This tape consists of a formal interview with Sofia (Sonye) Moiseevna Palatnikova (b. 1927 in Teplyk) (part 1 of 3. See MDV 688 and MDV 689). She discusses prewar Jewish life in the Crimea, where her family moved in 1930, and in Teplyk, where she was born and to where her family returned in 1940. Before 1930, her father worked as a successful butcher. In 1930, the family was sent to live on the Lunacharka kolkhoz in the Crimea and Palatnikova describes what life was like there in her youth. She attended a Russian-language school in a nearby Tatar village and then a Ukrainian-language school once her family moved back to Teplyk. She also recites a fragment from the popular Soviet Yiddish song “Dzhankoye”.
Opening of the interview. After setting up and introducing the expedition, Kerler establishes the date and place (Teplyk, 17 July 2002). Palatnikova gives her name, address, phone and the origin of her name (after an aunt), and says she was born in 1927 in Teplyk. She recalls that her family lived in the Crimea from 1930, because her butcher father was sent out when he could not pay a tax. They worked on a state farm near Dzhankoy and returned to Teplyk in 1940, just before the war. She attended a Russian school in a nearby Tatar village and then a Ukrainian school in Teplyk.
Adds the long setup and introductions at the start, her address and phone, the origin of her name, and a mention of Sevastopol.
Palatnikova describes her family life, detailing how she spoke Yiddish at home with her parents and sister. Her grandparents and uncles moved to America in the early 1920s during the Petliura pogroms and used to send packages to her family, but she lost contact with those relatives long ago. Palatnikova further details kolkhoz life, discussing the work done in the fields and in the home. She emphasizes the widespread poverty, mentioning that children had to share a common pair of shoes.
Palatnikova describes her family. Her parents were Moyshe and Rachel, her sister is Tanya (Teybl) in Teplyk, and Yiddish was spoken at home. Her grandfather and uncles went to America in the early 1920s, around the Petliura pogroms, and sent parcels until 1975, after which contact was lost. She describes her mother as a housewife and recalls her father's apprenticeship as a butcher. She stresses the poverty of the prewar period: cold houses and children sharing one pair of shoes. A question about felt boots leads to a remark that her Yiddish is mixed with Russian. She ends by saying life improved under Soviet power, before the war and after it, and mentions the murder of Jews in Ukraine.
Adds her parents' names and ages, the sister, the American relatives and a question about the word for felt boots.
Palatnikova shares her experiences during the war years, detailing how she and her family were in different camps and ghettos, including Raygorod and Bratslav. Among other episodes, she talks about the establishment of a ghetto, forced labor in wintertime, the wearing of the yellow star by Jews, and the memorial that was later built on the site of a Jewish mass grave. She also relates a story of how her family, as well as many other Jews, was helped by two German soldiers.
Palatnikova tells of the war years under the Germans. An attempt at evacuation failed. Back home Jews were made to do forced labor, including clearing snow in winter, and the young were taken to camps. Jews were then confined to two streets and made to wear a mark on the arm. The ghetto was surrounded and its people shot; she mentions a mass grave and a memorial later restored with money from Teplyk emigrants. About forty specialists were kept alive to work. Her father was among them, helped by two Germans in the local administration, whose names are only partly clear in the transcript.
Adds forced snow-clearing in winter, the yellow armband marking, and the rebuilt memorial at the killing site.
According to Palatnikova, approximately 2000 Jews were killed in the area, including foreign Jews from Romania. She describes her experiences in the camps, the hard work and frequent encounters with death that constituted life there. She notes that she recieved help from non-Jews, and once escaped to Gaysin, but then was sent to the Bershad’ camp where disease and famine were widespread. Palatnikova also recalls how the rich Romanian Jews in the Bershad’ camp used their wealth to obtain food and assistance, building a “children’s home” inside the camp. She also details the specific strategies she and her family used to survive. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Teplyk, Dzhankoy, Simferopol’, Trenton (New Jersey), Odesa, Raygorod, Bratslav, Haysyn, Bershad’
Palatnikova estimates that about two thousand people were killed locally, among them Jews brought from Romania and Czernowitz. She describes the camp: hard labor in a quarry, regular inspections, and the killing of those who could not work. She escaped, helped by non-Jews, and reached Haysyn, where her father worked as a specialist. She was then sent to the Bershad' ghetto, which held many thousands of Romanian and Polish Jews, with hunger and disease. There wealthy Romanian Jews set up a children's home. Her father sent food parcels, partly through the German's help. Her family of four survived and was liberated in March 1944.
Adds the Haysyn episode, the parcels from her father, and liberation in March 1944.
