Mikhail Aronovich Vainshelboim; Sara Vainshelboim; Zhenia Borisovna Burmenko

The team arrives at the Vainshelboim home and Kerler asks the couple to speak with them, preferably in Yiddish, which both use alongside Russian. They are the only Jewish family left in their locality. Kerler apologises for not phoning ahead, and there is talk of drinks and baking bread and of driving around Berdychiv together. Mikhail jokes about his wife as housewife, and about the weather after recent rain.

Adds the invitation to speak Yiddish and the plan to tour Berdychiv

Kerler announces the recording in Berdychiv on 9 June 2009. Mikhail gives his Yiddish name as Moshe, son of Aron, named after his grandfather, and the surname Vainshelboim (Weichselbaum) with some wordplay on it.

The couple talk about relatives in America, two cousins on the mother's side. They do not know which city they live in, but the relatives phone on holidays and may visit.

Sara, born in Berdychiv, talks about her family before the war. There were four children, and the elder brother was killed at the front. Her father Yankl Yakov Katz worked in a sausage factory, and her mother Dobe was a housewife. The family lived on the street near the market that was formerly Zhytomyrska and later Lenin Street. She went to a Jewish school and then a Russian one, and was evacuated to Bashkiria. They also remark on the large prewar Jewish population compared with today.

Adds her parents' names and occupations, the street, and evacuation to Bashkiria

Sara recalls that Yiddish actors and singers used to come to Berdychiv. Her elder brother played football for the Progress team, and she remembers going to the stadium that still stands.

Sara recounts the family's evacuation, leaving on 5 July after the war began, and the loss of the family dog. Her father worked on the water and the family travelled by horse-drawn carts. Under German bombing they sheltered among trees on the way towards Poltava and Kyiv.

Sara and Mikhail speak of their return to Berdychiv in 1944. They mention hunger and the rebuilding of a house on Zhytomyrska Street, and that Jews returned only slowly. They compare the Jewish population before the war with the few hundred today, and mention that Jews drive to the killing site on the anniversary of the massacre.

Mikhail tells of his wartime escapes from the police and from a shooting at a pit. His mother hid him in an oven behind baked bread when police came, and his father, a painter, was released. He tells of being held with thousands in a cellar and driven towards the airfield park. He crawled away naked under fire in October and walked to villages. A Ukrainian family hid him for about a year while he begged bread, despite a German reward for turning in Jews, and he escaped pursuers by swimming. He also gives the ages of his parents and siblings and says the elder brother was at the front.

The escape is from police roundups and shootings, and includes hiding with villagers and swimming across a river

Vainshelboim narrates his escape and wandering in the countryside during the war. He swam a river, was given old clothes and food, hid in an attic and passed himself off as a non-Jew. He stayed with several peasants and farm owners, including one who sympathised with the Germans, worked as a herdsman, and later moved on after the arrival of the Red Army. Kerler asks clarifying questions. The passage ends with him living with relatives after the war and working at a mill.

Vainshelboim speaks about his army service, which lasted four and a half years and was with aviation units in the Baltic region. Kerler asks where he served and whether Sara waited for him; she did.

The catalogue label omits that Sara waited for him during his service.

Vainshelboim lists the mills and factory where he worked for decades before retiring. He suggests another elderly woman as a possible interviewee, a survivor of the war. He describes the outbreak of the war and a Berdychiv newspaper that announced Jews must register and move into a ghetto district. He mentions looting of Jewish homes.

Besides the war and newspapers, he lists his working life in mills and recommends another interviewee.

Vainshelboim tells of his mother's sister, whose two children died during the war, one of hunger in the camp. She went into the town with a child and was shot there in the 1940s. The details of names and place are unclear in the transcript. Kerler asks what she was called.

The relative is the mother's sister; her name is unclear in the transcript.

Answering Kerler, Vainshelboim explains how he learned to bake bread, having watched village women bake. He worked briefly in a bakery, and later baked at home for many years after Soviet shortages. He compares white and rye breads, and mentions that people in Israel like black bread.

The passage is mostly about his own bread-baking and bakery work.

Talk about bread and milk continues, with Sara on the phone. Visitors from America, who are recording people's stories, are mentioned. Mikhail mentions buying milk from a cow that is milked in front of him, to ensure it is kosher, and also varenyky and pelmeni.

The transcript shows talk about kosher milk and visitors from America, not only the phone call.

Kerler asks what varenyky were filled with. Vainshelboim names cheese, meat and kasha. The visitors from America are mentioned again.

Sara or Mikhail phones a woman in Berdychiv to invite her to be interviewed. They explain that visitors from America are recording people's histories and offer to bring them over. They say she is aged ninety-two and likes to tell her memories. Kerler then asks about prewar memories and holiday baking and cooking.

