3:39
Rezmovits provides personal information and talks about his family. His parents were born in Sighetu Marmației. His father moved to Buda before World War I.
Topics › Family and personal history
Family history
Parents, grandparents, siblings, spouses, children; what became of them.
2269 passages on 618 tapes, 356 speakers · most often in Chișinău (236), Budapest (113), Berdychiv (94), Zhytomyr (84), Tul'chyn (77), Cluj-Napoca (70)
2269 passages
8:29
Rezmovits speaks about his life during World War II, when he was deported on a train from Debrecen to Auschwitz on March 19, 1944. Rezmovits grew up with three sisters and two brothers. He describes the journey, particularly when the train stopped in Košice, Slovakia, and was then rerouted to Austria. Rezmovits explains why he was not deported to Auschwitz, which he learned from historical studies. According to the historian Marion Amber, documents were switched. Rezmovits's immediate family survived and his father was liberated by the Red Army from forced labor.
17:21
Rezmovits speaks about his life after the war. He made aliyah and returned to help out his family in 1953. Rezmovits served in the Israeli army and then worked as brick layer in Israel. Rezmovits speaks about his work as laborer and antisemitism he encountered. He then worked as technician until his retirement. Rezmovits raised two sons.
22:52
Rezmovits speaks about his family. His maternal grandparents owned an onion shop.
32:16
Rezmovits talks about his family and speaking Yiddish before the war. He recalls antisemitic sentiments among Christian boys. Rezmovits returns to his education at a talmud torah school.
44:25
Rezmovits talks about his return to Debrecen in the 1953 and postwar Jewish life. He then shares an example of how his mother spoke Yiddish.
46:45
Rezmovits speaks about his and his family's life in Klausen-Leopoldsdorf, Austria, toward the end of World War II. In particular, he shares episodes from daily life and fighting on the front line.
21:25
Rezmovits talks about his family, particularly his mother. Rezmovits then recalls songs about poverty, he learned from his mother.
27:05
Rezmovits addresses his life in Israel and then Ukraine after the war. He mentions that his sister was imprisoned during the post-Soviet era.
39:13
Rezmovits discusses his childhood memories, particularly games. He then addresses the influence of Zionist organizations before and after the war, before speaking about languages of communication within his family.
43:47
Rezmovits talks about his family, specifically the period after his wife passed away. He then speaks about his father, who was a hasid of the Kaliver rebbe.
6:51
Rezmovits answers questions about cultural terminology, before addressing his parents.
9:17
Rezmovits talks about postwar Yiddish culture, specifically theater performances and how his mother reflected on them. He then continues to answer questions about cultural terminology.
1:59
Galambos discusses his childhood memories in Vaja (Yiddish: Voyo), including his education. He left his hometown at the age of thirteen and attended yeshivot in Putnok Nizhbartozh 2:35, Mizhkorz and Kisvárda for four years. Galambos attended a religious school (heder) at the age of four. He began primary schooling at six. Galambos grew up with five sisters and two brothers.
4:05
Galambos speaks about his family and provides personal information. His father was a carpenter. He then recalls how his family would spend Sabbath. An older yeshiva student (shire-geyer) would examine him.
18:42
Galambos talks about prewar holiday celebration, specifically Simchat Torah and Passover at his uncle's home. He then speaks abou his family.
25:34
Galambos speaks about his yeshiva education and school breaks, when he was able to return home. He then speaks about his relatives in America.
30:45
Galambos describes his father's work as carpenter and explains occupations of family members.
33:26
Galambos talks about his life during World War II. He worked as carpenter in the labor division of the army. Galambos then addresses his life after the war. He returned to Vaja in 1945 and lived there until 1950. Before moving to Budapest in 1974, Galambos lived in Üröm from 1958 to 1959 and then Debrecen. He then speaks about his family and their fate durin World War II, as well as addresses the languages (Hungarian and Yiddish) spoken at home. Galambos has relatives in America and Canada. Galambos attended his grandnephew's bar mitzvah.
56:51
Galambos addresses his observance after the war. He states that twenty family members were deported to Auschwitz and only his sister survived.
58:37
Galambos answers questions about cultural terminology and speaks about his family.
10:57
Galambos talks about his mother's attire on Sabbath, before speaking about prewar religious institutions.
0:00
Smajovics speaks about his visits to America. He then speaks about his family. Smajovics's brother lived in Israel and his sister lives in America.
2:58
The formal part of the interview begins. Smajovics provides personal information and speaks about his family's life in his hometown Velyka Kopanya (Yiddish: Groys Kopanye) before the war. Smajovics grew up with two brothers and one sister, as well as four half-siblings. His father was field worker and owned horses. Smajovics explains that he was killed by his horses in 1926.
10:01
Smajovics speaks about his life after the war and return to his hometown in Transcarpathia with his two brothers. He also shares episodes about the encounter with Red Army soldiers. Smajovics recalls how siblings returned. He continued to work in his profession as blacksmith, before working at a factory in 1947. It was the time of the kolkhozy, he explains. Shortly thereafter, Smajovics moved to Vynohradiv, where he lived until 1978. In Vynohradiv, Smajovics worked as locksmith at a factory between 1949 and 1952. In 1952, Smajovics began working at a small furniture factory, where he worked for one and a half years. He then switched jobs again in 1954, when Smajovics worked at a warehouse for nine years. He then addresses the socio-political conditions in the 1960s. Smajovics was also the head of a parking lot and worked as chauffeur. He moved to Budapest in 1978.
19:09
Smajovics speaks about his family. He raised two daughters, one of whom lives in America. He then talks about his education. Smajovics attended a religious school (cheder) at the age of four. In 1926, he began to study at a Czech school. Between the age of thirteen and sixteen, Smajovics studied at the local yeshiva.
23:40
Smajovics speaks about his family, particularly how he met his wife after the war. He also mentions how he reunited with his brother in Israel in 1982, after not having seen him for forty years.
33:17
Smajovics speaks about his family. His father was a field worker. Both of his parents were also born in Velyka Kopanya. Smajovics also addresses the fate of his family members during World War II.
37:17
Smajovics shares an episode about meeting a relative during his time as forced laborer in the Hungarian army. He then explains how his father was killed by a horse in 1926.
41:08
Smajovics talks about his family. In particular, he recalls his grandmother's charity. He then remembers visits to Israel and lists Hebrew words that are part of the Yiddish language. He also speaks about life today.
22:06
Smajovics briefly speaks about postwar holiday celebration. He then sings a Yiddish song about a son leaving behind his mother at home.
47:07
Smajovics answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He then speaks about prewar Passover celebrations and food customs. Smajovics then speaks about his family and passing on the Yiddish language to his daughters. Smajovics states that he prepared his grandson for his bar mitzvah.
44:43
Smajovics talks about his life and family after the war, before the team concludes the formal part of the interview with Smajovics.
4:52
Herbst discusses his childhood memories and his family. He grew up with four sisters and three brothers. According to him, approximately eleven families lived there.
17:22
Herbst speaks about his life before the war. He attended religious school (cheder) in Rakhiv and lived at his uncle's house. Herbst describes how he went to eat at several people's home ("esn teyg"). Herbst studied at the elementary school in Berlabashe for four years, before moving to Rakhiv. Herbst also attended a yeshiva high school for one year in Vişeu de Sus, Romania, (Yiddish: Oyber Visheve), where his sister lived. After graduating from this school, he began his yeshiva education in 1937.
33:20
Herbst speaks about his family. His mother was born in Romania. He then shows photographs of his parents. Herbst then describes his childhood home, including where his family set up a sukkah.
38:57
Herbst speaks about his work as lumberjack, before speaking about his brothers. Herbst learned to be become a cobbler.
50:24
Herbst speaks about his childhood memories, particularly games. He also addresses his father's observance and charity. Herbst recalls different fruits.
10:49
Herbst recites sayings from the Torah. He then describes contemporary Yiddish clubs. Herbst also recalls how his father received guests.
35:46
Dof talks about his education at a Hebrew primary school. He then sings a Hebrew song, before speaking about his family in Israel.
55:25
The team greets Gotlieb at her apartment and then sets up the interview with her. She then provides personal information and speaks about her family, while showing photographs. Friedman was born in Sátoraljaújhely (Yiddish: Ihel).
57:58
The formal interview with Gotlieb begins. She provides personal information and speaks about her family. Gotlieb's mother was born in 59:47 and her father in Sátoraljaújhely. Her father was a leather supplier.
0:00
Gotlieb speaks about her family. She grew up with two brothers and two sisters.
1:29
Gotlieb talks about her life and education before the war. She studied with a private tutor. Gotlieb then briefly addresses her life during World War II, before talking about her life after the war. Gotlieb returned to her hometown and was married to a Jewish Red Army soldier in 1946. Gotlieb raised a son, who passed away at the age of 48. Gotlieb then addresses her life today.
9:19
Gotlieb discusses her family. She also addresses her work after the war. Gotlieb helped out her father after school. After the war, she managed her own business of leather supplying in Sátoraljaújhely, until the expropriation of her business by the Soviet government. Gotlieb then recalls her childhood memories and her mother's observance.
29:58
Gotlieb speaks about prewar Jewish life in Sátoraljaújhely. Gotlieb's brother studied at a yeshiva in Uzhhorod, where their uncle lived. She then talks about visiting the grave of Moshe Teitelbaum aka Yismach Moshe.
33:47
Gotlieb talks about her family, specifically her father's observance. She then answers questions about cultural terminology.
5:57
Gotlieb addresses her mother's baking customs. She then speaks about healing customs before the war.
0:00
Rezmovits talks about Yiddish poets and why he began reading poetry. Rezmovits raised two children.
3:28
Rezmovits speaks about his life in prewar Debrecen. He shares an episode about his mother going to the kosher butcher. Rezmovits then talks about his family and describes his mother's good spirits. He explains how his mother took care of her children, while his father was in prison. Rezmovits grew up with five siblings.
7:37
Rezmovits discusses his childhood memories and describes poverty in town. He also recalls how his father described locals.
32:26
Rezmovits speaks about his family and their life during World War II. He then tells an episode about his father finding money during the economic crisis in the early 1930s. Rezmovits states that his father was also respected among non-Jews.
48:07
Rezmovits talks about contemporary community members. He then speaks about his father's friend and gives a glimpse of their political conversations in prewar Debrecen. Rezmovits then addresses regional Yiddish dialects. He then returns to contemporary community members.
MDV 82Latsi Galambos; Adolf (Avrum, Bumy) Smajovics; Herman (Avrom-Tsvi) Herbst and 1 moreBudapest, 2006
0:00
Galambos shows family photographs.
17:31
Gotlieb shows family photographs and the team concludes the interview with her. The camera then collects town footage of Budapest.
0:00
Herbst speaks about his life after the war. He worked as nuclear technician at an institute of physics. Herbst was married in 1961 and he raised a son. He then provides personal information and speaks about his hometown Bornobash (Yiddish: Berlabashe).
11:16
Herbst describes his family's life at the beginning of the German occupation in 1944. According to him, Jews from his hometown had to assemble and were deported to Rakhiv, before deported further to the 13:58 ghetto. Herbst then describes the conditions of the ghetto, where they had to sleep at the cemetery for six weeks. Herbst continues and explains how Jews from his family was deported to Auschwitz. Herbst stayed in Auschwitz for one week and then was sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp for a forced labor selection procedure, which also lasted one week. As a forced laborer, he was sent to Ebensee to work in a quarry for three years.
37:29
Herbst discusses his family. His father owned a grocery shop. Herbst grew up with four sisters, who worked as seamstresses, and three brothers. He then describes his family's life before and during the war.
57:31
Herbst explains how his mother koshered meat.
0:53
They speak about life today. Herbst then speaks about his family.
6:18
Herbst talks about his family. They then discuss drinking songs.
25:12
The team chats with Eliezer Imber about his family. He also shows family photographs. The team then chats with community members.
8:43
Deutsch speaks about his family and their fate during World War II. He grew up with two brothers. He then talks about his life after the war, including his life at an orphanage. Deutsch explains how they divided school classes between Yiddish and non-Yiddish speaking students. Before the war, Deutsch underwent eight years of schooling.
14:48
Deutsch speaks about his life during the war and his rescuer Shlomo Grosberg, who owned a newspaper. He then discusses his family.
17:53
Deutsch provides personal information and speaks about his family. His mother was born in Budapest and worked at a soap factory. Deutsch's father was born in Vișeu de Sus, Romania and a follower of the Spinker Rebbe.
20:59
Deutsch discusses his childhood, including languages spoken at home. He then speaks about his family. His grandfather owned a shop for matches.
27:56
Deutsch speaks about his parents' fate during the war. His father died in the Mauthausen concentration camp and his mother in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Deutsch then explains Jewish life at the beginning of the German occupation of Budapest. He mentions Hungarian helpers to protect local Jews, before returning to his family's fate during the war.
48:35
Deutsch chants a Hungarian Hassidic melody. He then speaks about his family. Deutsch also addresses prayers.
4:16
Pearl addresses his life during World War II, in particular during 1942. According to Pearl, approximately two hundred Jews lived in Tállya; of whom 170 died during the war. His parents perished in Auschwitz. Pearl grew up with two sisters and one brother, who lives in France. He then speaks about his life as forced laborer. Pearl worked in a copper mine in the forced labor camp Bor, Yugoslavia. Pearl then describes the conditions in the camp of approxminately 6,000 prisoners, according to him.
27:43
Pearl talks about his family. His father was also born in Tállya and owned a shop. He then addresses antisemitism in 1938. Pearl explains how his father had to close down his shop and bred rabbits. Pearl sold rabbit hair in the market in Budapest. Pearl's mother was also born in Tállya.
42:06
Pearl talks about his family, specifically their observance. He then speaks about his life in Ukraine after the war. Pearl maintains that he did not hide his Jewish identity and did not encounter antisemitism.
54:07
Pearl addresses his sons' circumcision. Pearl also raised a daughter. He then speaks about prewar religious life. Pearl visited with his family rebbes in 56:45 Mad, orostisko, kerestir. They traveled with a horse and wagon.
9:58
Pearl talks about his family. He then addresses drinking customs before the war. Pearl's family made their own kosher wine.
22:18
Pearl describes his work at a factory in Budapest during the war. Pearl maintains that he never denied his Jewish identity. He then shows family photographs and speaks about his family. Pearl has relatives in America. Pearl also mentions his travels to Austria and Germany.
25:58
Pearl speaks about this life after the war and continues to show family photographs. He then talks about his family.
34:13
Pearl speaks about his family. He grew up with one brother and two sisters. Pearl's brother and sister live in France.
41:11
Pearl speaks about his mother's observance. He recalls how his mother read the tsene-rene. Pearl then talks about his family, particularly his wife's work. Pearl raised a daughter and a son. He then speaks about his life today.
0:00
Doman provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was born in a village situated in the Hajdu county. Doman's mother was born in Verpelét.
3:49
Doman discusses his childhood memories, living in Budapest. He states that he began speaking Yiddish as a yeshiva student. He also addresses his family. Doman's father, a rabbi, went to the Frankfurt yeshiva in Germany. Doman states that his father's family spoke Yiddish, whereas his mother's family spoke Hungarian.
31:15
Doman speaks about his family life before the war. He grew up as only child.
51:23
Doman speaks about his family. He has relatives who live in Israel. Doman then addresses his education after he graduated from yeshiva. Doman studied at a secondary school until 1944.
8:29
Gotlieb speaks about her life before the war. She left her hometown in 1934 to find work in Budapest. She then speaks about her family. Gotlieb grew up with three brothers and a sister.
12:40
Gotlieb addresses her religious education, taught by her mother and at school. Gotlieb studied at a Hungarian Jewish school. She then talks about her family. Gotlieb's father was a leather merchant.
22:44
Gotlieb shows family photographs of her cousins in Israel. She also speaks about her family.
30:38
Gotlieb recites Purim shpiels, she learned from her grandmother. She then describes how she went from house to house on Purim.
40:58
Gotlieb talks about her family and prewar religious life in her hometown, including the difference between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews and local yeshivot. She then describes prewar Jewish life in Sátoraljaújhely. During his childhood, Gotlieb visited the grave of Yismach Moshe with her father, she explains.
47:00
Gotlieb addresses praying customs and recalls her mother reading tsene-rene (Yiddish-language bible) on Sabbath. She then speaks about her family, before remembering her visits to Uzhhorod.
53:45
Gotlieb talks about her school education at a Hungarian Jewish school. She then speaks about her family and recalls singing on Sabbath. Gotlieb also mentions her mother's observance.
53:49
Gotlieb speaks about her and her family's life before World War II. She worked at a broom factory in Budapest at the age of eighteen.
1:52
Blobshteyn talks about his life during World War II, when Germany occupied Hungary in 1944. He explains how he was deported to NeuBanye 2:10, where he worked as forced laborer, building railway tracks for one year. Blobshteyn's parents and siblings were deported to Auschwitz. He was liberated in the Mauthausen concentration camp by the American army.
3:37
Blobshteyn speaks about his life after the war. He returned from Mauthausen, via Prague, Bratislava and Pest to Mukacheve. Blobshteyn describes his short stay at a yeshiva in Pest. In Mukacheve, he reunited with his brother, who lives in America, as well as two sisters.
5:23
Blobshteyn speaks about his siblings. He grew up with three brothers and three sisters.
10:33
Blobshteyn talks about his family. His father was a kosher butcher and was born in Siltse. Blobshteyn's mother was born in Mukacheve. He then tells an episode of a cholera outbreak and burning of sick people during his mother's childhood.
18:39
Blobshteyn speaks about his family and Jewish life under Czechoslovak rule. His father joined the labor battalion of the Hungarian army in 1939.
31:27
Blobshteyn talks about his childhood memories. He mentions that his mother followed rituals to diassociate her family from non-Jewish holidays.
44:13
Blobshteyn addresses prewar Jewish life, including religious institutions. He then recalls the Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira's son's wedding, as well as speaks about the Spira family.
53:16
Blobshteyn talks about Jewish communities in the surrounding villages. He then addresses food customs, including his mother's baking for Sabbath and fish dishes. Blobshteyn's family kept animals and therefore cooked meat during the week. Blobshteyn also mentions how his family obtained carp for the Sabbath meal.
10:00
Blobshteyn speaks about food customs on Purim and describes how he went to the rabbi to get the turkey blessed for the holiday. He then speaks about his mother's sewing, as well as spending Sabbath with family and neighbors.
12:33
Blubstheyn briefly talks about arts and crafts at home, before answering questions about cultural terminology. He also speaks about his parents.
49:59
Blobshteyn talks about his family, particularly his brother-in-law who was a wedding jester. He then shows a family photograph.
0:00
Blobshteyn speaks about his travels to America, visiting his family.
5:06
Blobshteyn shares an episode from his work as kosher butcher after the war. He then talks about his family, who lived in Mukacheve after the war.
17:34
Blobshteyn speaks about prewar religious customs. He then shares a family episode, where his father, uncle, cousin and he went to see a rebbe in Keretsky to find help for his cousin. Blobshteyn explains that the rebbe cut his cousin's hair and he was able to walk out of the religious school (cheder) building afterward.
5:02
Smajovics shares an episode from Jewish life during the Hungarian occupation in 1939. He then returns to prewar Jewish life in his hometown and describes arguments regarding Ashkenazi or Sephardic teaching style in cheder. Smajovics then speaks about his life and education before the war, after his father was killed by his own horses. He also speaks about his family. He grew up with seven siblings. Smajovics' brother made aliyah after the war. His father was also born in Velyka Kopanya and his mother's family moved to Velyka Kopanya during her childhood. Smajovics recalls his grandmother's hospitality to strangers.
11:57
Smajovics speaks about his life during World War II. He was sent to a Hungarian forced work camp ("Munka Tabor") within the labor battalion of the Hungarian army, where he reunited with this brother in 1942. Smajovics worked in his profession as blacksmith. He then addresses the reunion with his brother in Israel in 1982, as well as speaks about his family in America and Israel. Smajovics then speaks about his visit to Israel and meeting his family.
47:50
Smajovics speaks about his liberation by the Red Army and encounters with Jewish soldiers. Smajovics returned home approximately two weeks later. He then speaks about his return and living conditions in 1944. Smajovics worked at a mill. Smajovics then speaks about the return of his family.
52:04
Smajovics speaks about his life after the war. He established his own workshop and was married in 1946. Smajovics he raised two daughters. In the 1950s, Smajovics moved to Vynohradiv and worked as locksmith and clerk in a warehouse. He also mentions that he was imprisoned in Uzhhorod for two and half years.
39:04
Smajovics addresses his best moments in life and work during the Soviet period. He also speaks about his family. Smajovics continued to work for six and a half years after his retirement.
37:00
Herbst speaks about his family, particularly his father's observance and childhood memories of him. He also addresses food customs at home, where his parents kept animals.
40:10
Herbst addresses his best moments of his childhood. He recalls family Sabbath celebrations. Herbst then speaks about his family.
20:14
Herbst shows family photographs and speaks about his family.
7:37
Doman speaks about his family, specifically his father, and prewar religious life. Doman addresses the differences between the orthodox and reform communities.
16:40
Doman speaks about his research and publications about jokes, Hungarian yeshivot, a Hungarian community, his father, his life as forced laborer and a translation study of the Talmud.
3:20
Reti speaks about his family. His father built a prayer house and mikvah in Rohod and taught. Reti recalls how he studied with his father in the mornings before the war. His father was also born in Rohod and owned animals.
21:58
Reti talks about his family. He grew up with five brothers and three sisters.
24:13
Reti speaks about prewar life in Rohod. He recalls non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. According to him, twenty Jewish families lived there. Reti speaks about his father's observance as Kosoner hasid and the Kosoner rebbe. Reti then talks about his family today.
52:10
Reti speaks about his life during World War II. He speaks about forced labor pre-1944 and the deportation in 1944. He then speaks about his life in Mauthausen, as well as a death march from Melk to Ebensee, Austria, which lasted for two weeks according Reti. He then talks about his family's fate during the war.
2:19
Reti addresses folk customs, including birth customs, and his family.
13:20
Reti speaks about prewar religious life in the region. He then explains how his father's mikvah was heated, by the "hoyf-goy." He also mentions peaceful relations between Jews and non-Jews.
7:59
Reti speaks about his life after the war in Debrecen. He moved in with his two brothers. Reti was a businessman for the government. He then recalls how is father passed away in 1939.
11:19
Reti addresses Yiddish dialects and talks about Russian Jewish soldiers during the liberation. He then talks about his family.
25:00
Reti sings a Hasidic song about the messiah and then about Passover. He then talks about his life and family after the war.
56:19
Galambos shows family photographs, including a photograph when his family was driven into a ghetto. Galambos was liberated from the Majdanek concentration camp. The camera then records camp photographs.
43:01
Samadi speaks about his education at a religious school (cheder) until he was eleven years old and then Talmud Torah school for two years, which was located in Újfehértó (Yiddish: Ratsfelt). Samadi then talks about prewar religious life in Újfehértó. He recalls how his mother instructed him to learn Yiddish, so he can communicate with Jews anywhere.
48:38
Samadi speaks about his family. His father was a shopowner. He grew up with one brother and one sister. Samadi states that his sister was the only one from his immediate family who returned from Auschwitz.
51:30
Samadi speaks about his and his sister's life in the immediate postwar period. He then talks about his family and language education, before addressing his cheder education.
11:33
Samadi sings a Yiddish song about potatoes, he remembers from his father. He then sings a Yiddish song about two brothers.
26:52
Samedi speaks about his family, in particular his mother's observance. He recalls how his mother read tsene rene on Sabbath. They then chant Shir haMa'alot.
30:44
Goronvalgy chants another version of Shir haMa'a lot, he remembers from his cheder education. Samedi then sings a nigun, he recalls from his uncle.
44:51
Goronvalgy speaks about his family. He grew up with one brother and two sisters. Goronvalgy states that he is the only from his immediate family who survived the war. He then talks about his life after the war. He got married in 1940.
1:15
Reti speaks about his family, in particular his father. He explains how his father built a prayer house in Rohod and addresses prewar religious life in town. Reti also mentions that the Kosoner rebbe slept on a divan.
0:00
Reti speaks about his life today. He then talks about his family, in particular his father's observance. His father worked as tax collector. He also addresses the fate of rebbes from the region during World War II.
0:00
Stern provides personal information and speaks about prewar Jewish life in her hometown, as well as her family. Her mother was also born in Sonkad. Her father worked in agriculture. She grew up as an only child.
13:30
Stern speaks about her life today. Her children live in Israel. Stern visited Israel three years ago. She then speaks about her and her family's life during World War II. She was deported to Auschwitz.
0:00
David discusses her childhood memories, in particular the visit of a rebbe. She also talks about her family and provides personal information. David's father was born in 6:25. Her family moved to Mukacheve when David was two years old. She explains that she learned Yiddish from a scribe and attended a Hebrew primary school.
11:12
David talks about her family. Her father was a cobbler. She grew up with a brother, who died in Birkenau. She then talks about contemporary Jewish life.
15:25
David talks about her life in Mukacheve before the war and addresses languages. She then talks about her visits to America and Israel, including her relatives.
6:47
Galambos talks about prewar religious life in Vaja, particularly his religious school (cheder) education. He also addresses his mother's observance. Galambos recalls how his mother read the megillah out loud to other women. Galambos then addresses different religious texts he studied in cheder and yeshiva.
18:56
Galambos speaks about his life in Vaja, after he graduated from the yeshiva in 1936. Galambos then touches upon his visit to Auschwitz. He served in the Hungarian army and was a forced laborer during World War II. Galambos's father and four sisters were killed in Auschwitz. He states that nineteen members of his family were killed in the camp.
25:43
Galambos speaks about his family, particularly his brother. He then speaks about prewar life in Vaja and Jewish regional geography. He also touches upon prewar traditional weddings.
33:16
Galambos shows family photographs and speaks about his family. He shows again the photograph when his family was forced to move from Vaja to Kisvárda on April 17, 1944.
0:00
Galambos provides personal information and speaks about his family. His father was also born in Vaja and worked as cabinetmaker. Galambos' father also owned a shop and fields.
3:32
Galambos speaks about his family. His mother was born in Pusztadobos. He then addresses his childhood memories and education. Galambos describes his daily school routine in religious school (cheder), Hungarian school and yeshiva, including teachers and lessons. Galambos states that he started his yeshiva education at thirteen and attended yeshivot in Putnok and Kisvárda.
7:43
Galambos speaks about his family and explains how he takes care of his family's graves at the local cemetery. He grew up with five sisters and two brothers. One of his sisters made aliyah.
35:34
Galambos talks about prewar Sabbath celebrations. He recalls his family's Sabbath goy and what his father told him in Hungarian while he lit the fire.
39:15
Galambos speaks about his life after the war. He also addresses the Jewish fate in Auschwitz. He then talks about his family. His brother's son lives in America.
57:22
Galambos speaks about his family. He desribes how his mother read tsene rene on Tisha B'Av for her neighbors and his sisters. He then answers questions about cultural terminology and says a prayer for Eretz Yisrael.
0:00
Raisa Izrailevna Faiershtein (born 1932 in Soroca) talks about her family, in particular her parents. She recalls how she attended synagogue services with her parents before the war. Her grandparents were born in Racovat, Moldova, and her parents lived there, before they moved to Soroca (recorded in Briceni).
18:28
Faiershtein talks about her life today as a writer and introduces her books. She also talks about her family. Faiershtein then addresses Holocaust deniers and the contemporary relationship between Jews and non-Jews.
28:38
Faiershtein talks about life in the Soviet period. Her husband worked as a school principal for a school in Cupcini, Moldova, for twelve years. She describes the good reputation of the school under his leadership.
42:16
Altman discusses her childhood memories, in particular games. She grew up with three siblings. Her father was a baker. Altman never went through formal schooling. Her parents were born in Bălți.
48:02
Altman discusses life after the war, when they returned from evacuation. Her parents died in evacuation.
54:54
Altman describes an episode about her husband’s encounter of a rebbe in Stefanesti during his military service. Her husband stopped in Stefanesti for the night, on the way to the soldiers, to bring them food (cattle). A Christian woman advised him to go to the rebbe. The rebbe foresaw that her husband will not return to the front, which turned out to be true.
0:00
This recording is a continuation of a formal interview with Malka Zelikovna Altman. Altman continues telling the story about her husband Mordkhe and his encounter with the rebbe of Stefanesti. She then talks about prewar Jewish life and different synagogues 2:10, as well as Sabbath celebrations.
5:31
Altman briefly addresses her life during the war, before she talks about her family. She raised two children. On the way to evacuation, she was thrown off the train and lost one ear. She then recalls life during the Soviet period. Before the war, Altman learned with a tailor. She and mother worked at the fur factory after the war.
1:57
Altman discusses her life during the war, in particular the hardship of evacuating without her parents.
8:10
Altman talks about life after the war and the reunification with her sister and husband. She then talks about folk remedies.
0:00
Dzigifker and Mundrian provide personal information and talk about their family. Their father was born in Kodema and their mother was born in Vadul-Rascov. They grew up with four siblings. They have relatives in America.
9:38
Dzigifker talks about prewar Jewish life in Gertop and her family. Her father was a merchant of 13:15. She explains why her family moved to Marculesti, because her father was warned of being robbed. They moved in 1927/28 and lived there for six years. In 1936, they lived in Capresti for four years.
0:00
Dzigifker and Mundrian sing Yiddish songs, they remember from their mother and musical performances.
11:28
Dzigifker talks about their family. Their father passed away in 1934. She then discusses folk remedies and remembers stories from her grandmother about a tzaddik and honesty.
20:01
The camera records Sabbath celebrations in the chesed. The community sings the well-known Yiddish song “Beltz, Mayn Shtetele Beltz,” among other Yiddish songs about food, friendship, and family.
0:00
Bukshpun provides personal information and talks about his family. He then briefly recalls the return to their home town after the war. His father owned a shop and farmed three hectare land with a tractor. They also owned a cow, a horse, and ducks.
5:01
Bukshpun discusses life before the war in Karkushany, where sixteen Jewish families lived. He also talks about his family. He attended a Moldovan school for five years. He has relatives in Israel.
