We didn’t have many friends since our family was most important for us. We didn’t observe any religious traditions. We celebrated Soviet holidays: 1 May, October Revolution Day, Victory Day and new Year. We also had birthday parties. I made traditional Soviet food: meat salad, jellied meat, cutlets, etc. Sometimes I made Gefilte fish.
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Displaying 48931 - 48960 of 50382 results
SIMA-LIBA NERUBENKO
Grigoriy helped my brothers and sister Genia that lived with us for a few years. He helped Genia with employment and accommodation and supported him. Once I said to him “If it hadn’t been for a Jewish wife you would have made a better career” and he caressed my hair and said “Don’t be stupid”. Our children were always aware of the fact that their mother was Jewish and they never kept it a secret. They chose to be put sown as Ukrainians in their passports – my husband and I understood that it would be easier for them to enter an Institute and get a good job.
Stalin’s death in March 1953 was a big grief for our family and for the rest of the country. I remember how our 11-year-old Svetlana closed the door to the toilet and cried there. It wasn’t customary in our family to demonstrate emotions and she was ashamed of her tears. My daughter believed he was like a God and didn’t believe that Stalin was like any other person in everyday life. This is the result of the propaganda and I didn’t think it was bad – we were also devoted to the Soviet power and served it sincerely. I had portrait of Stalin in our apartment. My husband came from work, saw the portrait and smiled. I guess he understood much more than common folks at that time. But even after denunciation of the cult of Stalin at XX Congress of the CPSU 13, when Khrushchev made a speech. Grigory didn’t express what he thought of this subject. He was a decent and reserved man. People discussed this speech and I heard things from my neighbors and acquaintances, but my husband didn’t even mention the subject to me – Khrushchev’s speech was only to be disclosed to the Party officials.
Our children studied in a Russian school. They were pioneers and Komsomol members. They spent summer vacations in pioneer and sport camps. They were sociable and had many friends of different nationalities. There was no national segregation between children.
Vladimir was not doing very well at school and it never occurred to Grigory to involve his influential friends to help our son enter an Institute. Our son finished a technical college.
I remember Oscar preparing to the Bar-mitzva ritual. He learned things and was very excited about the ritual. Everything went well and people greeted him on coming of age.
Oscar studied at the town Russian primary school. He also had an old teacher that taught him to read and write in Yiddish and Jewish traditions, but he didn’t teach Hebrew. My brother was very fond of technical things and at 14 he became an apprentice to a craftsman in metals.
On the first days of the Great Patriotic war my brother went to the front and perished defending Kiev.
My brother Syoma was born in 1910. In 1927 he finished a technical school, served in the Red army went to the front at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and perished in summer 1941.
My brother Michael, born in 1911, was my parents’ favorite. He finished a silicate college and became a glass specialist. He often visited us even when he lived in Leningrad (working at the glassware factory), far away from home.
During the Great Patriotic War he worked at his “Svetlana” plant in Cheliabisk [the biggest in the USSR plant of electric lighting bulbs, located in Leningrad].
After he left his parents’ home he didn’t observe any traditions.
, Russia
My younger brother Fima, born in 1919, followed into his brother’s steps and became a glass specialist, too.
My younger brother Fima, born in 1919, followed into his brother’s steps and became a glass specialist, too. He was born and grew up during the period of the Soviet power that struggled against religion. He didn’t have a teacher of Yiddish. Only few Jewish families took the risk of leading a Jewish way of life during the Soviet times. He didn’t have barmitzva since synagogues were closed by the time. He wasn’t religious but he was patient and tolerant about his parents’ religiosity. He was a pioneer and a Komsomol member.
Genia was a worker at the pharmaceutical plant. She died in Lvov in 1982. Her daughter Maya worked at a pharmaceutical factory, now she is a pensioner.
I, Sima-Liba Rotzenmar, was born in 1908. I was a very tiny and weak baby and got my double name due to prejudices of that time. The rabbi explained it in the following way: if the Angel of death came for Sima he would see Liba in the cradle and vice versa. It was believed to give me an opportunity to survive.
There was only one school in Kamenka and that was a Russian school. I went there when I turned 8 years old (in 1916). Before I went to school my brother Oscar that was in the third form began to teach me to speak Russian and Russian poems. When I came to school I had no problems with my studies. We studied only most necessary things: writing, reading and counting.
I remember the Civil War of 1916-1918. There was disorder and the power switched from “green kolpak” [caps in Russian] 3 to “red kolpak” 4 several times per day. Military troops came to town, but nobody could understand who they were. They took away food, cattle, clothing and other belongings and fled away. It was quiet for some time until other troops came. This was the period of political uncertainty. People were hiding in the woods or in their cellars. There were different colors of those troops that declared themselves a power, but it was only where we lived they were called “kolpaks’. They took away everything. They robbed even the poorest people. I saw few men breaking into our house. They grabbed whatever there was on the table and left – I guess they also starved. When Denikin troops 5 came all Jews hid at the synagogue and Denikin units didn’t dare to kill us there. I also remember a pogrom made by Denikin troops in 1919 but nobody was killed – the pogrom makers only robbed people. I also remember German prisoners-of-war that were taken to some place. They were starved. We threw them pieces of bread and they picked them up from muddy ditches.
The Soviet regime was established in 1918. All people were ordered to get together at the central square where the synagogue was located. Soviet representatives declared the doctrines of the new regime: political stability and equality of all people, that they declared freedom of religious belief. They spoke in Yiddish, Moldavian and Russian. People were very enthusiastic about the Soviet power hoping for a better life. My father didn’t care much about political changes. He said that they had nothing to do with work that he was doing. He continued to work in orchards.
