I come from a small town of Kamenka on the bank of the Dnestr River in the eastern part of Moldavia. The town was buried in verdure. There were orchards around every house. The population of Kamenka consisted of Jews and Moldavians. Jews constituted the majority of population. However, there was no Jewish neighborhood – we were dispersed in the town. Jewish families were very religious – I would even say fanatically religious. Religion played a major role in everyday life of our family and many other Jewish families – they strictly observed all traditions and rules. There was a synagogue in Kamenka – a big one-storied building with a high circular roof. Women had a space separated with a curtain. All Jewish families came to the synagogue during holidays and on Saturday. Besides, my grandfather prayed in the morning and in the evening. I remember him carefully taking his old book of prayers wrapped in a clean piece of cloth. I don’t remember seeing other books in their home. Our grandfather didn’t teach his grandchildren since we didn’t live together, but we learned everything about the Jewish way of life from our parents. Jewish families were big – some of them had 13-14 children. Children symbolized pride and wealth in Jewish families. According to religious rules a Jewish woman had as many children as she could bear. The more children a woman had the more respected she was in the community. A childless marriage was sufficient reason for getting a divorce. There were plenty of food products produced in this area: eggs, butter, dairy products and fruit and big families could have sufficient food to make a living. Therefore, it wasn’t a problem for families with many children to provide well for them. Jews spoke Yiddish to one another in Kamenka. All Jews were educated: they could read and write and like discussions on various subjects. Moldavians were not educated even though some of them were quite wealthy – owners of big orchards.
- Traditions 11679
- Language spoken 3001
- Identity 7775
- Description of town 2428
- Education, school 8461
- Economics 8757
- Work 11598
- Love & romance 4918
- Leisure/Social life 4135
- Antisemitism 4797
-
Major events (political and historical)
4232
- Armenian genocide 2
- Doctor's Plot (1953) 178
- Soviet invasion of Poland 28
- Siege of Leningrad 84
- The Six Day War 4
- Yom Kippur War 2
- Ataturk's death 5
- Balkan Wars (1912-1913) 35
- First Soviet-Finnish War 37
- Occupation of Czechoslovakia 1938 83
- Invasion of France 9
- Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact 65
- Varlik Vergisi (Wealth Tax) 36
- First World War (1914-1918) 216
- Spanish flu (1918-1920) 14
- Latvian War of Independence (1918-1920) 4
- The Great Depression (1929-1933) 20
- Hitler comes to power (1933) 125
- 151 Hospital 1
- Fire of Thessaloniki (1917) 9
- Greek Civil War (1946-49) 12
- Thessaloniki International Trade Fair 5
- Annexation of Bukovina to Romania (1918) 7
- Annexation of Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union (1940) 19
- The German invasion of Poland (1939) 86
- Kishinev Pogrom (1903) 7
- Romanian Annexation of Bessarabia (1918) 25
- Returning of the Hungarian rule in Transylvania (1940-1944) 43
- Soviet Occupation of Bessarabia (1940) 59
- Second Vienna Dictate 27
- Estonian war of independence 3
- Warsaw Uprising 1
- Soviet occupation of the Balitc states (1940) 147
- Austrian Civil War (1934) 9
- Anschluss (1938) 70
- Collapse of Habsburg empire 3
- Dollfuß Regime 3
- Emigration to Vienna before WWII 36
- Kolkhoz 131
- KuK - Königlich und Kaiserlich 40
- Mineriade 1
- Post War Allied occupation 7
- Waldheim affair 5
- Trianon Peace Treaty 12
- NEP 56
- Russian Revolution 350
- Ukrainian Famine 199
- The Great Terror 282
- Perestroika 233
- 22nd June 1941 463
- Molotov's radio speech 115
- Victory Day 147
- Stalin's death 364
- Khrushchev's speech at 20th Congress 147
- KGB 62
- NKVD 153
- German occupation of Hungary (18-19 March 1944) 45
