Bershad', Ukraine6 May 1903 (the catalogue's date for this tape is a placeholder)Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Jeffrey VeidlingerPart 2 of 339 min · 10 passages
Bershadskaya talks about her family. Her mother was a seamstress and her father was a barber. She also touches upon her father's work. Bershadskaya grew up with two brothers and one sister.
Kerler asks about Bershadskaya's parents and siblings. Her mother was a seamstress and her father a barber who shaved and cut hair for peasant clients in the village, later working at a different job. She names her siblings and says there were four children; she moved to Bershad' at about thirteen.
Bershadskaya addresses her childhood memories of Chernyatka, including occupational structure. She then addresses prewar religious life in the village.
Bershadskaya recalls Chernyotka, where few Jews lived and several worked as tinsmiths, tailors and shoemakers serving the villagers. There was no synagogue, so people prayed in a private house, and kosher food and burials involved Bershad'. Kerler asks about the number of Jewish families (about fifteen) and about her friends, Jewish and non-Jewish.
mentions burials and kosher food in Bershad', and non-Jewish friends
Bershadskaya speaks about her family's life before the war. She explains that her mother moved to Bershad, so her daughter could be married off to a Jew.
Bershadskaya says that her mother moved to Bershad' before the war, in the late 1930s (?), because the village had few Jews. Kerler then explains the project's linguistic and historical aims, and a second voice comments on the difference between what is written and what is heard.
most of the passage is Kerler explaining the project
Bershadskaya speaks about prewar holiday celebration, including Sabbath and Passover. She mentions that her family bought matzos in Bershad and describes her family's Passover Seder.
Bershadskaya answers questions on Sabbath practice, such as sealing the oven for the cholent, and on Passover in Chernyotka and Bershad': matzo baking, pancakes made from matzo, and a small seder with guests. She remembers little of the seder songs, and recalls going to the Bershad' synagogue with her parents. A second voice asks about Hanukkah at the end.
details of the cholent oven and seder, and the synagogue in Bershad'
Bershadskaya talks about Hanukkah celebrations before the war. She then discusses religious customs at home. Bershadskaya states that her family celebrated holidays in a rented room in her home town and attended synagogue services in Bershad.
Bershadskaya talks about Hanukkah in Chernyotka, held in a rented house, including the dreidel and latkes made of potatoes. She says her father taught the children what they needed in Yiddish, and mentions that her mother died before the war. Kerler then leads into the war years.
Bershadskaya speaks about her life during World War II. They were imprisoned in the Bershad ghetto. Her childhood home burned down. Bershadskaya then describes daily life and violence in the ghetto. She describes how prisoners sold food in the market. Bershadskaya's father worked for a Christian and her brother sold the wood, his father chopped, in the market. Bershadskaya also describes the changing occupational forces, ranging from German to Romanian. She recalls a pogrom when the Germans returned to the ghetto, shortly before its liberation.
Bershadskaya says she was not evacuated and lived with her father and younger brother until they were driven into the Bershad' ghetto, where their house burned. She describes hunger, roundups, the Jewish market and selling food, and her father's wood-sawing work. She tells of the Germans' rule, then the Romanians, and a pogrom shortly before the Germans left.
Bershadskaya talks about her liberation and remembers bombing of Bershad. She then talks about her life after the war. Her family returned to her house, which was occupied by Christian neighbors during the war. Bershadskaya studied at a teaching college. She describes how her family fixed up the house and sold soap in the market.
Bershadskaya recalls the liberation of Bershad', when Soviet tanks entered in March, and bombing. After the war the family returned to their house, which non-Jewish neighbors had occupied and then left. She studied at a teaching institute, the family repaired the house, and she and her brother traded soap across a river by raft to get food.
Bershadskaya answers questions about food: how mamaliga is cooked, with milk or cheese, and how her mother made stuffed fish from local fish, and Sabbath meat dishes. Kerler asks about the term for Sabbath bread (challah) and other words.
Bershadskaya answers questions about Jewish weddings in the village: dancing, a Jewish band playing freylekhs, and an outdoor shelter in summer. She cannot recall the chuppah or the entertainer's title. Kerler suggests words for the wedding jester (marshalek, badkhn).
Bershadskaya answers the dialectological questionnaire: Kerler gives Russian or Ukrainian words and sentences for her to render into Yiddish. They cover household and bodily words, weather and comparatives, pronouns, numbers, greetings, words for non-Jews, and short sentences to translate. She often says she has forgotten the word.
