Tag #151807 - Interview #84041 (Yacob Hollander)

I never faced anti-Semitism, but this doesn’t mean that it did not exist. When Subcarpathia was annexed to the USSR, the word ‘zhid’ [kike] became common. Of course, those newcomers from the USSR brought it into life since it was absurd for Subcarpathians. Of course, there was anti-Semitism during the Hungarian rule, but then it was during the fascist regime. It was strange to hear the word ‘zhid’ from the people who had lived under the soviet order all their life, where nations were equal and where people were friends to one another as Soviet propaganda kept stating. Nobody ever said anything about my nationality in my presence, but behind my back they called me ‘zhid’. I didn’t understand those people and tried to stay away from them. My friends were Jews for the most part and they came from Subcarpathia. I avoided the newcomers from the USSR not only for the reason of anti-Semitism, but because if they heard something about a person that was wrong in their opinion they reported immediately to Party officials to militia, particularly about those who was openly religious and observed traditions. Only elderly people who had nothing to lose could afford going to the synagogue. I faced this once when one of my friends asked me to be a kvatter at his son’s brit milah. He secretly invited a rabbi from Ivano-Frankovsk [185 km from Uzhgorod, 485 km from Kiev]. The ceremony took place at his home. However, few days later the district Party committee invited me for a discussion. They wrote in my personal files that I took part in a religious ceremony. For a communist it was a stain on my biography.