The first part of the tape includes town footage of Korsun and a tour with an unnamed woman. The team walks around a former sanatorium and palace.
From the machine transcript
Footage and a walk around the former rest-home/sanatorium grounds and palace in Korsun, with an unnamed woman guide speaking mostly Russian. She calls the park a nature reserve and compares it with the planted park at Uman; Kerler asks about it. There is some talk of Jews and a railway, but this part is poorly recognized.
Kerler questions the guide about the park, and she mentions Jews and a railway.
The camera collects town footage on the way to the next interview with Tsili (Tseytl) Davidovna Kislinskaia. The unnamed woman provides information about the former Jewish neighborhood.
From the machine transcript
Town footage while driving to the next interview. The unnamed woman points out the former Jewish quarter and a former Yiddish school, where seven grades were taught in Yiddish and which was closed in the 1930s. Kerler questions her about it. She also mentions that she herself attended a Russian school that is now a gymnasium. The group then looks for Kislinskaia's street.
The guide describes the Yiddish school and the closure date; there are remarks on Russian schools today.
The second part of the tape is a formal interview with Kislinskaia, born 1924 in Korsun. The team arrives at Kislinskaia’s house and greets her outside, before they set up an interview with her.
From the machine transcript
The team looks for Kislinskaia's house, asking neighbors in Ukrainian and Russian. On arrival they greet her outside in Yiddish, with the interviewers introducing themselves. They then discuss where to sit and set up the interview.
The passage covers the search for the house and the greetings before the interview.
The formal part of the interview begins. Kislinskaia provides personal information and talks about her family. Part of her mother’s family lives in America and supported Kislinskaia’s family before the war. In particular, Kislinskaia talks about sewing machine sent by her uncle from America. Her father passed away when Kislinskaia was nine years old. Kislinskaia raised a daughter in whose house the interview is recorded and where Kislinskia moved back in after the war.
From the machine transcript
Kerler opens the formal interview with the date and place, and Kislinskaia gives her official name, address and phone number. She explains her Yiddish name Tseytl, which she was given after her mother's sister who had died in America. Her mother's brothers in America helped the family until the war, and one sent a sewing machine. Her father died when she was nine, and she has a younger brother, now in Israel. The family's life was very hard on her mother's small wage. She mentions that the house is her daughter's.
She gives her address, phone number and the origin of her name.
Kislinskaia discusses childhood memories and Sabbath celebrations. She remembers a neighbor, who provided soup for her family on Sabbath. Kislinskaia attended a Yiddish school for seven years. After graduation, she helped out her mother, who worked in a button factory.
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia recalls how poor the family was in her childhood. A neighbor cooked a soup of chicken feet and head for them every Friday for the Sabbath. She attended the Yiddish school for seven years. Her brother attended only five grades there, before Jewish children moved to the Russian school and the Yiddish school closed. After finishing she worked to help her mother. Kerler then asks for her birth date.
She also explains why the Yiddish school closed and mentions her brother's schooling.
Kislinskaia talks about life today and neighbors. She then talks about her family and life after the war. She grew up with two brothers, one of whom lives in Israel. After the war, Kislinskaia returned home and lived in her prewar home. She then moved into a house next-door that her son-in-law built. Her father was a cobbler.
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia gives her birth date, 15 March 1924, and talks about life today: a grandson with a disability, medical costs, prices, pension, and help from the Cherkasy Hesed. She also tells of her mother's brothers in America and the house she lived in before the war. The old house was left unfinished, and she signed her prewar house over to her daughter. Her father David was a shoemaker and her mother Etl a housewife who later worked.
The passage also covers her grandson's illness, current costs, Hesed assistance and her father's trade.
Kislinskaia discusses her childhood memories and prewar Jewish life. She recalls the poverty in her family. She then talks about her life during the war, when her family evacuated. Kislinskaia describes how they evacuated and lived in evacuation:I was 17 years old when the war broke out. And my brother was 15 years old. When the war broke out we were walking to the train station. What could have possibly taken with us?! Nothing. To put on some clothes. We couldn't even take a pillow because it would have been too heavy to carry. It was five kilometers away. [...] We needed to walk five kilometers there. When we arrived there and the rail car was standing there, in which we should... We were sitting down and they would take us. Where to and when and with whom we didn't know. The money for the amount of work we did wouldn't be paid off. Everybody would take their own and we tried to get out. We were passing through quite a few stations and then they would take us off the train and they would take us to a canteen and gave us something to eat. This is how we traveled for I don't remember how long. It was not a passenger train, but a freight train. [...] Then they would take us off the train and would set up for us to work in a kolkhoz. They gave us a cart with two bulls and they would take us to the kolkhoz. [The kolkhoz was] in the Rostov region. This is where we worked and there was a German kolkhoz. We would understand them a little what they talked about and they would understand us a little. Yet (mayn?) we spoke in Russian and not Yiddish. Then the Germans came when we had stayed there until winter. And then we had to continue to travel. They gave us the two bulls with the cart. [...] And it was still at this kolkhoz where there was someone with five children. Her husband was drafted for the war. She was sitting with the children and we had to walk by foot after the bulls. Here we were traveling and the German came toward us. So, we had to turn around, to continue on a different side. The bulls had no more strength to lead us. But we managed to escape. We arrived in ? where were sitting and sitting. Then they would give us a ship and we would travel. And we arrived in Shkalov. There the Germans wouldn't get there. There I worked, the brother worked and my mother worked. My mother was a janitor in the factory and my brother was taught to be a locksmith. And I would not struggle (?) in the factory. I left for Shkalov where they told me. I went to work in a ? factory. When I worked at a ?, I received products. I would receive flower with a piece of bread, a piece of soap - whatever one didn't need I received. And I lived where my mother was with my brother. We were there until the war was over.
