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My name is Yevsey Abramovich Kotkov. I was born in 1904. At that time nobody took any notice of the day and the month of birth -- that’s why I only know the year of my birth.
I was born in Rafalovka , somewhere near Lutsk.
My father, Avrum Leib Kot, was born in 1876. He was a tinsmith. He was the only son, and he had three sisters. I don’t remember his parents, and I know very little about his family or his sisters. I only know that all the men in the family were tinsmiths, and that my father was sent to Belarus to study to be a tinsmith when he was a boy, and that is the profession he followed for the rest of his life. It was a tradition in Jewish families that the son inherited his father’s profession, and all my father’s sons became tinsmiths, too.
Jews hired Jewish employees to work for them. It wasn’t quite a usual thing for a Jew to work for Russian people, but [Jewish] builders or decorators could work for Russian people. [Jewish] girls used to work as housemaids. If their work conditions permitted, they could also learn the language of the family.
I was born in Rafalovka , somewhere near Lutsk.
My father, Avrum Leib Kot, was born in 1876. He was a tinsmith. He was the only son, and he had three sisters. I don’t remember his parents, and I know very little about his family or his sisters. I only know that all the men in the family were tinsmiths, and that my father was sent to Belarus to study to be a tinsmith when he was a boy, and that is the profession he followed for the rest of his life. It was a tradition in Jewish families that the son inherited his father’s profession, and all my father’s sons became tinsmiths, too.
Jews hired Jewish employees to work for them. It wasn’t quite a usual thing for a Jew to work for Russian people, but [Jewish] builders or decorators could work for Russian people. [Jewish] girls used to work as housemaids. If their work conditions permitted, they could also learn the language of the family.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Yevsey Kotkov