The phone call is followed by Kerler's question about prewar holiday cooking.

Vainshelboim describes his prewar home: six children, father a painter with seasonal work, mother selling herring and oil at the market. He recalls the famine of 1933, with rumours of cannibalism and selling of human flesh, and shortage of food. He explains that collective farms were still weak and grain was exported, and recalls soup made from grain. Sara remarks that people in America should not know what they lived through.

The passage also covers his family's livelihood and the collective farms.

Vainshelboim speaks about the postwar period: his pension, a plot of collective-farm land and growing wheat and potatoes, and grinding grain at a small mill. He describes a salad. Kerler asks about a bread called malke's bread, which is not recognised. Vainshelboim lists French rolls and prewar bread prices, says no challah was baked for Sabbath and begins speaking about the Cook's synagogue.

The Cook's synagogue is introduced at the end, and prices of prewar bread are also given.

Vainshelboim describes the Cook's synagogue, where food was prepared and worshippers could eat after prayers. He recalls a club in Berdychiv in the mid-1930s where Yiddish plays were staged, including one about Sholem Aleichem (?). He says Berdychiv was a Jewish city, called a Jerusalem, with tens of thousands of Jews, and offers to switch off the camera.

The passage also mentions Jewish population figures and Yiddish theater.

Vainshelboim answers questions about relatives in Israel, including a cousin of his mother, and about people phoning and sending money from abroad. Kerler recalls the team's first visit in 2002, when there was no electricity. Vainshelboim then gives long opinions on America, wars, peace and terrorism, and mentions a man named Isaak (?) whose mother was Jewish and father Tatar, who speaks Yiddish and could be visited at the synagogue. The transcript is partly garbled.

Vainshelboim states political opinions and mentions a possible further interviewee, which the catalogue label only partly covers.

Informal talk among Kerler and the household about food and bread for the visitors, with offers of help and remarks about something tasty smeared with a spread. The recording is largely garbled and the details are unclear.

The transcript is too garbled to confirm that Mikhail prepares the food himself.

Short, fragmentary talk by Kerler, with a few words about a synagogue (shul) and giving names (Berl, Yosef). The passage is largely unintelligible and there is no clear town footage commentary in the transcript.

The transcript does not show town footage as such, only fragmentary talk.

The team enters Burmenko's flat. She first speaks Russian, and Kerler explains that they speak only Yiddish and are from Moscow and America. She says that she understands Yiddish, speaks the Yiddish of Berdychiv, and has a Jewish soul. Someone asks for a stool to translate, and Kerler and Burmenko joke about Sholem Aleichem's brother.

Kerler asks Burmenko about her childhood before the war and about the project. She says she was born in Berdychiv in the revolution year, and that her mother was also from Berdychiv. Her father Berl was a tailor who died when she was four, and her mother was named Zisl. Kerler also records her first name and patronymic and the surname Burmenko. He explains the archive of prewar Yiddish life.

The catalogue label only says biographical information; the transcript gives her parents' names and father's trade.

Burmenko says she attended the Jewish school, number four, finishing seven grades before the schools were closed. She married in 1936 (?) and by about 1937 had a son aged three and a half who was killed by Hitler. Her son was named after her father, and her daughter, now in Israel, after her mother. Asked about childhood games, she mentions hide-and-seek and says one friend was killed in the war.

Beyond the school entry, she also gives her marriage date, her son who was killed, and games.

Burmenko recalls learning the alphabet in the Yiddish school, and a little writing. Kerler asks whether she remembers songs or poems from then, but little is recalled. She mentions a friend, with garbled talk about an aerodrome.

Mikhail encourages Burmenko to talk, while she says she does not want to talk much about the war and cannot speak of it. She mentions that a film was made about her, with a cassette, for America, and that others should know what happened.

Burmenko shows letters and photographs, including material connected with Spielberg's foundation in America. She mentions a photograph from her sixteenth year, one from the war, and her age at 80 and now 92. Her sister's child was killed. She also shows a Russian-language certificate recognising the people who hid her (Gordei and Akulina (?)), with a reference to Israel. Kerler asks her to tell about the photographs.

Burmenko talks about her work as a girl at a sack factory until she married. Her mother-in-law said the husband should support the family. Her first husband, Monia, was also from Berdychiv, his family name was Furman, and his parents were Pesl and Sruliq.

Burmenko says that people who came to write a book about her thought she was Russian. She does not want to be written about, although she says the world knows of her.

Burmenko recalls her life after the war: a friend of her husband's, who had been in the army, wanted to marry her, and she married him in 1946 (?) after reluctance. He was Zalmen Mendelevich Dimant, and he died in 1948. Her son was born in 1947 and is now 62. She says she stood by the pit when people were shot, and that her mother and sister were taken.

