Tag #153874 - Interview #94293 (Nikolai Mesko Salamonovic)

In 1946 my life began anew. In June I returned home and immediately started to look for work. By then all of my friends were home. One of them, Tibi Berkovich, was already working. He was also a Jew. There was a factory in Mukachevo, and he had some sort of function there. He says to me: “Go to our office, maybe you’ll find something there.” I came as a discharged soldier and by coincidence the office manager was a former officer. Right away he took a liking to me. He took me on as a supply clerk. It was manufacturing – candles, shoeshine creams, various things for barbers – manufacturing where the products were sent to other branches of industry. We for example also manufactured buttons. But I had never worked in a warehouse before. I worked there for about a month, and then told him that I didn’t really like it. I went to see the director and got a new job. I became the head engineer’s deputy. The head engineer was also a Jew, named Litvak. Suddenly they transferred our director, Alexander Ivanovich Krukov, to another factory. At a general meeting before his departure, he recommended me for his position. He didn’t recommend the head engineer, but me. At the age of 24, in 1948, I became the director of a factory.