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We lived in Yefim’s apartment with his mother. This was an apartment near the toilet in the yard. There were two small rooms and entrance to them was through the kitchen. When we came to live there was not even a toilet there. We built a toilet and a closet for a primus stove. My return to Odessa coincided with two state anti-Semitic campaigns: campaign against cosmopolitism [27] and ‘doctors’ plot’ [28]. It was very hard for me to find an employment. My acquaintances helped me to become chief of medical facility in the tobacco factory. I worked there several years.
I remember that I heard about Stalin’s death in 1953 on my way to work. I was walking and crying. All people around me, all of them really, were crying. At that moment I didn’t think that my father suffered during the period of arrests. Like all others, I was under the influence of the state propaganda. However, I believed in Khrushchev’s denunciation [29] of Stalin. I knew about the famine among peasants and about what was happening to my father and many others between 1937 through 1939. In the 1950s I also faced big difficulties trying to find a job. At that time it seemed to me that this was the fault of the Stalin’s government.
On 25 July 1952 our son Alexandr was born. After he was born we went to live with my parents. Since we had to go to work Alexandr had baby sitters that we had to replace frequently since they were young and didn’t want to trouble themselves with looking after a child. Later, when we didn’t have any baby sitters we took Alexandr to my husband’s mother in the morning and picked him up in the evening. When Alexandr grew older we moved back to Yefim’s mother and Alexandr went to kindergarten. He didn’t like going there and often had angina. In summer we rented a dacha [summer cottage] in the Bolshoy Fontan [resort area in Odessa] and spent all summer there. I spent all my free time at the seashore with Alexandr. He lay in the sun and bathed in the sea. In 1959 Alexandr went to school. He didn’t face any anti-Semitism there, but he didn’t identify himself as a Jew either. Alexandr studied well. He was a smart and bright boy and he played chess like his father. He was a very sociable boy and had many friends. His best friend was our neighbor boy Yuri Bashlykov, a Russian boy. Alexandr was very attached to his father. He always had a good time with him: Yefim knew literature, art, music and history. Alexandr was fond of light music, he had a very good ear for music. He studied in a music school and often played the piano at home.
My brother Yuri finished Communications College in 1955 and got a job assignment to ‘Giprisviaz’’ Institute in Kiev. He worked as an engineer. He married Clara Pekker, who was Jewish. Clara finished a college and worked at a design institute. They have three daughters. Their older daughter Olga was born in 1964. She finished a pedagogical college. She is married and has two sons. She lives in Kiev. His middle daughter Svetlana was born in 1971. She finished a college of public economy. Yulia, the youngest, born in 1980, finished the Faculty of management in a construction college. Yulia is a member of the Jewish organization for young people ‘Ghilel’ in Kiev. She performs in the Jewish student’s theater. 2 years ago Yulia went on a trip to Israel under a students exchange program. Yuri, his wife and two younger daughters live in a small two-bedroom apartment in Rusanovskaya Naberezhnaya in Kiev. He is a pensioner.
I remember that I heard about Stalin’s death in 1953 on my way to work. I was walking and crying. All people around me, all of them really, were crying. At that moment I didn’t think that my father suffered during the period of arrests. Like all others, I was under the influence of the state propaganda. However, I believed in Khrushchev’s denunciation [29] of Stalin. I knew about the famine among peasants and about what was happening to my father and many others between 1937 through 1939. In the 1950s I also faced big difficulties trying to find a job. At that time it seemed to me that this was the fault of the Stalin’s government.
On 25 July 1952 our son Alexandr was born. After he was born we went to live with my parents. Since we had to go to work Alexandr had baby sitters that we had to replace frequently since they were young and didn’t want to trouble themselves with looking after a child. Later, when we didn’t have any baby sitters we took Alexandr to my husband’s mother in the morning and picked him up in the evening. When Alexandr grew older we moved back to Yefim’s mother and Alexandr went to kindergarten. He didn’t like going there and often had angina. In summer we rented a dacha [summer cottage] in the Bolshoy Fontan [resort area in Odessa] and spent all summer there. I spent all my free time at the seashore with Alexandr. He lay in the sun and bathed in the sea. In 1959 Alexandr went to school. He didn’t face any anti-Semitism there, but he didn’t identify himself as a Jew either. Alexandr studied well. He was a smart and bright boy and he played chess like his father. He was a very sociable boy and had many friends. His best friend was our neighbor boy Yuri Bashlykov, a Russian boy. Alexandr was very attached to his father. He always had a good time with him: Yefim knew literature, art, music and history. Alexandr was fond of light music, he had a very good ear for music. He studied in a music school and often played the piano at home.
My brother Yuri finished Communications College in 1955 and got a job assignment to ‘Giprisviaz’’ Institute in Kiev. He worked as an engineer. He married Clara Pekker, who was Jewish. Clara finished a college and worked at a design institute. They have three daughters. Their older daughter Olga was born in 1964. She finished a pedagogical college. She is married and has two sons. She lives in Kiev. His middle daughter Svetlana was born in 1971. She finished a college of public economy. Yulia, the youngest, born in 1980, finished the Faculty of management in a construction college. Yulia is a member of the Jewish organization for young people ‘Ghilel’ in Kiev. She performs in the Jewish student’s theater. 2 years ago Yulia went on a trip to Israel under a students exchange program. Yuri, his wife and two younger daughters live in a small two-bedroom apartment in Rusanovskaya Naberezhnaya in Kiev. He is a pensioner.
Period
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Remma Kogan