- Józef Pilsudski (until 1935) 33
- 1956 revolution 84
- Prague Spring (1968) 73
- 1989 change of regime 174
- Gomulka campaign (1968) 81
-
Holocaust
9645
- Holocaust (in general) 2779
- Concentration camp / Work camp 1235
- Mass shooting operations 337
- Ghetto 1179
- Death / extermination camp 647
- Deportation 1061
- Forced labor 788
- Flight 1399
- Hiding 587
- Resistance 119
- 1941 evacuations 866
- Novemberpogrom / Kristallnacht 34
- Eleftherias Square 10
- Kasztner group 1
- Pogrom in Iasi and the Death Train 21
- Sammelwohnungen 9
- Strohmann system 11
- Struma ship 17
- Life under occupation 803
- Yellow star house 72
- Protected house 15
- Arrow Cross ("nyilasok") 42
- Danube bank shots 6
- Kindertransport 26
- Schutzpass / false papers 95
- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) 24
- Warsaw Uprising (1944) 23
- Helpers 520
- Righteous Gentiles 269
- Returning home 1084
- Holocaust compensation 112
- Restitution 109
- Property (loss of property) 595
- Loss of loved ones 1714
- Trauma 1029
- Talking about what happened 1807
- Liberation 555
- Military 3299
- Politics 2619
-
Communism
4464
- Life in the Soviet Union/under Communism (in general) 2592
- Anti-communist resistance in general 63
- Nationalization under Communism 220
- Illegal communist movements 98
- Systematic demolitions under communism 45
- Communist holidays 311
- Sentiments about the communist rule 928
- Collectivization 94
- Experiences with state police 349
- Prison/Forced labor under communist/socialist rule 448
- Lack or violation of human and citizen rights 483
- Life after the change of the regime (1989) 493
- Israel / Palestine 2176
- Zionism 835
- Jewish Organizations 1190
Displaying 49111 - 49140 of 50504 results
Sarra Nikiforenko
The synagogue in Smela was closed by atheists of various nationalities in 1929. My father was very unhappy about it. All churches were also closed during this period of struggle against religion 14.
There was entertainment center at the sugar factory where young people came to dance in the evening. I don’t remember other programs.
After finishing school in 1926 I entered the College of Food Industry in our town. Most of the students were Jewish. Jewish young people were eager to get a good education. I was to become a lab assistant for sugar industry. I was a painstaking student.
Once during a party where I sang Ukrainian and Jewish songs a young man approached me. He was Vitaliy Nikiforenko. He was a student of the Institute of Food Industry in Kiev. He was on vacation in his hometown visiting his parents. He asked my permission to take me home. He was looking at me with admiring eyes. I had never had a non-Jewish friend before and I was concerned a little bit. I avoided him at the beginning. I didn’t want to date with him. He came to see my sister Sonia and said ‘If you don’t tell Sarra to come to see me I will go to the river and drown myself’. Sonia got scared, ran to me and said ‘Here came your sweetheart’. Boris, my brother, said ‘Give him a stick and let him beat this kind of ideas out of his head’. I had to go see him and say ‘Don’t be stupid’. To make the long story short we were destined to be together. I have no regrets about it.
Vitaliy, born in 1908, came from Smela: we were neighbors. I knew his parents and they knew me. They didn’t mind my being a Jew. Vitaliy came from a very nice family. His father was a teacher at College – I don’t remember at which, and his mother was a teacher, but she didn’t work. They had a son and a daughter. My parents were a little concerned since I was the first one in our family to have a non-Jewish spouse. They knew Vitaliy’s family. They bought fish from Vitaliy’s grandfather, but still they were a non-Jewish family. My father said to Vitaly ‘Yoy need to know that if you hurt Sarra just once you will lose her’.
We saw each other for a year. I finished College and Vitaliy graduated from the Institute in 1930. He wrote me nice letters.