24:01
Bukshpun talks about his life after the war. He worked the field. He then talks about surrounding towns with a Jewish population before the war. He addresses the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, before he describe his father’s general store. Bukshpun talks about synagogue services in his uncle’s town Briceni.
29:12
Bukshpun discusses his childhood memories and talks about his parents. He then recalls folk remedies and talks about Hasidic life in Briceni.
35:00
Bukshpun answers questions about cultural terminology. He then talks about his family and their life after the war, before he discusses life today. He lost ten family members. Bukshpun received a medal for his work as a veteran 38:15. After the war, Bukshpun worked odd jobs, such as foreman for four years, for a supplier, and chauffeur (38:30). Bukshpun raised four children. His son lives in Israel and his daughters, who married non-Jews, live in Ukraine. He met his wife in the concentration camp and got married in 1948.
42:18
Bukshpun answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. He then talks about life before the war and food customs. They produced butter, cheese, and duck fat. Bukshpun discusses his brother’s bar mitzvah at his uncle’s home.
0:00
Reizman provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was born in Rascov and worked as a cobbler. Her parents died of starvation in Makhachkala, Russia, in evacuation. She grew up with four brothers and two sisters. Her sister’s three year-old son also died of starvation in Russia.
9:36
Reizman talks about her education. She studied at a Romanian school for two years. Her sister attended a religious school (cheder). Reizman recalls her sister praying during Sabbath and Sabbath celebrations, including food customs, at home. Reizman then talks about her family. Her son, who worked as a chauffeur, was killed in Bălți.
13:14
Reizman talks about her life today and observing religious customs today and before the war. She then mentions food customs for holiday celebrations. Reizman then explains how her family was not able to support her and her sister’s religious education, whereas five of her siblings were able to enjoy religious education. Reizman recalls the custom of “bdikes khumets” (ritual removal of the last crumb of leavened bread before Passover).
0:00
The tape is a continuation of formal interview with Beila Naftulevna Reizman. Reizman talks about her life after the war, after she returned to Tighina. Three of her brothers died at the front. She explains that her home was destroyed and non-Jews stole her family’s possessions. Reizman rented out a place from her neighbor for two years. When Reizman began working at the 2:09, her and her sister were given an apartment.
3:51
Reizman talks about her parents and remembers her father kissing the mezuzah.
0:00
The tape is a formal interview with Meyer Khaimovich Furman, born 1925 in Bălți, and his wife Tsipora Yankelevna Furman, born 1934 in Serbeshty. Meyer provides personal information and talks about his family. His father Chaim was born in Yarmolyntsi*, Ukraine and worked as a contract laborer for leather workers. Meyer grew up with one brother and a sister. After the war, Meyer was a leather worker.
53:52
Meyer talks about his return to Bălți in 1946 and explains that his house was entirely destroyed. Meyer’s brother-in-law received an apartment through his job and Meyer’s family moved in with him. It happened to be his grandmother’s house. He then discusses Jewish life after the war. According to Meyer, the community reopened the synagogue and it functioned until 1961. After the closure, the community rented an apartment to hold services. Meyer briefly mentions contemporary religious life.
0:00
The tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Meyer Khaimovich Furman and his wife Tsipora Yankelevna Furman, nee Shtekhman. Tsipora provides personal information and talks about Jewish life in prewar Sîrbesti (Serbeshty) with roughly two hundred Jewish families. Tsipora explains that they set up a Jewish colony there in 1923. Tsipora then talks about her family. Her father, born in Capresti, was a merchant for wood 4:11. She grew up with one sister and three brothers. Her mother was born in Vadul-Rascov.
6:53
Tsipora talks about her education. She only attended a Romanian/Russian school for two years before the war. After the war, Tsipora completed ten years of schooling and worked as a librarian 7:03. Tsipora discusses her childhood memories and holiday celebrations, in particular Sabbath and Chanukah. Tsipora then recalls Passover celebrations when she danced on the street with the religious teacher (melamed) Berl. Her brother studied with Berl in religious school (cheder). Tsipora maintains that studying with melamed Berl was more expensive than with melamed Hershl.
30:54
Tsipora talks about her life during and after World War II. She evacuated to the Rostov province first and then to Kazakhstan. Tsipora then talks about her return home after the war in 1945. They moved into her grandmother’s house. She and her sister continued working in agriculture on fields owned by non-Jews. They owned two hectare land and grew wine. They moved to Bălți in 1949 to live with her uncle and lived there for three months, before building their own house.
MDV 130Isaak (Itisk) Yakovlevich Boltykh; Semyon (Shimen) Semyonovich Katerberg; Tatyana (Tube) Yakovlevna KaterbergBriceni, 2005
0:00
Boltykh speaks about his mother's, Zhenia (Sheyndl) Boltykh, life during the war. She was imprisoned in ghettos in Transnistria until 1944.
2:18
Boltykh talks about his mother's life after the war. She was born 1911 in Briceni. He then provides personal information and talks about his family.
6:19
Boltykh speaks about life today and his family. His relatives recorded his mother's biography in Yiddish.
13:28
Boltykh speaks about his mother's education. She attended a Romanian school. He then speaks about Jewish life in Briceni before the war, as he recalls it from his mother's telling.
17:23
Boltykh speaks about life after the war and antisemitism. He then talks about his family and provides personal information. His father was born in Lipcani.
19:58
Boltykh speaks about his father's life during the war. He was imprisoned into a ghetto in 1944 and then served in the Red Army in 1945. He was injured in Kaliningrad and lost his leg.
21:45
Boltykh talks about how his mother observed the holidays before the war. He then talks about Purim celebrations, as well as other holidays, after the war.
26:47
Boltykh talks about his family and memorialization today.
29:26
Boltykh speaks about his mother's childhood and holiday celebration before the war.
33:49
The formal part of the interview begins. Katerberg provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was born in Yenovits, Ukraine, and owned a shop. He states that his mother and sister were shot at the beginning of the war.
48:08
Semyon talks about his family. Their son lives in Stanislav.
22:02
Tatyana briefly speaks about her life during the war. She evacuated with her mother. They then speak about Jewish life before the war, in particular occupational structure.
42:45
The Katerbergs talk about how they met after the war. Tatyana's mother brought them together, she explains. Tatyana then talks about her parents. Her mother worked at a brick factory during the war in evacuation.
0:00
Kalussky provides personal information and talks prewar Jewish life in Briceni. He then addresses his family. His father was a tailor and also born in Briceni. His mother was born Briceni. He grew up with four siblings. He lost two sisters in the ghetto and his two brothers moved to Israel after the war.
4:41
Kalussky talks about his family's life during the war. He describes how his grandparents were killed in the woods.
15:24
Kalussky speaks about childhood games. He then talks about his family. His grandmother moved to the Land of Israel in 1946.
43:42
Kalussky talks about his family, specifically his uncle, who told him stories and sang at family gatherings.
52:59
Kalussky speaks about his family, specifically his grandfather. He then addresses food customs.
38:31
Faiershtein speaks about her family. Her father worked in the woods as marker of chopped trees before and in a store after the war.
40:37
Faiershtein talks about her childhood in Soroca. She recalls her non-Jewish neighbors. She also talks about her family. She raised two sons. Her grandparents in Racovăţ owned a mill.
44:15
Faiershtein speaks about her life during the war. She was imprisoned in the Nova Obodivka ghetto. In particular, she recalls beatings by a Romanian soldier and hiding in a pit. She then talks about her poem about this period and how she recited it in Bricani two years ago. Faiershtein remembers how she met her helpers at the concert. She then shares another episode from her family's life and support from non-Jews during the war. Faiershtein maintains that her family consisted of thirteen members upon departure from Moldova and only three returned after the war.
0:00
Goldberg talks about her family briefly and then the formal interview begins. She provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was a kosher butcher, born in Oniţcani, and passed away in 1931. Her mother was born in Vorniceni. Goldberg grew up with two sisters and one brother. Goldberg's family moved to Călărași during her early childhood.
8:32
Goldberg talks about her family and prewar Jewish life in Călărași. Her mother worked odd jobs to support the family after her father died. Golderg states that she began working at the age of eleven.
15:31
Goldberg speaks about her family, in particular her brother. She then addresses prewar cultural life.
16:28
Goldberg discusses holiday celebration, in particular Sabbath and Passover. She also turns to food customs. After her father died, she explains, her family celebrated Passover at her grandfather's. Her grandfather lived in the same building. Goldberg then speaks about Purim and Sukkoth.
34:06
Golderg speaks about her life after the war and return home. Her family lived with her uncle for two years, she explains, and then moved to Bravicea, before living in Călărași. She then speaks about her family's fate during World War II. Goldberg mentions that her family transferred her grandparents' remains to Călărași for burial.
37:04
Goldberg speaks about prewar Jewish life and her childhood memories. She then talks about her life after the war. She got married in 1949. She explains how she met her husband. During the war, Goldberg had medical trainding with the Red Cross and then worked in a hospital during and after the war.
40:36
Goldberg speaks about her life during the war. Her family evacuated on foot from her hometown to Orhiv. Goldberg continues that they crossed the Dniester river and worked on a state farm (sovkhoz) in Ukraine. According to Goldberg, as soon as the Germans drew closer, they evacuated further to the Stalingrad region, where they stayed for ten months. In Stalingrad, her family worked at a military factory. She continues that as soon as Stalingrad was bombed, her family evacuated further to the east 41:49. Goldberg and her mother worked in a hospital. Her sister died in evacuation.
43:10
Goldberg speaks about her family. Her son and daughter were born in Bravicea. She lived there until 1957. She then answers questions about cultural terminology.
45:02
Goldberg talks about postwar religious life during Soviet times. She recalls religious persecution and secret services. Goldberg maintains that people would meet in Chişinău on holidays. She then speaks about her family and then recalls someone who converted to Christianity.
48:28
Goldberg discusses her family's observance and prewar occupational structure. She then speaks about life today.
54:54
Goldberg speaks about her work after the war. After the war, she took classes in Bălți for four years to become a medical assistant. In this profession, she worked for forty-five years in a hospital. Goldberg then speaks about her family.
12:19
Roif speaks about contemporary Jewish life and presentations about life during World War II. He then speaks about his family and briefly touches upon his life during the war. Roif's father was an American citizen and worked there on a cow farm and sold products in the city for six years, until 1929. Roif grew up with one brother and his father was born in Pererita, Moldova. Roif's mother was also born in Duruitoarea. Roif explains that his family was well off with his father's earnings in America and they ran a family homestead farm.
18:51
Roif speaks about prewar Jewish life in Duruitoarea, where Jews lived in a colony spread across three villages. He mentions that his father supported the village synagogue. According to him, 160 families lives there.
38:38
Roif speaks about his family's fate during the war. His family was also imprisoned in the Dubyna forced labor camp. Roif remembers how his father snuck out from the camp at night to provide food for his family.
58:28
Roif discusses his childhood memories. He explains how his father arranged transportation to the neighboring village, where Shraybman lived, to invite him for Sabbath celebrations at Roif's home. He then addresses his father's financial support of the local community and describes prewar Jewish life and occupational structure in Duruitoarea.
20:41
Roif discusses his childhood memories of Jewish Duruitoarea. He recalls Hasidic visitors and describes how his father visited the Ştefăneşti rebbe when his mother was ill. Roif explains how the rebbe called for the doctor, who already gave up on his mother. The doctor eventually cured Roif's mother, according to him.
29:38
Roif returns to describing the march to the Dubyna camp, via Yampil. He describes how they arranged transportation for his mother in Yampil.
0:00
Roif speaks about the contemporary community and his support. They also speak about the Yiddish writer Yankl Yakir and his family.
25:15
Zelda speaks about her family and addresses her family's friends.
34:44
Zelda talks about prewar traditional weddings. She then speaks about her family in America.
42:42
They answer linguistic questions. Zelda then addresses prewar Passover celebrations and her family.
53:00
Roif speaks about religious life after World War II. In particular, he addresses food customs for Passover celebrations within his family.
0:00
Farber sings a Yiddish song about longing for one's home. He then describes the furniture he inherited from his mother.
22:55
Farber talks about his family and recalls her mother as excellent homemaker. Farber's father was a clerk before the war.
25:08
Farber addresses Jewish life in Vertiujeni during the war. He explains that Jews were sent to the Urals to work in coal mines. He then speaks about prewar Jewish life and his family. Farber's mother was a seamstress.
29:48
Farber speaks about his parents' traditional wedding in Vertiujeni, which took place with other couples. Farber was circumcised by a mohel from Soroca. He then speaks about his childhood, as well as his family. Farber describes how his parents met, after his mother returned from evacuation.
35:53
Farber addresses prewar religious life in Vertiujeni, as well as his family's life before the war.
0:00
Shmid provides personal information and speaks about her family. Shmid's father was also born in Onitskan Orgeyev and her mother was born in Chişinău. Her father worked in agriculture.
6:23
Shmid speaks about her siblings. She grew up with two sisters and four brothers.
22:50
Shmid speaks about her life during World War II. She moved to Chişinău after her wedding, before the war. She evacuated with her mother- and father-in-law to Uzbekistan, via a kolkhoz in Russia. Shmid worked for four years in Uzbekistan. She then addresses her family's fate during the war.
26:28
Shmid speaks about her life after the war, after she returned to Chişinău. Shmid worked at a hat factory. Shmid's parents died in evacuation and her siblings returned from evacuation. One of her brothers immigrated to America before the war.
31:09
Shmid talks about her family. One of her sisters made aliyah and another sister moved to Germany. She then speaks about her life today. Shmid raised a daughter and her son-in-law Misha lives in the same apartment. She then shows family photographs.
20:45
Shmid speaks about her life today, as well as her family.
29:13
The formal interview with Shpitalnik begins. She provides personal information and speaks about her family. Her mother was also born in Chişinău and her father was born in the Jewish colony Dumbrăveni. Shpitalnik's father worked as accountant and was a member of the Yiddish organization Kultur-lige (Culture League). Her mother worked as cashier at a firm. Shpitalnik grew up as an only child.
34:42
Shpitalnik addresses her childhood memories and education. She attended a Romanian school at the age of six and took private French lessons. Her family evacuated to Bukhara, Uzbekistan. She then addresses her life after the war. Shpitalnik studied French philology at the Chernivtsi university and she was married in 1951. After Shpitalnik graduated from university, she worked at a village school, teaching English and French for five years. She then found a job in Chişinău as translator at the library of the Medical Institute, where she worked for 34 years. Shpitalnik then became the head of a department, where she published journals. In the last fifteen years, Shpitalnik has worked in the local Jewish library of the Kultur-lige. She has published several books on Jewish Moldova, as well as a calendar.
37:52
Shpitalnik speaks about her family. She then describes her childhood home, which was located in a courtyard with twenty-five other Jewish families.
41:23
Shpitalnik speaks about her visits to Dumbrăveni before the war. She also addresses prewar Jewish life in Chişinău and Dumbrăveni. Shpitalnik then talks about her father, who traveled to neighboring villages at the age of twelve and worked as private religious teacher.
44:30
Shpitalnik talks about her education and studying Hebrew. She then returns to her family, before addressing her childhood memories of traveling.
49:33
Shpitalnik speaks about her education in Chişinău, as well as her mother's school education. She then addresses prewar holiday celebration (Purim, Hanukkah), including food customs. Shpitalnik recalls visiting her mother's cousin on holidays.
53:56
Shpitalnik speaks about prewar sports organizations, including Maccabi and Hakoach. She was a member of Hakoach. Shpitalnik recalls Yiddish apprentice schools for girls, which organized cultural evenings. Shpitalnik remembers when the Yiddish poet Yakov Shternberg visited her family and gave presentations at the apprentice schools.
58:30
Shpitalnik addresses prewar Yiddish press, including "Undzer tsayt" (our time). She also speaks about her family.
3:26
Shpitalnik talks about her family, especially her grandmother.
7:39
Shpitalnik speaks about a Moldovan family, who rescued Jews during anti-Jewish pogroms and then continues addressing Jewish and non-Jewish relations. She then speaks about her life before the war, including childhood friends. Shpitalnik states that she learned how to speak Yiddish from her grandmother during the war.
18:43
Shpitalnik recalls Jewish refugees in 1940. Her family received a Hungarian-speaking family from the Transylvanian region. She also addresses different regional Yiddish dialects.
36:15
Shpitalnik speaks about her life and work after World War II, as well as her return to Chişinău. She moved to Chernivtsi for university studies soon after her return. Shpitalnik then speaks about her husband's work.
11:39
Mester speaks about prewar religious life. She describes how her mother visited the Rîbnița rebbe regularly.
14:32
Mester speaks about religious customs in her family. She also describes how her mother koshered meat, as well as threw a piece of challah into the oven.
16:48
Mester shares an anecdote about a Christian maid who threw a piece of challah into the oven. She then speaks about her family's life before the war.
23:25
Mester addresses Sabbath food customs, including her mother's receipe for gefilte fish. She then speaks about her family, as well as prayer customs.
25:16
Mester speaks about prewar Hanukkah celebrations, including candle lighting. She then talks about folk and healing customs and states that her mother practiced them. According to Mester, her mother borrowed the texts to avert the evil eye from Moldovan women.
29:19
Mester answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She then speaks about her family. Mester's father was a tailor. She grew up with three sisters. Mester also addresses prewar Jewish life in Stolniceni and discusses songs.
37:03
Mester speaks about prewar drinking customs. She then speaks about her family's life before the war, particularly travling to Edineț. Mester then answers questions about cultural terminology.
52:43
Mester talks about her family and her life after the war. She then speaks about food customs after the war.
21:50
The team concludes the interview with Mester and the camera cuts to the interview with Tkach. She provides personal information and speaks about her family. Tkach's father was a musician and played the fidel, as well as conducted an orchestra until 1938.
27:57
Tkach speaks about her studies and work. She graduated from the Musicology Department of the Chişinău Conservatory in composition in 1952 and then pursued graduate studies in Moscow. She then returned to Chişinău to teach at the Conservatory. Tkatch then discusses her childhood memories of Lozova, as well as her family.
30:19
Tkach addresses her family's obervance and then recalls Passover celebrations at home. She also speaks about holiday food customs. Tkach then speaks about her family. Tkach's mother was a homemaker and her father played several instruments.
32:45
Tkach speaks about her family's life during World War II. She was evacuated with her mother to Namangan, Uzbekistan. She also addresses her father's work assignments. Tkach's family returned to Chişinău in 1945.
35:12
Tkach speaks about her family and how her father taught her how to play fiddle and piano. She then speaks about her life and education after the war. Tkach also speaks about her work and Soviet Jewish colleagues. She states that she began composing Jewish music in 1989 and has written more than forty pieces of different genres.
49:55
Tkach speaks about her family. In particular, she addresses her father's work. She then talks about postwar Klezmer music and differentiates between Moldovan and Jewish music.
0:00
Bengelsdorf speaks about his family and addresses Yiddish dialects. His mother was born in Sławatycze (Yiddish: Slovotitch), Poland and his father was born in 2:43, Poland. Bengelsdorf's father moved to Argentinia and did a tailor apprenticeship and also attended a local Yiddish drama circle. He then addresses his father's move to Birobidzhan in the 1930s and his involvment in the Birobidzhan Yiddish Theater. Bengelsdorf explains how his father went to study with Solomon Mikhoels in Moscow for four years, before returning to Birobidzhan in 1934. Bengelsdorf's mother moved to Palestine and worked as maid in a Jerusalem hospital. She then returned and studied at the Jewish workers' faculty at Moscow State University. Durin that time, Bengelsdorf mother met his father and they then moved to Birobidzhan together.
8:04
Bengelsdorf provides personal information and talks about Stalinist persecution of the late 1930s. Bengelsdorf states that his mother evaded persecution due to her pregnancy and his father left Birobidzhan during this period.
10:55
Bengelsdorf provides personal information and speaks about his education. He attended a music high school for seven years, until 1951, and learned how to play the piano. He also studied at a Yiddish school at the age of five until it was closed down in 1949. Bengelsdorf then attended a music institute in Chabarovsk, Russia, for four years. Bengelsdorf then began studying at the Sverdlovsk Conservatory in 1955. He also mentions that his mother was imprisoned in the early 1950s and released 1956.
MDV 146Sergo Bengelsdorf; Marina Mikhailovna Shraybman; Moisha Motylevich Lipovetskiy and 1 moreChișinău, 2005
0:44
The camera cuts to the next interview with Shraybman, who herself is not Jewish. She shows newspaper clippings and speaks about her husband Yekhiel Shraybman's work and dream to become a Yiddish writer.
7:13
Shraybman speaks about how she met her husband in 1969. She then speaks about her husband's publications. Shraybman also addresses how she learned Yiddish.
19:35
Lipovetskiy provides personal information and speaks about his work. He is a trained chauffeur, locksmith and teacher. He taught physical education at a Moldovan school. He then addresses his life and education before the war. Lipovetskiy attended a Yiddish school and religious school (talmud torah). He then speaks about his life today and family. Lipovetskiy's children live in Israel.
26:20
Lipovetskiy speaks about his family.
7:33
Abelsky speaks about his family, before he addresses the work of his students.
12:44
Abelsky addresses contemporary Jewish life. He then speaks about prewar religious life in Moscow, as well as addresses his childhood memories, including holiday celebrations. Abelsky describes how his family celebrated Sukkot in secrecy.
15:49
Abelsky speaks about different Jewish groups in Moscow. He then talks about his family. Abelsky's maternal grandfather was the chief Hasidic rabbi of Moscow before the war. Abelsky's father was born in Vitebsk, Belorussia, and his mother was born in Chudey Bude?, Ukraine.
27:18
Abelsky shares episodes about prewar Jewish life and locals in Moscow. He also describes his grandfather's reputation within the community.
31:52
Abelsky addresses contemporary local Hasidic life, as well as his family and childhood memories. He then talks about his students.
38:41
Abelsky speaks about his and his grandfather's work, as well as shares episodes about advice-seeking people.
54:07
Abelsky sings a Lubavitch song in Russian, he recalls from his grandfather.
MDV 148Rabbi Zalman Abelsky; Sara Solomonovna Shpitalnik; Moisha Motylevich LipovetskiyChișinău, 2005
8:41
Shpitalnik speaks about her family, before addressing contemporary Jewish life. She then talks about her weekly Yiddish radio show.
11:39
The camera cuts to the continuation of a formal interview with Lipovetskiy. He talks about his life and family before the war. His father owned a horse and wagon and then worked at a wheel factory. Lipovetskiy's great-uncle moved to Eretz Yisrael.
15:24
Lipovetskiy speaks about his prewar education at a Yiddish school and religious school (talmud torah). He attended Yiddish school until 1940. He also speaks about his and his family's life during World War II. His mother worked at a cotton factory during Soviet occupation. Lipovetskiy's family evacuated together with factory workers to Chechnya, where they stayed for two years. His father was drafted into the Red Army. He then describes the evacuation experience working on kolkhozy in different places, including Kizlyar, Dagestan and Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan, Lipovetskiy stayed until 1944.
33:00
Lipovetskiy speaks about his life and work as school teacher after the war. He then discusses contemporary religious life and his family, before talking about his life today.
49:06
Lipovetskiy explains how his mother salted meat and talks about his family. His parents were also born in Chişinău.
53:54
Lipovetskiy talks about his family. He grew up with two sisters and one brother. He also touches upon prewar Passover celebrations and his talmud torah school education.
9:26
The formal interview with Kishlyansky begins. He provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was a leather worker. Kishlyansky grew up with one sister and one brother. He worked as commodity deliverer.
14:06
Kishlyansky discusses his childhood memories of Jewish Briceni. He speaks about prewar religious life, prayer customs and his family's observance. In particular, he addresses Sabbath celebrations at home.
28:43
Kishlyansky sings a Yiddish song about Petrograd. He then speaks about his family. His mother was a tailor. He then sings a Yiddish song about a couple in love, he remembered from his mother. Kishlyansky then shares anecdotes from prewar Jewish life.
45:27
Kishlyansky speaks about his family's life and return after the war.
49:10
Kishlyansky talks about his life and work after the war. He was married in 1946. He also speaks about his family. Kishlyansky's son lives in Canada. Kishlyansky then addresses his life today.
10:57
The camera cuts to the formal interview with Abramovich. She shows a Passover cup, she inherited from her great-grandmother. She also addresses personal letters between her great-grandfather and Sholem Aleichem.
15:38
Abramovich talks about visiting Sholem Aleichem's house. She then speaks about her father's studies at a conservatory in Odessa. Abramovich published a book about her great-grandfather called "Наш Менделе" (our Mendele).
21:40
Abramovich speaks about her family, in particular her father's work. She then shows manuscripts by Mendele's daugther about the encounter of Mendele and Sholem Aleichem.
29:37
Abramovich tells episodes about her great-grandfather.
0:00
Roif speaks about a relative's fate in the late war period of World War II. Her cousin was saved by the Red Cross in 1943. She then speaks about her family.
8:46
Roif speaks about her family.
21:55
Roif talks about her family. She has a half-sister and half-brother. She then returns to prewar holiday celebration. Roif also speaks about her life after the war. She speaks about the relationship between Jews and non-Jews on the kolkhoz, which her husband ran. Roif explains how she and her husband traveled to the neighboring village for kosher slaughter.
34:44
Roif speaks about her life and work after the war. She worked as mathematics teacher. She then speaks about her family. Roif's half-brother lives in Israel.
36:58
Roif addresses prewar Hasidism. She remembers stories from her mother-in-law. She then speaks about her life during World War II, imprisoned in the Dubyna forced labor camp. Roif mentions that her husband would frequently leave the camp, whereas she stayed inside. Roif also addresses her husband's business travels.
41:15
Roif sings a Yiddish song about a Jewish girl from Edineț who converted. The song is from the viewpoint of the girl's mother and Roif remembers the song from her childhood. Roif then talks about her family.
33:45
Roif talks about her and her husband's life, specifically their apartment, after the war. Roif also mentions that her husband often intervened as mediator in court cases.
38:00
Roif talks about her family. She also provides personal information.
2:18
The formal interview begins. Gordin provides personal information and talks about his family. Gordin's parents were born in Velyka Kisnytsya, Ukraine. His parents escaped the Petliura pogroms in 1919 and moved to Flore?ti. Gordin's father worked as loader at the railway. Gordin grew up with two brothers, although his mother gave birth to five children.
18:58
Gordin speaks about life and infrastructure in Florești. He then talks about his family.
43:33
Gordin addresses his return to Floresti after the liberation by the Red Army. His father was drafted into the Red Army for the second time an died at the front in 1944. He then speaks about his life after the war and recalls the Hunger of 1946. Gordin continues his education at a Russian school and then joined the Red Army for three years, serving in the Russian Far East. Gordin then studied chemistry at the Vladivostok University until 1963. He then worked as chemstry and physics teacher at a village school for one year, before moving to Chi?inau for graduate studies. After his graduation, Gordin worked as chemist at a furniture factory for two years. Gordin also worked at a trade institute, a mirror factory, as well as a window and door factory.
56:42
Gordin speaks about his life and family today. He was married in 1965 and raised a son, who lives in Israel. Gordin also mentions his visit to Israel. Gordin's two brothers also live in Israel.
0:00
Gordin speaks about his life and livlihood today. He also speaks about his family and contemporary Jewish life, including local institutions.
0:00
Sherman provides personal information and talks about his family. He attended secondary school in Orhei (Yiddish: Uriv). Sherman's father owned a leather shop. Sherman grew up with two sisters and two brothers. Sherman also addresses his family's fate during World War II.
5:42
Sherman speaks about his family. His grandmother owned a hardware shop. He then speaks about his life during World War II. Sherman describes his family's evacuation on a cart to Sineşti in 1941. They continued their journey on foot to the Grigoriopol district. Sherman explains that they crossed the Dniester river with the help of a Christian carter on a boot in order to get to Grigoriopol. Sherman eventually reached Stalingrad and evacuated further on a barge across to the Caspian Sea to Fort-Shevchenko, Kazakhstan. In Fort-Shevchenko, Sherman worked at a fish factory, before being drafted for his military service. In the Red Army, he moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he repaired train cars. Sherman then moved from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to Moscow, where he helped building a bridge. He then describes his daily life and work. From Moscow, Sherman moved to the Sverdlovsk district and then Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. In both places, he was working in bridge construction.
13:00
Sherman speaks about his life after the war. He moved from Dnepropetrovsk to Bălţi, Moldova, where he worked as teacher. His family then moved to Chernivtsi and worked as chief accountant. In 1956, Sherman was married and moved to Chişinău. In Chişinău, he worked as chief accountant and then contract engineer. Sherman then speaks about his education. After graduation from high school, Sherman completed accountant courses and then studied at an institute in Moscow.
24:48
Sherman speaks about his childhood memories. He recalls how his older sister read from Sholem Aleichem's books at home. Sherman then discusses Bessarabian Yiddish writers.
31:34
Sherman speaks about prewar religious life, specifically Hasidism. He recalls how his mother went to see a rebbe to get blessing for her home. He
35:10
Sherman addresses his father's observance and prayer customs.
44:00
Sherman speaks about his life before the war. He also speaks about his family. His parents were born near Telenești. Sherman then mentions how he met his wife in Orhei and was married before the war.
0:00
Sherman speaks about his family and life after the war. He mentions his collection of Yiddish songs. He then speaks about his education in cheder before the war.
28:56
Sherman shares an anecdote about Jewish life. He then talks about his family and his life before the war. Sherman's two brothers, sister and mother made aliyah after the war.
0:00
Diner provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was an accountant and was shot in 1941. Diner grew up with one sister and one brother. Her mother was born in Edineț.
3:58
Diner talks about her life during World War II. During Soviet occupation, she was sent to Sibiria in 1941. Diner talks about her father's political activities, founding a Jewish party in the Romanian parliament.
5:59
Diner speaks about her life and education in Fălești before the war. She attended a Romanian primary school four years and secondary school for four years. She also speaks about her family. Diner explains his father's work as mediator.
14:27
Diner speaks about her life before the war and leisure activities. She then talks about her family, as well as literature.
20:46
Diner speaks about her life before the war and recalls her mother's cooking. Diner moved to Chișinău in 1965. She then talks about her siblings' visits during the summer, when they studied at the conservatory.
