Tag #153312 - Interview #78562 (Roza Levenberg)

When we arrived in Frunze, all our relatives were living in a big room in a village house with a dirt floor. They all worked on the construction of the Voroshylovskaya hydropower station. Solomon’s wife was a cashier in the canteen. She brought us noodles, and this was what we ate.  When we entered the house I saw a big pot with cold noodles in it. I started eating it, saying not a word to anyone. My aunts were standing around me crying. We stayed with them. I worked as telephone operator, but I could only work at night because we didn’t have any clothes. At night my aunts dressed me in all clothes they had, as nights were cold there. I was the only one of us to work. My father was ill by then. The Commissar of the construction site was Jewish, and he found out that I was a Jew when he looked through my papers.  He asked me to work as his assistant manager. I told him that I couldn’t work during the day, as I didn’t have any clothes. He said  they would find me something, and they gave me a jacket, a skirt and a shawl. So I started working there. Life became easier, as I was paid more and I could have meals at the canteen for non-manual laborers.