Vitaliy, born in 1908, came from Smela: we were neighbors. I knew his parents and they knew me. They didn’t mind my being a Jew. Vitaliy came from a very nice family. His father was a teacher at College – I don’t remember at which, and his mother was a teacher, but she didn’t work. They had a son and a daughter. My parents were a little concerned since I was the first one in our family to have a non-Jewish spouse. They knew Vitaliy’s family. They bought fish from Vitaliy’s grandfather, but still they were a non-Jewish family. My father said to Vitaly ‘Yoy need to know that if you hurt Sarra just once you will lose her’.
We saw each other for a year. I finished College and Vitaliy graduated from the Institute in 1930. He wrote me nice letters.
Upon graduation Vitaliy got a job at the sugar factory in Smela.
We had our wedding registered at registration office. We had a wedding party in my parents’ garden, but it was a Soviet wedding without a chuppah or any other Jewish rituals. There were Ukrainian and Jewish relatives and guests at the wedding. They shouted ‘Gorko!’ [Russian for ‘bitter’ – a Russian tradition] to us.
Jewish young people that left their families stopped observing traditions. We believed in new socialist life and thought that Jewish traditions belonged to the past. We thought we were more advanced than older people and had to look into the future.
He was Vitaliy Nikiforenko. He was a student of the Institute of Food Industry in Kiev.
I worked at the laboratory at the sugar factory and my husband was an engineer at the same factory. We worked there a few months since Vitaliy got a job offer in Kremenchug in the same year of 1930 [an industrial town on the bank of the Dnepr River in Poltava region, 240 km from Kiev].
We worked there a few months since Vitaliy got a job offer in Kremenchug in the same year of 1930 [an industrial town on the bank of the Dnepr River in Poltava region, 240 km from Kiev]. There was a military laboratory responsible for monitoring strategic stocks of grain and later it was involved in the development of food stock storage conditions. My husband and I went to work in Kremenchug.
There were beautiful Jewish weddings in our town in summer when everything was in blossom. We had a big garden where a big silk shawl was spread over blooming branches to make a chuppah. Of course, the rabbi came to a wedding: he respected our family a lot. He said a prayer and a bride and bridegroom went around the chuppah: all Jewish customs were observed. My sisters got married in this way and we all sang songs at their weddings.
When the revolution took place in 1917 I was 8 years old and I don’t remember much of this period. My mother didn’t allow me to go far from home. Sometimes gangs 9 came to town. People said they were Petlura bands 10. People were afraid of them. I remember mother made my older sisters stay in bed. She wrapped their heads in shawls and told them to stay quiet. When somebody approached our house she yelled ‘Typhoid, typhoid!’ The bandits got scared and left or grounds. Several times we hid in our cellar. The situation was very scaring and when the soviet power was established our family perceived it as liberation and beginning of a quiet life. However, my father didn’t put much trust in Bolsheviks since he referred them to big talkers rather than doers.
There was order established in the town. A number of new institutions were opened where Jews were getting managerial positions there. There was a popular song ‘Who was a nobody will become a man of substance’. Many people were happy. My father didn’t get much for his work Our living standards became considerably lower. Nobody needed good furniture. He mainly fixed old furniture in schools, cultural centers and canteens.
There was order established in the town. A number of new institutions were opened where Jews were getting managerial positions there. There was a popular song ‘Who was a nobody will become a man of substance’. Many people were happy. My father didn’t get much for his work Our living standards became considerably lower. Nobody needed good furniture. He mainly fixed old furniture in schools, cultural centers and canteens.
