Dina Orlova

This is me as a dentist in my office at the polyclinic. The photo was taken for the Board of Honor of the polyclinic in Chernovtsy in 1976. I finished the College of Records and Credits in 1951 and got a job assignment in Ivano-Frankovsk, a big town in Western Ukraine [300 km from Chernovtsy]. I was eager to study at the Medical Institute, but in order to do so I needed a certificate of higher secondary education. I had a diploma of the college, but it was a different branch and therefore not valid for the Medical Institute. I went to study in the evening secondary school and kept it a secret that I had a college diploma. If they had found out they wouldn't have allowed me to study there. I worked in a bank at daytime and went to school in the evening. After finishing this school I received a certificate of secondary education. Anti-Semitism got stronger after the Doctors' Plot in 1953. It was next to impossible for a Jewish girl to enter the Medical Institute in Chernovtsy, so I went to Voronezh, Russia, 1,500 kilometers from home. There were no Jews in that area and, consequently, no anti-Semitism. I had no problem entering the Stomatological Institute in Voronezh. I lived in the hostel and shared a room with three other girls. We were industrious students. We read and studied a lot. I spent my vacations with my parents in Chernovtsy. My brother had graduated from the Medical Institute and worked as a cardiologist. I didn't face any anti-Semitism. Upon graduation I got a job assignment at the Stomatological Polyclinic in Chernovtsy where I worked as a dentist until my retirement.