The third part of the tape is a formal interview with Riva Fridrikhovna Gimelbrandt, born 1932 in Chernivtsi. Gimelbrandt, nee Margulis, provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was born in Sadgora and worked as a tailor. Her mother, born in Vyzhnytsya, was a tailor as well. Gimelbrandt mentions that her grandfather Yisrol sewed suits for the rebbe of Vyzhnytsya.
From the machine transcript
Gimelbrandt, born in 1932 in Chernivtsi, gives personal information and talks about her parents. Her father, Margulis (Simkhe, called Fridl), was a tailor born in Sadgora and raised among Hasidim, and her mother, Leah, was also a tailor, born in Vyzhnytsya. Her grandfather Yisrol sewed uniforms for the rebbe of Vyzhnytsya, and she names her grandmother. The start of the passage still carries the end of Kleiman's part.
The names of her grandmother and the family surname, partly garbled.
Gimelbrandt discusses her childhood memories. She mentions holiday celebrations, in particular Purim and Passover. Gimelbrandt finished one year at a Yiddish school. She grew up with a sister and a brother, who attended religious school (cheder) and lives in Israel. Gimelbrandt remembers how her non-Jewish friends, who spoke Yiddish, celebrated Purim with her before the war. She then describes food customs for Sabbath, Shavuot, and Passover.
From the machine transcript
Gimelbrandt recalls her prewar childhood: Purim with dancing, collecting money and wooden noisemakers, Hanukkah, and Passover seders at which her father had her brother ask the four questions. She finished one year at a Yiddish school; her brother attended cheder. Non-Jewish friends who spoke Yiddish joined the holidays. She describes Sabbath, Shavuot, Hanukkah and Passover food (challah, kugel, tatsh, cheese pastries, latkes). She names the street where her family lived, with a synagogue next door where her father led prayers.
Gimelbrandt talks about her father Simkhe Fridl, who lost his parents at the age of four. Gimelbrandt explains that her father was raised within the Hasidic community in Sadgora. Her father’s sister was adopted by relatives, who lived in America. Simkhe Fridl lived in a tailor’s home and worked for him, which financed his religious school (cheder) education. He was drafted into the Red Army in 1941. Gimelbrandt then talks about her mother, who grew up within the Hasidic community in Vyzhnytsya. She also explains her grandfather’s work as a tailor for the rebbe of Vyzhnytsya. Gimelbrandt recalls how her mother would tell stories about the good deeds of the Vyzhnytsya rebbe.
From the machine transcript
Gimelbrandt tells how her father lost his parents at four, his sister was taken to America, and he grew up with a tailor, working there so that he could attend cheder. He was taken to the front in 1941 and returned badly injured. She recalls her mother's upbringing in Vyzhnytsya among Hasidim, where Yiddish was the only language she spoke, and her grandfather who sewed uniforms for the Vyzhnytsya rebbe. Her mother used to tell of the rebbe's good deeds. Local non-Jews sought his advice and spoke Yiddish.
Her father's postwar illness and death date, and her mother's immersion in a Yiddish-speaking world.
Gimelbrandt talks about her family’s life in 1944, when they returned to Chernivtsi. She explains how her mother hid in a basement, because of the fear to be taken to the gulag in the Donbas region. Gimelbrandt talks about her life during the war. She describes how the Romanians forced her family into the small synagogue in the late fall of 1941, where they had to stay for six weeks in terrible hygienic conditions. Gimelbrandt remembers how her non-Jewish friends helped her out with food. After six weeks, Gimelbrandt continues, her family was taken to the railway station and forced into freight cars, headed to the Transnistria region. According to her, they traveled for roughly twelve hours in an overcrowded car and stopped at the River Dniester. The Romanians forced them over the bridge toward Mohyliv-Podilskyy and checked everybody for valuables, before sending people into a school for disinfection. Gimelbrandt remembers her mother taking off clothes from corpses for her children. From the school in Mohyliv-Podilskyy, her family had to walk twenty-five kilometers in snow to Slidy. She remembers how she bid farewell to her mother, who carried her two year-old sister, ten kilometers before Slidy. Gimelbrandt could not continue walking and stayed behind in the snowy fields. She was rescued by a non-Jew, who took her to his house in Slidy on a horse. As soon as the non-Jewish man found out that it was a felony to hide Jews, he smuggled Gimelbrandt into the Slidy ghetto, formerly a pig farm near Slidy. There she was reunited with her family. Gimelbrandt describes the horrific life in the ghetto with beatings and barely any food.
From the machine transcript
Gimelbrandt recalls that her mother returned to Chernivtsi in 1944 and hid in a cellar for fear of roundups. She describes the war: in autumn 1941 the Jews were forced into the small synagogue for six weeks, then packed into freight cars to the Dniester and over a bridge to Mohyliv, where the Romanians searched them. After a school for disinfection they marched in the snow to Slidy. Exhausted, she was left in the fields and rescued by a non-Jew, who took her to Slidy and then to the ghetto camp on a former pig farm, where she rejoined her family.
