MDV 710 · Iosif Abramovich Kogan

Kogan introduces Bershad' as a Jewish town. He recalls non-Jewish locals who spoke Yiddish better than he did and names some friends. He then talks about the Yiddish school there, where Yiddish itself was not taught, and about the subjects he studied and the languages he knows.

Kogan gives the school curriculum, and Kerler asks for names of Yiddish-speaking non-Jews.

Kogan recalls being driven from Bershad' to Pishchanka on foot during the war and a night's walk there. He describes the hunger in the Pishchanka ghetto and sleeping on cement floors. Kerler's questions appear briefly, and the transcript is partly unclear.

Refugees from Bukovina are mentioned in passing.

Kogan recounts escaping from Pishchanka and returning to Bershad', where his mother was still alive. He hid in a chimney and then in a non-Jew's attic for about a week. He mentions being drafted at seventeen and spending two months at the front, reaching Berlin. The year is given as 1944, with Kerler adding the month.

Kogan also mentions the Romanian guards and being drafted at seventeen.

Kogan tells an episode of his time in Berlin. He then answers Kerler on why one should say peasants rather than a word for a non-Jew, and on the Russian word for a Jew. He talks about antisemitism, and an anecdote set in Tashkent.

Kogan speaks about his wife, who was born in Zhabokrych. He describes the massacre of the town's Jews and how only a few people survived by hiding in a cellar and an attic. Kerler asks for the town's name and district and about children, and Kogan answers that he has none.

Kogan also says he and his wife have no children.

Kogan describes conditions for refugees from Bukovina and Bessarabia in the Bershad' ghetto. He recalls going to the synagogue under Soviet rule and saying Kaddish for his father. Kerler asks about prayer houses, and Kogan recalls Passover observance in private homes before the war.

Answering Kerler about Bershad' after the war, Kogan recalls Jews gathering and paying money to keep the synagogue going under Soviet rule. He says he came from Zhabokrych to Tul'chyn around 1960. He worked in a procurement office, and he also recalls saying Kaddish for his father.

Kogan describes his work in a procurement office.

Kogan recalls that a man taught him to say Kaddish after his father died in 1933 and that there were three synagogues in prewar Bershad'. He describes who prayed in the study house and how Passover seders were held in private homes. Not every family kept Passover. S2 asks about Passover observance, Kerler asks about the four questions, and Kogan says he no longer remembers them.

Kogan names the three prewar synagogues and discusses Passover observance.

Kerler asks whether Kogan remembers Chad gadya and asks about the songs he wrote. Kogan says he wrote many Yiddish songs, including during the occupation, and talks about the ghetto and the camp as their subject. He also speaks of his parents and his Red Army service, and mentions a Hanukkah song written by someone else.

Kogan names his own songs, with the ghetto and camp, as the subject of what he wrote.

Kogan recites the Yiddish Hanukkah song, which he says was written by a woman named Ester Ostrovsky who later emigrated to Israel. He then begins a song of his own about the front and Jewish hopes.

Kogan continues reciting his Yiddish song expressing the Jews' hope for deliverance, the rest being poorly captured. Kerler then says he has only a few short questions left.

Kerler puts questionnaire items to Kogan, who gives words for "face" and the Hebrew term tsere, and for "probably", "back" and "also". Kogan answers partly with Russian equivalents, and Kerler asks him to sing further songs. Kogan then speaks about his health and a fall that injured his hand.

The segment also includes Kogan's account of his health and an injury.

Kogan sings his Yiddish song "Aheym, briderlekh, aheym", about Jews returning to their homeland and the hope that all Jews will be freed. He then says he will sing another song about the camp.

Kogan explains that he composed his song about the camp to a tune known from Bershad' after the Pechora camp. He sings it, with its refrain and its verses about the town and the Bershad' cemetery.