There was a Jewish school named after Sholem Aleichem 11 opened in Smela. There were all subjects taught in Yiddish and there were Russian and Ukrainian classes in it. We read Sholem Aleichem’s stories about a hard life of Jewish children within restricted residential areas – the Pale of Settlement 12 We felt happy that nothing like that would ever happen in our country again. There were portraits of Lenin in each classroom. We were told that only thanks to him we got everything that we had. When in January 1924 it was announced that he died we cried a lot. We couldn’t imagine life without him. I remember it was freezing on that day and when I was running home tears from my eyes were turning into ice. I don’t think my mother or father cared about Lenin’s death. I studied well at school. I was praised for my successes. I didn’t become a pioneer at school since I was older than the age of 14 until when children could become pioneers. I didn’t join the Komsomol, either 13. I didn’t participate in any activities, besides, my origin was far from proletariat: I was an entrepreneur’s daughter. I wasn’t ‘politically educated’ or active and I didn’t care about Komsomol.
I was very fond of singing. My friends and I used to go to the bank of Tismin River where we sang Russian and Ukrainian songs, but mostly Yiddish, of course. My voice has lost its strength, but I remember songs:
[sings in Yiddish]
‘Girl Hannushka went to the woods and unbraided her hair. All of a sudden she met a young man that asked her ‘Hannushka, what are you doing in the forest? What are you looking for, did you lose something?’ She says ‘I’m looking for daisy flowers’. He said ‘Well, you are on the way there while I have already found the most beautiful and interesting flower with lovely hair and beautiful eyes. May I stroke your hair and hold your hand?’ ‘No, you can’t. My mother wouldn’t allow it. My mother is old and ill and I won’t do things that she forbids’. He was hurt and left and she goes on looking for a daisy, tra-la-la’ .
Many boys fell in love with me when they heard me singing. Young people used to get together in the evening: there was quite a bunch of us. We played lotto – it was a popular game then, [the players got 3 cards each with numbers in them written in rows. The game master took wooden casks with numbers out of a bag and a player having this or that number took a cask and put it on a card. The winner was the one that was the first to fill up his card] went to the park – there was a big park in Smela. In summer we went boating on the Tiasmin River. We liked going to the cinema at weekends: there were silent movies, but we liked comedies, especially the ones with Charlie Chaplin. I had Jewish friends. We spoke Yiddish, but we had fluent Russian as well.
[sings in Yiddish]
‘Girl Hannushka went to the woods and unbraided her hair. All of a sudden she met a young man that asked her ‘Hannushka, what are you doing in the forest? What are you looking for, did you lose something?’ She says ‘I’m looking for daisy flowers’. He said ‘Well, you are on the way there while I have already found the most beautiful and interesting flower with lovely hair and beautiful eyes. May I stroke your hair and hold your hand?’ ‘No, you can’t. My mother wouldn’t allow it. My mother is old and ill and I won’t do things that she forbids’. He was hurt and left and she goes on looking for a daisy, tra-la-la’ .
Many boys fell in love with me when they heard me singing. Young people used to get together in the evening: there was quite a bunch of us. We played lotto – it was a popular game then, [the players got 3 cards each with numbers in them written in rows. The game master took wooden casks with numbers out of a bag and a player having this or that number took a cask and put it on a card. The winner was the one that was the first to fill up his card] went to the park – there was a big park in Smela. In summer we went boating on the Tiasmin River. We liked going to the cinema at weekends: there were silent movies, but we liked comedies, especially the ones with Charlie Chaplin. I had Jewish friends. We spoke Yiddish, but we had fluent Russian as well.
In 1931, soon after we left, my parents moved to Baku where my brother Solomon resided. He always said this was a nice and hospitable town and there was always a lot of food. There were no problems with getting a place to live or a job in Baku. There was a big Jewish community and a synagogue in the town. Gradually all of my relatives moved to Baku. There is a big area at the Jewish cemetery in Baku where my relatives were buried. Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan in Zakavkaziye. It stands on the Caspian Sea, and is the center of oil industry that enriched this town at the beginning of 20th century. The town is located in 2700 km from Kiev.
We got a room in Kremenchug. We cooked on the primus stove 15 and there was a wood stoked stove for heating. I went to work and didn’t spend much time doing the housework.