Details of the postwar return and the camp commanders.
Gimelbrandt talks about her life in the Slidy ghetto in Transnistria during World War II. She describes how the two Romanians, Valentin and Stefan, in charge of the camp where killed by partisans. Gimelbrandt sings a song people composed upon the beginnings of the liberation of the ghetto. Gimelbrandt’s family was liberated by the Red Army in 1944. After the liberation, Gimelbrandt’s recalls anon-Jewish men killing Jewish children, who begged for food. According to her, he killed half of the children who were imprisoned in the ghetto.
From the machine transcript
Gimelbrandt recalls the end of the Slidy ghetto. Partisans killed two camp overseers, whose names are given as Valentin and Stefan. Children then danced in joy and a song was composed, which she gives in part. After the Red Army came in 1944, survivors were freed and many Chernivtsi people went to Mohyliv. She tells of a non-Jewish man who killed Jewish children who ran out begging for food, and of a monument placed at the camp. Kerler asks whether he was tried.
adds Kerler's question about postwar trial and the monument, and the departure for Mohyliv
Gimelbrandt talks about her family’s life after the liberation. Her mother lived with her children in a barn for ten days. The head of the community brought her mother a certificate to denote Chernivtsi as the family’s place of residence and served as identification; which enabled them to return. Gimelbrandt talks about her life after the war. At the age of thirteen, she was sent to work in a factory. Since Gimelbrandt was visually impaired, she was sent to a color factory in Sadgora and worked there for 42 years.
From the machine transcript
Gimelbrandt tells how her mother, with small children, waited in a barn after liberation. The village head brought a certificate that let the family go back to Chernivtsi. She recalls a cellar room there and a sister's later request from Israel for a copy of the paper. Half-blind after an eye injury, she could not study and began work at thirteen. She spent 42 years at a dye factory, where she later received a flat and married.
adds the sister in Israel asking for a copy of the certificate
Gimelbrandt talks about her family. She raised three children, a daughter and two sons. Her daughter died of a heart problem at 14. Her husband, a tailor, passed away at 56, three years after her daughter’s death. Gimelbrandt then mentions that her sons were circumcised in secret and that she evaded persecution when her non-Jewish doctor asked her about it.
From the machine transcript
Gimelbrandt speaks of her husband, a tailor, who died at 56. She first says she had three children, then corrects herself to two sons. Her daughter, who was ill, died at fourteen, and her husband died a few years later. She raised the sons alone and walked to the Sadgora paint factory at night. She tells of having them circumcised, and of a non-Jewish doctor who asked about it.
adds that the Sadgora factory is reached by bus from Chernivtsi and has few Jews
Gimelbrandt talks about life after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Her sister moved to Israel and suggested to Gimelbrandt and her two sons to make aliyah. Her sons, who were raised in Yiddish, made aliyah, but Gimelbrandt only went to visit twice. She talks about the good relations to her non-Jewish neighbors.
From the machine transcript
Gimelbrandt talks about life after her sons left. Her sister in Israel urged her to come, but she stayed and has visited twice. Her younger son, an officer, lives with his family; the elder has a daughter in the army. She feels lonely at home, says the children telephone, and tells of a Latvian neighbour who advises her to stay. Her sons speak Yiddish on the phone; she mentions Dr Barsiak at the Hesed. Kerler promises another interview.
adds the sons' use of Yiddish on the telephone and the Hesed doctor Barsiak
Gimelbrandt discusses food customs and continues to cook her mother’s recipes. She then talks about health remedies, such as preventing the evil eye.
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the taste of her mother's gefilte fish. Gimelbrandt says she makes it the same way, with a little sugar, and bakes a Sabbath loaf for the Hesed group. She names the dumpling she calls kezelekh against the Bessarabian name (?), and discusses brandy at kidesh and yortsayt. She then recalls her grandmother's remedy for the evil eye and agrees to give the wording.
adds dialect food terms and the Hesed celebrations
Gimelbrandt answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire.
From the machine transcript
Gimelbrandt answers Kerler's questionnaire. He gives words and sentences in Russian and she translates them into Yiddish. Items include terms for a dybbuk and a convert, greetings and politeness, body parts, colours, adjectives, adverbs and numbers. They also cover cholent and kugel types, pronoun and case forms, the midwife, and several short sentences. She compares Chernivtsi usage with the Bessarabians'.
Gimelbrandt describes the custom of preventing the evil eye.
From the machine transcript
Gimelbrandt recites in Yiddish the charm for removing an evil eye. She also describes the practice that goes with it, in which the speaker wipes the face with a cloth or damp rag. She adds a remedy for warts using the yellow juice of celandine, which grows in the old Jewish cemetery. Kerler listens and thanks her.
