We stayed in Belostok for about a month in terrible conditions.
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Displaying 50341 - 50370 of 50826 results
Tobiash Starozum
In May 1941 my father, my sister and my mother went to Vladimir, the nearest town to Moscow. They rented a room there and my father and sister went to work at a shop.
I got acquainted with a nice Jewish girl Maria Gofman, born in 1922. She had just finished the Library College. We got married soon. We had a civil wedding ceremony. Maria’s parents liked me.
,
During WW2
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At the beginning of 1941 - I believe it was February, our family went to Moscow. We stayed with Esther. They had a spacious 3-room apartment and we lived with them illegally for 3 months. We admired Moscow.
The cultural life is becoming more active. Jewish theaters come on tours. Jewish folk groups come on tours and we can go to watch Jewish movies. Ad I have noticed that not only Jews attend these events. Hosed, the Jewish Charity fund plays a big role in the development of the national self-consciousness. I go there sometimes to read Jewish newspapers or to listen to lectures. I am a member of the Sholem Alechem Association in Khesed. We celebrate holidays there. Nadezhda enjoys going with me. I am very interested in Jewish life. I am so glad that our people are so united. I enjoy attending events at the Khesed and happy for the people getting together.
My sister came for the last time in 1988 at my invitation. She didn’t insist on our moving to Israel. On the other hand, it wasn’t possible at that time. Natalia was severely ill and I had had an infarction. In 1989 my wife died of stomach cancer. I felt so lonely.
When I returned to Zhygulyovsk my boss indicated to me that he was aware of my adventures. He told these people that I was on vacation and saved me from accusation for communication with foreigners.
, Ukraine
Once some men approached me at the hotel in Kharkov. I understood who they were and said “Would you like me to follow you?” They said “O’K, let’s go”. They took me to the Department of Internal Affairs. They asked me “Who is this woman?” I said “She is my sister and my heart and I couldn’t care less about your directions or orders”.
,
After WW2
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My colleagues were aware of my father’s arrival. My boss approved my request for a vacation and I went to Moscow to see my father.
,
After WW2
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We tried to observe all Jewish traditions.
,
After WW2
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We spoke Yiddish at home.
,
After WW2
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There were Jewish theaters in all Polish towns. We often went to the theater.
After finishing school I began to assist my father. I worked with him until the war. I got up at 8 in the morning and sat beside my father to learn his profession. My mother’s task was to sweep floors at our work area. Our working day lasted from 8 in the morning till 8 in the evening with half an hour for lunch.
I finished a lower secondary school, 7 years, when I was 16. My sister Shyfra went to school in 1931. She was 7 younger than I, and my parents understood by the time she went to school that she had to mix up with the rest of the world. Shyfra was sent to a state school for Jewish children. The language of teaching at that school was Polish. Her friends were also Jewish children from workers’ families.
I went to school in a year’s time - in 1923. It was a non-religious Jewish school, organized by the Bund Party for children of workers. My parents paid a small fee for my studies. We studied mathematic, Yiddish, Jewish and world history and geography. We studied in Yiddish. Boys and girls studied together in our school. Our teacher was a kind middle-aged woman. She was a Jew, of course. We had to come to school clean and tidy. Every day we had our ears, hands and nails checked for cleanness. Children, especially Jewish children, were more obedient at that time. There were about 30 of us in the class. We observed Jewish traditions at school, but they were explained as part of the history of Jewish people.
At Yom Kippur people used to pray in this room and we left our home to not interfere with those people and went to our relatives to my father’s or mother’s sisters or brothers to enjoy the holidays. They didn’t pray or fast and didn’t go to synagogue.
At Pesach we celebrated 2 days, worked 4 days and the following 2 days were days off: “chalema” (Editor’s note: hol hamoed – means half holiday, the intervening days at Channuka and on Pessach ). All I remember about holidays is that I knew about them when there was a general cleanup of the apartment and my mother bought and cooked special and festive food.
We celebrated Jewish holidays. My mother always made a fancy dinner and we cleaned up our home for a holiday. We didn’t go to the synagogue and nobody said a prayer in our family. My parents didn’t work during holidays.
Our neighbors were textile workers. When breadwinners of a family lost their jobs or fell ill their families moved out. The rent in our apartment building was high due to the running water that we had. All our neighbors were Jews and we only spoke Yiddish. We hardly ever played with Polish boys in the street. They didn’t harm us, but we felt that they were from a different world. Our family was better off than our neighbors. My father had a permanent source of income and my mother was a perfect housekeeper.
There was a market not far from our house. I enjoyed going to the market with mother. We went there once a week. There were Jewish and Polish vendors at the market. Clients spoke Polish to Polish vendors and Yiddish to Jewish sellers. We bought kosher meat from Jewish sellers. We, children, spent most of our time in the yard with not a single tree or bush. When the weather was bad we got together at the stairway. We didn’t have any toys and played with whatever we found at home or in the yard. I remember how we valued fragments of stained glass, pieces of metal and little stones. Sometimes we played with walnuts.
I was born on 9 July 1915. We rented a 3-room apartment on the third floor of a 3-storied building. Our landlord was a Jewish man. We had two big rooms and a kitchen. One room served as my father’s shop and another room was a bedroom. My mother did her cooking on a brick stove stoked with coal. My grandmother Laya lived in the third room that was very small. When my grandmother died nobody else lived in this room.
Their mother tongue was Yiddish, but they also knew Polish and Russian.
All boys in the Klain family studied at cheder in Grabovo and went to synagogue with their father.
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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