The first part of the tape is a continuation of a tour of the synagogue with Arnold Grigorevich Khazin, recorded in Vinnytsya. Khazin talks in Russian about prewar Jewish life and institutions.
A guide speaks Russian about the building where the shoykhet worked, the bloodletting arrangements and the slaughter procedure. He says the quarter was Jewish before the war, with a yeshiva, rabbinate, shops, lawyers and doctors. Kerler and the guide discuss how ordinary Jews read Yiddish from cheder without always understanding it, and the speaker thanks the team.
Also covers the shoykhet's premises and how widely Yiddish was read versus understood.
The team travels from Vinnytsya to Vynohradiv to the next interview with Perl Meirovna Nayman, born in 1925 in Turya-Bystra. After the team arrives, they set up the formal interview with Nayman.
The team travels to Vynohradiv and sets up for the next interview; the speech is mostly garbled, with a recogniser loop. Near the end, the speakers introduce themselves as the team doing Yiddish work and name the interview with Perl Nayman.
Nayman, nee Shvarts, provides personal information and talks about Jewish life before the war. According to Nayman, thirty families resided in Turya-Bystra, where she lived until she was deported in 1944. She provides information about her family. Her father was a blacksmith and a Cohen. She grew up with one brother, who helped out in the smithy, one sister and four more brothers. Her mother gave birth to eleven children. Nayman then talks about her education. She explained that she would listen in on classes held for boys in a religious school (cheder). Nayman then addresses childhood memories. She and her mother would help the non-Jews work the fields with their horse. Her own family owned and worked a plot of land of two hectare and animals.
Nayman gives her birth year, 1925, and birthplace Turya-Bystra, a village with only a few Jewish families, where she lived until the deportation in 1944. She names her father, a blacksmith and kohen, and her grandfather, and describes the beit midrash with separate women's and men's sections. She talks about her mother, the family's animals and kosher practice, listening in on cheder lessons without paying, and working the fields and the family's land.
Adds her father the blacksmith and kohen, the family's animals and fields, and the beit midrash.
Nayman briefly mentions how matzo was baked and later bought, then recites long stretches of prayer, much of it garbled in the transcript. She explains how the cheder teacher taught the boys translations of Hebrew words and how she learned unofficially. She says she prays in the morning now, and the passage closes with a remark about synagogues and local Jews.
Adds the recitation of prayers and a description of her present-day prayer habits.
Nayman remembers how she sang Sabbath songs with the cheder boys before talking about her family. She then talks about life after the war. Nayman explains that her family was preparing a circumcision for her brother, who was born in 1914, and when her father was about to begin to read from the prayer book, he was drafted into the army. They received news that he had died at the front during World War I. After her mother received the note of her husband’s death, she moved in with her parents in Turya Polyana. They lived there for six years. During that time, her father returned unexpectedly.
Nayman recalls singing Sabbath songs with the cheder boys and her father not letting her take part in some customs. She then tells a story of the family during World War I: her father was drafted before a circumcision, was reported dead at the front, and her mother moved in with her own parents for six years. He came back unexpectedly one evening, and the mother and grandmother fainted from surprise. She names her siblings, born over the following years, and says the mother had many children, some of whom died.
The catalogue's 'life after the war' is the World War I story of her father's supposed death and return.
Nayman talks about her family, in particular her daughter. She then discusses prewar Purim and Passover celebrations. Nayman explains that she would dress up for Purim and go to relatives’ houses. She then recalls her childhood, when she did not have time to play with friends and helped out her family instead. Her father, who grew up as an orphan, was born in Verkhnya Solotvyna. Nayman then recalls the folk customs of opshprekhn a gut oyg (avert the evil eye) and leshn koyln.
Nayman talks about her daughter and granddaughter and about Purim: dressing up, going to relatives, and a Purim rhyme. She recalls Passover at her father's table. She says she had no time to play, since she helped her mother and herded cows. She names her grandparents and says her father came from near Uzhhorod and her parents were both Shvarts but unrelated. She describes two cases of the evil eye, her mother's death in Auschwitz, and how coals are extinguished to cure it, with Kerler asking about wording.
Adds Passover seder memories, her grandparents, and detailed evil-eye stories and the coal-extinguishing cure.
Nayman discusses prewar Jewish life and recalls her father visiting rebbes in surrounding towns. She then talks about a Zionist organization from Uzhhorod, which came to her home town. Her father would not allow her and her brother to attend the meeting. She remembers how her father punished her for putting on makeup. Nayman then talks about Sabbath celebrations at home and recites Sabbath prayers (God of Abraham), before she discusses Hanukkah celebrations. Nayman recalls a few words in biblical Hebrew.
Nayman says her father was a Hasid who visited rebbes in nearby towns such as Korets (?), Strebetshi (?) and Munkacs. She talks about Zionist emissaries from a neighbouring town and her father forbidding her and her brother to attend. She tells how he punished her for using makeup, and describes Sabbath at home with her mother baking challah, cholent and the Sabbath-evening prayer. She also covers Hanukkah customs and food, the dreidel and other terms, and a few Hebrew words, with Kerler and Katz asking about the terminology.
Adds Hanukkah food and game terms discussed with Kerler and Katz.
Nayman talks about religious life today and customs, before she remembers Sukkot celebrations before the war and today. Nayman then recalls names for non-Jewish holidays. She then discusses her relationship with non-Jewish neighbors before the war. Nayman then talks about life after the war in Studenyy (her husband’s home town), where she and her husband lived for thirty years. According to Nayman, eighty Jewish families resided there before the war. Her husband was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Poland from 1941 to 1945. She talks about his life during the war in a concentration camp, and about his escape.
Nayman answers questions about Simchat Torah and Hoshanah customs, the sukkah, and pre–Yom Kippur food, and names the Christian holidays. She says relations with non-Jewish neighbours were good. She describes Studenyy in the Mizhhirya district, where she lived for thirty years after the war and where there were eighty Jewish families and three synagogues before the war. She tells how her husband was in camps and in Poland from 1941 to 1945 and how he escaped.
Adds Sukkot and Yom Kippur eve food, names for Christian holidays, and details of her husband's escape.