32:47
Diner addresses prewar holiday celebration, including Purim and Passover. She also talks about her family and recalls her grandfather's observance. Diner then discusses her childhood memories and shares an episode from a non-Jewish holiday celebration, for which her mother sewed costumes. Diner then shares more stories about her interaction with her grandfather.
0:00
Diner talks about her life during and after the war. She was imprisoned in a Soviet gulag for three years during the war and spent two years in the Mykolayiv prison. Diner was caught in Mykolayiv, escaping the gulag in 1954 and sentenced to seven years. She explains that she was released from prison in 1956. Diner also speaks about her family. Diner then speaks about life in prison and fellow prisoners, as well as shows her handicraft, she made during the imprisonment. Diner then shows her booklet, in which she collected poems and songs during this period.
27:04
Diner speaks about food customs, including dishes, at home before the war. She then speaks about her family, particularly her sister's biography.
31:25
Diner speaks about her life after the war, following her release from prison. She married a non-Jewish man and worked at 32:38 as engineer 32:53. Diner does not have children.
38:20
The team concludes the formal part of the interview with Diner. She then speaks about her family. Diner states that she was taught how to read in Romanian by her sister at the age of four.
1:58
The formal interview with Mitlaeva begins. She provides personal information and talks about her family. Mitlaeva's father was born in Tiraspol and passed away in 1936. He was a merchant. Her mother was born in Novoselytsia, Ukraine. Mitlaeva grew up with two brothers and one sister.
4:28
Mitlaeva speaks about her life after the war. She taught at a school in Chudei, Ukraine, for ten years. She recalls Baptist locals. Mitlaeva worked in Varenikovsky, Kuban region, and then received a work assignment for Velikaya, Russia. She was married to a non-Jew.
9:13
Mitlaeva talks about her family. She then addresses her educaton and work before the war. Mitlaeva was trained as language teacher for Russian, Romanian, French and German at the local French lyceum. She also recalls a Latin proverb. Mitlaeva taught Romanian at a private Yiddish school, owned by the Vakhman family.
38:48
Mitlaeva talks about prewar religious customs and synagogue services. She also touches upon Sabbath celebrations and remembers family friends before the war.
5:31
Mitlaeva talks about her family. Her son and sister live in Israel.
12:39
Mitlaeva speaks about her family. She then talks about her work as teacher after the war and discusses languages.
0:00
Muchnik provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father owned a leather/shoe shop and was also born in Orhei. Muchnik's mother was born in Chiştelniţa. Muchnik grew up with two brothers, both of whom moved to Israel, and one sister.
8:20
Muchnik discusses her childhood memories, as well as prewar holiday celebrations at home. She points out her father's observance and mentions that her parents were killed in Orhei during World War II. She then speaks about her family. Muchnik's older brother moved to Eretz Yisrael in 1930 and returned for his younger brother in 1935. She also touches upon childhood games.
17:25
Muchnik addresses her education and work after World War II. She studied at a technical school and worked as financial consultant for thirty years. She then speaks about her family.
0:00
Muchnik speaks about her life before the war and talks about her family. In particular, she speaks about her brother, who prepared his aliyah to Eretz Yisrael as chalutz.
28:57
Muchnik speaks about her education at the local tarbut school. She sings a song, written by Hayim Nahman Bialik. Muchnik then talks about individual family members, who faced state persecution in during the 1940s and 1950s.
34:07
Muchnik speaks about postwar Yiddish culture in Orhei. She recalls performances by Sidi Tal. Muchnik then speaks about her family's and local's fate during World War II.
44:03
Muchnik discusses her childhood home and family's observance. In particular, she addresses the generational gap between her Hasidic grandfather and her non-Hasidic father.
47:16
Muchnik answers questions about cultural terminology. She then speaks about her maternal wealthy grandfather. Muchnik then shares episodes about prewar local life and recalls a non-Jew who got along with locals.
57:11
Muchnik explains family photographs and speaks about her life today, as well as mentions artifacts for the local museum. Muchnik also talks about her sister's studies.
2:09
Muchnik talks about prewar Yiddish cultural life, as well as her family. According to her, there was a local Yiddish drama circle in Orhei.
48:06
Abelsky addresses his childhood in Moscow and his family. Abelsky's father was a kosher butcher. He also addresses prewar holiday celebration and describes underground religious life before the war. Abelsky then addresses contemporary religious life.
57:50
Abelsky shares stories about his grandfather, who was the chief Hasidic rabbi of Moscow, he heard from different people. He then shares stories about prewar Hasidic life, he heard from his father.
0:00
Goldman provides personal information and talks about his family. He also addresses his father's fate during World War II. Goldman's father, who was born in Cărpineni 3:05, was a merchant. His mother was born in Ialoveni. Goldman grew up with two sisters in Ialoveni.
11:38
Goldman talks about his life during World War II. He evacuated to Kazakhstan and was drafted for his military there and served until 1946. Goldman left the army with the rank of major. Goldman then briefly speaks about his personal life and how he met his wife Khone. They were married and lived in Ialoveni before the war and moved to Chișinău after the war.
0:00
Goldman speaks about her life today during the postwar Soviet period and her family.
1:04
The formal interview with Goldman begins. She provides personal information and speaks about her family. Goldman's father was also born in Chişinău and worked as driver during the Romanian period and as railway constructor. Goldman grew up with one sister and one brother. Her sister died before the war and her brothe was killed during the war. Goldman moved to Romania in 1938.
4:25
Goldman speaks about her family and briefly her life before the war. She also addresses her life during World War II. She moved to Bukarest in 1938. Goldman evacuated to the North Caucasus, where she reunited with her brother, and stayed there until 1942. Goldman then explains how she evacuated further. Her father was injured and her mother was killed during evacuation.
7:57
Goldman speaks about her family. Her paternal uncle moved to Israel. She also touches upon her life before the war. After graduating from professional school in 1938, Goldman lived in Bukarest, Romania, to find work and stayed two years.
28:19
Goldman speaks about her family. In particular, she addresses her father's observance and artifacts. She also talks about a contemporary Jewish museum in Chişinău. Goldman then provides more information on the professional school.
32:16
Goldman talks about her life before the war and mentions the streets she lived on. Goldberg worked in Bukarest, Romania, as tailor for two years, until 1940. She then describes her life in Bukarest. Goldman raised a son.
35:43
Goldman discusses her childhood memories and recalls how her mother koshered meat. She also mentions her family.
41:09
Goldman addresses contemporary religious life, before she talks about her work as tailor. Goldman's brother published a book.
54:30
Goldman answers questions about cultural terminology. She then addresses her father's observance, as well as her reading preferences. Goldman also lists Yiddish writers.
57:56
Goldman speaks about her mother's preparation of gefilte fish on Sabbath and beetroot soup on Passover.
0:46
The formal interview begins. They provide personal information and speak about their family. Benderskij's father, who was also born in Nisporeni, worked at his brother's vineyard. Benderskaia's father was a kosher butcher.
13:08
Benderskij talks about his family and his uncles' vineyard. He states that his uncles exported the wine to different countries.
17:03
Benderskij addresses prewar Jewish life in Nisporeni. According to him there were two synagogues and approximately four hundred people lived there. Benderskij also addresses his grandfather's observance. Benderskij worked as economist and Benderskaia was an accountant.
18:58
Benderskij talks about his family. They talk about their return home and mention that they gave their family members a proper burial in 1946. They then return to prewar religious life in Nisporeni.
23:57
Benderskaia speaks about prewar Jewish life and holiday celebration in Nisporeni. She also mentions her family and describes Sabbath celebrations and food customs at home. Benderskaia grew up with two brothers.
30:07
Benderskaia talks about her life before the war. She also speaks about her family and her father's persecution by the Romanian state. Benderskaia evacuated to Vladivostok, Russia, during World War II. Benderskij talks about his family and education before the war. He explains how he studied at religious school (cheder).
37:42
Benderskaia talks about life after the war. Benderskij then speaks about his family's vinyeard and wine production. They then remember prewar Passover celebrations, including food customs.
47:31
Benderskij addresses prewar religious life and describes how his grandfather frequently visited a rebbe in Chişinău.
50:34
Benderskaia speaks about food customs at home, particularly her mother's recipe for gefilte fish. Benderskij also recalls food customs at home.
59:17
They briefly speak about Jewish life in Nisporeni after the war. Benderskij and Benderskaia also touch upon their lives during the war. He evacuated to Kazakhstan. They also talk about their family.
11:59
Benderskij speaks about his return home, via Chișinău, in June 1944. He explains how he left Chișinău with his father to check upon their house in Nisporeni. They then speak about their family. Benderskij grew up as only child and Benderskaia grew up with two brothers.
14:19
Benderskaia speaks about her family, particularly her older brother's bar mitzvah, including food customs. She also touches upon traditional weddings and remember town musicians.
24:07
Benderskij and Benderskaia speak about Jewish life before the war, including drinking customs, occupational structure and family dishes. Benderskaia's mother was a tailor.
34:10
Benderskaia talks about her life during World War II. Her father worked as a secretary under the Soviet occupation. She explains how her family evacuated from Nisporeni with a horse and wagon to Reclushen 36:37, on foot to Verkhnodniprovsk, Ukraine; by train to Vladimir (Volgograd (Stalingrad) province); Taskhkent and Andijan, Uzbekistan. She recalls how her brother went missing and bombing in Moldova. Benderskaia also describes her and her family's life in Uzbekistan. In Andijan, she worked on a kolkhoz until 1944.
49:38
Benderskaia talks about her return to Nisporeni and life after the war. Her family rented an apartment at a Christian house, before living in two different houses, her family owned. Benderskij also speaks about his life after the war under Soviet occupation. They raised one son.
1:05
Dajch provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was born in Făleşti and passed away when Dajch was three years old. He worked as deliverer. Dajch's mother was also born in Nisporeni. She grew up with four sisters and one brother. Dajch's sister made aliyah.
7:23
Dajch discusses childhood memories of her grandparents. She also speaks about her life after her father passed away. Dajch's step-father owned a grocery shop, where she helped out.
10:30
Dajch speaks about her life before the war. She attended a middle school and also worked for a tailor. Dajch then worked different jobs, including at a bank (at the age of thirteen), law office, the city hall and in Iași from 1931 until 1936. Dajch then describes her return home, to Nisporeni, to work in her sister's shop. Among otherh things, Dajch sewed clothes. Her sister was married to a chalutz and they earned money to make aliyah.
13:00
Dajch speaks about her family's life before the war. She also remembers presentations, organized by Zionist organizations. Dajch describes how her sister and brother-in-law attended meetings for chalutzim.
16:37
Dajch addresses her childhood memories and education. She attended a Romanian school, starting at the age of six. Dajch then speaks about her mother's observance and describes religious customs at home.
33:26
Dajch speaks about her life before the war and describes how she met her husband, who spent a year in prison in 1940. She then recalls her first visit to Chișinău. Dajch also lived in Hînceştii before the war. After the war, she worked as accountant in Nisporeni and moved to Chișinău in 1957.
44:20
Dajch speaks about her family, particularly her mother's observance. She also mentions how her mother married off successfully her daughters. She then speaks about life before the war and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
46:48
Dajch recites the poem again. She also addresses her childhood memories and speaks about her family.
49:36
Dajch sings a song in Romanian. She then speaks about her mother's work.
0:00
Dajch speaks about life today, as well as how her mother practiced folk customs.
12:21
Dajch answers questions about cultural terminology and from the dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She then talks about her family.
0:00
Rotner provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father worked at a bank and then as merchant.
3:51
Rotner talks about her family's life during World War II. She describes her evacuation through Balta, Ukraine. Rotner then speaks about her family. Her sister moved to America. Rotner grew up with one sister.
7:34
Rotner speaks about her life and education before the war. She attended a Romanian secondary school and studied at a religious school (cheder) beforehand. She also addresses the relationship between Jews and Christians. Rotner then recalls prewar religious life and observance within her family.
10:12
Rotner talks about prewar holiday celebration and food customs, particularly Sukkot, Passover, Sabbath, Hanukkah and Purim. She recalls how her grandfather prepared food for neighbors on Passover and her father bought matzo in Orhei. Rotner also speaks about her life before the war and explains how her mother koshered meat.
19:28
Rotner talks about prewar Jewish life, including occupational structure. Rotner's father owned a vineyeard and she recalls harvesting grapes in the summer time. Rotner remembers young chalutzim in town. Rotner then talks about her family and briefly addresses her leisure activities.
27:29
Rotner speaks about her family, as well as prewar Jewish institutions. She then addresses her childhood memories of her father traveling to Orhei.
34:20
Rotner discusses folk customs and answers questions about cultural terminology. Rotner then speaks about her family. She raised a daughter.
39:58
Rotner speaks about her return home and life after the war. She moved to Chișinău in 1945, after staying in her home village for two days. She also addresses her family's fate during the war and mentions how Rotner's father gave her grandfather a proper burial in Orhei. Rotner's family moved in with an acquaintance for one year. Rotner also addresses her work during evacuation.
48:51
Rotner talks about her family. She also discusses newspapers and books, she remembers from her childhood.
51:39
Rotner recalls childhood games and describes her father's vineyard.
56:19
Rotner speaks about life before the war, including fashion. She also returns to her father's vineyard and addresses her school education. Rotner then speaks about her family. Her sister moved to America.
0:00
Rotner addresses Yiddish dialects and answers questions about cultural terminology. Rotner also mentions her family.
7:54
Rotner shares her mother's recipe for gefilte fish. She then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also addresses her family's life before the war (28:00).
3:36
Manevich speaks about her life before the war. She then talks about her family. Her parents were also born in Tiraspol. Manevich's father worked at a mechanical plant. She also describes her grandparent's home.
11:19
Manevich speaks about her family, particularly her siblings. She grew up with two sisters and one brother. Her sisters live in Israel and America. Manevich's brother, who was an officer in the Red Army, died during World War II.
20:13
Manevich speaks about her life during World War II in evacuation in Central Asia. She then returns to her school education at the Yiddish school, before recalling her grandparent's visits.
25:43
Manevich speaks about her family and life before the war. She also touches upon Yiddish literature. She then talks about prewar holiday celebration at home. Manevich also lists non-Jewish holidays.
39:16
Manevich speaks about her life after the war during the Soviet period. She moved to Chişinău in 1955. Manevich raised a daughter.
47:24
Manevich speaks about her family in Bender.
49:41
Manevich briefly talks about her life during World War II, before addressing her family. She also touches upon religious customs.
0:00
Fershtman provides personal information and talks about his family. They moved to Odesa when Fershtman was thirteen years old. Fershtman's father was also born in Pishchanka and worked as accountant in an artel. His mother was born in Kodema, Ukraine, and was already married once before. Fershtman grew up with two half-brothers and two brothers.
18:20
Fershtman speaks about Jewish life in Pishchanka before the war. He also remembers his childhood friends and languages of communication. Fershtman then talks about his family.
25:23
Fershtman speaks about prewar holiday celebration at home. He again addresses his education at the Yiddish school and also talks about prewar religious life. Fershtman mentions his relative Berl Fershtman, a local Yiddish writer.
36:24
Fershtman speaks about his family and recalls songs from his childhood. He then speaks about his life in Odesa, including school education.
38:47
Fershtman speaks about prewar cultural life in Odesa, including the Yiddish theater, where his cousin worked.
0:00
Rojtman provides personal information and speaks about her family. Her mother was also born in Vadul Raşcov. Rojtman's father was born in Rezina and was a worker. Rojtman grew up with one brother, who died in evacuation.
6:15
Rojtman speaks about her recent visit to Vadul Raşcov. She also addresses prewar Jewish life in town. She then returns to her family. Her paternal grandparents moved to Argentina before World War II. Rojtman also has relatives in Israel.
12:05
Rojtman talks about her life and education before the war. She attended a Romanian primary school for four years and then studied at a Romanian secondary school in Botoșani. Rojtman mentions a letter exchange between herself and her grandfather in Yiddish. She then recites a poem in Romanian.
13:57
Rojtman discusses her childhood memories and recalls her friends. She then addresses prewar cultural life, as well as her private religious education. Rojtman also speaks about her family's observance and prewar holiday celebration, particularly Passover, at home.
52:15
Rojtman speaks about her life after World War II. She is physician. Rojtman then talks about her family and prewar Jewish life. Rojtman also describes her father's work as merchant.
0:00
Rojtman talks about her family. She also addresses contemporary antisemitism.
4:17
Rojtman speaks about her life after the war. She arrived in Chișinău in January 1945. She then speaks about her traditional wedding in 1946. Rojtman also speaks about her family. Rojtman worked as medical doctor for forty-two years.
17:53
Rojtman speaks about her childhood home, as well as her family. Rojtman in particular describes her mother's charity.
0:00
Yaruskaya provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father, who was born in Chișinău, worked as painter and her mother was also born in Hâncești. Yaruskaya grew up with one sister. She raised two sons, one of whom lives in America.
20:44
Yaruskaya speaks about her travels to Lithuania. She then speaks about her family and holiday celebration.
26:10
Yaruskaya talks about her life and education before the war. She attended a Romanian school for six years. Yaruskaya also speaks about her famil y and mentions her father's communist activities.
34:34
Yaruskaya speaks about her life after the war. Her family moved to Türkmenbaşy, where they worked at a factory. She left the city in 1949 and moved to Chișinău.
36:22
Yaruskaya recalls Yiddish proverbs and songs. She then addresses her childhood memories of prewar Jewish Hâncești. Yaruskaya also talks about her family. She raised three sons. They live in Israel and America.
43:12
Yaruskaya answers questions about cultural terminology. She then addresses folk and healing customs. Yaruskaya recalls her mother practicing them and explains how older Jewish women poured lead to get rid of a scare. She then speaks about prewar traditional weddings, including food customs.
48:30
Yaruskaya talks about contemporary religious life, before discussing different periods of her life. She then talks about her family.
49:55
Yaruskaya speaks about her life after the war. She was trained as motor-mechanic, but worked as conductor and dispatcher in a bus terminal for thirty-six years. She then talks about her family and contemporary religious customs.
52:59
Yaruskaya talks about her life today and visits to America, as well as Israel. She then recalls prewar holiday celebration, including Sukkot Purim and Yom Kippur, at home. Yaruskaya remembers how her father played an instrument on Purim.
58:44
The concludes the formal part of the interview with Yaruskaya. She returns to prewar Jewish life in Hâncești and describes how she and her siblings brought food to poor families.
0:00
Shmid talks about her family.
3:18
Shmid speaks about her family. Her brother moved to America in 1916. She raised one daughter. She then addresses her childhood memories of her family's life, specifically her father's work in agriculture.
7:19
Shmid addresses prewar holiday celebration at home. She recalls going to synagogue services on Yom Kippur in Chișinău. She then speaks about her life and education before the war. Shmid attended a primary school at the age of seven. After finishing four years of school, she moved to her sister's in Chișinău and continued studying. Shmid's sister owned a bakery.
9:03
Shmid speaks about prewar Jewish life in Onitskan Orgeyev and describes her father's work. Shmid's family owned a shop. According to her, three families lived in the village. She then speaks about prewar Passover celebrations at home.
12:26
Shmid talks about her family. She describes how her parents met in the village. She then talks about her life at the beginning of World War II, when she evacuated. Shmid returns to her family and also addresses life today.
17:20
Shmid addresses her childhood and games. She then talks about her family, particularly her mother and siblings.
24:06
Shmid talks about her life in Chișinău before the war. She attended a Yiddish professional school. Shmid was married in Chișinău. She also touches upon her education at the professional school.
29:09
Shmid talks about her life today, as well as her family. She then speaks about prewar holiday celebration in her home village. Shmid describes how the community hired a cantor for Rosh Hashana. She then addresses Purim celebrations in Onitskan Orgeyev and Chișinău.
43:15
Shmid talks about her life after World War II. She then describes her traditional wedding before the war. Shmid then talks about her family's life and holiday celebration before the war. Shmid particularly points to her parents' observance. She also addresses again how the community hired a cantor on the High Holidays, who performed in the local mill. She explains how a room in the mill was turned into the prayer room.
59:18
Shmid speaks about her life today. She then speaks about drinking customs in her family and traveling to the city before the war.
8:51
Shmid talks about her family's life before the war. She then addresses her family, before answering questions about cultural terminology.
12:19
Shmid talks about Purim celebrations and food customs. She then talks about her father's work and grocery shop, before remembering her mother.
16:15
Shmid addresses prewar non-Jewish life. She then talks about her family. Her brother left for Eretz Yisrael at the age of eighteen.
20:11
Shmid speaks about prewar Purim celebrations and food customs. She also addresses Sabbath celebrations at home. She then speaks about her family.
24:31
Shmid talks about her education and work. After the war, she worked at a sewing factory. Shmid also talks about her family.
28:49
The formal interview with Gordin begins. He talks about his family, as well as prewar Purim and Passover celebrations. Gordin's two brothers made aliyah.
32:44
Gordin provides personal information, before addressing prewar Simchat Torah celebrations. He then talks about his family.
36:39
Gordin speaks about his life during World War II. He also speaks about his family.
40:56
Gordin speaks about his life after the war. He states that his mother died during the Hunger of 1946/47. He graduated from school in 1955 and then joined the Red Army. Gordin studied chemistry in Vladivostok, Russia, and then Chișinău. He worked as chemical engineer at a furniture factory.
45:52
Gordin talks about prewar religious life in Florești. He then addresses his return to Florești after the war. He was married in 1965 and raised a son, who lives in Israel. Gordin then talks about his family.
0:00
Leibelman, nee Shteynberg, talks about a book Moldavian ghettos, she was interviewed for. She then provides personal information and talks about her family. Her grandfather worked in a quarry. Her mother was born in 3:25, Yampol region, Ukraine. Her mother married her father, who already a son and a daughter. Her father worked as 6:00.
12:01
Leibelman talks about Jewish life in her hometown Libshen, Rezina district, where three Jewish families lived. She then discusses her education. Leibelman attended a Romanian school and then moved to Rezina in 1932, continuing her studies at another Romanian school and lived with her aunt. She remembers the local religious teacher (melamed). Leibelman talks about prewar Jewish life in Rezina, in particular recalls great poverty. She then discusses her aunt’s traditional wedding. Her aunt’s daughter lives in America. She then remembers parts of a wedding song. Leibelman returns to talking about her hometown and antisemitism in the 1930s during Easter.
34:10
Leibelman talks about her family and life after the war. She had to take care of her mother after the war for twenty-three years. Leibelman worked as an assistant to the director at a draft office in Dubăsari. Leibelman and her husband moved to Dubăsari in 1956. She explains how her husband could not continue working at a school in Rezina due to flooding.
38:12
Leibelman discusses her childhood memories. She played with Jewish and non-Jewish friends. Leibelman recalls how her family would not allow her to play with non-Jewish children in the neighboring village. She then talks about food customs for holiday celebrations, before she addresses her mother’s observance and story-telling from the Tkhine (Yiddish-language prayer book) on Sabbath. Her family bought the kosher meat in Rezina. Her mother was a seamstress.
57:38
Leibelman talks about holiday celebration and her husband Yurkl (Yankl, Yasha), born 1920 in Rezina, who worked as a mechanic. She also recalls stories about Hershele Ostropoler.
0:00
Leibelman talks about her family, in particular her husband. She recalls a story about the Jews of Rascov and another story about a wealthy man. She then remembers the Ribnitzer rebbe Chaim Zanvl Abramowitz, before she discusses meetings organized by the Tarbut school in Rezina. Leibelman also mentions that she read in Yiddish “Afn yerid” before the war.
6:56
Bludoy talks about his family. The team then talks to Moyshe Roznshteyn, Shaya Bortnik, and Leyb Brekhman. Brekhman talks about contemporary Jewish life and his family. Bortnik talks about Hasidism before the war.
18:52
The second part of the tape is a formal interview with Maria (Manye) Leibovna Kleyman, recorded in Lipcani. Kleyman, nee Shnayder, was born 1928 in Starye Karkushany, twelve kilometers from Lipcani. She talks about her life after the war. Kleyman was imprisoned in a ghetto for three years and then returned home with her parents after the war. She got married in the village, before moving to Lipcani in 1953. Her younger son was born in 1959 and Kleyman’s parents moved sold their house in the village and joined her family in 1961.
20:56
Kleyman talks about her family. Her mother was born in Secareni* (21 15 21 26) and her father in Starye Karkushany. She raised two sons (one lives in Germany) and one daughter (lives in Ukraine). Kleyman’s father was a trader in machines and her mother worked as a modiste (milliner). She grew up with a sister.
25:57
Kleyman talks about Jewish life before the war. In particular, she explains how people visited the rebbe of Stefanesti to consult about antisemitism. Kleyman then shares an episode about how her mother-in-law consulting the rebbe.
32:59
Kleyman talks about her husband and his life during the war. In particular, she addresses his charity work.
43:54
Kleyman talks prewar Hasidic life and rebbes, before she discusses her childhood memories. She then remembers an encounter after the war with a former boss of her father’s on a kolkhoz. Kleyman returns to the rebbe of Stefanesti and recalls another episode of an encounter with him. She then talks about the history of Jews in Stryy, Ukraine, during the war.
MDV 187Maria Leibovna Kleyman; Iosif (Yosel) Matveyevich Shvartzman; Raisa Aizekovna ShvartzmanLipcani, 2005
0:56
Kleyman talks about life today, before she talks about her life in the ghetto. In particular, she addresses the period in the Kasarulitser* woods, where her family stayed for three days to wait for her mother to recover. Kleyman explains how only people who could walk were allowed to cross over to Ukraine, whereas sick people were shot in the woods.
8:53
Kleyman talks about her family and life today. She raised two sons and a daughter. Her husband was the breadwinner in her family. She then talks about “Jewish houses” in Lipcani and how Kleyman’s mother-in-law reclaimed her house after the war.
14:22
The third part of the tape is a formal interview with Iosif (Yosel) Matveyevich Shvartzman and his wife Raisa Aizekovna Shvartzman, born 1932 in Lipcani. The team sets up the interview with Iosif, born 1930 in Lipcani. He provides personal information and talks about his family. His father, a kosher butcher, and his mother, also a kosher butcher, were born in Lipcani. He grew up with three brothers and one sister.
24:22
Iosif talks about his life during the war. He was ultimately sent to the Bershad ghetto, where he was imprisoned for four years. Iosif explains how Jews from Lipcani were assembled in Briceni, sent to Ukraine for a few months, then Moldova for a few months, and finally to Bershad. He talks about how his father was shot in front of his eyes and his mother and brother died in the ghetto. Iosif was liberated in 1944.
32:18
Iosif returns to his life during the war. He recalls how his father was shot by a Romanian gendarme on the way to the Bershad ghetto. Iosif then explains how to play nuts and addresses non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
35:27
Iosif talks about his traditional wedding and his work as a sausage maker. (41:00) He describes how he made “Jewish sausages.” Raisa then talks about their family and life today. They raised a son and a daughter. Their granddaughter lives in Israel.
43:50
Iosif talks about life before the war, in particular the market. He then talks about his family during the war and life in the Bershad ghetto. He remembers the beatings of Romanian gendarmes and how Ukrainians helped out the prisoners with food. He returned home from the Bershad ghetto with his sister and found their home burned.
48:52
The formal interview with Raisa begins. She talks about her family during the war. She grew up with three sisters and brother. She lost family members in the Bershad ghetto and stayed on a pig farm in Obodovka beforehand. Raisa then talks about her life after the war. After her return to Lipcani, she worked as a cleaner until she got married at 17. She then describes Iosif’s work as a sausage maker.
54:41
Raisa talks about prewar holiday celebration, including food customs, and her family. Her blind grandmother was burned in the ghetto. She then explains a recipe for gefilte fish and tzimmes, before Raisa talks about life today.
0:00
Raisa talks about life today and her husband’s accordion playing at non-Jewish weddings. They then discuss Yiddish songs and talk about religious life today. She mentions her son’s wedding with a canopy in Lipcani. The rabbi came from Bricani.
MDV 189Raisa Aizekovna Shvartzman; Iosif Matveyevich Shvartzman; Elena (Leyke) Haimovna AkkermanEdineț, 2005
18:12
The second part of the tape is a formal interview with Elena (Leyke) Haimovna Akkerman, recorded in Edinet. Akkerman, nee Fuks, provides personal information and talks about her family. She was born 1918 in Edinet in the same house the interview takes place. Akkerman was the only child. Her father owned a shop and traded in different wares. She explains that one of his brothers was a wealthy man. She then talks about her life during the war. She evacuated with her husband, who worked as an accountant for a Ukrainian kolkhoz. The president of this kolkhoz helped the couple to evacuate. They evacuated to the Caucasus via Soroca. Akkerman and her husband stayed in Andijan, Caucasus, for half a year until the German front moved closer. The president of the kolkhoz sent a car, so the Akkermans could evacuate further. The car took them to the nearest train station, where the couple took a train to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The Akkermans worked in a factory for military goods.
23:50
Akkerman talks about her return to Edinet after eight years of evacuation in Uzbekistan. When Akkerman returned, she found a Christian family living in her house. Akkerman’s neighbors told the family that she lived there before the war and was then allowed to move in. The family vacated the house the next day. She then talks about her family. Her two sons learned the Yiddish language. Her step-maternal grandfather was a rabbi. Her birthmother died when Akkerman was very young.
30:36
Akkerman discusses her education. She attended a Romanian school in 30:40. She learned Russian together with her children until sixth grade. Akkerman then talks about her childhood memories. In particular, she recalls her step-mother and Jewish life in Edinet. Akkerman attended a religious school (cheder).
34:07
Akkerman talks about life today and her sons. She then discusses her childhood memories and talks about her own traditional wedding before the war. Her sons also had a traditional wedding after the war.
49:19
Akkerman talks about the rebbe of Stefanesti and recalls an episode with her father’s brother, who visited the rebbe. She then answers questions about cultural terminology and discusses Jewish cultural life before the war. Akkerman then talks about life after the war.
55:02
Akkerman talks about her family. Her son’s children live in Israel. She then talks life before the war, including non-Jews who spoke Yiddish and a prewar Yiddish newspaper, published in Edinet. She also addresses religious life and food customs.
