One conversation with Veniamin Iakovlevich Geller; an unidentified interviewee; Lazar Eilovich Burshtein, continuing over MDV 781, MDV 782, MDV 783, MDV 785.
Informal chatting.
Informal talk among several people before the interview. An older man says he must go home and offers a short interview or a visit to his home, and Kerler agrees to come to him. He mentions a short story about a Jewish farmer.
Childhood memories.
Kerler asks the unidentified man where he grew up. He mentions his parents leaving for farm work and a Jewish collective farm in the Kherson area (?). The rest is arranging a later meeting, with Russian talk about a phone that does not work, an address and Geller's name.
The passage also contains arranging of contact details and Geller is named.
Life today and informal chatting.
Informal chat among the people present, with Geller and a second man. They discuss life today, women, accents, Yiddish speakers, Lithuanian Jews and Hasidim, and a man named Naftali. It ends with arrangements about who is coming in the evening and Geller's name and birthplace, and Kerler turns to the interview.
Includes talk of Yiddish accents and Lithuanian Jews, and ends with the start of the interview.
Introduction and family.
Geller gives his name and the names of his parents and grandparents. He was one of five children, one of whom died as a small child in the famine of 1932–33. His eldest brother was a pilot in the war against Japan, and his youngest brother and a sister live elsewhere. His father's family was from Khazhin and his mother's from the shtetl.
Life in Velyka P'yatyhirka during the 1930s.
Geller describes the shtetl in the 1930s: artisans were gathered into cooperatives and many left for Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Odesa to find work. The Yiddish school closed, and he studied in a Ukrainian school. He also mentions his mother's ability to write Yiddish and his father's work in a sugar factory when the famine began.
Adds Geller's mother's Yiddish literacy and father's sugar-factory work.
Life during the Great Hunger and later 1930s.
Geller says where the shtetl lies near Berdychiv and Chudniv, and Kerler asks how its name is pronounced. During the famine his father went to Dnipropetrovsk to earn money. His grandfather in Zhytomyr, a carpenter, took the family there in 1936 as orphans after his father's death.
Includes a question about how the shtetl's name is pronounced and the grandfather's role.
Education and draft.
Geller talks about his technical school studies and the start of the war in 1941. The Germans entered Zhytomyr on 7 July, and his family was evacuated toward Kazan. He was drafted in 1942 and wounded three times, the last time in Latvia near Riga. He spent half a year in hospital in Kalinin, where a doctor who knew his family helped save his legs.
Return to Zhytomyr and family.
Geller recalls returning to Zhytomyr after the war, finding neighbors in the family home, and rebuilding his life. He married in 1949 and was married for 48 years. He talks about his daughter, son and grandchildren, one of whom works in the Jewish school, and a great-grandchild.
Memorialization.
Geller recalls the Jews who stayed behind in the shtetl in 1941 and were killed by a few Germans and local policemen. After the war a list of victims was compiled and a monument put up. He still has the list, and says some families went to Israel and America.
Mentions the list of victims and monument.
Childhood memories of Jewish Velyka P'yatyhirka.
Geller describes the synagogue, prayer house and Itzik the crooked (der krimer), who served as helper and caretaker. He recalls the Jewish director of the Ukrainian school who had children throw stones at worshippers, and talks about childhood friends, one killed by the Germans. He also speaks of non-Jewish classmates, Passover matzo given to them, and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, then answers questions on the use of Yiddish at home.
Adds the school director who threw stones, non-Jewish classmates and Yiddish at home.