Audio recording, 27 May 2015, Zhitomir, of Benjomin Geller (index name), an elderly Yiddish speaker who mentions Piatka and Berdichev. This is the middle of three consecutive files and begins mid-story. He recalls his parents' and grandparents' families, siblings and wartime hardship. Kerler returns him to a story about a grandfather's visit to the Velednik rebbe, which leads to Chabad and the rebbe's dynasty. The last part covers telephones and television, the granddaughter's travels, and sayings about a teacher and a middle man.
00:00–04:29
Geller narrates a family story. His father had to hide after the wedding when a band of armed men came, and non-Jews hid him for money. Around Rosh Hashanah a grandfather was shot, and the family then moved to Berdichev. The mother had five children and afterwards slept deeply (?). He lists his siblings, including the eldest brother Yisroel Mordkhe, himself, a sister Etl living in Israel, and a brother Shloymele who died young. He describes a Russian stove (?) in a village and the mother baking bread for road workers.
04:29–08:55
Kerler asks about the bread eaten, and Geller describes sour bread eaten with tears. He explains how the flour quota was manipulated by officials. He recalls a young child who died after eating bread, and the blessing over bread. He then lists his surviving siblings, among them a brother who died at 43 after the Japanese war (?) and a sister Etl in Ashdod with her children. A younger brother died in America, and Benimel is alive.
08:26–14:27
Kerler asks him to clarify the story of the Velednik rebbe and his grandfather's visit. Geller speaks of his grandmother's sister, who had twenty-three children, and of the pair of children named after her. He recalls his grandfather's brother Asher, who raised him as a grandfather, and the grandfather's trade as a carpenter in Piatka. They also touch on a nearby small town, Krasne (?). Kerler returns him to the earlier subject.
14:27–19:43
Kerler reminds Geller of the Velednik rebbe. Geller says his grandfather, childless for ten years, went to the rebbe, who told him to put his foot in water. They talk about heat and drinking water, and about Berdichev, where Jews still live. They also discuss when someone died and Kerler's own visit to Velednik, in a confused exchange. Kerler adds that a man living in Avrutsh (?) knows of the rebbe.
19:34–23:34
Geller mentions the Turovskii family and Rachel Turovska, who gave Kerler a book about the Velednik rebbe. They discuss Chabad (Lubavitch) and how it split from the Lithuanian Hasidim, and who followed whom as rebbe. Geller tells of a clock exchanged with a man named Velvele, whose mechanical clock did not work.
23:52–26:47
Geller speaks about the rabbi Platken who made the shul in Berdichev, about friends in Brooklyn, and about visits from Zhitomir. He tells of a telephone call with a friend's wife in which she asked about his pension and his life. He explains his reply that he lives and does not complain.
26:47–30:45
Geller says he cannot use Skype or a computer, and that his fingers do not manage a telephone. He talks about phones as livelihood and about the president making people poorer. His granddaughter has three phones and works as a guide in Kyiv and Georgia, and she will travel to America.
30:45–35:47
Geller compares bread during the war with television and with milk from a cow. He explains Jewish taste using gefilte fish brought from Israel. He quotes sayings about something being better than nothing, and about a teacher as one who says things. He tells of the rebbe's Tanya for the middling person, explaining the term. The recording breaks off as the family and Kerler move on, with a Russian remark near the end.