MDV 328 · Eugenia Vasilievna Miaskovskaia; Slava (Sluve) Mykolaivna Angelova

Kerler greets Miaskovskaia and begins the interview. She gives her date and place of birth in Balta, her Russian and Yiddish names and her father's name.

The greeting outside the house is not visible in the transcript; the personal details are mainly names and birthdate.

Miaskovskaia talks about the brick house she lives in, left by her parents and rebuilt by the family after the war. She gives her mother's name and the birth years of her parents. She says she worked in a Russian school teaching the younger classes, and explains how her name was made fun of.

Details of the house, including rebuilding and the building rules, and the parents' birth years.

Miaskovskaia recalls the start of the war. Her father was drafted. She, her mother and her older sister left Balta with an uncle on a horse cart toward the Donbas. The horses were killed in the bombing, and they went on foot to Orenburg. She mentions carrying water as a child.

The sister (her 'older sister') is mentioned but her residence in Germany comes later; hardship carrying water is also described.

Miaskovskaia remembers her grandfather praying and her grandmother, and sings a Yiddish song about an old couple at a sick child's bed. She talks about her children and grandchildren in Rybnitsa and Germany, their languages and her visits to Germany. She gives the names of her grandparents and her father's work as a forwarding agent at a warehouse. Her family kept pigs, a cow and ducks before the war and for selling.

Details of the family in Germany and Moldova, their languages, and a question about eating pork.

Asked about Jewish weddings in Balta, Miaskovskaia says she remembers none. She mentions that she married a second husband after fifty years. Lemster and Kerler ask about cake, dancing and the chuppah, and she only knows a chuppah. The interviewers also explain the project to her.

Wedding customs asked about by the interviewers; the project is explained.

Miaskovskaia talks about Jewish life in Balta today, including Friday-evening prayers and a younger man who speaks Hebrew but no Yiddish. She recalls her mother-in-law's baking, a Russian Passover and Jewish baking, and a postwar shoykhet. She mentions the synagogue and her school, with children of various backgrounds.

Details of a younger Hebrew-speaking man, the shoykhet and the synagogue.

Miaskovskaia says Balta was largely Jewish before the war and mentions the ghetto. She talks briefly about childhood games with Jewish children, then recites a long Russian poem about the war dead and an eternal flame.

Recitation of a Russian poem; the ghetto is mentioned briefly.

Miaskovskaia talks about her children, who live in Germany and Rybnitsa, her grandchildren and her late husband, a skilled mechanic. She shows photographs of them, and mentions that her husband died after an operation in Germany.

A photograph of her husband and his death after surgery.

Miaskovskaia sings the Yiddish song about the old couple again, as Lemster requests.

The scene moves to Angelova's flat, where the interviewers introduce themselves and Angelova speaks about her life today. She talks about her health, operations and a visit to Israel.

Angelova's health and operations; the street footage of Balta is not visible in the transcript.

The formal interview begins. Angelova says she was born in Topole in a region whose name is unclear in the transcript. She grew up there until the war, in about 1920, and her parents worked in a shop. She also mentions that Jews in Krasne Okny were killed.

Mention of the killing of Jews in a nearby town.

Angelova gives her name and her father's name, Kolman. She says her father came from the Rashkov area (Bessarabia) and her mother from Topole. The family had a house, land, cows and pigs, and her mother also kept a small shop and later joined a kolkhoz.

Father's origin and a brother hiding in an attic.

Angelova says that about fifteen Jewish families lived in Topole and describes collectivization. The family's cows and horses were taken, her father resisted and the family worked on the kolkhoz. She grew up with four siblings. They moved to Kotovsk, where her parents worked in shops.

Mention of a brother's departure.

Angelova recounts the start of the war. Her older brother left, while her parents and grandmother stayed. The Germans registered families and assembled Jews at a stadium.

Angelova gives the names of her grandfathers and grandmothers, and says one grandfather was a kulak who kept pigs. Lemster and Kerler also ask about the date of collectivization and about her grandfather's origin in the Rashkov area.

Names of the grandparents and the kulak story.