0:00
Akkerman talks about her life during and before the war. She and her husband left for evacuation and her parents stayed in Edinet, where they did not survive the war. She then talks about life after the war and today, including her family.
3:03
Akkerman answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also addresses her husband’s work as an accountant in a factory for military goods in Uzbekistan (17:27). Before her husband was promoted, he worked in the lithic department together with Akkerman.
0:00
Mundrian provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was born in 01:25 Novoseltsy*. Her father owned a shop and delivered goods before the war. Mundrian grew up an only child, although her mother gave birth to two sons.
0:00
Mundrian talks about her family and prewar Jewish life in Susleny, which was a wealthy Jewish town according to her. Her mother worked in the hospital after the war.
4:16
Mundrian talks about her life after the war. She studied to become a wet nurse between 1953 and 1956 in Orhei and then worked as a nurse in a hospital. Mundrian then talks about prewar Jewish life and her family in Susleny.
6:12
Mundrian discusses her family’s life after the war, returning from evacuation in 1945. Her father died on the front during the war. Her family lived in Susleny until 1956. Mundrian’s cousins live in Israel. She got married in 1957. She also addresses her husband’s family.
34:16
Mundrian talks about prewar political organizations, particularly chalutzim, as well as life before the war and her family. She then addresses traditional weddings, Mundrian heard about from her mother.
59:28
Mundrian talks about her family and life after the war.
0:56
Kigel provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father owned a dairy shop; he was born in Chişinău. Her mother was born in Orhei. Kigel grew up with two sisters and one brother.
47:52
Kigel talks about life after the war, after she returned to Orhei in 1944. She and sisters returned from evacuation without their parents. In the immediate postwar period, Kigel worked in construction, carrying bricks, to build the bread factory. Following the construction work, Kigel worked as cashier and then forwarding agent.
55:00
Kigel talks about prewar life and her family. Her brother lives in Israel and her sister in Rezina. She then sings again the Yiddish song about growing old. Kigel recalls how her neighbors would listen to her parents singing.
4:17
Rapoport talks about prewar Jewish life and then provides personal information, as well as talks about his family. He was born 1945. His father and brother were imprisoned in the Domanyovka concentration camp, near Zaporozhye. Rapoport had four half-sisters and one half-brother. His grandparents and sisters were killed during World War II in camps. His mother was imprisoned in the Rîbniţa ghetto.
7:36
Rapoport talks about life after the war. His family was sent to Siberia (Irkutsk district) in 1949, as part of Stalin's antisemitic measures. His family returned in 1956. Rapoport maintains that he learned Yiddish in Siberia. He then talks about life after their return in 1956. Rapoport's father taught him how to pray.
1:54
The formal part of the interview begins. Grinshpun provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father, an accountant, was born in Lublin and her mother was born in Kobylna. She then talks about her childood in Kobylna and life during the war in evacuation. Her family evacuated to Don (4:30) and Kazakhstan when Grinshpun was four years old.
4:42
Grinshpun talks about her family and provides personal information. She then talks about life today. Grinshpun worked as a high school teacher for Romanian and French languages for 42 years.
8:48
Grinshpun talks about life today and her family during the war period. Grinshpun and her parents evacuated to Kazakhstan. Her father worked as an accountant before the war.
14:23
Grinshpun talks about life after the war. Her father worked in village for four years, before moving to 14:42, where he also worked as an accountant. She then talks about her family.
18:38
Grinshpun talks about life during evacuation and her family. According to her, the family fell sick with typhus. Her brother lives in Israel.
21:02
Grinshpun talks about prewar Jewish life in the village Kobylna. After Grinshpun attended for years of school, her family moved to Kotozhan 22:16. Grinshphan then turns to discussing childhood memories and her family abroad.
28:27
Grinshpun talks about her husband and life after the war. He raised animals, in particular rabbits. Grinshpun also addresses her son's life. She then discusses emigration.
36:00
Grinshpun talks about her father's praying and singing. Grinshpan talks about life after the war and her family. She moved to Peresecina in 1960.
56:44
Grinshpun talks about life after evacuation, after her family returned to Kobylna. Their former home was transformed into a health center and Grinshpun's family lived in a one room for a few months; before the property was returned to them.
0:00
Sharhorodskij talks about contemporary Jewish life in the region. The formal interview then begins and Sharhorodskij provides personal information. He also speaks about his family. His father, who was born in Rîbniţa, worked as tradesman. His mother was born in Rîbniţa. Sharhorodskij then talks about his grandparents, who lived in Tiraspol. Sharhorodskij grew up with two brothers, one of whom fell ill with scarlet fever in 1937, and a sister, who passed away in 1958. His oldest brother was drafted into the Red Army in 1939. Sharhorodskij continues that his brother was mortally wounded during the liberation of Crimea and died at a hospital in 1944.
37:51
Sharhorodskij talks about his family, particularly his sister. He also mentions again his German literature teacher and addresses his parents' observance.
54:59
Sharhorodskij speaks about Rabbi Yosef Ber and his deportation. He then speaks about prewar cultural life and his family, in particular his observant sister.
57:07
Sharhorodskij speaks about his family's life in the Rîbnita ghetto. In particular, he describes how his father went to the market twice a week and received help from his former business partners. Sharhorodskij also speaks about his sister's career. She lived in Israel.
0:00
Sharhorodskij shows a letter, written in Russian, from his sister in Israel.
0:00
Kotliar provides personal information and talks about her family. Her mother was born in Raşcov. Her father, who owned a shop, was born in Vadul-Raşcov. Kotliar grew up with a brother and a sister, who survived the war. Kotliar worked at a library after the war.
9:11
Kotliar discusses her childhood memories of Raşcov and her family. She also addresses childhood activities and a private tutor from Raşcov.
18:09
Kotliar describes prewar Jewish life in Rîbniţa. During the first few years of her childhood, Kotliar lived in the village Vărăncău, before her parents moved to Rîbniţa.Kotliar also recalls how her family moved to Rîbniţa.
44:27
Kotliar speaks about her life during World War II and her evacuation to Kogand, Uzbekistan. She mentions that her father worked at a phosphoric factory and her mother produced milk products 44:55. Kotliar then describes how her sister was taken to the hospital.
51:30
Kotliar speaks about folk customs and local healers. She remembers that her younger sister went to see a healer. Kotliar then answers questions about cultural terminology.
54:40
Kotliar talks about her family. She raised a son. Kotliar's father taught her how to dance. She then speaks about postwar religious life, particularly the Rîbniţa rebbe, as well as her childhood memories. Kotliar also mentions her family.
0:49
The formal interview with Boiarskaia begins. She provides personal information and talks about her family. She raised a son and a daughter. Her father was born in Ţîbuleuca and her mother in Rezina. Boiarskaia grew up with two sisters and three brothers, although her mother gave birth to nine children, she explains. Boiarskaia describes how her brother, who was the head of a local collective farm (kolkhoz), was shot during Stalinist repression in 1937. Her father was a worker at a local mill. One of her sisters lives in America.
18:00
Boiarskaia speaks about her family. Her father owned land and animals during the prewar Soviet period. She then speaks about her childhood home. Boiarskaia states that her parents stopped eating meat in the late 1930s, when local communal structures were signifcantly affected by Stalinist repressions. Boiarskaia arranged for parents to move from Ţîbuleuca to Rîbniţa one year before the war broke out.
21:34
Boiarskaia speaks about the Rîbniţa rebbe and his work as kosher butcher. She states that he attended her daughter's wedding and was their next-door neighbor for three years. Boiarskaia then speaks about her family.
27:27
Boiarskaia talks about healing and folk customs. She then speaks about her family and local cemeteries.
48:21
Boiarskaia mentions how she met her husband during the war. She then addresses occupational structure and political organizations in prewar Ţîbuleuca. Boiarskaia maintains that the family's cow saved them from hunger before the war. Boiarskaia then talks about the relationship between Jews and non-Jews before the war.
0:00
Boiarskaia speaks about a local intellectual, Dr. Yisroel Ayzen, who was also confined to the Vastavka ghetto. She then talks about her life at the beginning of the war, when her family fled Rîbniţa toward Krasni Okny in 1941. Boiarskaia describes how Dr. Ayzen collected valuables from the prisoners and was able to arrange a release. Boiarskaia's family returned to Rîbniţa.
0:29
The formal interview with Fanya Magetman, nee Lerner, begins. She provides personal information and talks about her childhood memories of prewar Vadu-Rashkovo. She then talks about her family. Her father owned a mill and a creamery. Her grandfather owned a creamery as well, which is still active today. Magetman grew up with two sisters.
4:46
Magetman discusses her childhood memories. In particular, she recalls how she and her parents visited the local tzadik. She then talks about her family, in particular her mother, who provided poor people with food on Sabbath.
10:44
Magetman discusses religious customs at home before the war and her family. She recalls Sabbath celebrations.
13:36
Magetman talks about her family's life during World War II. Her younger sister and mother were killed during the first bombings on July 8, 1941, according to her. Magetman and her father were injured and then imprisoned in the Chechelnyk ghetto, Vinnytsya district, from 1941 through 1944. Magetman continues that her father and grandmother froze to death on November 28, 1941. Magetman then explains how she lost her fingers in the ghetto, when the prisoners were forced out into the snow on the night of November 28, 1942 . According to her, forty people froze to death that night.
30:01
Magetman talks about her life after the war. She returned from the Chechelnyk ghetto with her sister and brother-in-law. She lived with her relatives until her wedding in 1953. She then talks about her family, in particular her husband, as well as life after the war. She raised two sons and worked as a teacher for 38 years in Soroca and additional years in surrounding towns.
12:33
The team concludes the interview with Magetman. She talks about her family. Her sister lives in Israel.
14:56
Plotnik, nee Vereta, provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was also born in Dumbraveno and owned land and an inn. Her mother helped out with the inn in Dumbraveno. Plotnik grew up with one sister. Plotnik worked as a telephone operator.
19:22
Plotnik talks about her childhood memories and prewar life in Dumbraveno. According to Plotnik, there were five synagogues (e.g. tailor's and German synagogue) and five hundred houses in the village. Plotnik's father passed away in 1934. She then talks about commemorating her father and returns to discussing prewar Jewish life. Her parents hired a private religious tutor during her early childhood.
26:13
Plotnik talks about her life during World War II. She recalls the beginnings of German occupation, when she and her mother were forced out of their home into the Rublenita ghetto. The Yiddish school in Soroca, her sister attended, was evacuated to Uzbekistan. Plotnik states that before her sister evacuated, she went home to ask her mother to join. Plotnik continues that her mother refused because she rather wanted to stay home than being a servant. Plotnik then talks about their forced marching through the village Rublenita, for ten days, the Bălți prison, for one night, and Vertiujeni for ten days. Plotnik adds that her grandmother lived in the village Lublin, nearby Vertiujeni. Plotnik then talks about the horrendous journey from Vertiujeni to Cosauti (by the Dniester River). On the way, her mother died and was thrown into a ravine, according to Plotnik. In Cosauti, Plotnik stayed for one night and then crossed over to Transnistria, toward Zugovka (Berezovka?) 34:50. She recalls shootings and the killing of a child, as well as remembers how she was received with food by the Jewish community of Zugovka. On the way to the ghetto Bershad, Plotnik joined a family, Friedman, from Dumbraveno. Before Plotnik reached Bershad, she stayed in a village of a former kolkhoz. She then talks about life in the Bershad ghetto, where she lived with locals, as well as the family from Dumbraveno. Plotnik maintains that she left the ghetto to beg for food for one year, before she worked at a liquor factor near Bershad. In order to get access to the factory, Plotnik dressed as a Christian. Plotnik recalls how the family's mother attempted suicide, while she went to get water for potatoes. Plotnik explains how she took care of a child.
43:03
Plotnik talks about life after the ghetto, when she returned home from the Bershad ghetto. She then talks about her family's life after the war, as well as her son.
54:58
Plotnik talks about her life after the war. She worked as a chief telephone operator for forty-five years. She then talks about her family's life before the war, in particular her grandmother.
22:26
Plotnik talks about prewar religious life, in particular Rabbi Shternberg. She explains how her father often quarreled with the rabbi.
37:26
Plotnik talks about life today. She raised a son.
14:38
The formal interview with Rolshut begins. She provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was born in Tomashpil and worked as a banker. Her mother was born in Soroca. She grew up with two sisters and also had a half-brother and half-sister.
18:46
Rolshut discusses her childhood memories and her education. She attended a Romanian school and graduated in 1936. Her mother passed away in 1927 and her father in 1928. She then talks about her family, in particular her husband, who served in the Red Army during the World War II. Rolshut got married in 1945 and her son was born in Germany. She also raised a daughter.
20:36
Rolshut talks about her family, in particular her husband. She explains how she met him through a friend from the Romanian school.
38:29
Rolshut talks about her return to Soroco after being imprisoned in the Rîbniţa ghetto. She explains how she got in touch with her then boyfriend. Her parents and siblings joined Rolshut in 1945 and then moved to 39:51.
MDV 205Meyer Khaimovich Furman; Tsipora Yankelevna Furman; Dina (Dine, Donye, Dosye, Dintse, Disele) Abramovna MirenburgBălți, Soroca, 2005
42:15
Mirenburg talks about her family. Her father, who owned six hectare land, was also born in Sguritzy and traded in grains. Her mother was a homemaker and owned a small grocery shop. Three of Mirensburg's cousins live in Israel. She then recalls her paternal grandmother and how she inherited a pair of earrings from her.
55:36
Mirenburg talks about her education at a Romanian school and her training at the medical institute in Soroca. Her father hired a private tutor from Soroca for Mirenburg's religious and Hebrew language education. Mirenburg grew up with two brothers and one sister.
15:57
Mirenburg talks about her family and about life before the war. She recalls how her mother sang Sabbath songs.
31:01
Mirenburg answers questions about cultural terminology. She then talks about her life during World War II, in particular addressing the year 1941. She describes the beginnings of the German occupation in 1941, when her relatives happened to visit her family and how Mirenburg's family was forced to leave the house. She recalls how a Romanian soldier shot into the house and almost hit her aunt. Mirenburg maintains that she went to check on her aunt, while her family left the house; and as soon as she came outside her family already departed. Mirenburg explains how she came across an older woman, with whom she looked for family. Mirenburg then describes how she looked for her family and encounters with Romanian soldiers. Mirenburg recalls how she saw familiar people dead on the way and finally reunited with her parents and siblings. She then talks about the forced march toward the Rubleniţa woods andr recalls how they received food from Christians in the surrounding villages. According to Mirenburg, they stayed in the woods for ten days, before marching to the Cosăuţi woods. She mentions a woman who gave birth and collecting groups for forced labor during the time in the Rubleniţa woods. Mirenburg then reflects on reasons why the Christian inhabitants of Cosăuţi and Rubleniţa did not admit to the cruelties happening to Jews during the war. She then continues with her life during the war. According to Mirenburg, they stayed in the Cosăuţi woods for ten days, before marching to Yampil, where they stayed for three days. Mirenburg talks about the time in Yampil, during which her mother went to town to get food and encountered a German soldier. Mirenburg continues that after three days abidance in Yampil, her family was allowed to return home to Sguritzy, where they stayed for another three days, before forced to gather in the local synagogue. Mirenburg recalls the conditions in the synagogue and talks about how they were sent to Vertiujeni, where they had to stay for two months. From Vertiujeni, Mirenburg explains, they were supposed to go to the Rîbniţa ghetto, but returned home instead.
0:00
Mirenburg talks about her life during the war. After she and her family returned home to Sguritzy, Mirenburg explains, how they were supposed to go the Rîbniţa ghetto, but went to Yampil instead. She recalls a family friend, who was injured. When they arrived in Yampil, Mirenburg's family moved further through different Ukrainian towns, including Myskivye 2:27, Dzyhivka, and Potashna. She describes the journey and how they received food from Jewish families. Mirenburg talks about their stay on the Potashna kolkhoz and the time she fell ill with typhus. Her younger brother died of typhus there. She then recalls what people on the kolkhoz told about the Bershad ghetto, which encouraged her family to move on to the Bershad ghetto. She also lost her youngest brother and father during the war. Mirenburg talks about how she begged for food in the surrounding villages for two weeks and the beatings she and her mother suffered. She then addresses life in the Bershad ghetto and her family. Mirenburg recalls a song non-Jewish boys in the surrounding villages would sing.
17:43
Mirenburg describes her liberation from the Bershad ghetto. She recalls interactions with Jewish partisans, who informed them about the liberation. In particular, Mirenburg remembers Yashe the Partisan. Mirenburg then talks about the losses of her family members and her life after the war in Soroca. She finished her school education.
33:02
Roif, nee Reiser, talks about contemporary Jewish life. She was born 1930 in Iași. She then addresses her childhood memories and her life before the war. She describes the interactions between her father-in-law and the Ştefăneşti rebbe. He lived in America for six years and returned a wealthy man, according to Roif.
38:21
Roif provides personal information and talks about her family. Three days after her birth, she was taken in by her paternal grandfather, who lived in Duruitoarea, because her mother was physically unable to take of Roif. She then discusses her childhood memories in Duruitoarea and her family. Roif recalls the family's involvement in agricultural work.
52:29
Roif talks about her life during the war. She explains how her family was first imprisoned in a ghetto near Rîşcani for three months, then Mărculeşti for two weeks, before being forced to march to the Cosăuţi woods, where the prisoners were supposed to cross the Dniester River over to Transnistria. Roif recalls mass shootings in the woods. Roif then describes the crossover to Transnistria and her family's fate during the war.
1:29
Plotnik talks about her family. Her father worked the land and owned an inn. Her parents were also born in Dumbraveno.
3:27
Plotnik talks about prewar Jewish life in Dumbraveno and her family. She also addresses contemporary religious life. In particular, she talks about life after her father passed away in 1934. Her sister attended school in Soroca.
7:44
Plotnik mentions her school education. She attended a Romanian school for six years. She recalls how the local rabbi came to teach at her school twice a week. She then returns to life before the war, including her family, and also mentions non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. Plotnik grew up with two sisters. Her half-sister moved to Israel. She then talks about her grandmother, who stayed in the village of Lublin during the war and was shot by a Romanian soldier. Her grandfather owned two watermills. Plotnik then talks about her grandparents' arranged marriage.
39:07
Plotnik talks about prewar Jewish life in Dumbraveno, in particular friends in the local Zionist youth organization. Her parents paid land workers. Her father produced wine for his inn.
51:21
Plotnik talks about Jewish life before the war, as well as addresses traditional weddings and religious institutions. She remembers how her mother would not allow her hang around weddings.
0:00
R., nee Gluzman, talks about prewar life in Soroca and her family. Her father was born in Dumbrăveni and was a tailor. She grew up with two brothers and one sister. During her childhood, her family moved to Soroca to provide good school education for her brother. She then provides personal information. Her sister moved with their mother to Israel.
5:10
R. talks about her school education. She attended a Romanian school and studied with a private religious tutor. R. recalls how her father read Yiddish journals and books at home, which were delivered by the mailman.
8:00
R. talks about her family. She describes her family's fate during the war and talks about life after the war. In particular, R. explains how she got in touch with her siblings.
26:59
R. talks about her family and continues with her daily experiences during the war.
31:38
R. talks about her family. Her mother was a seamstress and helped out her father. She then discusses her childhood memories of Jewish Soroca. Her brother attended a Tarbut school. R. mentions the Jewish youth organization "Gordonye."
5:37
R. talks about her family's move to Soroca before the war and talks about life in general.
17:51
R. talks about her life after the war in Chernivtsi. She then talks about her family and life today. R. raised a daughter, who lives in Soroca.
24:36
The camera collects footage of R.'s garden, while R. talks about life today and her family.
0:00
Nusbrokh talks about his life during the war, in particular the beginning of the war in 1941. He recalls how his family walked from Zguriţa to Soroca. He then describes the short stay in Soroca, the crossing of the Dniester toward Tsekynivka, eventually making it to Vapnyarka. In Vapnyarka, Nusbrokh continues, his family took a train into evacuation, headed to Novocherkasskiy.
2:18
Nusbrokh talks about his life in evacuation. He and his sister worked on a kolkhoz. Nusbrokh explains that he and his sister were sent to Rostov, where officials ordered the family to return home because the German front drew closer. He then describes their arrival in Soroca and the unbearable living conditions. His family evacuated again to Kazakhstan and worked there in agriculture.
12:27
Nusbrokh talks about his life after the war. He reunited with his sister and mother Zguriţa and worked there until 1948. He then talks about his life in Soroca, where he met his wife and worked as the chief accountant at a Soroca brewery. He and his wife raised two daugthers. At the beginning of this career, Nusbrokh studied at the 14:34 institute in Moscow, before returning to Soroca to continue his work at the brewery.
15:04
Nusbrokh talks about his family, specifically his wife, and life today. His daughters live in Israel and Donetsk. He also addresses the possibility to emigrate to Israel.
26:31
Nusbrokh talks about prewar holiday celebration and cultural life. The community collected Hanukkah gelt from shop owners, according to him. His sister and brother moved to Israel after the war. Nusbrokh then remembers the library in town, which also included Yiddish books.
49:38
Nusbrokh talks about his family. His father sold cattle and died before the war. He then talks about his life after the war, during the Soviet period.
0:00
The team arrives at the local synagogue and community center. Then the formal interview with Milevskaya begins. She talks about her family and life today. Milevskaya has children in America and Israel. She also discusses the use of the Yiddish language in her family, as well as the local contemporary Jewish community.
5:56
Milevskaya speaks about her family, before returning to community members.
10:31
Milevskaya provides personal information and speaks about her life after the war. She was a midwife. Milevskaya also speaks about her family. Her father was the director of a beer factory in Pervomayskoye and her mother was a German-language teacher. Milevskaya states that she only spoke Yiddish with her grandparents.
14:22
Milevskaya briefly addresses her family's return after the war and the encounter with their neighbor. She then returns to discussing her family. Her father grew up in an orphanage. Milevskaya moved with her husband to Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyy in 1970.
19:29
Milevskaya speaks about her family and remembers her mother's singing, as well as snippets of a Yiddish song. She also addresses her life today.
22:04
Milevskaya talks about her grandparents' observance and remembers her grandmother's cooking. She also addresses holiday celebration.
28:23
Milevskaya addresses her life during World War II. She evacuated with her mother, siblings and grandparents on a train toward Balta. She then talks about her family's return to her hometown. Milevskaya's father served in the Red Army and went all the way to Berlin. She also discusses her family.
36:16
Milevskaya talks about community members and life today. She also recalls former members of the community and talks about the beer factory her father worked at.
0:00
Dunaevskij provides personal information and talks about his family. His father, who was also born in Tighina, worked as an egg tester and passed away in 1945. His brother was buried at the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park, Berlin. He grew up with two brothers and one sister. Dunaevskij raised a daugther, who lives in Israel, as well as a son. His mother worked odd jobs to support the family.
6:28
Dunaevskij recalls how his grandmother told him stories about life and the Ştefăneşti rebbe. He then returns to talking about his family and his life before the war. His family lived in Ştefăneşti, Romania, from 1928 to 1940, and Dunaevskij attended a religious school (cheder). He then addresses prewar Jewish life in Ştefăneşti.
18:23
Dunaevskij talks about prewar religious life in Ştefăneşti and his family. He recalls how he learned prayers in cheder.
28:10
Dunaevskij talks about his family, particularly addressing his father's observance. He remembers snippets from Purim shpiels.
59:07
Dunaevskij talks about his family, in particular his daughter.
2:20
Klichinskaia talks about her family. Her father was born in Western Ukraine and worked as a cooper. She grew up with four siblings.
8:11
Klichinskaia talks about her family and holiday celebration, in particular Passover. She also addresses prewar religious life and occupational structure in Tighina.
47:34
Klichinskaia explains in Russian her return and family life after the war.
55:36
Klichinskaia talks about life today and her family. Her sister lived in Israel for three years. Klichinskaia raised a son.
4:17
The formal interviews with Luminskaia and Goldshteyn begin. They provide personal information and then Luminskaia talks about her family. Luminskaia's father was a day laborer before the Soviet occupation and built furniture afterward. When the family moved to Vodvizhan 7:49, he was the directory of a factory department, which was later turned into an artel. Luminskaia recalls how non-Jews would speak Yiddish in the co-operative. She has relatives in America.
10:50
Luminskaia talks about her family's life during the war. In particular, she mentions that her grandparents were taken into the woods. She then continues to provide information about her family. She grew up with a sister and a brother.
16:40
Goldshteyn provides personal information and talks about his family. He grew up as an only child. His father was a merchant. After the war, Goldshteyn graduated from a technical institute and then became a medical assistant at a hospital.
48:27
Luminskaia talks about her family and holiday celebration before the war. She had relatives in America who would send her family kosher wine.
2:09
Goldshteyn addresses prewar Jewish life and halutzim. He recalls his uncle who prepared for aliyah. He then discusses the different occuaptional structure between Jews and Christians.
2:19
The formal interview with Grinberg begins. She provides personal information and talks about her family. Throughout his life, her father was employed by wealthy Jewish men and worked as a merchant. Her mother was born in Baranderivka 8:47. Grinberg grew up with a sister, who lives in Australia.
17:05
Grinberg talks about life today and her family.
1:15
Butorski provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was a painter and then owned a hotel, because his vision began to fade before the war. Butorski grew up with a brother, who lives in Israel. Butorski mentions that he lived in Israel for nine years. After the war, he attended a hairdresser vocational school and then learned to be a cutter at a supplier. He worked there until 1967. Before his retirement, he worked at a 5:36 technicum.
10:20
Butorski talks about his family, as well as holiday celebration.
22:42
Butorski talks about his family. He recalls how his aunt sang Yiddish song. Butorski's mother moved to Israel before 1991 and he visited her in 1988. He also addresses holiday celebration, including Passover and Purim.
36:12
Butorski talks about his return to Tighina in 1944. His family moved into his grandfather's house and his father fixed it up. He then explains how Butorski's grandfather died during evacuation and his father returned to Odesa with him on a horse and wagon in order to bury him there.
38:05
Butorski talks about his life after the war. Instead of finishing his school education, Butorski was an apprentice at a hairdresser artel for five/six months and then learned to be a cutter at a shoe factory in 1946. Butorski served in the military between 1950 and 1953. After his military service, Butorski joined the shoe factory 40:33 again and worked there until 1976. Until his retirement, he worked as a 40:40 technician. He moved to Israel in 1995, where he and his wife lived for nine years. Butorski then explains why he returned to Moldova. He raised three sons; two live in Israel and one lives in Canada.
44:40
Butorski talks about life today. He then answers questions about cultural terminology and talks about his family.
52:09
Butorski discusses traditional weddings. He recalls his brother's wedding in 1946 and performances by Sidi Tal.
15:23
Moisei talks about his family. His father was a carpenter. Moisei worked in a leather factory in 1936.
17:55
Moisei talks about his life during the war and describes how his family evacuated in 1941. The walked to a train station in Revaca, near Chişinău and then took a train headed to Odesa, before evacuating further. He explains how his father did not make into evacuation and was shot.
19:39
Moisei talks about his family. His mother worked in a butcher shop. He grew up with a sister and a brother.
27:31
Moisei talks about his life after the war. He worked in a canning factory in Astrakhan, Russia, during his military service. After he was demobilized in 1947, Moisei returned to Chişinău. He then describes the living conditions in his hometown. He moved in with his brother and mother at first. Moisei then worked in 29:40 as forwarding agent.
32:18
Elizaveta talks about her family. Her father was a merchant for dairy products. Her mother passed away when she was thirteen years old. She grew up with two sisters and two brothers.
46:35
Elizaveta talks about her family. Her sister moved to Israel after the war.
0:49
The official interview with Meir begins. He provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was a shop owner and born in Bistrita. His mother was born in Risculita. Meir grew up with a sister. After the war, Meir worked as a turner.
16:36
Meir discusses his family, particularly his grandparents. He then speaks about Passover and Sabbath celebrations, as well as other holidays, at home. Meir recalls the beginning of the Four Questions.
37:31
David talks about his family. His father was a kosher butcher and his mother was a tailor. He grew up with two brothers, who live in Israel.
45:05
David talks about his family, in particular his father's observance. He also talks about contemporary religious life and Sabbath celebrations, including food customs, at home before the war.
53:48
David talks about his family, specifically his mother, and then Jewish life today.
15:29
David speaks about holiday celebration, including Purim, Sabbath and Hanukkah. He explains how he brought food to his grandparents on Sabbath.
3:05
Finkel talks about her family. Her father was a kosher butcher. She grew up with a brother and a sister, who lives in Israel. Finkel raised a son.
6:01
Finkel discusses her childhood memories and her family.
9:27
Finkel talks about her life before the war. She attended a Romanian-Jewish school in Suliţa. She also studied with a privately hired tutor, who taught religion and the Yiddish language. Finkel helped out her family after school.
31:13
Finkel speaks about prewar religious life. She recalls that her father went to see the Ştefăneşti rebbe.
39:26
Finkel discusses life in the 1930s. She addresses the great fire in 1935. She also talks about her family. Her father moved to Israel.
2:40
Brief provides personal information and talks about his family. The Briefs' daughter was born in Suceava and the family moved then to Botoșani.
5:51
Brief discusses prewar Jewish life in Chernivtsi. He then talks about his family. His father was a barber.
10:10
Brief briefly talks about Jewish life after the war and continues providing information about his family.
11:35
Brief talks about his life and cultural life before the war. He attended a Romanian school. He studied the Yiddish language with a private tutor. Brief then recalls performances by Sidi Tal, who was his mother's cousin. He also lists theater plays, he watched before the war.
18:16
Brief talks about prewar religious life. He recalls how his father attended synagogue services.
20:15
Brief speaks about his life during the war, when he was imprisoned in the Mohyliv-Podilskyy ghetto (Transnistria). In particular, he recalls the violence of soldiers and diseases in the ghetto. He explains how his grandmother was thrown into a pit, after she died of hunger.
31:37
Brief talks about his family. His cousins live in Israel and America. He then talks about his wedding. Brief got married in 1953 in Iaşi. He raised a daughter and a son.
42:07
Brief recites a funny version of the Four Questions for Passover. He then talks about his family.
