20 minutes. We also danced a Hungarian polka and waltz.
My sister Rosa went to a Jewish school in 1925. I was only 5, but I also went to school because I always followed what my sister did. However, I only attended school for few days until it rained. I actually went to school the following year when I turned 6. The school was in a brick one-storied building across the street from the cathedral. It was customary to study at school by guilds.