From the machine transcript
Asked about childhood in Korsun, Kislinskaia recalls how poor the family was and that many Jews lived in town. She was seventeen when the war broke out, and describes how the family walked to the station and was evacuated by freight train. They worked on a kolkhoz in the Rostov region and fled by ox cart as the Germans approached. They traveled via Astrakhan to Chkalov (?), where she, her brother and her mother worked in a factory until the end of the war.
She also explains her use of Russian rather than Yiddish with the Germans on the kolkhoz.
Kislinskaia talks about her life after the war and her return to Korsun. In particular, she addresses the problems of not having evidence for her work record. She then talks about her work: Here I worked in a factory, where they produced candy, treacle cakes. They would produce wine and seltzer. This is where I worked as a laborer. I worked very hard; but I had no choice. There were barely any Jews in this factory. In addition to me, there were two Jewish women. And the rest were all Russian women. They would respect me. During Passover, when my mother was still alive, there was a hole where they would bake matzo. During Passover when we would bake the matzo, I would go to work and brought matzo for them to try. They did not know what matzo was [...] This was already after the war. She then talks about life today.
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia describes the problem of having no papers proving her wartime work, and her postwar work in a Korsun factory making candy, treacle cakes, wine and seltzer. Only two other Jewish women worked there, and she brought matzo to her Russian co-workers at Passover. She then talks about life today: prices, utilities, fuel, and the former Jewish houses of the town. Kerler asks about the Yiddish for a building, and she says many Jews were killed there. Kerler asks her brother's name.
She discusses the Jewish houses of Korsun and the killings of Jews there.
Kislinskaia discusses her childhood memories. She specifically addresses the transition of artisans’ occupation, working from home to factories in the 1930s. She then talks about her family and prewar Jewish life. Her parents were born in Korsun. Her maternal grandmother worked as a shammeste (synagogue caretaker). She recalls how she went to the synagogue with her mother.
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia remembers her father working at home as a shoemaker before the factories came. His family was from Korsun, and his father was a ritual body-washer (?). Her maternal grandmother Reyzl was shammes at a synagogue and took her to services. There were four synagogues, with the shoemakers and tailors attending one. She describes the grandmother's second marriage and her mother's brothers in America.
The passage covers her father's craft, the four synagogues, and the grandmother's marriages.
Kislinskaia discusses religious life after the war. She remembers a woman who held private services, which Kislinskaia’s mother attended. She also talks about her family in Israel.
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia speaks of religious life after the war: she fasted on Yom Kippur and fetched her mother from private services. Her brother served in Kyiv, married there and left for Israel, where his wife died. She describes his children and her own non-Jewish son-in-law. She tells Kerler she was never taught to pray under the Soviet regime.
She also tells about her brother's emigration to Israel and her son-in-law.
Kislinskaia talks about her education at a Yiddish school before the war. She also addresses life after the war. She explains how she had pen pals in America, writing letters in Yiddish. She then talks about life today and the use of the Yiddish language.
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia says she was not taught prayers and that in the 1920s–30s the Yiddish school taught Yiddish and Soviet subjects, with no Jewish history. As a child she wrote letters in Yiddish to her mother's brothers in America and they answered. She recalls reciting poetry with a friend. She talks about Yiddish today: her daughter understands but does not speak it, and she can only speak it with the few Jews she meets.
She also discusses her Yiddish letters to America and the use of Yiddish today.
Kislinskaia talks about contemporary relations between Jews and non-Jews and her experiences at work. She also talks about life today. Kislinskaia keeps chickens and a goat.
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia talks about relations with non-Jewish neighbors and former colleagues, who still greet her warmly. Her non-Jewish son-in-law does not eat pork. She keeps goats and chickens, and she describes her daughter's work, her grandson, and the pension and rising prices today. Kerler then asks about relations with non-Jews before the war.
She also speaks about her animals and pension.
Kislinskaia talk about the relationship between Jews and non-Jews before and after the war.
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia answers Kerler's question about prewar relations with non-Jews, but remembers little and passes on what her mother said: Jews alone lived by the river. She describes the neighborhood today, now Russian and Ukrainian, and says only a few Jews are left.
