MDV 357 · Mikhail (Moyshe) Aronovich Vainshelboim

Opening exchange: Kerler asks whether Vainshelboim was at Stalingrad. He answers that it was his brother-in-law who was there, a tank man, and that he himself was under the Germans. His name, patronymic and surname are then spelled out in Russian and Yiddish for the record, and he gives his present street address in Berdychiv.

The transcript shows the Stalingrad service was his brother-in-law's, not his own; most of the passage is the spelling of his name and address.

Vainshelboim gives his Yiddish name, Moyshe, and his father's name, Aron. He speaks about his religious father, who worked hard to support six children, and about his grandfather, who died before he was born. Kerler asks his birth year, but he is reluctant to count years. He says he escaped from the Germans.

The passage also covers his reluctance to give his age and a reflection on writing about what he lived through.

Vainshelboim says his father was a house painter and gives his mother's name, Faige. He names his two sisters, Polia and Tsivia, and two brothers, one young brother and one older brother who fell at the front. He says his mother and siblings were shot at an airfield, and begins to tell how the Germans entered Berdychiv in July 1941.

Besides the father's trade, the passage gives names and fates of the mother and siblings and starts the occupation account.

Vainshelboim recounts the first days of the German occupation. His mother was taken for forced labor and left him to watch her bread in the oven; Ukrainian policemen came in and he fled. He hid with a Ukrainian man, and later learned his mother and siblings had been killed. He tells of a roundup at the airfield and how he escaped it. He reached Novosilka, where a family took him in, and an encounter with a brigadier, Andrei Shcherbatiuk, led him to an old woman named Korshenyuk in a village whose name is unclear. He stayed with her for about a year. He says four members of that family were recognised by Yad Vashem.

The transcript adds his aunt Manie and her children's fate and the further escape from the roundup, as well as the Yad Vashem medal for the rescuers.

Vainshelboim speaks about the claims made to Yad Vashem and for German pension compensation, and about the year he spent with his rescuers. He recalls working for a peasant as a farmhand and his four years of Jewish school, which let him pass as Ukrainian. He tells how he was caught by Ukrainian policemen, escaped by swimming a river in 1942, and was helped by villagers. He then worked for a peasant named Petrivskii, and tells of the three times he escaped death.

The passage covers pension and Yad Vashem paperwork and his schooling, and the escape by swimming, beyond the catalogue's outline.

Vainshelboim speaks about Ukrainian and German attitudes toward the Jews, and about neighbors taking Jewish property. He explains that in 1942 he feared his employer would betray him. On neighbors' advice he went to the Rozhysk district, where he worked on a state farm among prisoners for about a year until the Red Army arrived. He recounts the arrival of the Soviet forces at the end of 1943.

The transcript adds the fear of betrayal by his employer and the state-farm year among prisoners.

Vainshelboim describes returning to Berdychiv in 1944, working with horses and then as a loader at a mill. He says he remembers the day of liberation, 31 December 1943. He saw German prisoners being shot and soldiers dragging off their boots.

Vainshelboim states that he served in the air force in Latvia (Daugavpils) for four and a half years. He then worked 25 years at the fifth mill in Berdychiv and five years at a brewery. He says he now bakes rye bread every Friday for the synagogue. He recalls the Jewish baker Yoyne (Yulik) in the postwar period.

The transcript names the baker as Yulik, a postwar Jewish baker who lived to be about ninety, and says nothing about baking in memory of his mother.

Kerler asks about family, and Vainshelboim says his mother came from Ulanov (?), and gives her name, Faige. Her older sister Perl, who had gone to America, visited him in 1961. He describes how she kissed him and mourned his murdered mother, and speaks of a family photograph and his own photograph as a soldier.

The transcript adds the visit of his aunt from America and the photographs he offers to show.

Vainshelboim says he finished the army as a senior sergeant and worked as an aircraft mechanic. After the war he lived for six years with his future wife's family, the Sonias (?). He fell in love with her and married her after his service; he gives her name as Sore. The catalogue says the marriage came after his discharge in 1954, but the dating in the transcript is not clear.

Asked about prewar Berdychiv, Vainshelboim recalls the small prayer houses of the individual trades. He says Berdychiv had a large Jewish population before the war, giving 80,000 inhabitants in all. He also speaks about a communal kitchen synagogue sold to a factory. He mentions the new hostel built by Pavitch, then kosher meat after the war, and says Jewish life continues today with a prayer house and charity.

The passage adds the postwar kosher meat and the hostel (guesthouse) built for visiting Jews, along with the sold communal kitchen.

Vainshelboim speaks about prewar religious life and Soviet persecution: the Bolsheviks said there was no God and turned the soup-kitchen synagogue into a club. He says few Jews remain, perhaps five hundred, and the community is small. He speaks about the Chabad rabbi Moyshe, who helps bury the dead, and about the other rabbi, Shloyme.

The passage adds the two rabbis of the town today and the Chabad presence.

Kerler asks what is meant by a good Jew, and Vainshelboim explains generosity and humanity in several languages. He speaks about the small minyan today, about donations and whether he goes to synagogue on Sabbath. He recalls his work on a collective farm and a garden, and bartering bread for milk. Some Jews call him a righteous man. The passage ends with a joke about a drink.

The transcript adds the discussion of what makes a good Jew, and his garden and farm work.

Vainshelboim speaks about food: his wife's rye-flour latkes baked for the synagogue on holidays, and the potato latkes Kerler knows from Germany. Kerler thanks him and says they hope to come again; Vainshelboim asks for the interviewers' phone contact and the interview ends.