57:13
Brief talks about his life after the war. He was imprisoned in the ghetto from 1941 to 1944. He explains how he wanted to leave for the Land of Israel in 1940, but was not allowed because he had relatives in Chernivtsi.
1:00:47
Fanya talks about her family.
0:00
Brief talks about his family. He then remembers the poet Shvartskop from the Mohyliv-Podilskyy ghetto. He then talks about life today.
3:14
Brief talks about his family, in particular his parents. He also addresses Sabbath celebrations at home and religious life after the war.
27:40
The formal part of the interview begins. Cohn provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was a cobbler. His parents were also born in Suliţa. He grew up with two brothers. Cohn remembers that his grandfather sang and told stories.
35:58
Cohn speaks about his family and his activity in the Zionist youth group Drakh Habonim. He recalls a Zionist song in Hebrew and then a Yiddish song he heard from his mother.
2:52
Cohn talks about his life during World War II. He explains how he was taken with his father to do forced labor in road construction under Romanian command in Tiraspol. According to him, his mother and two brothers stayed in Botoșani during the war. Cohn also mentions beatings by Romanian soldiers and states that he was liberated by the Red Army in 1944.
MDV 232Iosif David; Sami (Shmiel) Kurtsberg; Iosif Kunovich BurgȘofrîncani, Botoșani, Chernivtsi, Siret, 2006
37:36
Burg talks about his life today. His wife's name is Nina Diyomidnova Burg, nee Obelenskaia.
2:34
Grunfeld provides personal information and talks about his family. Before the war, Grunfeld also lived in Bukarest. After the war, he moved to Cluj-Napoca in 1945. His father was born in Ileanda and was a merchant. Grunfeld explains that his father moved to Israel after the war. His mother was born in Zău.
12:41
Grunfeld speaks about his grandparents and their observance. He then talks about his education. He attended a Romanian school in Bukarest, after being a student at a religious school (cheder). According to Grunfeld, he spent three years in cheder in Zău Mureș and one year at a Talmud Torah school in Cluj-Napoca.
16:06
Grunfeld discusses his childhood memories. In particular, he recalls how his grandfather quizzed him about the Torah while other children played together. He then speaks about his Talmud studies at a Talmud Torah school.
40:04
Grunfeld talks about his family. He grew up with two brothers and three sisters.
44:08
Grunfeld answers questions about cultural terminology. He also addresses religious observance and recalls people talking about the Ştefăneşti and Vizhnitzer rebbes. Grunfeld also states that his uncle was part of the Satmarer Hasidim.
58:48
Grunfeld talks about his life after the war. He got married in 1949. He then mentions prewar Jewish life in Cluj-Napoca, including synagogue structure. According to Grunfeld, 18,000 Jews lived in Cluj before the war and approximately 2,000 Jews after the war.
0:00
Grunfeld talks about Jewish life of the region during World War II. He also addresses his family's fate during the war period. His parents were imprisoned in the Turda ghetto. His aunts were sent Auschwitz.
1:56
Grunfeld discusses traditional wedding, in particular his sister's.
15:04
Grunfeld speaks about his family and addresses local cemeteries, as well as prayer customs. He then turns to folk customs, including averting the evil eye.
55:40
Grunfeld talks about life today. He then talks about his family. He raised one daughter. His father and sister moved to Israel in 1950. Grunfeld maintains that he was not allowed to leave the country because he was a specialist. He then addresses emigration.
5:41
Hershkovich talks about his family and prewar Jewish life. His father was born in Volovets, Ukraine. Hershkovich explains that his father's parents left for Israel when he was eleven years old and moved to his brother, who was a professor in Pest. His father studied at a yeshiva and worked as a religious teacher (melamed).
23:12
Hershkovich speaks about his family. He grew up with two brothers and two sisters. He also addresses food customs on Sabbath. His grandfather was deported in 1944. His daughter lives in Israel.
51:15
Hershkovich speaks about life today and local families.
55:33
Hershkovich speaks about his education at a yeshiva, which he attended until 1938 in Dej. He then mentions other local yeshivot and remembers how his family visited him in Dej.
0:00
Hershkovich answers questions about cultural terminology. He also mentions the Satmar rebbe, Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum. His sister went to see him and brought back a blessed coin, he explains.
25:52
Hershkovich speaks about his life during World War II. He served in the army and worked in construction between 1942 and 1944. He then talks about his family's fate during the war and shows family photographs. He also shares photographs of the Dej synagogue and the head of the yeshiva.
31:51
Hershkovich talks about his family and shows family photographs. He then talks about local cantors before the war.
28:32
Grunfeld speaks about his family and his life during the war as forced laborer. His sister moved to Israel and lived a Hasidic life. Grunfeld also has Hasidic relatives in England. Grunfeld then addresses contemporary Jewish life in surrounding towns and the Satmar Hasidic dynasty.
37:24
Grunfeld shows his family tree in Hebrew. He then speaks about life today, before the camera collects town footage.
1:52
Kraus provides personal information and talks about his family. He studied at the Cîmpia Turzii yeshiva in 1939/40. His father was also born in Zorein and worked in agriculture. He owned land and horses. Kraus' mother was born in the nearby village Feldioara and worked as a seamstress. He grew up with four sisters and two brothers.
36:02
Kraus speaks about his life during the war. He was sent to do forced labor in various places, including Tighina, Chernivtsi, Orhei, Bălți, Balta and Tiraspol. Kraus returned to Cluj-Napoca in 1945. He then speaks about his family's fate during the war. His siblings and parents were deported to Auschwitz.
50:08
Kraus talks about postwar Jewish life, as well as his life after the war. Kraus then speaks about his wedding in 1955. He raised two daughters.
2:46
Freundlich discusses her family. Her father owned a shop. She raised a daughter and a son. Freundlich's brother and sister live in America.
8:20
Freundlich provides personal information and talks about her family.
11:08
Freundlich briefly addresses her life during the war. She was imprisoned in several Nazi camps, including Auschwitz and Geislingen and had to leave her hometown in 1944. She states that thirty-six of her family members were killed during the war.
12:27
Freundlich provides personal information and speaks about contemporary Jewish life in her hometown Satu Mare. She then talks about her family. Her mother was born in Hungary. Her maternal grandfather was a Beltser hasid, Freundlich explains.
18:15
Freundlich remembers Hasidic visitors. She then talks about her family. Freundlich was a homemaker after the war. Her daughter lives in Canada. Freundlich then shares family photographs. She also provides family episodes. Her maternal grandfather was a wealthy merchant, according to her. Freundlich grew up with three sisters and one brother.
30:24
Freundlich talks about her recent visit to Satu Mare. She then talks about her husband, who was a passionate soccer player and singer. Freundlich then describes how she met her husband in a Nazi camp after liberation. Freundlich returned to Cluj-Napoca in 1946, because her husband was born there.
37:28
Freundlich discusses her childhood memories and family. In particular, she addresses her son's successful musical career. Her son moved to Canada in 1985.
48:21
Freundlich speaks about Purim celebrations before the war. In particular, she describes how her father observed the holiday. Freundlich also touches upon well-known Purim shpiels.
52:31
Freundlich discusses her childhood memories and friends. She also talks about the Satmar rebbe, Yoel Teitelbaum. Freundlich maintains that her father did not want to be part of his court. She then talks about her father.
58:33
Freundlich talks about her family, in particular her grandmothers and sisters. She also remembers how they ate cake every Sabbath morning during her childhood. Freundlich then addresses her son's circumcision.
0:00
Freundlich speaks about her family and postwar Jewish life in Cluj-Napoca and surrounding communities. In particular, she addresses different religious authorities before and after the war.
5:39
Freundlich talks about his father's teachings. She maintains that her father bought a house in order to establish a Talmud Torah school. Freundlich explains how the community collected money to set up the school.
13:00
Freundlich speaks about her family. Her sister owned a print shop and book store. According to her, her sister printed journals with Hebrew letters. Freundlich then addresses books she read.
17:52
Freundlich speaks about prewar and postwar cultural life. She recalls performances by Sidi Tal and other artists. Freundlich also talks about her son.
34:54
Freundlich speaks about her family, in particular her mother. She then sings a religious song her mother taught her, as well as a snippet from a messiah song.
57:56
Freundlich talks about her family and life today.
6:38
Hershkovich talks about his family. His sister and brother were killed in Auschwitz. He also shows family photographs. His father was a tailor and then a religious teacher (melamed).
14:32
Hershkovich talks about his family and discusses his childhood memories of Bogata. He also addresses prewar Jewish life in Dej.
0:00
Freundlich addresses linguistic questions and then talks about her family. Her father owned a store in Satu Mare. Freundlich also recalls the moment her grandfather passed away. Freundlich maintains that her grandfathers gave her a Torah when she was a child.
10:14
Freundlich discusses prewar religious life and the activities of her family.
18:49
Freundlich discusses her childhood memories and holiday celebration at home. She also addresses her family's fate during World War II.
21:05
Freundlich addresses the differences of Hasidic groups before the war and her father's affiliation.
28:00
Freundlich mentions Rabbi Moshe Schonfeld who left Cluj in 1958. She then talks about her family.
45:22
Freundlich talks about her lessons with a female Yiddish teacher, as well as her school education. She also mentions her sister's letter press (Klein's printing press), printing Hebrew letters, black letters and the Latin alphabet.
51:33
Freundlich speaks about her family life before the war. Her family conversed in Hungarian during the week, but, Freundlich maintains, on Sabbath they only spoke Yiddish. She also addresses Purim celebrations and costumes.
4:14
Freundlich talks about her sister's printing press, including local books and journals.
7:19
Freundlich talks about her son's career. She also addresses her son's circumcision in 1956.
32:04
Freundlich talks about traditional dances. She then speaks about her family, in particular her grandfather's observant life.
35:01
Freundlich answers questions about cultural terminology and mentions prewar religious family life.
4:49
Freundlich sings a Sabbath song, her father sang at the rebben's tish.
41:50
Freundlich speaks about her husband and singing activities. She then sings a Yiddish song about remembering the mother.
16:13
Hershkovich talks about his family and Grunfeld speaks about prewar Jewish life.
20:16
Grunfeld speaks about his sister's wedding in 1946.
24:27
Miller provides personal information and talks about his family. He states that his father was a Vizhnitzer hasid.
32:10
Miller talks about his family. His father was born in Ukraine. He then talks about traditional weddings and Purim celebrations before the war.
41:47
Miller speaks about his father. He then recites prayers and sings the Sabbath song "Shalom Aleichem."
33:10
Grunfeld speaks about his family and his education. He attended a Romanian school. They then address geography.
6:10
Kraus talks about his education at a Romanian school and recalls competition among school children between the Hungarian and Romanian schools. He then talks about his family. His father owned two horses and wagon and transported goods to markets in the villages Martei and Lekhintsa 7:13.
12:13
Miller talks about his family and discusses his childhood memories of an observant home. His father was born in Hanychi, Ukraine. He describes his father's appearance as Vizhnitzer hasid. Miller grew up with three sisters and two brothers.
27:40
Miller talks about his prewar family life. His father worked different jobs, including being a shammes.
31:25
Miller speaks about his father's observance as Vizhnitzer hasid.
53:01
Kraus discusses his childhood memories, specifically traveling with his father. Kraus and Grunfeld then talk about Jewish life of the region during World War II. Their familys were deported to Auschwitz. They state that the region was divided between deportation and forced labor.
17:50
The formal interview with Meir begins. He provides personal information and talks about his family. His parents died of typhus in the Sharhorod ghetto in 1942 and Meir was imprisoned there for two years. He was a forced laborer in road construction in Tulchyn, Meir explains.
20:08
Meir discusses his childhood memories of Burduşani. His father was a cobbler. Meir explains that his father did not have many jobs and thus moved to Dumbrăveni with his family, where also three of his brothers, who owned shops, lived. There, Meir continues, his father opened a shop and Meir himself went to live with his maternal aunt in Dorohoi in 1932.
21:32
Meir talks about prewar Jewish life in Dorohoi. According to him, 8,000 Jews lived in town. He then talks about his life during World War II, in particular his train journeys toward Sharhorod, via Chernivtsi and Mohyliv-Podilskyy. He then addresses his family's life in the Sharhorod ghetto. After his parents died, Meir, his three siblings and aunt were sent to the village Kapostarnye 23:16, twenty kilometers from Sharhorod. He explains how Ukrainians welcomed them into their houses until they were taken to forced labor in the summer. Meir then talks about his work as forced laborer in Tulchyn. Meir states that he worked with 2,000 fellow Jews in construction. Meir returned to Dorohoi in December 1943.
25:07
Meir talks about his family. His three brothers moved to Israel in 1947.
31:26
Meir addresses prewar Purim celebrations and his family's life before the war. He explains how his parents supported him and his three brothers with food, while they lived at their aunt's house in Dorohoi. His mother was born in Dorohoi and his father in Dumbrăveni.
39:09
Meir addresses prewar religious life in Dorohoi, including synagogues. He then talks about his family. He got married in 1951 and raised two son, who live in Israel and Iaşi. Meir maintains that his sons were circumcised by a local mohel. Meir then addresses postwar Jewish life in Dorohoi.
44:50
Meir answers questions about cultural terminolog and answers linguistic questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. He also talks about his wife.
59:50
Meir talks about his family and the team concludes the interview with Meir.
37:54
Isidor speaks about his family and contemporary Jewish life. He then talks about his Romanian school teacher.
0:00
The team sets up the interview with Shaia. He then provides personal information and talks about his family. He grew up with a sister, who lives in Iaşi, and a brother, who lives in Israel. Shaia then talks about his education and provides more information about his family. He attended a Romanian school and recalls how difficult it was for him to speak Romanian at first. His father was tailor. His mother, born in Gertsa, Ukraine, was also a tailor and helped out Shaia's father. Shaia then talks about the fate of his wife's family during World War II.
15:24
Shaia talks about his school education and work. He attended a Romanian school until tenth grade and was then trained as hatter. He then talks about his family, particularly his sons.
27:32
Isidor remembers Shaia's father. Shaia then addresses prewar life and non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. In particular, he remembers his father's non-Jewish apprentice.
46:20
Isidor provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was a grain merchant and was shot in Transnistria in 1944
48:28
Isidor discusses his childhood memories and provides more information about his family. His mother was a 49:09. He grew up as an only child. Isidor then talks about his life after World War II. He studied to become a Romanian teacher.
14:07
Grimberg talks about her family. She has two sisters who live in Israel. Her father was a worker and born in Dorohoi. Grimberg mentions that her grandfather built a synagogue and arranged to bring a Sefer Torah from Chernivtsi.
18:53
Grimberg talks about her and her family's life during World War II. They were imprisoned in Mohyliv-Podilskyy ghetto. Her father was forced laborer in the Romanian Worker Army.
28:10
Gimberg speaks about her mother's observance and family. She raised a son, who lives in Satu Mare. Gimberg states that her son and grandson are circumcised and her daughter-in-law is not Jewish. She then addresses contemporary Jewish life in Satu Mare.
58:54
Gimberg talks about her grandfather, a kosher butcher, who was a religious authority in town, according to her. She then recalls her visits of the Ştefăneşti rebbe's grave.
15:32
Grimberg addresses Yiddish songs. She then speaks about her family. Her father was born in Ripiceni. She also addresses Yiddish dialects and continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
25:46
The interview with Lipovici begins. He provides personal information and talks about his family. His father, who worked at a mill, passed away when Lipovici was nine years old. He grew up with six brothers and three sisters.
37:34
Lipovici talks about prewar Jewish life and his family.
41:28
Lipovici talks about his family. He has never been married. He then talks about his life and family during World War II. In particular, he mentions when his sister fell ill.
52:35
Lipovici talks about his work as shepherd. He then talks about his family. One sister lives in Israel.
7:15
Lipovici talks about his family's life before the war. He then addresses his life today.
0:00
Isidor talks about the contemporary Jewish community of Dorohoi and his activities as the head of the community. Isidor states that he only spoke to his mother in Yiddish.
9:27
Isidor shares an episode about an encounter between the Kolomyya Rabbi and himself, his mother arranged in the late 1940s. He explains how the rov blessed a coin. He then explains how his school education was affected after the visit.
18:13
Isidor talks about his life during World War II. He was confined to the Mohyliv-Podilskyy and Sharhorod ghettos. His mother worked in a kolkhoz kitchen. He then describes how he learned Yiddish and shares an episode when he was a student at the religious school and the conflict with the rebbe about drinking unkosher water.
24:25
Isidor talks about his life today and his non-Jewish wife. He then talks about his father, who was a the victim of an antisemitic attack in 1944 in Dorohoi.
33:34
The team chats with Isidor and Meir about the community and life today. Isidor explains how he met his non-Jewish wife, who was born in Suceava. Isidor's cousins live in Israel.
3:40
Hirsch talks about his life during World War II. He was confined to a ghetto in Southern Romania between 1941 and 1944. He then talks about his family. His parents and sister moved to Israel in 1960. Hirsch grew up with a sister and a brother. His brother was arrested for political reasons, Hirsch explains.
12:51
Hirsch speaks about his family. His father was born in a village near Luduș and was a grain merchant. Hirsch's son lives in Israel and made aliyah in 1987.
30:50
Hirsch speaks about his family's life and Jewish life in general during World War II. He shares an episode about Jewish prisoners in 1942.
39:55
Hirsch speaks about his life after the war and family. He moved to Dej in 1960. In particular, he talks about his brother, who was imprisoned in 1942, accused of working for an illegal radion station. Hirsch explains that his brother returned home from forced labor in 1944 and died of tuberculosis shortly thereafter.
44:54
Hirsch speaks about his cheder education and prewar Jewish life in Luduș. He also addresses the population structure of the town with a majority of non-Jews. He also addresses his family.
18:34
Hirsch talks about his family. His father studied at a yeshiva in Oradea. Hirsch also worked as a German translator.
50:47
Hirsch speaks about his family and folk customs. He then addresses Hanukkah celebrations, as well as Purim celebrations and food customs. Hirsch then talks about Tisha B'Av.
27:26
Hirsch speaks about his life after the war in Dej, to where he moved in 1960 from Luduș. Hirsch's cousins moved to Israel in 1948.
0:00
Chajim speaks about his family and life today. He also mentions anecdotes about religious life.
26:24
Chajim speaks about his family's observance during his childhood. He also addresses holiday food customs.
30:21
Chajim discusses his childhood memories, including education. He also briefly returns to his work as forced laborer and then speaks about his family's observance.
40:18
Chajim speaks about his wedding and family. He got married in 1929.
51:09
Chajim provides personal information and speaks about his family.
1:40
Chajim speaks about life today and his family.
8:28
Chajim speaks about his life under Soviet rule and his family. His father moved to Israel. Chajim then remembers his mother's cooking. He grew up with six brothers and two sisters. His father was a tailor 13:27. Chajim also worked as tailor and was president of a cooperative.
2:31
Abramovich briefly talks about his life during World War II. He was confined to a ghetto in the Transnistria region. He then speaks about prewar Jewish life in Hîrlău, as well as his family. Abramovich's father and mother were both born in Hîrlău.
21:43
Abramovich speaks about his family and observance.
31:21
Chajim remembers a song about flirting. He then recites the Rabbis' Kaddish, before talking about his family. Chajim has a sister, who lives in Israel. Chajim mentions that he blows the shofar on Yom Kippur and he attended religious school (cheder).
58:48
Chajim provides personal information and speaks about observance. He got married in Hîrlău.
1:00:20
Chajim recites his own songs about old times. He also recalls a saying from his father.
19:42
Chirilau speaks about her life today and provides personal information. She then speaks about her family. Chirilau raised two children and grew up with one sister.
31:09
Grinberg shares information about her amibitions to establish a museum about the history of Bukovinian Jews in Rădăuţi. Grinberg then speaks about her family.
0:28
Finkelshteyn provides personal information and discusses his childhood memories, including family. His father was a carpenter and was born in Pașcani, but grew up in Iași. Finkelshteyn grew up with five brothers and three sisters. Finkelshteyn's mother was also born in Iași. He also addresses his grandparent's life.
17:30
Finkelshteyn speaks about his family. He also mentions his education at a religious school (Talmud Torah) and describes his daily working routine as carpenter. In the postwar Soviet times, Finkelshteyn worked at a factory.
25:44
Finkelshteyn speaks about his education at a Talmud Torah school, including beatings and pranks. He then speaks about his large family.
28:30
Finkelshteyn recalls the Iași pogrom in 1941 and describes how he experienced it. Finkelshteyn explains how he and five siblings were deported and then describes the journey to Podu Iloaiei. Upon arrival, Finkelshteyn continues, survivors of the train ride were assembled at a synagogue, where they received food. He also describes how he buried bodies and mentions that he returned with his siblings a few months later.
39:31
Finkelshteyn talks about his family, particularly the help from his uncle, who lived in America before the war. He also recalls help from the Joint Distribution Committee after the war.
55:20
Finkelshteyn speaks about his family, particularly his father's values and teachings. He also speaks about his work.
3:17
Finkelshteyn talks about prewar traditional weddings. He states that his parents were unterfirers (i.e. person who accompanies the couple getting married to the wedding canopy) at each of their children's wedding. Finkelshteyn does not have children.
35:27
Finkelshteyn addresses his best moments in life during the postwar Soviet period. He also speaks about his family and wife. Finkelshteyn has relatives in Israel.
26:08
Finkelshteyn speaks about his family.
3:10
Hoyshe speaks about his family. He grew up with one brother. Hoyshe's son is the Romanian ambassador to Austria and his father was a baker. He then speaks about his life after the war. Hoyshe attended medical school in Iaşi. He moved to Iaşi in 1949. Hoyshe served in the military and left with the rank of colonel.
8:04
Hoyshe speaks about his family and discusses his childhood memories.
9:54
The formal interview with Karuel begins. He provides personal information and speaks about his family. Karuel's father was born in Podu Iloaiei and worked as cobbler. His mother was born in Ştefăneşti. Karuel also touches upon prewar religious life in Podu Iloaiei. Karuel grew up as an only child.
18:12
Karuel speaks about holiday celebration at home. His parents passed away at the age of twelve. Karuel then speaks about the pogrom in 1941, during which he lost his father.
54:53
Karuel talks about his family. He raised a son. Karuel then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
2:21
Iakob provides personal information and talks about his life during World War II. Iakob states that between 1941 and 1945, he was confined to several ghettos in the Transnistria region, including Pavlovca, Bershad, Nova Obodivka and Pishchana, Odesa province. He speaks about life in the Pavlovca ghetto, including starvation and diseases, and does not remember any shootings and beatings. Iakob then shares other episodes about ghetto life, including looting by Romanian soldiers and mentions his family's escape from Pavlovca. His father worked in his profession at a soap factory in Nova Obodivka.
14:03
Iakob speaks about his family's return to Siret in 1945. He explains that his father did not find work in Siret and therefore his family moved to Botoșani. Iakob studied at the Iaşi University. He then briefly addresses life in the Bershad ghetto.
16:28
Iakob speaks about his family, particularly his grandfather, a melamed. He states that his grandfather also knew Latin and Greek and prepped students for secondary school in Vienna. Iakob also mentions how his family had to leave behind his grandfather in Suceavea (Yiddish: Shotz) at the beginning of the war. He also mentions the fate of the Jews in the region during World War II, as well as memorialization.
27:11
Iakob speaks about his life and studies after the war. He also talks about his family. Iakob grew up with his sister Ruti.
51:54
Pnina provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was a teacher and was born in Frumușiţa. Pnina is a pediatrician and grew up with a brother. Pnina then speaks about her father's arrest. Ruti and Iakob also share information about their family, specifically their father. They then address weddings.
0:00
Iakob speaks about his father's singing.
2:24
Pnina discusses her childhood memories of Odobești, as well as her family. Pnina attended a Yiddish school in Odobești. She then explains how her family took went on vacation in Frumușiţa in 1940 and were unable to return to Odobești due to the war. Pnina then speaks about her family's life during World War II. She describes how her father was taken to forced labor to Botoșani and then Edineț. Pnina and the remaining family evacuated to Botoșani, where they were confined to a ghetto. Pnina also recalls violence against her grandparents in 1941.
11:17
They speak about Purim celebration in the in the 1940s. Iakob then shares more stories about his father.
8:36
Rozenblat speaks about his Hebrew-language education, as well as his family.
1:09
The formal interview with Resh begins. He provides personal information and speaks about his family. Resh's father was born in Rădăuţi and worked as accountant in the Chernivtsi town hall. His mother was born in Pshevorsk, Poland. Resh grew up with two sisters and two brothers. Three of his siblings moved to Israel after the war. Resh's older brother lives in America.
10:13
Resh speaks about prewar holiday celebrations at home, as well as his parents. He also addresses food customs and shares his recipe for gefilte fish.
16:42
Resh speaks about prewar cultural life, in particular Yiddish theater performances. He then addresses Sukkot, Shavuot and Hanukkah celebrations and food customs before the war. Resh got married at the age of 37.
20:43
Resh talks about his life during World War II. He was confined to the Mohyliv-Podilskyy (Yiddish: Mohlev Podolsk) ghetto. He then speaks about his life and work after the war, before addressing postwar Jewish life in Iaşi. In particular, Resh describes his oldest sister's difficult journey to Palestine in 1948.
27:54
Resh speaks about Jewish life in Chernivtsi during the war. He was confined to the Chernivtsi ghetto, before his deportation to Transnistria. Resh then speaks about the local sports organization Maccabi, where his father was actively involved as referee and general secretary of the club. Resh also lists the soccer clubs of other ethnic minorities.
33:57
Resh speaks about Jewish life before the war and recalls Polish refugees to Chernivtsi in 1939. He then addresses different regional Yiddish dialects and his family.
50:03
Resh recalls Yiddish proverbs and answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Resh raised one daughter.
1:51
The formal interview with Abraham Shtaigman at the community center begins. He provides personal information and talks about his life after World War II. His family was deported to Transnistria in 1941 and returned to Rădăuţi in 1944. Shtaigman also speaks about his education. He attended a religious school (cheder), Romanian school and then studied in Bucharest for three years, before continuing in Iaşi for another two years. Shtaigman got married in 1966 and raised two daughters. Shtaigman worked as accountant at a local furniture factory for thirty years. For the past nine months, Shtaigman works as accountant for the community.
4:38
Shtaigman speaks about contemporary Jewish and religious life in Iaşi. He also speaks about his family, including his parents-in-law.
7:43
Shtaigman briefly discusses his childhood memories of Transnistria. He also provides information about his family. His father was born in Rădăuţi and his mother in Frătăuţii. Shtaigman's parents were workers cleaning and fixing shoes. Shtaigman grew as an only child.
13:46
Shtaigman talks about the liberation of the ghetto by the Red Army in 1944 and his family's return. He explains that they were only able to go as far as Chernivtsi because the front line was still in Rădăuţi. Shtaigman continues that after six months staying in Chernivtsi, his family moved further to Mykhalcha, where his father passed away, and then they returned to Rădăuţi.
15:30
Shtaigman talks about his family's arrival in Rădăuţi in 1944. Shtaigman lived in Rădăuţi from 1944 to 1952. He mentions that his mother planned to make aliyah with him, but ended up remarrying instead. Shtaigman then talks about postwar Jewish life in Rădăuţi. Shtaigman moved to Iaşi in 1966.
22:38
Shtaigman talks about postwar religious life in Rădăuţi, specifically active synagogues. He also speaks about his family, as well as a contemporary film project about the Jews of Rădăuţi.
0:35
The formal interview with Shvartz begins. He provides personal information and talks about his family. Shvartz grew up with three sisters and three brothers. His parents were also born in Bîrlad (Yiddish: Berlad). Shvartz's father was a glazier. Shvartz moved to Iaşi in 1987. Shvartz worked as tailor at a factory in Bîrlad.
5:20
Shvartz speaks about his family and then his life before the war. He raised one daughter. Shvartz attended a Romanian school and then a Romanian Jewish school for four years until 1941. He recalls his Yiddish and Hebrew classes. Shvartz then speaks about prewar Jewish life in Bîrlad.
34:00
Shvartz speaks about burial customs. He also answers questions about cultural terminology. Shvartz then speaks about his family. His parents moved to Israel after the war. He visited them five times.
56:16
Shvartz recalls two brothers who converted to Christianity, as well as a Christian who converted to Judaism for his wife. He then continues to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
0:00
Kaizerman provides personal information and speaks about his family. His father, who was born in Dömös 1:25, Hungary, owned a shop and worked as 2:30 beforehand. Kaizerman's mother was born in Vaslui. Kaizerman grew up with two sisters.
7:26
Kaizerman talks about his family, particularly his father's observance. He then discusses his observance after the war during military service. Kaizerman states that he attended services in uniform on holidays.
3:57
Chirilau talks about her family. She grew up with a sister. She then talks about traditional weddings before the war.
11:36
Chirilau speaks about Jewish life in the region during World War II. She recalls how her family and friends returned home and their lives after the war. She has relatives in Canada.
15:46
Chirilau speaks about her relative's visit from Israel in 1965. In particular, she talks about fixing up the grave of her brother-in-law's father.
32:55
Chirilau talks about her family. Her father was a coachman. She then addresses prewar occupational structure and mentions a Jewish family Regenshtrayf who owned a factory.
53:15
Chirilau speaks about folk and healing customs. She then talks about a visit from a relative, who lived in Canada.
7:13
Chirilau speaks about her family today.
15:14
Chirilau speaks about her family who returned from Transnistria after the war. She describes how her mother helped them out.
30:31
Chirilau speaks about her family. Her parents were both born in Mihăileni. She then speaks about Jews who worked in agriculture as lessor before the war.
43:32
Chirilau addresses prewar religious life, in particular a local tsadik. She then tells an episode about her father going to Chernivtsi and visiting a rebbe for advice to solve a fight.
47:58
Chirilau speaks about her family and her life before the war. She then speaks about life in Mihăileni today. The camera then records family photographs.
5:38
Leichtner provides personal information and speaks about his family. His father was born in Sârbi and worked as kosher butcher. His mother was born in Rina 8:08. Leichtner grew up with three sisters and three brothers.
8:34
Leichtner speaks about his family's life during the war. His father and two brothers returned from Auschwitz. Both of Leichtner's brothers emigrated; one moved to Israel and the other to America. He then speaks about Jewish life before the war, including occupational structure, as well as about his family.
