Recordings › Zhytomyr

MDV 791 · Klara Meerovna Antsis

Zhytomyr, Ukraine 10 July 2002 Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Dovid Katz, Jeffrey Veidlinger, Anatolii Kerzhner Part 3 of 4 39 min · 13 passages

One conversation with Klara Meerovna Antsis, continuing over MDV 790, MDV 791, MDV 792.

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Passages

0:00

Passover celebration and other holidays.

From the machine transcript

Kerler asks Antsis about the Passover seder: what was said and done, the four questions, and the afikoman. She does not remember these, as she was only a child, and mentions her father's early death. They then turn to Hanukkah: Hanukkah gelt and what was eaten, with latkes discussed and a mention of buckwheat flour. She remarks on how clearly she remembers early years while forgetting recent things.

Includes Hanukkah foods and gelt, and her remarks on memory.

2:54

Dialectology.

Questionnaire Yiddish language and dialect · MCO
From the machine transcript

Dialectological questionnaire. Kerler asks how Antsis says various words, including colours (grey), words for wealthy man, rich and gevir, and Purim baked goods (hamantashn). Other items are a wagon and carts, a boat, 'toves' (?), a fool and its plural, and the word 'lehavdl'. She answers some items and says she has not heard others in a long time.

11:01

Travel of team.

Informal · MCO
From the machine transcript

Kerler tells Antsis the team is travelling to Berdychiv today after the interview. She remarks that some Jews still live there, and they briefly discuss whether Zhytomyr belongs to Podolia or Volhynia.

12:13

(missing index details).

· MCO
From the machine transcript

A short break is arranged: the team leaves the equipment while Kerler goes outside for a smoke and Antsis says she will rest, with talk of resuming in ten minutes.

12:48

Childhood memories and family.

From the machine transcript

Antsis talks about her childhood friend Manye (Shabes?), sharing the bread and butter her mother packed for school and a quarrel over a forgotten sandwich. She also names other Jewish friends from Lyubar and talks about her family: her only son died, her brother and his son are dead, and a granddaughter (of her brother) and her two children live in Zhytomyr. She mentions a relative in America and a niece who writes to her, and begins to say that she receives help locally.

Adds her other friends from Lyubar, the death of her son, and relatives in Zhytomyr and America.

18:14

Life today and family.

life today Life todayFamily history · MCO
From the machine transcript

Antsis describes the help she receives today. Meals are brought to her all week, young people come and assist her, and Hesed picks her up once a week for the bath and a social gathering. She says she loves being among people and prays for her health and that of her relatives, recalling how her sister died in her sleep. She ends by saying that many Russians helped Jews during the war.

24:05

Informal chat and life today.

Informal life today Life today · MCO
From the machine transcript

Kerler asks the Yiddish name of a plant, and Antsis says there is none and gives the Russian one. Kerler says he was born in Moscow and that the team is making an archive of films of elderly people who remember Yiddish. She says her own children do not speak Yiddish, but her niece does. She also complains that her pension is small, speaking of the difficulty of life and fate, and then starts recalling Lyubar with its rain and big puddles.

Includes the plant-name question, the language of her children, and her pension.

29:21

Childhood memories from Lyubar.

before the war Childhood · MCO
From the machine transcript

Antsis continues with childhood memories of Lyubar: boards laid across puddles, and in summer villagers singing at night in the surrounding villages. She describes Lyubar as a poor little town and begins to be asked about what kind of Jews lived there.

30:50

Refugees during war.

during the war World War II (general) · MCO
From the machine transcript

Antsis recalls refugees who came to Lyubar, in 1939 (?), and lived with her family, her mother giving them a room. Life was hard, and she speaks of the war as a blow to the whole Jewish world. She switches briefly into Russian and wants to continue in Yiddish.

32:22

Yiddish literature and cultural life.

From the machine transcript

Asked about Yiddish writers and theater, Antsis says the family read Sholem Aleichem, and that on Sabbath neighbors gathered while her mother read aloud and people laughed. She recalls a Sholem Aleichem story about a poor wedding and a rich one. Young people put on plays at her grandfather's house, and the grandfather traded goods from Berdychiv. A gramophone in the house frightened her.

Adds Sholem Aleichem readings, the grandfather's trade, and the gramophone.

36:51

Electricity.

· MCO
From the machine transcript

Asked whether there was electricity, Antsis recalls the great joy when it was first installed. She retells her mother's story of the local man who understood electricity and wired the town, and whom people paid with eggs and butter to repair it. She mentions he was Jewish and an early Komsomol member, with a name that sounds like Shirovski (?).

38:54

Returning into apartment.

Informal · MCO
From the machine transcript

Kerler and Antsis arrange to go back inside the apartment so the team can look at her books.