Vitaliy was manager of the laboratory and I was a lab assistant at the same laboratory. My husband held an important position related to restricted information and he just had to join the Communist Party. Besides, since this was a military laboratory he was given a rank.
We were expecting a child in 1932. This was a hard period in Ukraine. Although we received food packages as a military family I was still concerned and went to Baku to be with my mother when the baby was due.
My parents had neighbors of all nationalities: Azerbaijan, Armenian, Russian and Jewish. They were friendly with each other and felt comfortable speaking their own languages. When my father went to synagogue all non-Jewish neighbors greeted him with Jewish holidays. My mother treated them to some Jewish food and they treated us to their traditional food.
In 1932 my older daughter Ludmila was born. In his letters Vitaliy talked me out of returning to Ukraine. This was the period of forced famine in Ukraine while there was plenty of food in Baku: lots of vegetables and fruit. My husband was involved in a very important mission: filling strategic stocks of grain. Vitaliy was a very responsible employee.
In 1933 he wrote me that he got an invitation to the military Academy in Kharkov. This was a good offer and he moved to Kharkov. He became head of the laboratory involved in scientific research of strategic food storage conditions. Vitaliy was also invited to teach politics and some technical subjects at the Military Academy.
Kharkov was the capital of Ukraine before 1934. It was a big industrial center.
He received a nice two-room apartment in the apartment building for military officials and lecturers of the military Academy. I arrived from Baku with our little daughter. I liked the apartment and our neighbors. It was a new house with a bathroom, toilet and electricity. In 1938 we got gas in the house. Wives of commanders of the Red army treated me nicely.
My husband provided well for us and I didn’t have to go to work. My husband worked a lot preparing for lectures and writing a textbook in chemistry.
I was involved in public activities. Wives of military officials didn’t work, but attended sport and amateur art clubs. I took part in sport competitions. I took the first place in shooting. I also took part in concerts singing Ukrainian and Russian songs. Once I was invited to study in Odessa Conservatory, a teacher heard me singing, but Vitaliy was against it. He didn’t want to part with me.
The prewar period can be determined with one word – ‘enthusiasm’. We sang, laughed and believed in the wonderful future. We had little free time, but when we had some we went to the cinema. We got together with friends, had tea and sang Soviet songs from the movies we saw.
Thank God none of our relatives suffered from repression in 1930s 16. We were aware of the ongoing arrests and exiling people, but we believed that things were going right and the Soviet power was just. We had Jewish friends and neighbors and they didn’t face any mistreats.
Military officers realized that the war was inevitable, but even then, the day of 22 June 1941 when the war began came as a big surprise. Vitaliy was recruited to the front right away and I kept listening to the radio that kept announcing that the Soviet troops were leaving towns to Germans.
The front was approaching Kharkov. All big shots and officials in our house sent their families away. There were only few of us left: wives whose husbands were at the front and their children. I wrote my husband that all other officials evacuated their families and there were enough of us left to make cutlets for Hitler. I was aware of the brutality of Germans since mass media published this information [editor’s note: it is known that no Soviet mass media published anything about extermination of Jews by Nazi, but this is what Sarra said]. In few days a general called me to his office: he even sent a car to take me there. I thought that something was wrong with my husband. When I came to his office he asked ‘Where is your husband?’ I said ‘At the front’. ‘Do you correspond with him?’ I said ‘Yes, I do’. ‘Why is he there?’ ‘What do you mean – why? He’s struggling’. – ‘Then why do you make him feel bad?’ What happened was that they intercepted my letter . I said ‘Then why did all other families leave? Look, there are only few of us left’. ‘A bus will pick you up tonight. Go get ready’. In the evening a bus arrived and took us – 5 families that were left – to the station where we got on a freight train for transportation of horses and taken to Saratov region, one of the biggest regions in Povolzhiye, on the Volga. [The eastern part of Saratov region is located in Zavolzhiye steppe areas with continental climate in about 2000 km from Kiev] Pirpilovo village in 40 kms from railway.