16:20
Leichtner addresses prewar Jewish life in Ocna Şugatag, including occupational structure. He then speaks about his family.
57:46
Leichtner speaks about prewar Jewish life, as well as his life as an adolescent. Leichtner married a Christian for the first time in 1952.
1:55
Leichtner speaks about Jewish life after the war. He states that his father and two brothers were the only family members who returned from World War II.
4:04
Leichtner speaks about folk and healing customs to avert the evil eye. He then answers questions about cultural terminology and addresses prewar religious customs. He recalls how his father would visit with him the local rebbe.
13:50
Leichtner describes how his mother koshered meat. He then speaks about his family and observance, as well as holiday celebration.
3:51
Shwartz discusses his childhood memories, including his education at a religious school (cheder) and prewar religious life in his hometown. Shwartz's father passed away when he was thirteen years old. He states that he entered a yeshiva at thirteen in Mikhailvolva 6:13.
7:45
Shwartz talks about his family. His father was a grain and food merchant and studied at the Pressburg yeshiva. Shwartz's father was born in Vác, Hungary.
32:06
Shwartz speaks about his life in the 1970s and encounter with a priest before the war. He explains how he organized his visit of his brother in Canada. Shwartz then talks about his work as tombstone engraver. He learned the profession from his uncle.
35:12
Shwartz speaks about his yeshiva education and life during World War II. He got married in 1939 and his wife and three year-old child did not survive Auschwitz. Shwartz served in the army and was assigned forced labor in the Mauthausen concentration camp.
38:27
Shwartz speaks about his life after the war. He returned home in 1945. He married again in 1950 and did not have any children.
15:47
The formal interview with Freundlich, who is the cousin of Elizabeta Freundlich's late husband, begins. He speaks about Oradea and then provides personal information, before talking about his family. His father was a wood merchant. He grew up with three brothers and three sisters. Freundlich also addresses his family's fate during World War II. His mother was born Baia Sprie and his father near Jibou.
29:48
Freundlich talks about his work as merchant and then speaks about prewar Jewish life in Baia Mare. According to him, eight hundred Jews lived there. Freundlich also recalls enmity between Hasidim and Ashkenazim. He then talks about his father and different Yiddish dialects.
45:02
Freundlich talks about his family, in particular his father. Freundlich maintains that his father was an unsuccessful businessman and took the money Freundlich earned as youngster.
51:02
Freundlich shares a family episode on Tisha B'Av before the war.
53:45
Freundlich remembers a Purim shpiel and addresses his childhood and the rebbes' austerity. He then speaks about his life after the war. Freundlich states that he became a Communist at eighteen and did not enter a synagogue until he was sixty years old. He married a non-Jewish woman in 1956.
58:11
Freundlich speaks about traditional weddings and his life before the war. He explains how tolerant his parents were regarding his a-religious way of life. Freundlich joined a Zionist youth organization.
4:49
Freundlich addresses holiday food customs and his childhood memories of how his mother prepared food and baked bread, as well as mamaliga. Freundlich states that his mother or he brought six kilogram dough for bread and challah to the bakery every week.
10:36
Freundlich explains how his mother koshered meat and stuffed geese. He then addresses other dishes, including falshe fish and fish.
23:49
Freundlich speaks briefly addresses the local Zionist organization, he joined before the war. He then speaks about his life and family after the war. Freundlich visited Israel for the first time in 1968, where he met siblings. He then recalls his experiences and use of Hebrew in Israel. Freundlich mentions that he studied Hebrew at home after his visit to Israel.
3:50
Freundlich speaks about his family, in particular his father, a Vizhnitzer hasid. He shares an episode when his father visited the the Vizhnitzer rebbe. He then addresses religious customs.
9:26
The formal interview with Lazar Freund begins. He provides personal information and speaks about his family. His father was born near Sighetu Marmației and was a tailor. Freund grew up with one brother, who died in Auschwitz.
18:45
Freund speaks about prewar life in Baia Mare. He then briefly addresses Purim celebrations, before talking about his life during World War II. He was a forced laborer in 20:01 and returned to Oredea in 1947. Freund got married in 1952 and does not have any children.
3:50
Freundlich speaks about his family, in particular his father, a Vizhnitzer hasid. He shares an episode when his father visited the the Vizhnitzer rebbe. He then addresses religious customs.
9:26
The formal interview with Lazar Freund begins. He provides personal information and speaks about his family. His father was born near Sighetu Marmației and was a tailor. Freund grew up with one brother, who died in Auschwitz.
18:45
Freund speaks about prewar life in Baia Mare. He then briefly addresses Purim celebrations, before talking about his life during World War II. He was a forced laborer in 20:01 and returned to Oredea in 1947. Freund got married in 1952 and does not have any children.
2:59
Macarie speaks about her family. Her father, who was born in Cardo, was a businessman and her mother, who was born in Slatina, then Czech Republic, was a seamstress. She grew up with eleven siblings. Macarie states that she and three of her siblings survived the war. Two of her brothers moved to America and Austria and one sister to Israel.
7:54
Macarie speaks about her siblings and their fate during World War II. Her parents and most of her siblings died in Auschwitz.
26:55
Macarie discusser her childhood memories and mentions her father's observance. She then speaks about her family.
29:41
Macarie answers questions about cultural terminology. She then addresses food customs and speaks about her life and family after the war. She remarried a non-Jewish man. Macarie's son from her first marriage is a school director in Oradea.
1:00:26
Macarie shows family photographs.
0:00
Shwartz talks about his life before the war. He got married for the first time in 1930 and left his hometown Valumihei in 1942. Shwartz explains that he returned to Valumihei in 1945 and continued in his profession as tombstone engraver.
5:41
Shwartz speaks about his family and their fate during the war. One of his brothers moved to Canada in 1926, Shwartz explains. His father, who was born in 12:05 in Hungary, was a grain merchant.
12:29
Shwartz speaks about his life and family after the war. He also touches upon holiday celebration at a local prayer house.
37:06
Shwartz speaks about prewar Jewish life, in particular different denominations and prayer houses. He also explains how he became a yeshiva student, after his father passed away in 1926.
0:00
Mezei provides personal information and speaks about her family. She and her husband were deported to Auschwitz in 1944 and returned to Sighetu Marmaţiei after the war. Mezei mentions that she and her husband moved to Oradea in 1958. Her brother made aliyah after the war. Mezei visited Israel three times. Her father owned a textile shop and was born in the Maramureș province. Mezei grew up with one sister and one brother. She explains that she and her sister returned home from the war and her brother was sent to Donbas, Russia, as POW. Her brother was a forced laborer serving in the Hungarian Second Army. He returned home in 1948.
8:27
Mezei speaks about her childhood memories. She explains how her family lived with her grandmother in a poor neighborhood and then moved to a different house in a better off area. Mezei attended a preschool at three and then a Romanian school, which she finished in 1939.
15:28
Mezei explains her school grade photo of 1939. She then speaks about her school education at a Romanian school and prewar Jewish life in Sighetu Marmaţiei. Mezei also addresses her activities as adolescent, including dancing and attending meetings Hashomer Hatzair, Hanoar Hatzioni and Trumpeldor. Mezei then speaks about her husband's family. Her husband held a doctorate in law and worked as lawyer.
25:31
Mezei speaks about prewar Jewish life in Sighetu Marmaţiei and addresses holiday celebration, including Sabbath. According to Mezei, fifty percent of the population was Jewish. She then addresses Sabbath food customs and recalls how strictly her grandmother observed kashrut. She then talks about her husband's life during the war. He was a laborer serving in the Second Hungarian Army and Mezei explains how he was not identified as a Jew and worked at a stone factory.
35:18
Mezei speaks about her husband's return to Sighetu Marmaţiei. Mezei also mentions how the Jewish community was assembled in the Great Synagogue before deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Mezei then speaks about her father who founded a Zionist prayer house before the war.
38:03
Mezei speaks about Passover celebrations, including food customs, before the war. She also addresses her neighbors and family. Mezei's father learned in the textile industry in Budapest. She then shows a photograph of her father in World War I uniform.
28:12
Mezei shares an episode about a shidduch in her family. She then recalls how women sang Romanian and Hungarian songs during forced labor and then talks about aquaintances from Auschwitz. Mezei also shares episodes about selection for forced labor in Auschwitz, as well as her daily work routine.
47:19
Mezei speaks about her life before the war and shares an episode about her grandmother's observance. Mezei then talks about the literature she read before the war.
0:00
Mezei speaks about her return home by train after the war, via Prague, Buda and Timișoara. She recalls how she met her aunt in Buda and cousin in Timișoara. Mezei got married in 1945.
1:49
Grinberg speaks about her family life in prewar Fălticeni. She descends from a family of cantors and hasidim. She then addresses her childhood memories and work as synagogue caretaker.
9:05
Grinberg plays a recording of her father praying and speaks about the local community.
31:20
Grinberg speaks about her hasidic family in Israel. She also mentions visitors from abroad.
38:46
Grinberg speaks about her Yiddish education at a Romanian school Fălticeni in the 1950s. She explains how a female teacher taught at her school twice a week for two years. Grinberg then speaks about her family and childhood memories. Her father was a glazier.
43:28
Grinberg addresses holiday celebration at home during the postwar Soviet period. She recalls how her father never worked on Sabbath and holidays. Grinberg then speaks about her family. She grew up as an only child.
5:15
Grinberg speaks about her family. Her father, who owned a shop, passed away in 1936. She grew up as only child because her brother died shortly after his birth. Her mother grew up in Lespezi.
17:15
Grinberg addresses her childhood memories, including her parents and holiday celebration. She recalls how her father helped out a poor neighbor and mentions that her father founded a prayer house.
29:29
Grinberg speaks Passover celebrations at home and her family. She also addresses prewar religious life.
49:22
Grinberg remembers visitors from Eretz Yisrael before the war. She has cousins who live in America. Grinberg addresses food customs, particularly a recipe for gefilte fish. She also addresses Passover food customs.
0:00
Grinberg speaks about her life before the war, in particular her traditional wedding. Her husband was her cousin.
0:00
Cojocaru provides personal information and speaks about her family. Her father, brother and sister made aliyah. Her father, who was born in Dorohoi, worked as tailor. Her mother passed away when Cojocaru was four years old. Cojocaru raised a son and daughter.
4:03
Cojocaru touched upon her life during World War II. She was imprisoned in the Mohyliv-Podilskyy ghetto. After the war, Cojocaru was a homemaker. She then speaks about her family. Her mother was also born in Dorohoi. Cojocaru grew up with one half-brother and one sister.
8:39
Cojocaru speaks about her life and home before the war. She also talks about her family.
20:17
Cojocaru speaks about the Ştefăneşti rebbe and recalls frequent visits with her family after the war.
29:24
Cojocaru speaks about Purim, Passover and Hanukkah celebrations before the war, including food customs. She also speaks about her family. Her father was a synagogue caretaker.
34:01
Cojocaru answers questions about cultural terminology. She then addresses prewar life, including non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. She then speaks about her life today and her husband's family. She also addresses her family's occupations before the war.
0:00
Marcus provides personal information and speaks about his family. His father, who was born in Săveni, was a merchant. Her mother was also born in Săveni and a homemaker. His grandfather was a cattle dealer and went on business to Israel and other countries.
14:18
Marcus speaks about Passover celebrations. He recalls matzo baking. He then remembers how he visited the Ştefăneşti rebbe's grave when he was ten years old. Marcus also speaks about his family, particularly his mother's observance. He grew up with one brother.
22:08
Marcus speaks about his family. He raised a son, who was circumcised in 1986. Marcus made aliya in 1995 and returned to Săveni in 2004.
29:11
Marcus speaks about his family and addresses his return to Saveni from Israel. He then speaks about Jewish life after the war and recalls Jews who converted.
21:00
The formal interview with Salamon begins. She speaks about her family. Salamon grew up with four brothers and two sisters.
22:13
Salamon speaks about her family. Her father studied at the Prešporok (Bratislava) yeshiva. She was imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
24:31
Salamon discusses her childhood memories and speaks about her family. Salamon and her mother were both born in the same house the interview is conducted.
28:02
Salamon speaks about her family and childhood memories. Her father owned animals and worked the land. She also addresses Sabbath celebrations at home before the war. Salamon mentions that she sang zemirot with her father, which she would later sing at Auschwitz in exchange for food. Salamon then mentions other odd jobs she did at Auschwitz; before she shares an episode about her daily camp routine.
34:18
Salamon addresses songs from her childhood. She also mentions how her brothers were quizzed by her father on Sabbath afternoons. Salamon then speaks about her family, particularly her grandmother. She recalls how her grandmother predicted deportations and would read stories from her Tkhine (Yiddish-language prayerbook). Salamon remembers how trains with Jewish deportees headed to Galicia passed her house and briefly touches upon her life in a ghetto 1944.
40:12
Salamon addresses prewar holiday celebration, including Passover at her grandfather's house. She then shares a family episode about her grandmother's observance.
42:01
Salamon speaks about her traditional wedding with her first husband after the war and compares to prewar weddings. Salamon recalls wedding jesters and shares an episode about her aunt's shidduch. Salamon explains how her aunt could not marry a lawyer, because he was not observant enough for her family, and therefore attempted suicide.
44:49
Salamon speaks about her family. She then speaks about her education. Salamon attended Romanian and Hungarian schools. Salamon does not have any children.
46:48
Salamon speaks about her family, specifically her uncle who was a wedding jester. She also addresses prewar Jewish life, including Purim celebrations. Salamon remembers the custom Mishlo'ah Manot (shelakhmones).
53:24
Salamon speaks about her return home after the war. She describes how Red Army soldiers used her house as stable. Salamon states that she wanted to return to Romania instead of emigrating in hopes of meeting her relatives. Salamon then describes selections and forced labor at Auschwitz, when she lost her mother and sisters. She also addresses relations between Romanian and Polish Jews in the camp. Salamon then explains how she and fellow prisoners were sent to forced labor and provides a description of the camp.
0:00
Salamon discusses her childhood memories, in particular education. She studied with a private religious tutor at the age of sixteen. She describes a lesson together with eleven fellow classmates. Salamon then talks about her family life in the early 1940s and mentions her siblings.
21:50
Salamon speaks about her family. She then talks about prewar Jewish life, as well as her education. Salamon also speaks about contemporary hasidic visitors. Salamon mentions that her grandmothers were sisters.
28:09
Salamon speaks about her contemporary religious customs and holiday celebration. Salamon then addresses aliyah and mentions her visit to Israel, where she has relatives. Salamon also visited her relatives in Canada.
32:35
Salamon speaks about the contemporary Jewish community, as well as prewar and postwar religious life. Salamon recalls how the community hired a cantor for the Great Synagogue on holidays and her father would stop praying in order to listen to him.
46:13
Salamon speaks about her mother's singing and prewar cultural life. She then speaks about her family.
49:47
Salamon addresses her childhood memories and family.
4:30
The formal interview with Kurtsberg begins. He provides personal information and speaks about his family. His parents moved to Israel after the war.
8:32
Kurtsberg speaks about his life before the war and family. His father, who was a kosher butcher, was born in Chernivtsi and moved there with his family before World War II. Kurtsberg's mother was born in Barticeşti and worked as tailor. Kurtsberg recalls his grandfather's work as plank deliverer. Kurtsberg grew up with one sister, who died in the Bershad ghetto.
51:15
Kurtsberg describes Sabbath gatherings with his relatives before the war. He then speaks about Purim celebrations, including how he dressed up, after the war. Kurtsberg also addresses food customs.
53:54
Kurtsberg speaks about postwar Passover celebrations, including food customs, at home. Kurtsberg also addresses Sukkoth and recalls how he and grandfather slept in the sukkah.
56:25
Kurtsberg speaks about his family, particularly his grandfather. He then addresses his education at a religious school (cheder) and Romanian school. Kurtsberg states that he attended cheder for two hours in the afternoons. Kurtsberg then continues his recollections of holiday celebration, including Tisha B'Av.
0:00
Kurtsberg speaks about healing customs. He recalls how his mother practiced cupping therapy. He then speaks about a family in the Bershad ghetto, which was under Romanian and German command. The family's son sold dry goods and was busted by a Romanian soldier, Kurtsberg explains.
28:17
Kurtsberg speaks about food and drinking customs at home. He shares his mother's fish recipe.
38:01
Kurtsberg talks about folk and healing customs. He recalls how his mother practiced "leshn koyln" (extinguish coals) to avert the evil eye. Kurtsberg also shares episodes about locals from his childhood.
46:52
Kurtsberg shares an anecdote about Hershl Ostropoler eating at a restaurant without paying. Another anecdote involves Hershl falling asleep at dinner and losing his beard. Kurtsberg remembers the anecdotes from his father. Kurtsberg then speaks about the Golem of Prague, which he read in Yiddish.
12:50
Kurtsberg speaks about his family. He raised a son and daughter, who live in Israel. Kurtsberg also raised another son with Tania, who lives in Suceava.
1:34
Saldinger discusses her childhood memories. She was confined to the Murafa ghetto during World War II. Saldinger briefly touches upon her arrival in the ghetto. She then speaks about her family. Saldinger grew up with another sibling and her father was a merchant.
4:04
The team meets Shoyl Petraru, the head of the community. Saldinger mentions that she visited Israel once and continues to talk about her family.
12:30
Petraru provides personal information and speaks about his family. He moved to Suceava from Dorohoi in 1953. His mother died during the war in a Transnistrian ghetto and his father made aliyah after the war. They were both born in Dorohoi. Petraru then addresses Jewish life in Dorohoi and contemporary Jewish life in Suceava.
18:04
Petraru addresses his education at a religious school (cheder) and Romanian school. He then speaks about his family. He raised a son, who lives in Iaşi.
22:59
The camera collects footage of the Suceava Great Synagogue, including paintings, and Petraru speaks about his family.
30:09
The team greets Melanie Mehler in front of her house and chats with her in Moldovan. She also speaks about her family. Her father was killed in the Iaşi pogrom in June 1941.
45:31
Mehler briefly speaks about her life during World War II. She left Iaşi and got married in 1955. Mehler then speaks about the contemporary Iaşi community.
56:52
Mehler speaks about her family and religious customs.
0:00
The team and Mehler chat in her house and she explains family photographs. She also addresses her wedding in Vatra Dornei 1955.
4:24
Mehler speaks about her family. Her mother was born in Iaşi. She grew up as an only child and raised one daughter. Mehler then speaks about Jewish life in the region.
25:44
The chat moves outside and Mehler speaks about her family. Her grandson lives in Australia and she also has relatives in America. The camera then collects footage of Vatra Dornei on the way to the next interview with Bercovici.
30:22
Bercovici touches upon her life during World War II. She was deported to the Transnistria region, Mohyliv-Podilskyy ghetto in 1941. Bercovici explains that she lives in her childhood home. She then speaks about her family. Her mother survived the Mohyliv-Podilskyy ghetto. Her father, who died in the Mohyliv-Podilskyy ghetto of starvation in 1944, was an engineer. Bercovici does not have any children.
40:35
Bercovici speaks about her family. She married her husband in the Mohyliv-Podilskyy ghetto. Bercovici speaks about her life after the war. She and her husband returned from the ghetto in 1945 and moved back into her childhood home.
46:58
Bercovici speaks about her family's life in the ghetto and recalls how her sister brought home bread for her work as pharmacist. She then addresses her childhood memories and mentions her visit to Israel in 1973.
51:00
Bercovici shows the team her German encyclopedia. In Romanian, Bercovici then discusses her childhood memories, including holiday celebration and cultural performances. In particular, she addresses Purim celebrations. Bercovici speaks about her family.
0:00
Bercovici provides information about her family and provides personal information.
2:02
Galambos talks about the Vaja synagogue. He then talks about his life after World War II, before addressing prewar Jewish life in Vaja. Galambos returned with a sister and two brothers. Galambos recalls book peddlers.
41:59
Galambos speaks about his family and the team concludes the formal part of the interview. The camera then records family photographs.
45:13
Galambos chats with the team outside. He also discusses his childhood memories. Galambos's family moved to Vaja when he was three years old.
36:47
The formal interview begins. Weinberger provides personal information and talks about his family. He grew up with one sister and one brother. His father was born in Poland. Weinberger attended a religious school (cheder) in Stropkov and recalls how his grandmother cooked for him when he came home to Nižna Jedlova.
21:48
Weinberger talks about his family. His father was born in Krosno, Poland. Weinberger's father, ne Kirshner, took on his mother's name because he did not have Slovakian citizenship. He then returns to his arrival and life in Pest, where he stayed at a chapel with other Jewish refugees. In Pest, Weinberger explains, he went to see the Polish Committee. Weinberger, alias Yosef Chibotsky 25:46, describes the meeting, where he received documents and financial support. Until Weinberger received his documents, he worked in the fields. He then recalls his daily life and addresses again his arrival at the Pest railway station.
3:33
Weinberger talks about his life before the war and his family. His father worked in the field. Weinberger attended a religious school (cheder) in Stropkov for eight years. His uncle lived in Stropkov. He also attended a Slovakian school. Weinberger supported his uncle feeding the animals in the mornings.
4:53
Weinberger speaks about his cheder education and his family. His father also moved to Stropkov in the early 1940s.
33:33
Weinberger talks about Passover celebrations before the war. He recalls questions for his father.
41:22
Weinberger addresses prewar cultural performances in Stropkov. He then talks about the best moments with his family on Sabbath during his childhood. Weinberger recalls how he walked with his family to a mikhvah on Sabbath. He then addresses food customs on Sabbath, including wine.
55:25
Weinberger speaks about his family and observance. He then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
4:45
Chaimovic provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was a wood merchant and owned a lumbermill. Chaimovic grew up with five brothers and one sister. Chaimovic's father taught his sons how to pray. His mother was born in Oleksandrivka (Shandorova), Ukraine, and his father was born in Monastyrets', Ukraine.
13:36
Chaimović speaks about Sabbath celebrations, including food customs, at home before the war. He also sings a Sabbath song and talks about his family. Chaimović recalls how his mother prepared gefilte and falshe fish and addresses fasting.
5:12
Steiner speaks about his hometown Zlaté Moravce and then his life in Israel. His father was also born in Zlaté Moravce. According to Steiner, fifty Jewish families lived there. He made aliyah in 1949. Steiner studied Yiddish and went to two yeshivot in Israel. Steiner has been the rabbi of the Košice community for five years.
36:59
Chaimović talks about his life before the war. He helped his father with transporting wood.
38:17
Chaimović talks about his life during the war, in particular the year 1938. He explains that local Jews were either confined to the Sered' or Nováky ghettos in 1942. Chaimović was imprisoned in the Sered' (from September 1944 to March 1945) and Terezín (from March to May 1945), Czech Republic, ghettos. He then describes his life during that period. He recalls individuals and shootings. He then talks about his family's fate and escapes during the war.
45:07
Chaimović talks about his liberation from the Terezín ghetto in 1945 and his and his family's return home. He then addresses his best moments in life before the war.
54:51
Chaimović talks about his family. He does not have any children. His nephew lives in Israel. He then talks about life today.
13:23
Klimenko briefly talks about life during the war. She was imprisoned in the Balta ghetto. She provides personal information and talks about her family. Her sister Frume emigrated to America in the 1970s.
17:14
Klimenko discusses her childhood memories and talks about her family. Her father worked at the sewing factory in Balta. Klimenko, who did not go through formal schooling, worked as a cleaner for twenty-eight years. She then talks about prewar Jewish life, when she attended the synagogue with her parents regularly. Klimenko raised a son, who lives in the Odesa region.
24:54
Klimenko talks about her life during the war, when she was imprisoned in the Balta ghetto. Klimenko explains how the community was sent from the ghetto to a barn. She describes how she escaped from the village and walked to Bershad, before she returned to Balta. In Bershad, Klimenko entered the ghetto and hid in a bed in the basement. Her father was drafted in 1941 and died at the front.
29:15
Klimenko briefly addresses her life after the war and talks about her family. She remembers how her father, born in Pervomayskiy, wanted to retain Yiddishkayt. Klimenko talks about food customs. After the war, Klimenko explains that her sister lived in an orphanage in Odesa.
45:17
The third part of the tape includes a formal interview with Liza Lvovna Milchenko, nee Bondar. Milchenko, who was born in 1936 in Balta, talks about her life before the war and her family. Her father, born in Orël, worked at a furniture factory as a guard. Her mother was born in Rezina. She grew up with a brother and remembers her happy childhood. Milchenko then talks about her life during the war. Her father was drafted into the army in 1941. She explains how Jews were forced into the ghetto.
47:28
Milchenko talks about Jewish life after the war. She remembers how people danced on the street in the evenings in the 1950s/60s. Milchenko then talks about her life and the beatings in the Balta ghetto. Her mother was sent to forced labor. Her brother Fime frequently snuck out of the ghetto to beg for food in the town center. She then talks about her family.
52:56
Milchenko talks about her life after World War II. She mopped floors and carried water in exchange for food. Milchenko explains that her brother enlisted in Horlivka and their mother moved with him, but she stayed in Balta and finished seven years of school. Milchenko continues that she was too young to work, but was able to help out at the orphanage. At the age of 17, she began working at the sewing factory and worked there for forty years.
54:45
Milchenko talks about life today and her family. Her brother lives in Balta. She raised two children. Her mother worked as a cleaner in a store after the war. She then talks about life during the war in the Balta ghetto, where thirty families were confined. She remembers that when the Germans came back near the end of the war, they executed twenty-seven of the families that had been confined in the ghetto; only three survived. Her mother told her about how when she was a child, the family managed to flee the massacre. She also remembers the story of how the Jewish men in town were gathered into a barn near the railway station and burned to death. She says that the blood of Jewish children was used for the German hospital.
0:00
Milchenko discusses holiday celebrations and talks about her family, in particular her mother. She then talks about life today.
3:47
Milchenko talks about postwar Jewish life, and about the closing of the synagogue after the war. According to her, the kosher butcher worked until the 1980s in Balta. He slaughtered chickens and would also circumcise children in the early years after the war. Milchenko then talks about life today and her family. She explains that she was afraid to arrange a circumcision for her son, who was born in 1957. Milchenko has family in Israel.
8:44
Klimenko talks about life today. She moved into her apartment when she was thirty years old, together with her son and mother.
0:00
Lokteva talks about her family. Her father was drafted into the Red Army. She and her mother were imprisoned in the Balta ghetto. She raised two sons who live in America. Lokteva lives in Rostov since 1963. After the war, she lived with her aunt.
6:16
Lokteva discusses Yiddish songs and talks about postwar Jewish life in Balta. She then recalls a Yiddish song that her uncle taught her and talks about her family.
19:44
Lokteva talks about holiday celebrations and her family. Her mother cooked and sold borshtch. She then talks about Purim celebrations and remembers a Yiddish song about Purim. She also recalls her mother baking matzah in the oven at home. She then discusses postwar Jewish life, when people gathered in private homes for services. Lokteva remembers her own wedding and talks about their family, in particular their mother’s family. Their cousins live in America and Israel.
30:19
Lokteva shows a family photograph, taken in the family’s home. She then talks about their family, before briefly addressing holidays. Lokteva’s wedding took place at her aunt’s house nearby.
39:13
Lokteva talks about her life during the war. Her family was imprisoned in the Balta ghetto and lived in their home during that period. She then remembers the best moments of her life and talks about her family. Lokteva married twice. After her first husband Kleynburt passed away, she married a non-Jewish man.
52:22
Pivnik talks about her family. She has relatives in America and Israel. Her mother was born in Balta and her father was born in the Odesa region. Her grandmother Reyze was a rebbetzin, who died in the Balta ghetto in hiding. Her mother raised six children and passed away in 1929. Her father remarried. Pivnik evacuated to Sakhalin, Russia, during World War II. Pivnik recalls her sibling’s life during the war. Pivnik begins to talk about her childhood memories.
0:00
Pivnik discusses Jewish life before the war and talks about her family. Her family frequently attended synagogue services; Pivnik explains that they lived in close proximity. She then discusses prewar weddings and remembers how her mother would dress her up. Her mother was a dressmaker and her father was a baker. Pivnik recalls how her father has business contacts in different towns in Moldova. She then talks about her father’s life during the war in hiding. Pivnik explains how he was reported to the Germans by a fellow Jew.
26:00
Pivnik recalls her sister’s wedding before the war. She then discusses folk customs and her childhood memories.
35:25
Pivnik talks about her life before the war. She lived in the Jewish autonomous region Birobidzhan in 1938 and 1939, working as school inspector (?). She lived with her sister, who moved to the region after it was founded in 1938. Pivka then talks about Jewish culture life before the war. She remembers a performance by Clara Young.
41:38
Pivnik talks about her life before the war. She studied to be a flour miller in Odesa at a technical school. She was in the Komsomol. After the war, she worked as a cleaner. Pivnik then talks about her family, before she talks about life today. Pivnik lived in Israel for eight years.
49:38
Pivnik addresses life before the war. She does not recall antisemitism. She then talks about life after the war and housing, before Pivnik addresses her life in evacuation. She worked in a sugar shop. Pivnik then talks about her husband, who was an actor. She got married in 1942. Her daughter Ala Pivnik joins the conversation and explains how she learned to speak Yiddish from her aunts. Ala came to Balta at the age of three, when Pivnik moved back from Birodbidzhan.
5:35
Khotenko discusses her life before the war. She then talks about her family. Her father, a baker, was born in Nestoiyta. Khotenko grew up in Nestoyita, before moving to Balta in 1932. Her mother worked in the Balta sewing factory after the war. Her paternal grandparents lived on a kolkhoz. Her son Volodye Shvartsman lives in Tiraspol, Moldova. Her mother’s brother evacuated her and seven relatives with a wagon and horse during the war. Khotenko grew up with six siblings and her sister lives in Sarata.
30:09
Khotenko discusses cultural life after the war, in particular theater. She then talks about prewar life at home, in particular Sabbath and Yom Kippur celebrations. Khotenko remembers her non-Jewish friend Pavlik, who spoke Yiddish. She then talks about her family and prewar cultural life. Her grandfather was a tailor.