The label is only 'Life after the war'; the transcript includes her second marriage, her second husband's name, and the shooting.

Burmenko says her mother went into the pit with two grandchildren during the war and she herself was not taken. Kerler then returns to the topic of songs from childhood in Berdychiv. The passage is short and partly garbled.

Burmenko says that her father died when she was four, that her mother was a widow, and that she had a stepfather. Kerler provides the Yiddish word for it, shtiftate. A phone call comes in. She says she lives alone, and that her daughter urges her to move to Israel but she does not want to.

The label mentions prewar life and today; the transcript shows a kinship term, the stepfather, and her refusal to emigrate.

Burmenko's son arrives, and she goes out to him. Kerler apologises for the interruption and some talk follows.

Vainshelboim remembers Yiddish songs. He says his father played mandolin and guitar and young people gathered to sing in the happy prewar world. He recalls verses about a tailor, a shoemaker, vareniki, and a tumbalalaika-type song about a boy who cannot decide whom to marry. He says his father sang in Russian.

Vainshelboim recalls the street he lived on near the market, the courtyard with benches where young people sat, and a Yiddish- and Hebrew-speaking acquaintance named Vasilevsky (?). He says the prewar world was beautiful and the war took his best years. He then reflects on living long, the world's good and bad people, and mentions his son in the Zhytomyr region.

The label says life before the war and faith, but the transcript shows his street, an acquaintance, and general reflections.

Burmenko is back in the room, and Kerler and the household drink together and make toasts. They talk about her son, his position, and her two children, and Kerler says he had guessed it was her son at the door. The passage is largely informal.

Burmenko shows photographs of her daughter and son-in-law in Israel and of her second husband, Dimant, a specialist with machines. She says she is glad the team came, and mentions a visiting Jewish woman from America named Tani Golfeld (?), who left an address. Kerler asks for the town and writes the address down.

Opening talk about a woman named Goldfeld (or Goldman) from America, with discussion of the word 'gold' in Yiddish. Burmenko and a helper fuss over food being brought. Kerler then starts asking what her mother baked.

Conversation turns to the name Goldfeld/Goldman and a gift of food, as well as photographs.

Burmenko answers questions about the food her mother prepared for holidays and the Sabbath: poppy-seed cakes, oven-baked cakes, gefilte fish, stuffed chicken, and challah baked in the oven. Kerler asks her to explain a term. She says she was a careful housewife taught by her mother. Russian side talk about keys and a shop interrupts.

Gives specific dishes, including Sabbath fish and challah, and her housekeeping habits.

Talk about the custom of washing hands before eating and the blessing. Burmenko says she knows everything in Yiddish. She speaks of her husband's and her own Jewish customs, partly in Russian.

Kerler asks whether her husband spoke Yiddish, and she says he did. The name of her husband's father, Mendl, is given, and she gives Mikhail as another name.

The name given in the transcript is Mendl, not Zalmen, and Mikhail is added.

Informal conversation among Burmenko and the research team. They discuss the Americans' Yiddish and their need for interpreters. They talk about Burmenko's own Berdychiv Yiddish, her family going back generations in Berdychiv, and Kerler's own family name. Burmenko blesses the visitors with long life.

Burmenko's address and street are given for the record, followed by chat about the interviewer taking notes. The talk turns to a question for Burmenko on the best years of her life.

Burmenko says her best years were before the war and that she married at eighteen or nineteen, with a difficult father-in-law. She also speaks of her obedience as a child and of how things are different now. She mentions Germans in Berdychiv and says today's younger people do not know Jewish history.

Covers her early marriage and her views on how the young generation knows Jewish history.

The team phones an American visitor, Tanya Goldfeld (?), who had been photographed with Burmenko, and speaks to her in English and Russian. Burmenko speaks to her in Russian, gives her phone number, and the team promises to send her address. She states a proverb.

A phone call to an American visitor and a proverb are added.

Concluding the interview: Kerler thanks Burmenko and says the team hopes to return, and they say goodbye.

Vainshelboim guides the team through Berdychiv and tells of the German occupation and the roundups and killings of Jews. He tells of the murder of 960 young men, the grave pits, and his own escape when his father was shot. His mother, sisters and brother lie in the mass grave. He also mentions a brick factory and a pit for hiding Jews, the Soviet memorials, the erection of the Star of David, and gold-seekers digging up bones.

Covers a longer tour: the mass grave, the father's shooting and escape, and Soviet memorialization.

In the synagogue courtyard the team chats with a few people. They discuss the digging up of graves for gold, whether to tell the militia, and a coin.

Informal chat about grave robbing and a coin.

Short closing remark from Kerler about a coin.