Tag #113931 - Interview #102857 (Boris Lesman)

I never came across Anti-Semitism: all my life I was an officer, a naval man - I never felt it. But at present I realize that it was Anti-Semitism that caused my demobilization at the age of 30. In 1953 I was dismissed, regardless of the fact that I was an excellent graduate of the Higher Officers Classes for Hydrography Specialists. I guess it happened because I was a Jew [26]. But being in the army, I never felt it. I was a commanding officer, I was a chief, but we did not know words ‘You are Jewish.’ Around me there were Uzbeks, Azerbaijanians, Tadjiks, and Ukrainians. We were at war. After the end of the war I also did not come across something of that kind: they sent me adroad… But there were rumours about people (not my friends), who were dangerously touched… I was far from it, because I am a Russian man of Jewish origin.