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In summer 1942, when the front was approaching Stalingrad, we decided to go to Middle Asia since my uncle Moshe and his family, Grandmother Riva and Grandfather Isroel were there, in Fergana, Uzbekistan.
My mother and I arrived in Fergana in late summer 1942. Uncle Moshe, who was a mining inspector, received a nice apartment in Fergana, had a good salary and got food packages. They were doing well. Only my grandmother, who fell ill on the way, didn't recover. Before she had to stay in bed due to her illness she had a job: she knitted gloves for the front. She had to accept this job to get a food card. When I came I began doing this work. In Fergana I went to the 10th grade at a local school. I didn't really enjoy studying there: it was boring and too routinely. Schoolchildren were sent to the construction of a water channel for a month. We excavated stony soil and carried pallets with soil. My mother couldn't find a job as a teacher and was a receptionist at a store of salvageable materials.
In early fall 1942 Aunt Ania arrived. A few days later my grandmother died. I continuously touched her feet hoping that they were warm and she was alive although I was scared dead of dead people before. I was so much in grief that my mother sent me away from home. My cousin Stalia told me later that grandmother was taken out of the house on some stretchers and she was buried in this same position in an Uzbek cemetery. Her grave was back-filled with stones. My grandfather kept reciting memorial prayers.
After the funeral we went to the town of Kyzyl-Kiya where aunt Ania was offered a job. This town was 35 kilometers from Fergana, but it was in Kyrgyzstan. I tried to enter an institute in Fergana. I could have gone to medical or pedagogical colleges after the 9th grade, but I didn't want to study there. I wanted to go to the Institute of Oriental Studies, but I wasn't admitted there since I didn't have a higher secondary education and wasn't a Komsomol member. When in Kiev I didn't join the Komsomol and later I somehow missed to do so, too. I was busy with other things.
My mother and I arrived in Fergana in late summer 1942. Uncle Moshe, who was a mining inspector, received a nice apartment in Fergana, had a good salary and got food packages. They were doing well. Only my grandmother, who fell ill on the way, didn't recover. Before she had to stay in bed due to her illness she had a job: she knitted gloves for the front. She had to accept this job to get a food card. When I came I began doing this work. In Fergana I went to the 10th grade at a local school. I didn't really enjoy studying there: it was boring and too routinely. Schoolchildren were sent to the construction of a water channel for a month. We excavated stony soil and carried pallets with soil. My mother couldn't find a job as a teacher and was a receptionist at a store of salvageable materials.
In early fall 1942 Aunt Ania arrived. A few days later my grandmother died. I continuously touched her feet hoping that they were warm and she was alive although I was scared dead of dead people before. I was so much in grief that my mother sent me away from home. My cousin Stalia told me later that grandmother was taken out of the house on some stretchers and she was buried in this same position in an Uzbek cemetery. Her grave was back-filled with stones. My grandfather kept reciting memorial prayers.
After the funeral we went to the town of Kyzyl-Kiya where aunt Ania was offered a job. This town was 35 kilometers from Fergana, but it was in Kyrgyzstan. I tried to enter an institute in Fergana. I could have gone to medical or pedagogical colleges after the 9th grade, but I didn't want to study there. I wanted to go to the Institute of Oriental Studies, but I wasn't admitted there since I didn't have a higher secondary education and wasn't a Komsomol member. When in Kiev I didn't join the Komsomol and later I somehow missed to do so, too. I was busy with other things.
Period
Location
Ukraine
Interview
maya kaganskaya