37:33
Khotenko talks about the Great Hunger in 1932/33. Her sister died during the famine. She then talks about postwar Yiddish culture, in particular theater. Khotenko recalls a Yiddish song about a girl, she heard from Anna Guzik. Khotenko recalls prewar Jewish weddings and discusses holidays before the war.
47:16
Khotenko answers questions about cultural terminology and discusses folk customs, as well as anecdotes about receiving luck. She explains how her sister went to an old Jewish woman, who averted the evil eye. Khotenko then talks about her family. Her grandson lives in Israel.
0:00
Khotenko talks about her family, in particular her son. He was circumcised at a physician’s home in 1952 in exchange for money.
0:57
Khotenko talks about life after the war, when she returned to Balta from evacuation. Khotenko worked as a dishwasher in a kitchen at a military hospital. She then provides information about the lives of her relatives after the war. In particular, Khotenko mentions the hunger of 1947. She then recalls how a neighbor, medical doctor Iosip Viner, was unjustly imprisoned before the war in the late 1930s. Khotenko explains that Viner healed her from scarlet fever.
8:22
Khotenko talks about prewar Jewish life. She then talks about contemporary Jewish life and her different last names; before she talks about her family. She remembers her mother writing in Yiddish.
1:54
Gorberg talks about her life before and during the war. She grew up with two brothers. Both of them emigrated and lived in America and Australia respectively. Her family moved from Balta to the Dnepropetrovsk oblast during the Great Hunger in 1933, where they lived until the outbreak of World War II. Then her family attempted evacuation to Kazakhstan. Gorberg explains how they only reached the Dnieper River, which was already occupied by the Germans. Gorberg continues that two friends rescued them at night and saved them from a mass shooting. In Kazakhstan, Gorberg worked on a kolkhoz. Her father passed away in Kazakhstan.
5:56
Gorberg talks about her family. She raised two sons, who live in Israel and Khmelnytskyy. Her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were tailors. Her father was born in Kodema and her mother in Balta. She then talks about her life on the kolkhoz before the war and her evacuation. Gorberg attended at a Yiddish school for two years, on the kolkhoz “Chervona zirka” in the Dnepropetrovsk oblast, Stalindorfskiy region. Her mother worked in agriculture. Her family evacuated from the kolkhoz in 1941. Gorberg explains how two friends helped them escape and they washed themselves with milk on the way.
14:28
Gorberg talks about her life after the war. Her mother moved to Rîbnita, Moldova, and Gorberg celebrated a traditional Jewish wedding there in 1951. She then recalls her life before the war on the kolkhoz and her education. Gorberg attended a Yiddish school for two years, then a Ukrainian and a Russian school. She finished seven years of schooling in evacuation in Kazakhstan. Gorberg addresses her family and Sabbath celebrations.
20:39
Gorberg discusses her return to Balta in 1945 and her life after the war. When her family returned, they did not have a place to live and moved in with her brother in Odesa. In Odesa, Gorberg learned to become a confectioner, to help out her brother, who was a war invalid. According to Gorberg, the job prospects for confectionary work were more promising in Rîbnita, Moldova, where her paternal uncle lived. In Rîbnita, her father recommended that she become an accountant as a specialized profession. Gorberg was trained in Chişinău for one year. After Gorberg graduated, she was sent to a kolkhoz in the region of Rîbnita as part of a working assignment and worked there for two years. After Gorberg got married, they moved to Balta in 1951. In Balta, she established herself as a planner and then an accountant. She worked in export for forty-four years.
27:54
Gorberg talks about food customs, she remembers from her mother. She then talks about Jewish cultural life before the war and food customs today. She then talks about her family, in particular her husband’s, before Gorberg discusses life today. She lived with her mother-in-law for thirty years.
48:08
Epelman provides personal information and talks about his family. He grew up with a twin Brane, four more brothers and four more sisters. Brane moved to Israel. His father, born in Balta, was a coachman. After the war, Epelman worked a stoker.
54:52
Epelman talks about his life during the war. He was imprisoned in the Balta ghetto for three years. As a child, Epeleman witnessed the murder of relatives in 1942. His family shared a house in the ghetto with four other families. Most of Epelman’s family survived the war.
0:00
Epelman talks about prewar Jewish life, in particular weddings. Epelman then talks about postwar religious life. He then talks about his family. He raised two children. Epelman recalls celebrations of Yom Kippur at his grandfather’s, who would tell stories. He also recalls his grandfather praying.
8:19
Epelman talks about life after the war. He started working at a coal factory at 13. He explains how he had to support his big family, despite his young age. Epelman was then trained as a stoker and worked with coal. At the age of 19, Epelman started his military service and returned from Moscow to Balta in 1960. He addresses antisemitism in the army and explains how he was sent to a different unit to be separated from a fellow Jew.
13:47
Epelman recalls a Yiddish song about poverty. He then answers questions about cultural terminology. Epelman then talks about his family and food customs, as well as postwar holiday celebrations. He then discusses folk customs.
30:46
Epelman talks about his siblings’ life after the war. They live in Israel, America, and Kryvyy Rih. Epelman has been married to a non-Jewish woman for fifty years. He then talks about Jewish occupations, in particular the fate of a violin maker during World War II.
14:50
Borukaeva discusses her childhood memories and talks about her family. Her father, born in Pischanka, passed away in 1944. Her father worked as a baker. Borukaeva grew up with four siblings. One brother moved to Israel and one sister to Germany. She then talks about her husband and her parents.
26:29
Borukaeva talks about prewar Jewish life in Balta. She then discusses holiday customs and talks about her family. His father was born in Kharkiv.
33:06
Borukaeva discusses life after the war. She worked in the Balta sewing factory working with computers, before her husband arranged work for her as a photographer. She addresses the hard work at night and later on a kolkhoz. Borukaeva then talks about her family and how she met her husband, originally from the Caucasus, on a train. Borukaeva recalls her cousin Vadim Mulerman, who professionally sang Yiddish songs. Borukaeva also used to sing.
0:00
Lerner talks about her family, particularly her father. She was raised by a aunt. Lerner also addresses her education and work. Lerner explains that she studied mathematics at an institute in Odesa and worked as high school teacher.
1:30
Lerner provides personal information and speaks about her family. Lerner mentions that she lives in the same house her grandfather bought. Lerner grew up with two cousins. She also has relatives in America.
5:59
Lerner speaks about her work and colleagues after the war. She then speaks about her family and mentions her relatives, who made aliyah in 1928.
12:02
Lerner speaks about her life during World War II. Lerner's mother evacuated with her to Kokand, Uzbekistan and passed away there. She also mentions her family's fate during the war, before addressing her grandparents.
2:10
Miaskovskaia talks about the house she lives in. She then speaks about her family. Miaskovskaia then describes her work as teacher at a Russian school in Balta and mentions how people made fun of her patronymic.
5:01
Miaskovskaia speaks about her family's life at the beginning of World War II. She describes how her family evacuated to the Donbas region and then Orenburg by foot. Miaskovskaia grew up with one sister, who lives in Germany.
6:41
Miaskovskaia speaks about her family, in particular her grandfather's observance. Miaskovskaia also sings a Yiddish song about an old couple, she remembers from her grandmother. Miaskovskaia raised a daughter and a son, who lives in Germany. Miaskovskaia also speaks about her visits to Germany. Miaskovskaia's father worked as forwarding agent (экспедитор) at a warehouse. Her parents kept pigs, a cow, chickens and ducks. Miaskovskaia mentions that she also kept pigs until five years ago.
33:09
Miaskovskaia speaks about her family, particularly children and husband. She then shows family photographs.
44:58
Angelova speaks about her family's life at the beginning of World War II. Her parents owned a shop and sold their produce. She then continues to provide personal information and speaks about her family. Angelova's father was born in the Raşcov province and her mother also in Topole. Her parents owned land, as well as kept cows and pigs. She then describes her family home. Angelova then describes how her mother joined a kolkhoz in the 1920s.
49:51
Angelova talks about prewar Jewish life in Topole. According to her, approximately fifteen families lived there. She then addresses the period of collectivization in the 1930s when the state expropriated her parents. Angelova then speaks about her family. Her father worked at a manufactory and Angelova on a kolkhoz during this period. Angelova grew up with four siblings. They moved to Kotovsk in 1939, where her parents worked in shops.
54:39
Angelova speaks about her family's life at the beginning of World War II. She mentions assemblies to gather Jews for forced labor.
57:17
Angelova talks about her family, particularly her grandparents. She also addresses her family's life before the war.
3:36
Guzman discusses life in Tomashpil today. She also briefly discusses family members she has in America and in Odessa.
6:58
Guzman describes life in the ghetto. It was difficult to buy anything. She describes how she received food from Christians over the ghetto wall. Her parents were forced to work during the war as well as afterwards.
10:30
Guzman speaks briefly about her family in America. One of her mother’s sisters, Rukhl, lived in the United States, and used to write to her in Yiddish in the years after the war.
11:44
Conclusion of the interview. The camera then cuts to Guzman showing photographs of her family.
16:05
The interview begins. Kazakevich was born in Lityn in 1925. Both of her parents were from Lityn. Her father was named was Leyb, and he was a tailor. Her mother name was Feyge, and was a housewife. Kazakevich has difficulty both with Yiddish, and with discussing her siblings and parents, none of whom are living.
27:16
Family. Her father died before the war, but her mother survived (?) together with Kazakevich herself. Her eldest brother was named Chaim, her older sister was named Bronye. Kazakevich slips often out of Yiddish, and her bibliographical details are supplied by a family member off-screen, in Russian.
51:35
Family and life before the war. Before the war, Vaynman moved to Lvov. During the war she was evacuated to the Ural region. Her father, Boris (Borekh) was killed during the was. She was young when they moved to Lvov, and doesn’t remember anything of life there.
52:59
Life in the Ural region during the war very difficult. Her mother was a teacher at a Yiddish technical institute before the war, and taught both in Yiddish and Russian, so was able to speak with the other evacuees who came from Poland and Lvov. When they were sent to the Ural region they all lived in 1 room. Her father was a director of a factory.
58:15
Family. Her mother was born in Lubenets, and spoke with her in Yiddish. Many of the other people in the Ural region did not speak Yiddish. Her mother was very religious, and many Jewish women came to their home for the Jewish holidays. Vaynman’s mother would pray together with these people. Her mother wanted to teach her how to pray, but Vaynman did not want to learn.
0:00
After providing biographical and family information. She grew up with three siblings. His parents were born in Bila Tserkva. Her father Meyshe was tailor. Her family lived there until the beginning of World War II. Her family evacuated to Russia, near Astrakhan.
1:53
Her father and brother were drafted to fight at the front. Since she was already eighteen years old, she was responsible for feeding a family of five when they were in evacuation and brought them through this time full of hardship. Marmalevskaia worked as a fish farmer at a fishing kolkhoz located on the banks of the Volga for four and a half years. At the beginning of her time in evacuation, her mother also helped out at the fish farm, but she soon fell ill with malaria. She explained that all of the families from Bila Tserkva at the kolkhoz perished from famine except for her family and a few members of a second family. Her ten-year old sister Tanye walked twenty kilometers to get the fish from the kolkhoz in order to bring it to her family.
5:48
The conversation moves to her return home to Bila Tserkva in October 1945. Her father returned from the front, seriously injured in 1944. Many of her family members perished during the war. They discovered after arrival at the railway station that their house was not standing anymore. Later on, her family purchased a ramshackle kitchen, where the six members of Marmalevskaia's family lived. Her brother Yankl returned home from the front in 1949.
8:46
During the Great Hunger in 1932-33, two of her aunts died. She remembers eating potato peels mixed with oats. Marmelevskaia then discusses her childhood memories. Her family lived in one room with a kitchen. She returns to the topic of the Great Hunger. Her mother, originally a homemaker, worked as a weaver during the famine. Her body, however, was so swollen that she could hardly climb into the weaving machine. They survived because her father traveled to Moscow, sold his suit, and sent his family vouchers for bread.
17:21
She talks about life after the war. She got married in 1946. Her husband worked as a blacksmith in a factory, and participated in a Yiddish theater from 1989 through 2000 in Bila Tserkva. Among other roles, he played Tevye the Milkman. He passed away due to weak heart, which was due to the hunger of 1946. She has a son Naum works as a geologist in Kyiv and a daughter Vere who lives in Israel. The conversation returns to the postwar Yiddish theater. The director's name was Anatolii Klorfelt.
5:26
Berman then talks about his life before the war. He was born in Rivne (Rovne) and attended a Polish school. He encountered the writer Sholem Asch and Ben Gurion in his home town. His father was a successful leather merchant and was active in associational life. His mother was the chairwoman of the local Jewish Women's Organization, which regularly invited well-known figures, such as Ben Gurion, Sholem Asch, and Ze'ev Jabotinsky. She would entertain the visitors and, therefore gave Berman the opportunity to meet them. Berman then remembers the conversation with Ben Gurion, who encouraged him to immigrate to Palestine after graduating from school.
13:24
The conversation turns to life after the war. Due to his achievements as a cardiologist in Rivne, he was made honorary citizen as the only Jew among eight honorary citizens of the city . He still works as the chief cardiologist in Bila Tserkva. The camera briefly cuts to his wife Sonya, who was born in Bila Tserkva, and they discuss Yiddish dialects.
20:21
The conversation moves to Berman's childhood memories and family. His parents were killed in Rivne during World War II. He talks about his encounters with famous people, who socialized with his parents. Berman also wrote articles about the pogroms and talks about someone he interviewed for that purpose.
24:45
The conversation moves to Berman's childhood memories. He did not grow up speaking Yiddish, but learned the language reading Yiddish journalism and sports magazines. He studied at a Hebrew-language school, organized by the Tarbut movement, before he switched to a Polish school. In ninth and tenth grade, Berman studied at a Russian school. He then talks about the ceremony he attended commemorating the fifty year anniversary of the Warsaw uprising, where he gave a speech in Polish. The conversation returns to his childhood years and prewar Jewish life in Rivne. He mentions different Jewish institutions, which produced a lively Jewish community in Rivne. The institutions include Jewish parties, a Yiddish and a Hebrew school, and three Jewish sport clubs. Berman traveled to Kyiv to see his relatives in 1939, one week before the war broke out.
32:41
The interview is briefly interrupted by his daughter-in-law's arrival. Like many others in his family, she works as a doctor.
34:23
Berman then talks about life during the war. He published material about the fate of his family during the war. His parents were executed along with their fellow Jews from Rivne during German mass killings on November 6th and 7th in the pine woods near Rivne. They set up a memorial in Yiddish. Most Jews of Rivne were murdered early on. Berman left Kyiv and went to Stalingrad in order to study at the medical institute. However, he had to interrupt his studies in 1942 due to the arrival of the Germans, and he volunteered for the Red Army. He served in the 64th division, defending Stalingrad. He was taken out of his division because of the German language skills he had acquired at the Polish school. He was favored by a Soviet commander to German writers like Wilhelm Pieck. He worked as a translator for German officers. He reached the rank of a lieutenant and saved German army officers from execution.
47:45
Berman returns to discussing his military service in the Red Army. His division moved from Stalingrad to Prague. He helped liberate ghettos in Budapest and Vienna. Berman tells about how during the war, he was able to correspond by mail with his mother as well as with the actor Solomon Mikhoels and the writer Ilya Ehrenburg. After the war, during a surge of antisemitism, his wife burned the entire correspondence with Mikhoels.
MDV 335Khariton Berman; Chara Yakovlevna Bublitskaia; Chara (Chare) Yakovlevna BublitskaiaBila Tserkva, 2005
5:31
The team begins to interview Berman’s wife Sonya (Shlime) Berman, nee Britske, born in 1923 in Bila Tserkva. She talks about life and family before the war. Her father, Meyer, was also born in Bila Tserkva and was a white collar worker. She grew up with a brother. Sonya attended a Ukrainian school.
7:12
She briefly mentions her evacuation to the Urals during the war, where she studied at a medical institute. She then talks about life after the war, before returning to discussing her family and life before the war. She finished her studies in Kyiv after the war. She grew up in a religious household.
12:49
The conversation turns to life today and the interview gets interrupted by a visit from their son, Abram. Berman shows one photograph of a memorial. Then everyone gets together for a group photograph, showing Berman’s diploma. The camera records more footage of their apartment after the conclusion of the interview.
17:44
This is the beginning of the formal interview with Bublitskaia, born in Chişinău. She provides personal information, before talking about her family. She remembers religious activities among her family, especially with her grandparents. Her father Yankl worked as an accountant. She grew up with her brother Moyshe.
29:54
Bubilitskaia briefly talks about the local Zionist organization, which her brother frequently attended, before she continues to discuss religious holidays, such as Passover. She played with her childhood friends in Romanian, although they attended a Yiddish school. Her mother was born in Calara?i and Bublitskaia remembers holiday celebrations with many relatives. Her mother would prepare plenty of pastry for Hanukkah for her brother’s birthday celebration as well. She remembers learning about Jewish holidays at the Yiddish school. She then talks about Yom Kippur when the adults fasted. The children left the house of her uncle and ate outside during that time.
41:50
Bublitskaia discusses itinerant Yiddish theater groups from Chernivtsi before and after the war. During her childhood, she was friends with the son of the Hasidic rebbe Averbukh. Her grandfather lived in Zhytomyr. She then mentions her husband Ilya, who had Hasidic relatives.
58:02
She talks about life during the war. In 1940 she evacuated to Siberia with her parents and brother. They worked hard for years and she remembers how ten people had to share one bucket of potatoes. Her brother married the daughter of the chief engineer of the factory her family worked at. They left Siberia for Kyiv in 1943. In 1945 her brother wrote Bublitskaia a letter to invite her to study at an institute in Kyiv. It was there that Bublitskaia met her husband in 1948.
0:00
She talks about the immediate postwar years, when she studied at an institute in Kyiv and met her husband there in 1948. They were sent on a work assignment to Bila Tserkva. Bublitskaia then talks about her family. She was married for 55 years. Her daughter is a surgeon at the hospital in Bila Tserkva. Her son lives in Russia. His daughter works as an endocrinologist.
7:46
She discusses other interviewees like Khariton Berman, as well as her family. Similarly to the Berman family, her family consists of several medical doctors. Her maternal uncle made aliyah from Romania in 1970.
28:34
Berman talks about prewar Hasidism and lively religious life in Rivne, as well as about his parents. They were killed in Rivne during the German occupation. He remembers a number of cantors who would visit Rivne regularly like Yossele Rosenblatt.
0:00
Episodes from his family’s in prewar Jewish religious life in Rîbniţa, Moldova
3:01
Isaak and Bella provide personal information. She also speaks about her family. Bella's father was born in Warsaw, Poland.
6:00
Bella addresses her life before the war. She explains that she finished eight years of schooling at a Russian school and went to visited Kharkiv with her uncle. They had to evacuate from Kharkiv in July 1941. Bella also addresses her family's fate in Berdychiv during the war. Bella then speaks about her life after the war. She took classes in Kharkiv, before moving back to Berdychiv in order to get married. Bella also speaks about her family. Their daughter lives in America.
7:40
Isaak talks about his life before the war and addresses his family. His father, who was also born in Berdychiv, was a tailor and passed away in 1928. Bella also speaks about her family, particularly her father's career and work as a musician. Bella's father was a chief accountant.
12:07
Isaak speaks about his education at a Yiddish school. He then speaks about his childhood and poverty, before Bella addresses her childhood, particularly her education. Bella attended a Russian school. She also addresses her father's education and career as chief accountant. Bella then addresses her life shortly before the outbreak of World War II, when she traveled to Kharkiv with her uncle.
15:12
Bella and Isaac briefly speak about their lives during the war. Bella then talks about her family, including her father's religious education. She grew up with two sisters. She then turns to her childhood memories of her father's fiddl playing and holiday celebrations at home. They then discuss Jewish life in Berdychiv during the war and mention Vasily Grossman.
18:16
Isaac talks about prewar Jewish life in Berdychiv and states that Party members were not allowed to attend synagogue. According to Bella, her father refused to join the Party. Bella then talks about holiday celebrations at home before the war, including food customs. In particular, she recalls Passover and Sabbath, as well as the local kosher butcher. Bella remembers her father's story telling about Jewish history, before she describes her family's oven where they cooked latkes (potato pancake).
28:04
Bella speaks about her father's religious customs and praying. She also addresses his education, before Issak speaks about prewar holiday celebrations at home and his childhood memories. Bella and Isaak state that they had mezuzot (doorposts) at home and then describe their childhood memories when they lived across from each other in the same courtyard. Bella remembers how Isaak's mother borrowed money from her family.
34:39
Bella and Isaak speak about prewar Jewish life in Berdychiv, as well as mention Yiddish newspapers and writers. They recall Yiddish spoken on the street. According to Isaak, 60,000 Jews lived in Berdychiv out of a total population of 80,000. Bella then speaks about family letters, written in Yiddish.
0:00
Bella speaks about her family, particularly their daughter in America.
0:00
Postwar Jewish life and family
14:26
Bella talks about her family. Her father was a refugee from Poland during World War I. Bella recalls the dangers to receive a Jewish education during her childhood. They then continue to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
30:26
Bella and Isaak speak about their lives today. Bella mentions her husband's Red Army service.
37:19
Isaak and Bella talk about postwar Jewish life, as well as their lives and families today.
0:00
Skobilitskii provides personal information and speaks about his family. He then speaks about his life before the war, when he was drafted into the Red Army in 1939 to train as officer. He served for two years and achieved the rank of lieutenant. Instead of being demobilized, Skobilitskii explains, the was sent to the front as commander of a battalion of tanks in an artillery division. He then describes his army service during World War II.
1:55
Skobilitskii talks about his family. His mother was born in Chervone and his father was born Poland, near Warsaw. His father was a metalworker. Skobilitskii grew up with four brothers. He also addresses his family's fate during World War II.
28:25
Skobilitskii speaks about his family's fate and local Jewish fate during World War II. He also addresses local memorialization.
4:19
Isaak provides personal information. Bella then talks about their lives after the war. She also discusses her family, as well as contemporary Jewish life. The team then concludes the formal interview with Bella and Isaak.
16:33
Fania talks about life today, as well as her family.
18:23
Fania speaks about her life today, as well as her family. Her mother was born in Pidhorodne and her father was born in Berdychiv. Fania grew up with three siblings. Fania raised two daughters. She also speaks about her aunt, a Yiddish singer.
26:46
Discussions outside the synagogue. Family information
26:48
The team meets Skobilitskii and chats with him informally. He provides personal information and talks about his family. Skobilitskii raised a son and his grandchild lives in Israel.
30:27
Skobilitskii discusses his family and childhood.
36:08
Skobilitskii speaks about his army service, as well as his family. In particular, he talks about his mother's observance and prewar religious life. Skobilitskii's maternal grandfather was a rabbi.
0:00
Skobilitskii continues to speak about his childhood, including the local school system. He recalls how he attended synagouge with his father on Sabbath.
14:15
Skobilitskii speaks about his Red Army career and fighting at the front. He also mentions fellow Jews in his artillery division, as well as his injuries and military awards. He explains how he advanced from the Stalingrad front, through Bryansk, Sandomierz, Austria, Hungary, Germany, all the way to Berlin. After he helped to liberate Berlin, he became the senior lieutenant of the German town Tiefenbach. Skobilitskii continues that he was in charge for two years and his wife joined him there.
18:03
Skobilitskii speaks about his family, before returning to his army duties in the artillery division.
20:01
Skobilitskii answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He also speaks about his family, including his relatives' occupations (21:00).
MDV 344Efim Grigoryevich Skobilitskii; Raisa Iosifovna Chukh; David Zelikovich FurmanBerdychiv, 2002
5:40
Skobilitskii discusses his childhood memories and remembers how his maternal grandfather practiced kosher slaughter. He then answers questions about cultural terminology and linguistic questions.
36:40
The team conducts a short, informal interview with Chukh. She talks about her family.
38:38
The next informal interview with Furman begins. He provides some details about his biography. He studied at a religious school (cheder) and then Yiddish school. Furman fought at the Stalingrad front and received several military awards. He returned to Berdychiv in 1945. Furman also mentions his family's fate during World War II. Furman's wife passed away in 1992 and he does not have any children.
16:51
Chukh speaks about her family, particularly her second husband's life and military service during World War II. She also addresses his religious education. Chukh raised two children.
26:36
Skobilitskii talks about his family. He raised a son, who was born in 1949 and circumcised in the community. Skobilitskii then addresses the rebuilding of the synagogue after the war, before he returns to his family.
36:18
Skobilitskii speaks about his religious school (cheder) education. He then describes prewar holiday celebrations, specifically Passover, before talking about his family.
39:17
Skobilitskii explains how to play nuts on Passover. He then recalls how his family celebrated Sukkot, before he addresses his life today. Skobilitskii then talks about Sholem Aleichem's family, as well as Yiddish writers.
44:14
Skobilitskii talks about his life after the war and his family. He then addresses his life today. Skobilitskii worked at a tranfer station for land farms (kolkhozi and zavkhozi).
47:56
Skobilitskii speaks about his family, particularly his father's observance. He also addresses his childhood memories, including education. Skobilitskii attended cheder for approximately four years.
0:00
Family
28:59
His grandmother Rukhl
33:10
Dialectology and family
46:54
Family
52:25
His father was interrogated by the KGB
0:00
Biographical information and family
15:42
Family
21:00
Sharman’s family’s life before and during the war
1:14
Vainshelboim provides personal information and speaks about his family. He grew up with four siblings, two brothers and two sisters. His parents were also born in Berdychiv and his father worked as painter. He then recalls his grandmothers' observance during his childhood.
6:59
Vainshelboim discusses his childhood memories of his family life. He explains his father's playing of musical instruments and lists the songs his father would sing. He also recites a song in Russian.
10:36
Vainshelboim speaks about prewar Jewish life, including the synagogue structure and occupations. He explains how his father was a prisoner of war during World War I. Vainshelboim then talks about his family.
34:02
Vainshelboim talks about his life after the war. He was drafted for his military service in 1950 and served for four and a half years. He worked at a mill for twenty-five years and then at a beer factory for five years. Vainshelboim states that he was the only from his family who survived the war. He then returns to his life during the war, especially addressing the massacre.
37:16
Vainshelboim addresses his childhood memories, including games. He also talks about prewar religious life, before briefly addressing his contemporary religious observance. He then talks about his family.
40:15
Vainshelboim speaks about his education before and after the war. He finished six years of schooling before the war. He attended an evening school in 1961, for five years. Vainshelboim then returns to his childhood memories of family life. He also addresses antisemitism during the prewar Soviet period, before recalling the Great Hunger in 1932/33. Vainshelboim then speaks about his family.
49:13
Vainshelboim speaks about his family and holiday celebration, including food customs, before the war. He recalls how the community baked matzos before and after the war. Vainshelboim then speaks about his life , after the war, including his education.
57:11
Vainshelboim speaks about his family, particularly his wife. He was married in 1954. He raised two children and two of his grandsons live in Canada and Israel. Vainshelboim then speaks about contemporary religious life.
0:00
Vanshelboim discusses food customs, particularly how to kosher meat and prepare gefilte fish. He also remembers the local kosher butcher from his childhood, as well as his mother's cooking and baking.
10:26
Vanshelboim speaks about his family. He has relatives in America. He then talks about prewar Jewish life on a nearby kolkhoz.
1:56
Vanshelboim provides personal information and talks about his family.
4:05
Vanshelboim briefly speaks about his life during the war, before he talks about his family. His father worked as a painter. Vanshelboim also mentions his family's fate during World War II. He grew up with two sisters and two brothers.
7:03
Vanshelboim talks about his life during the war. (See also MDV 352) In particular, he remembers the beginning of the war, when the Germans occupied Berdychiv and took the local Jewish population for forced labor. Vanshelboim also shares an episode when he watched his mother's bread in the oven, after she was taken to forced labor. Vanshelboim then talks about his family's fate during the war, as well as a mass assembly organized by one German and a few Ukrainian policemen. He describes how he escaped the assembly and reached Novosilka, where he received help from a Ukrainian family. He then continues his journey the following morning and speaks about his encounter with the brigadier Andre Tsherbatyuk who advised him to seek help with a family in the village Tirikhavaye 16:34. Vanshelboim states that he stayed with the older Christian woman Korshenyuk for one year. He then explains that four family members were recorded in Yad Vashem's registry for The Righteous Among The Nations.
38:43
Vanshelboim addresses his family, particularly his mother's side. She was born in Ulanov. He then remembers a family encounter after the war.
40:57
Vanshelboim speaks about his army service, which he left with the rank of first sergeant. He worked as aeroplane mechanical engineer. He then remembers how he met his wife when he lived with her family after the war for six years. They were married after his military discharge in 1954.
MDV 359Rita Davidovna Shveibish; Aleksandr (Sasha) Shayevich Kolodenker; Mikhail Aronovich Vainshelboim and 1 moreBerdychiv, Pechera, 2009
34:00
The team returns to the camp in Pechera. Rita talks about how the camp was guarded with two guard towers and about how anybody who tried to escape was shot. She explains that her father was shot the day they arrived to the camp. She talks about the conditions in the camp, particularly the lack of food and water.
55:45
Family
1:06:29
Mikhail’s escapes during the war and on the way to find his family
0:00
Mikhail’s escapes during the war and on the way to find his family
14:20
About his aunt Arne (needs verification)
44:01
Biographical information and family
1:17:53
Family and photographs
6:14
Her husband Zalmen Mendele
0:00
Formal introduction and family. His father's name was Shimon and his mother's name was Haydl. He grew up with five siblings; three of them were killed in Auschwitz. His sister Chane, born in 1924, moved to Israel after only spending two days in Vynohradiv after her return from the war.
11:52
Life after war. Hodinger discusses his return to Vynohradiv. During the first few years, he only met his uncle who got married after the war. After twenty years living in an apartment, he moved away to build his own house.
13:22
Family. The conversation turns to family. He raised a stepdaughter, who worked at a doctor's office.
16:51
Family. The conversation returns to his family, in particular his sister in Israel and contemporary life.
19:56
Prewar life in Selish and family. He discusses prewar Jewish Vynohradiv: there were five synagogues in Selish. His father worked in a mill, carrying sacks of flour; he also worked as a porter, carrying luggage for travelers at the railway station. His father was born in Ilnytsya and his mother was born in Pryslip.