A Soviet Russian and Moldavian school was opened. Teaching was in Moldavian, - studying it wasn’t a problem for children – we heard it in the streets and could speak it. Before the revolution boys and girls studied separately and the Soviet power established joint classes where boys and girls studied together. We had new teachers. I was a sociable girl and had many friends. They were mainly Jewish children. We were the poorest and all of my friends came from wealthier families. My close friend was Sima-Mukah. She was commonly called by her 2nd name – Mukah. We played together, shared stories that we knew and had a good time together.
There was no Jewish school in the town, but there were private teachers of Yiddish I attended classes of one of them at his home. He was an old man with a gray beard always wearing a yarmulke. He told a lot about the history of Jews and Jewish literature – he told me about his favorite writer – Sholem Alechem 6. Sometimes I came with a group of children and at other times I was his only pupil. I don’t remember the teacher’s name and I don’t remember the language either.
My parents didn’t allow me to become a pioneer. For the most part children of workers and peasants were admitted to pioneer league. Actually my father was a private craftsman and I wasn’t pushed to become a pioneer, but since it wasn’t obligatory to be a pioneer at that time this had no impact on the attitude of teachers or children on me. My parents believed it was better to stay aside from such public organizations, although my father was very positive about the Soviet power. He was hoping that life of Jews would improve. The majority of officials in the town were Jewish men. This was a very positive sign since during the tsarist regime Jews couldn’t even dream of being officials. We all grieved for Lenin when he died in January 1924 – we believed that Lenin liberated people from slavery. He gave land to farmers and industrial enterprises – to workers. But pioneers were taught to be atheists and, therefore, my father thought it wasn’t necessary for me to become a pioneer.
All young people are eager to study. My parents supported this urge of ours. My mother used to say “If we couldn’t get proper education let our children get it”. Kamenka was a small town and the only educational institution there was a lower secondary school, so we couldn’t wait to leave Kamenka for a bigger town to continue education.
There was a higher secondary school in Peschanka, a small town 27 km from Kamenka. Two of my friends and I went to Peschanka by ourselves and rented a room there. My parents paid my rent. Peschanka was no different from Kamenka with same small houses and a lot of Jewish population. We didn’t care whether our landlords were Jewish or not, but usually we had Jewish ones. We always tried to come home on vacations and Jewish holidays when we were off from school, but on a number of Jewish holidays we had to attend school. At home we celebrated Jewish holidays with our parents according to all rules, and when we had to stay our Jewish landlords invited us to join them for a meal with traditional Jewish food. However, we didn’t observe Jewish traditions when we were away from home. At that time people didn’t care about national issues. We finished school in 1927 and left Peschanka for Rybnitsa, a bigger town in 50 km from Kamenka.
There was a rabfak 7 in Rybnitsa. I went to work at a woodwork shop. I became assistant accountant at this company. This was considered to be a manual work position so I officially was a worker. This was important for me since my father was a private craftsman and only children that came from workers’ or collective farmers’ families had a right to study at higher educational institutions. Or it was necessary to have a working experience.
Between 1927- 1931 I was preparing to go to an institute. I studied additionally for entrance exams. After a year in 1928 I moved to Kamenets-Podolskiy from Rybnitsa. This was a bigger town in Western Ukraine in about 60 km from Kamenka with institutes, schools and training courses. I finished rabfak and then a preparatory course for applicants to an institute. I was fond of chemistry. I rented rooms from Jewish families where my landlords asked me to teach their daughters, nieces and granddaughters the Russian language. This was how I became a teacher. I didn’t quite like this profession.
When young people left their parents’ houses they spoke only Russian and didn’t observe any traditions. This seemed old-fashioned to us, but when we returned home we became Jewish children again returning to our roots. However, we always identified ourselves as Jews, but this didn’t matter at that time.
I found out that there was a Technological Institute in Kharkov, a capital of Ukraine at that time in Eastern Ukraine in 900 km from Kaments-Podolskiy. It prepared specialists for glass industry. This was what I dreamed of doing. In 1931 entered this Institute without exams since graduates from rabfak were not required to take exams. I have the happiest memories about my life as a student in Kharkov. We lived in the hostel like a family helping and supporting each other. Nobody cared about somebody else’s nationality. We lived in a big and beautiful town and we were young. We took the hardships of life easy. Now I recall that people around were starving and we never had enough food, but when one is young any difficulties seem to be temporary.
I fell in love with Grigoriy Nerubanko, a Ukrainian young man when I was at the Institute. He came from a family of workers in Donbass. He was born in 1911 and he was a serious and positive young man – he had his objectives and knew what he wanted in life. He was a communist. He was successful with his studies and was well-mannered. His mother was a communist and his father died in an accident at the railroad when he was young. Grigoriy’s mother raised four children. Grigoriy was an older son in the family and his mother hoped that he would help other children to get education upon graduation from the Institute.
Grigoriy also fell in love with me. My parents were horrified to hear that I was meeting with a non-Jewish man. They said they would never accept him into the family. I graduated from the Institute in 1936 and got a job assignment of production engineer at a glass factory in the vicinity of Leningrad. Grigoriy had another year to study. Grigoriy was a man of his word and wanted to return to his mother upon graduation to help his family, but his mother knew that was seeing a girl and she said to him “Go to Sima – she is your happiness”.
Grigoriy also fell in love with me. My parents were horrified to hear that I was meeting with a non-Jewish man. They said they would never accept him into the family. I graduated from the Institute in 1936 and got a job assignment of production engineer at a glass factory in the vicinity of Leningrad. Grigoriy had another year to study. Grigoriy was a man of his word and wanted to return to his mother upon graduation to help his family, but his mother knew that was seeing a girl and she said to him “Go to Sima – she is your happiness”.
I graduated from the Institute in 1936 and got a job assignment of production engineer at a glass factory in the vicinity of Leningrad.