Tag #151042 - Interview #78412 (Frieda Portnaya)

This was the period of anti-Semitism, the so-called “doctors’ plot” in Moscow and the struggle against “cosmopolitans.” We actually didn’t face much anti-Semitism personally, except for the fact that we couldn’t get an apartment because we were Jews. And the situation at the factory was very difficult. David Raigorodetskiy, the director of the factory, was a Jew. He was a dedicated and honest man. He was director during the evacuation and restored the factory after the war. In 1953 they [the authorities] fired him and wanted to open a case against him. Fortunately, they were late in taking him to court; by that time Stalin had died. During this period many Jews were removed from their official positions in Kiev.