Efim Kadanskiy

I, Efim Kadanskiy, service in the Soviet army in Bolgrad in 1955. Kiev was liberated in November 1943. It took us few months to obtain the permit to leave for Kiev. We arrived in Kiev in the fall of 1944. Our apartment was occupied by a militiaman and his family. We lost our furniture, kitchen utilities and clothing, it was all gone. My grandmother insisted that we went to Fastov, but my mother wanted to live in Kiev, in the apartment that my father had received. My mother addressed the court. Rosa helped her to write her request, because my mother could hardly write. After finishing 7 classes in the Russian secondary school I entered Kiev shoemaking college in 1948. I faced anti-Semitism again in 1952 after I finished college and decided to enter the Institute of Light Industry. These were the years of the height of anti-Semitism: the doctors' case and struggle against cosmopolitism. Our family didn't suffer from any demonstrations of anti-Semitism. but the general atmosphere was just terrible. It was very tense. I finished college well. After finishing it I tried to enter the Institute of Light Industry for two years. The four of us went to take exams: Tolik Vinnik, Sasha Feldman, Tolik Taranov, the only Russian, and I. Taranov was the only one admitted. We, Jews, got the "2" grades for composition. I tried to enter the evening department next year, but failed at the exam. I understood that the road to the Institute was closed for Jews and never tried again. I finished the Shoemaking College and received my job assignment in Proskurov (Khmelnitskiy at present). I didn't become a pioneer at school, but I became a Komsomol member. It was a mere formality for me. I remember how people reacted to Stalin's death in 1953. Many of them cried, but many thought that his death was an escape for the people. I didn't feel any sorrow or joy. I went to the army from Proskurov. I served in Bolgrad, Odessa military regiment. I studied at the tank battalion there and was sent to military units. There were 30 of us with technical education of 800 military at the battalion. After 3 years of service we were released in the rank of junior lieutenant. Half of us were Ukrainians in the platoon and another half were Uzbeks. Once an Uzbek Orgashev said to me "You are a Jew". His Russian was very poor, and he said this to abuse me expressly. I hit him on the head with a gas mask case. My commanders understood me and I didn't have any problems with them. There were four Jews in our platoon: Arkadiy Gutman, Lyonka Donskoy, Iosif Wasserman and I. We always supported each other and the others were afraid to abuse us because there were always for of us standing for each other.