27:13
Family. Hodinger discusses his grandfather Berl, who farmed land in Ilnytsya and owned horses.
3:10
Family. Hodinger provides some information about his sister, Chana, who lives in Haifa. He briefly discusses her marriage and children.
1:49
Family
6:43
Postwar religious life and family
24:52
Family and holiday celebration
26:34
Returning home and family
39:58
Family and food customs
52:03
Berkovich's family and potential interviewees. Berkovich lived in America for thirty-five years. His son lives there. He returned to Berehove because his wife fell ill three years ago. In America, he worked as a carpenter. They also discuss potential interviewees, and potential Yiddish-speakers in the region.
4:51
Murovanaia shares her recipe for gefilte fish. She also speaks about her family.
8:22
The formal interview with Murovanaia begins. She addresses speaking Yiddish with her family.
11:16
Murovanaia provides personal information and speaks about her family. Murovanaia's family moved to Haysyn shortly after her birth. Her father was born in Kiblych and separated from her family. He was a colonel in the Red Army and taught at the military institute for electronics near Moscow. Murovanaia's mother was born in Haysyn and was the president of a tailor artel, before the war. Murovanaia grew up as an only child.
17:56
Murovanaia addresses her childhood memories of Haysyn. She finished seven grades at a Russian school, before her evacuation to Central Asia. She then addresses her return to Haysyn in 1944, when she worked as statistician. Murovanaia continues that she studied pharmacy between 1945 and 1947 and became an assistant pharmacist. She worked in the same pharmacy for fourty-five years. Murovanaia's daughter also worked in the same pharmacy, before her immigration to Germany.
22:01
Murovanaia discusses food customs for Passover, as well as other dishes. She then speaks about a childhood friend from before the war, before talking about her family. Murovanaia raised two daughters.
27:13
Murovanaia addresses postwar holiday celebration at her in-law's house. Murovanaia states that she went to celebrate Jewish holidays at her in-law's house and they came to visit on Soviet holidays. Murovanaia mentions that she learned Jewish cooking from her mother-in-law. She then addresses postwar Passover celebrations, including food customs.
35:02
Kozak speaks about prewar Tisha B'Av celebrations and answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also talks about prewar religious life and her family.
2:22
Kozak shows the team family photographs. Kozak raised two sons and was married in 1958.
5:00
The team moves outside and continues to chat with Kozak and Vygodner. They discuss contemporary Jewish life. Kozak then talks about her family. They then discuss the contemporary local community and Kozak's life today.
18:01
Bershadskaya addresses prewar Jewish life in Bershad and also talks about her family. She raised a son. She then speaks about her education and work. Bershadskaya attended a Russian secondary school and worked as teacher at a Ukrainian school. She also speaks about her life before the war.
26:29
Leiderman provides personal information and speaks about her family. Her father was also born in Bershad and worked as a fur and leather worker. Leiderman grew up with one sister and one brother that lives in Israel.
35:21
Leiderman talks about her family and addresses prewar Passover celebrations.
34:57
Bershadskaya provides personal information and talks about the location of her home village Chernyatka. Her family moved to Bershad when she was thirteen years old. Bershadskaya talks about her family. Her father was also born in Chernyatka and was a barber. According to Bershadskaya, between fifteen and twenty Jewish families lived in Chernyatka. Bershadskaya's mother was born in Bershad.
0:00
Bershadskaya talks about her family. Her mother was a seamstress and her father was a barber. She also touches upon her father's work. Bershadskaya grew up with two brothers and one sister.
5:06
Bershadskaya speaks about her family's life before the war. She explains that her mother moved to Bershad, so her daughter could be married off to a Jew.
13:45
Bershadskaya speaks about her life during World War II. They were imprisoned in the Bershad ghetto. Her childhood home burned down. Bershadskaya then describes daily life and violence in the ghetto. She describes how prisoners sold food in the market. Bershadskaya's father worked for a Christian and her brother sold the wood, his father chopped, in the market. Bershadskaya also describes the changing occupational forces, ranging from German to Romanian. She recalls a pogrom when the Germans returned to the ghetto, shortly before its liberation.
21:39
Shor provides personal information and speaks about his family. Shor's father was also born in Bershad and was a leather and fur worker. His mother was also born in Bershad. Shor grew up with two brothers, one of whom moved to Australia and one sister, who made aliyah.
30:31
Kozak talks about her life after the war, after returning from evacuation in Central Asia. She recalls how the community wanted to support her family; but states that her mother refused. Kozak then addresses prewar and postwar religious life, particularly the High Holiday celebrations at the Bershad synagogue.
33:10
Vygodner talks about the history of the synagogue, particularly its restoration and use after the war. It was the tailor's synagogue. He also recalls his grandfather's attending of services.
22:53
The formal interview with Gvinter begins. She provides personal information and discusses her family. Gvinter explains that for work reasons her passports writes 1928. Her father passed way during the Great Hunger in 1933.
26:38
Gvinter talks about her family, particularly her grandfather. He died during the Civil War. Gvinter's father was a carpenter.
28:05
Gvinter speaks about her life during World War II. She also speaks about her family. She was imprisoned in the Pechera concentration camp in 1943. Gvinter explains that the camp was first under German and then under Romanian occupation. She then briefly describes the living conditions in the camp. Before her deportation to Pechera, Gvinter lived in the basement of a synagogue in the Bershad ghetto. She recalls refugees from the region, who stayed at their house, as well as describes the encounter with a partisan.
31:26
Gvinter talks about her life before the war and discusses her family. She attended a Yiddish school for two years. Gvinter's older sister died at on the front. She then addresses praying customs and briefly returns to her camp experiences, as well as her return after the war.
35:36
Gvinter returns to her experiences in the Pechera concentration camp, as well as her escape. Specifically, she recalls a family who was murdered. Gvinter was injured in 1943. She describes how she returned home and met her sick mother.
46:22
Gvinter speaks about her life in the Pechera camp. She describes how she was buried alive in a mass grave, after German executions. She then talks about her and her mother's lives toward the end of the war. Gvinter also mentions her war medals and lists local partisans.
56:50
Gvinter shows a photograph of herself in war military regalia. She then speaks about her life after the war, when she lived underneath the synagogue. Gvinter worked in an artel and her mother was a pastry cook.
14:05
Gvinter speaks about postwar holiday celebration at home. She also talks about her family.
15:45
Gvinter speaks about her wedding celebrations in 1955 and 1959. She also speaks about her family in Israel. Gvinter's daughters made aliyah. Gvinter also mentions why she decided not to move to Israel.
20:25
Gvinter talks about her family, particularly her mother. Gvinter also states that her sibling died of black pox, before she was born. She then answers questions about cultural terminology.
0:00
Gvinter talks about his family and life today. His father was a tailor. Gvinter grew up with a sister as well.
7:19
Gvinter talks about his family, particularly his brother Yuzek (Sara Yankelevna Gvinter's husband). He was a cobbler. Gvinter grew up with four brothers and his two sons live in Israel. Gvinter also raised a daughter.
17:29
Gvinter talks about his family, specifically his parents. His father was a cobbler and also born in Bershad. Gvinter's mother was also born in Bershad and was a milliner. He also describes his mother's and wife's cooking.
25:42
Gvinter talks about his life and work during the postwar Soviet period. He served in the Red Army from 1955 through 1958. Gvinter then describes his military training in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Gvinter left the army with the rank of sergeant. Gvinter then talks about his family and visits to Israel.
36:40
Gvinter speaks about his life and neighbors today, as well as his family. He then addresses his childhood memories and family in prewar Bershad. Gvinter describes his father's work.
39:39
Gvinter speaks about his family, as well as prewar Jewish life in Bershad. He recalls how his mother baked bread in a local synagogue. Gvinter then talks about contemporary commemoration and religious life. He also addresses prayer customs today.
53:17
Gvinter addresses his life in the Bershad ghetto. He specifically shares an episode when his mother prepared food. Gvinter also remembers how his family hid a Jewish partisan, before he talks about his family's life after the war.
58:49
Gvinter talks about his life today, as well as his family. One of his brothers moved to America. He also addresses the possibilities of aliyah.
0:00
Feldman talks about contemporary religious life in Bershad. She talks about her family. Feldman has relatives in America. She then answers questions about cultural terminology and talks about her contemporary travels.
8:34
They discuss local geography. Then the formal interview begins. Feldman provides personal information and talks about her family. Feldman's father died during World War II. She also addresses her mother's work after the war. Feldman's father worked with ropes.
13:30
Feldman talks about her contemporary relations to her neighbors. She then talks about her life after the war and today. Feldman worked as kitchen help and then at a furniture factory for thirty-five years. Feldman also talks about her family, as well as communal support. She raised two daughters by herself.
17:45
Feldman briefly remembers her life in the Bershad ghetto during the war, when she was three years old. In particular, Feldman recalls hiding. She also talks about her family and communal support. Her half-sister lives in Israel.
21:12
Feldman talks about her life and family today. She then tells a story about her grandfather, Feldman recalls from her mother. Feldman then describes traditional burial customs before the war.
34:04
Feldman speaks about her life after the war, particularly her leisure activities. She then talks about her family and recalls poverty. Feldman states that she received to help to bury her mother.
39:50
Feldman talks about holiday celebration, particularly Passover. She then returns to traditional weddings, before addressing prewar Jewish life. Feldman recalls the local kosher butcher. She also speaks about her family.
50:24
Feldman talks about her family's life during the hunger of 1946/47.
0:00
Sklyarskiy talks about his life during World War II. He also mentions his family and explains how he escaped shootings by the Ukrainian police and his return to Zhornyshche. Sklyarskiy mentions mass shootings in the woods of Illintsi and describes his encounters with non-Jewish classmates near the village Luhava, while being injured. He then continues to describes his escape from Zhornyshche, where he encountered his brother.
7:26
Sklyarskiy speaks about his family and their fate during World War II. Sklyarskiy also mentions who spent time with him in hiding in March 1943. He then returns to his account of escape from shootings in May 1942, including receiving help from non-Jews.
20:08
Sklyarskiy speaks about the episode, when he hid in a pit with other family members with the help of a Ukrainian Christian near the village Ivanki between spring and fall 1943. He describes how he was sold out by locals and daily survival.
28:53
Sklyarskiy talks about his life and family after World War II. He returned to Lypovets and mentions that his sister, who served in the Red Army, moved to America after the war. He then returned to his hometown Zhornyshche, before moving to Proskurovka. Sklyarskiy continues that he worked there at a field hospital for three months, before moving west with a Red Army field hospital to several towns in Poland and Germany. Sklyarskiy joined his sister who had been working at the front. He states that he was rejected at a military draft in Kyiv due to his injury, whereas his brother (i.e. cousin) was accepted and fought at the front.
34:05
Sklyarskiy speaks about his life after the war. He and his sister moved to Vinnytsya, where he completed accountant courses. Sklyarskiy worked as an accountant in several towns, including Dzhulinka and Kitaygorod. He was married in Bershad in 1951.
35:42
Sklyarskiy talks about his family and shows photographs. He has family in Israel. Sklyarskiy also speaks about his wedding and returns to his life during the war. In particular, he addresses the period when he joined the partisans and was injured. Sklyarskiy then mentions his military awards and recognition from his Ukrainian neighbors. Sklyarskiy raised two sons, one of whom lives in Israel, and as well as one daughter.
41:00
Sklyarskiy addresses his life today and charity by the local community. He then returns to discussing his family.
48:43
Listengurt touches upon her family's return to Odesa in 1944. An unidentified woman then joins the conversastion and speaks about her family's role in saving Jews during the war.
2:21
The team enters Sklyarskiy's house and sets up the formal interview with him. He provides personal information and speaks about his family. Sklyarskiy grew up with step-siblings (his cousins). The sisters live in Israel and America.
12:22
Sklyarskiy continues to describe his escape during which he ultimately joined the partisans. He talks about the year 1943, which included hiding with his adoptive parents in their basement in Zhornyshche, before escaping to Ivanki, where they hid in a pit. Sklyarskiy's parents passed away during his early childhood in Lypovets. He was raised by one of his three maternal aunts in Zhornyshche. Sklyarskiy describes his daily life in the pit and how he and his siblings went out in search for food for a total of approximately two months. One day, he explains, he and a couple of his siblings left the pit and his family was shot on March 8, 1943. According to Sklyarskiy, locals informed on them. He then describes their escape to Zhornyshche and encounter with former classmates.
31:32
Sklyarskiy talks about his family's fate during the war. He explains how his step-sister (cousin) was adopted by a non-Jewish family. She later joined the Red Army and was the head of the military pharmacy during the war.
34:40
Sklyarskiy returns to his life during the war, addressing the period after his third escape, joining the partisans for several months during winter 1943. He then talks about the period when he joined his sister, who worked at an Red Army field hospital, moving along the front. Sklyarskiy worked at the hospital until the end of the war, which he finished in Germany. He then returns to the episode about the Cossacks' attack.
56:29
Sklyarskiy speaks about his family.
11:01
Sklyarskiy addresses Jewish life in the Bershad ghetto during the war. Sklyarskiy then returns to his and his family's life at the beginning of the war in May 1941. He was a forced laborer and built roads.
18:56
Sklyarskiy recalls his best moments during his life after the war. He also addresses his family and remembers the moment when his daughter passed away.
23:38
Sklyarskiy addresses postwar Jewish life in Bershad. He recalls synagogue services. Sklyarskiy then mentions his traditional wedding in Bershad in 1951. He then returns to his family.
27:36
Sklyarskiy shows family letters.
30:20
Sklyarskiy describes the local geography and life today. He then talks about his family and shows letters.
36:57
Sklyarskiy speaks about his family, before he returns to his dream.
50:21
Sklyarskiy talks about his family, before the team concludes the interview with him.
22:39
Teitel talks about the non-existing opportunity to speak Yiddish in town after the war. She then talks about her family, in particular her children. She then discusses her work as an accountant and returns to talking about her family and their life during the war.
31:10
Teitel provides personal information. She was born 1936 in Baremcha Saratskiy. She raised three daughters. She then discusses her life during the war in evacuation and her return. Teitel evacuated to Kazakhstan and finished two years of schooling there before her return. She moved to Bilhorod-Dnistrovs’kyy in 1960. She then talks about her family. Teitel grew up with a sister and a brother, who lives in America.
38:44
Teitel talks about prewar life and her cousin’s family, who worked on a kolkhoz. She shares more about her family and her husband. She then talks about postwar Jewish life and holiday celebration. Teitel then discusses antisemitism during the Soviet period and life today. She recalls her grandmother talking about the founding of Israel. Teital then talks about her work life.
11:50
The formal interview with Loyf begins. She provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was a merchant and died during the war. She states that her maternal grandfather was persecuted during Stalin's purges in 1937. Loyf grew up with two sisters, one of whom lives in Israel. Loyf, Polina Enikovna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
26:00
Loyf speaks about her family. She then addresses prewar Jewish life and childhood memories of Dzegovka. She recalls the frequent synagogue attendance of her mother. Loyf, Polina Enikovna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
29:02
Loyf talks about holiday celebration and food customs at home. She then speaks about Jewish life after the war. Loyf moved to Boryslav in 1953 and got married Dzegovka in 1956. Loyf, Polina Enikovna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
34:20
Loyf talks about his family, in particular her husband. She also speaks about contemporary Jewish life and literature. Loyf, Polina Enikovna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
40:04
Loyf talks about her family and postwar Jewish life. She recalls Yiddish theater performances and describes Jewish occupations. Loyf, Polina Enikovna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
53:01
Loyf talks about her family. She raised a daughter and a son. Loyf, Polina Enikovna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
1:17
Berkovich provides personal information and speaks about his family. His father was a carpenter.
7:20
Berkovich speaks about his family. He grew up with five brothers and one sister.
17:00
Berkovich speaks about his life after the war. He was married in 1945. According to him, three hundred Jewish families returned to Berehove. Berkovich also addresses traditional weddings.
19:51
Berkovich talks about his mother's cooking. He then speaks about his family. Berkovich raised a son, who was circumcised by a kosher butcher.
21:19
Berkovich speaks about postwar religious life. He states that he built the synagogue door. Berkovich then speaks about his life before the war. Berkovich's parents spoke Hungarian at home.
24:46
Berkovich talks about prewar religious life, including synagogue and communal structure, as well as his family. Berkovich recalls how his father visited the Spinka rebbe in Săpânţa, Romania.
43:10
Hodinger joins the conversation and they discuss visits of the Spinka rebbe before the war. Berkovich shares an episode when he met the Spinka rebbe's son in America. Berkovich then talks about his family and his life today.
46:07
Berkovich speaks about his life today and why he returned to Berehove. He also talks about his family. Berkovich then addresses his life in America, where he worked as constructor for thirty-five years.
54:59
The formal interview with Pustilnik begins. She speaks about her family. Pustilnik raised a son and a daughter. He lives in Israel. Pustilnik's father was also born in Yampil and her mother was born in Yaruga (Yiddish: Yara). Pustilnik grew up with a half-sister.
58:21
Pustilnik talks about prewar Jewish life in Yaruga. Her mother worked on the local kolkhoz. She then talks about her family's life during the war. They were imprisoned in the Sharapanivka ghetto and then deported to the Pechera concentration camp.
1:57
Pustilnik talks about her life after the war. She returned with five siblings and her mother. She explains how she and her siblings sold items to support the family. Pustilnik moved to Boryslav in 1956 and lived at her maternal uncle's home. After she graduated from a technical institute, she worked at a sewing factory. Before Pustilnik moved to Boryslav, she worked on a kolkhoz in Yire 4:50. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
5:22
Pustilnik speaks about her family. A few of her siblings live in Israel. She also addresses the fate of her only sibling who did not survive the war. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
13:57
Pustilnik talks about her family's life after the war. She recalls how her mother protected her children and herself from soldiers' assault and rape. Her father died during the war. Pustilnik explains how her family made a living. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
18:49
Pustilnik talks about her family. She raised a son and a daughter. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
22:40
Pustilnik talks about her life after the war. She attended a Ukrainian school and worked on the Lenin kolkhoz in Yire. According to her, it was a Jewish-Ukrainian kolkhoz. Her family moved from Yire to Yampil after the war. Pustilnik remembers a non-Jewish woman who spoke Yiddish to her. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
26:20
Pustilnik speaks about her life in the Pechera camp. In particular, she recalls Jews who prayed. Pustilnik then talks about her family and addresses the persecution of someone in Israel who supported the Romanians during the war. Her sister moved to Israel in 1949. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
32:11
Pustilnik talks about her family. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
38:46
Pustilnik talks about life today, as well as her family. She then recites again the song about the groom. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
43:51
Pustilnik briefly answers questions about cultural terminology and discusses folk customs. She also talks about her family's life after the war and recalls the great poverty her family endured. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
46:08
Pustilnik talks about her family, in particular how she met her husband. She also remembers her wedding. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
52:03
Pustilnik speaks about her life after the war and family. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
0:00
Pustilnik speaks about life today. She then recalls episodes from her family's life after the war, as well as about the support they received from the kolkhoz. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
28:53
Pustilnik speaks about her family's life after the war in her home village Yire. In particular, she shares an episode about her mother's encounter with a rabbi. Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
1:11
The formal part of the interview begins. Miaskovskaia provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was born in Kleyn-Czernowitz! and her mother was born in Yampil. She moved to Boryslav in the 1970s. Miaskovskaia, Polina Ruvinovna; Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
3:50
Miaskovskaia speaks about her life during the war. She was imprisoned in the Dzegovka ghetto. In particular, she recalls assemblies and describes where her family lived. Miaskovskaia, Polina Ruvinovna; Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
5:11
Miaskovskaia discusses her childhood memories of Dzegovka. She also talks about her family and prewar Jewish life. She attended a Ukrainian school. Miaskovskaia, Polina Ruvinovna; Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
11:57
Miaskovskaia discusses food customs and shares a meat recipe. She then provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father worked as a tailor in artel. Miaskovskaia, Polina Ruvinovna; Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
25:18
Miaskovskaia talks about her family and shares sayings. She then briefly addresses her life before the war. Miaskovskaia grew up with two brothers and one sister. Miaskovskaia, Polina Ruvinovna; Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
30:39
Miaskovskaia talks about her family and life today. Miaskovskaia, Polina Ruvinovna; Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
39:08
Miaskovskaia speaks about prewar Jewish life in her hometown. She also talks about her life today and her family. Miaskovskaia, Polina Ruvinovna; Pustilnik, Frida Moiseyevna. Interviewed by Dov-Ber Kerler, Moisei Lemster. 6/8/2007. Ukraine, L'vivs'ka Oblast', Boryslav.
0:00
The team meets Kupershmidt and his wife Rakhil (Rukhl) Natanovna Kupershmidt, nee Reznik, and they chat, before setting up the formal interview. He talks about his family in Israel. Rakhil, who is his second wife, was also born in Bratslav.
7:59
Kupershmidt provides personal information and talks about his family. His parents were also born in Bratslav.
9:27
Kupershmidt speaks about regional Jewish life during the war, before speaking about his family's fate during the war. Kupershmidt's mother was evacuated and his father was killed in Bratslav.
25:48
Kupershmidt shares an episode of his life during the war, when he was with a non-Jewish forced labor group that received permission to move around between local districts. He describes the daily life and escapes, before he was caught near Bratslav and sent to the Pechera camp, via Bratslav and Nemyriv ghettos. Kupershmidt also mentions his work assignments, including driving service. He states that he was allowed to drive to the Bratslav and used it to look for his family in the ghetto. Before Kupershmidt was liberated and drafted in the Red Army, he was imprisoned in the Mohyliv-Podilskyy ghetto.
38:23
Kupershmidt addresses the moment when he was drafted in Mohyliv-Podilskyy. He served in the Red Army for one and a half years. Kupershmidt talks about his life and family after the war. His first wife died in 1947; and his son lives Israel. Kupershmidt maintains that his family was prepared to immigrate to America.
0:00
Kupershmidt talks about his life during the war, in particular the moment when he evaded massacres. He then briefly talks about life in Bratslav before the war, including the relationship between Jews and non-Jews. Kupershmidt then discusses his family. His father was a coach man.
3:22
Kupershmidt provides personal information and talks about his family. He grew up with two brothers and one sister; and his family owned a cow.
7:34
Kupershmidt talks about postwar Jewish life. He then mentions his oldest brother who was active in Zionist circles.
30:45
Rakhil provides personal information and talks about her family's fate during World War II. She grew up with two sisters. She then briefly talks about her life during the war when she evacuated to Kyrgyzstan. Rakhil then discusses her childhood memories of Jewish Bratslav, as well as her home. She attended a Ukrainian school. Rakhil also speaks about ther family and her father's religious teachings.
34:16
Rakhil speaks about prewar holiday celebration at home. She specifically recalls the Passover seder at her uncle's house. He was a rabbi.
MDV 394Musya Moiseevna Vaynshteyn; Sofia (Sime-Leye; David (Dovid) Geller and 1 moreUman', Bratslav, 2005
20:28
Family and survival
23:29
Life today and family
40:31
Geller talks about prewar Jewish life in Zhmerynka. He recalls leisure activities in town. David then addresses his family's life at the beginning of the war, when they evacuated. His father was a barber and a communist, according to David. David describes his evacuation in a heated goods train toward Tashkent, Uzbekistan, traveling for one month. David continues that they evacuated further to Samarqand Shahri, where he worked on a kolkhoz in the Panjakent region.
45:53
Geller describes the living conditions at the kolkhoz. He also speaks about his family. Geller's father was drafted in 1942. According to Geller, his mother was pregnant and she gave birth in Zhambyl Qalasy, Kazakhstan. Geller's mother passed away in Samarqand Shahri and he and his two brothers had to take care of themselves; Geller explains.
51:03
Geller talks about his life in evacuation, after his mother passed away. Geller's maternal aunt took care of his infant brother in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. Geller continues that he began a turner apprenticeship at a factory teaching facility (Fe'Ze'O - фабричное заводское обучение), before he worked a factory in Shymkent. Geller then explains that he moved to his father, who lived in Türkmenbaşy (formerly known as Krasnovodsk). Geller worked at a cafeteria there.
57:31
Geller speaks about his siblings' life during the war, as well as his life in Türkmenbaşy. Geller's father was drafted for the second time. He then describes his return home to Zhmerynka, via Baku (Azerbaijan), after the war ended.
5:26
David talks about his family. They raised two daughters, who live in Moscow. David then addresses his life during World War II, particularly how his family evacuated.
15:14
Sofia speaks about her life today and the relationship with her non-Jewish neighbors. She discusses her childhood memories of Jewish Bratslav and her family. Sofia's father was a coachman. She also mentions her mother's observance.
21:21
Sofia speaks about her family, before she addresses prewar Jewish life and religion in Bratslav. She also speaks about the fate of the local Jews during the war. Sofia then recalls her mother's praying customs.
23:53
Sofia addresses her family's return to Bratslav in 1944 and their life after the war. She grew up with five siblings. Sofia then returns to prewar Jewish life and culture. She recalls traditional weddings.
25:51
Sofia talks about her family. She also recalls snippets of the well-known Yiddish song "Itsik hot shoyn khasene gehat" (Itsik was already married).
30:31
Sofia speaks about postwar Jewish life in the region. She returns to her wedding in 1953, as well as addresses her life today. Sofia then speaks about her family.
48:43
Sofia speaks about her life today and family. Her sister lives in Israel. They then answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
57:10
Sofia talks about her family, specifically her grandmother. David then explains how he learned Yiddish after the war. Sofia then speaks about the beginning of the war, the day her family evacuated. Sofia describes how her parents had to let go of their animals.
1:15
The camera cuts to the Geller's interview. David speaks about his life before the war and describes his circumcision ceremony. He states that his father was excluded from the Party.
2:36
Sofia talks about her brother's circumcision, including food customs for the "Kriyat-Sh'ma" reading (a prayer that must be recited every evening before bed the night before).
25:27
Kupershmidt speaks about his family. He grew up with two brothers and one sister. Kupershmidt's father was a coach man and was born in Bratslav. He then describes his father's work. Kupershmidt's mother was born in a near-by village. He also describes his childhood home, where his parents kept a cow.
40:00
Kupershmidt speaks about his return after the war. His wife and child were imprisoned in the Uman ghetto during the war. He also addresses the Bratslav ghetto and its liquidation. Kupershmidt then returns to his life and work during the war. He was a chauffeur for the Germans, frequently driving to Nemyriv, for approximately one year. Kupershmidt speaks about the encounter with a benevolent German, who saved him from mass collection for forced labor in 1941.
59:21
Kupershmidt talks about his family's life during World War II.
19:09
Kupershmidt addresses Jewish life in Bratslav during the Great Hunger in 1932 and 33. Kupershmidt traveled to Odesa to earn money. In 1935, Kupershmidt explains, he practiced driving in Odesa. Kupershmidt returned to Bratslav in 1936 and worked as driving instructor. Kupershmidt states that was already married and his child was born in 1940.
25:00
Kupershmidt addresses religious customs at home and briefly recites prayers. He then talks about his family and life during the postwar Soviet period. In particular, Kupershmdit addresses a family conflict regarding circumcision.
30:42
Kupershmidt speaks about prewar religious customs in Bratslav, including circumcision celebrations. He then speaks about his family. Kupershmidt raised two children.
39:08
Kupershmidt remembers Passover celebrations at home, including the Four Questions. He then speaks about his family.
MDV 398Dora (Dvoyre) Iosifovna Yatskova; Tsilya Yakovlevna Koifman; cemetery caretaker (unnamed)Kopayhorod, Bratslav, 2008
0:00
Yatskova talks in Russian about prewar culture in Odesa. She then talks about her family. Her aunt worked at a cinema.
34:21
Koifman speaks about locals, before she addresses her family.
35:32
Koifman speaks about the contemporary community, as well as life today. She also speaks about her family. Koifman has family in Israel.
46:22
Kelmenson talks about her life today. She works as Ukrainian and Russian language teacher. Kelmenson then provides personal information and speaks about her family. Her father was arrested in 1937 during the period of Stalin's persecution. Kelmenson raised two sons.
52:38
Kelmenson speaks about her family's life during World War II. She evacuated and her grandfather survived the Pechera concentration camp.
54:24
Kelmenson provides personal information. Kelmenson talks about her family.
57:10
Kelmenson speaks about her life during World War II and her family. Her mother was an accountant and her father worked for the the office for provision of livestock. She evacuated to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Kelmenson explains that her father was imprisoned in the Vorkuta gulag for sixteen years. Kelmenson's family moved to Bratslav from Proskurovka in 1937. She grew up with a brother and her grandfather owned a tea plantation in Staroya Sinyava, Khmelnytskyy district.
1:00:14
Kelmenson speaks about prewar and postwar Jewish life in Bratslav She then turns to her life after the war. Kelmenson finished ten years of high school and then studied at the pedagogical institute in Vinnytsya. Kelmenson explains how she moved to Central Asia due to her husband's work assignment.
0:00
Kelmenson briefly speaks about Bratslav locals and life today. She then addresses her family. Kelmenson has family in Israel. She then speaks about her life after the war, specifically her wedding. Kelmenson states that the local kosher butcher gave the blessing. Kelmenson also explains why her son was not circumcised.
3:58
Kelmenson speaks about her father's arrest in 1937. She recalls the moment when her father was taken. He reunited with his family in Bratslav sixteen years later.
7:30
Kelmenson speaks about her life and work after the war. She also speaks about her family. Kelmenson then talks about her work, as well as the use of the school building as Yiddish school before the war.
13:15
Kelmenson talks about her family. She explains how her mother wrote articles for Yiddish journals.
17:12
Kelmenson remembers food customs at home. She then describes Passover celebrations at home before the war. Kelmenson then talks about her family's career and encounters of antisemitism.
20:51
Kelmenson speaks about her life after the war, as well as life today. She then addresses her family, as well as what it means to be Jewish.
24:02
Kelmenson briefly addresses the return of locals from Israel. She then talks about postwar antisemitism in Bratslav. Kelmenson also speaks about her family and co-workers who emigrated.
28:13
Kelmenson answers questions about cultural terminology. She also speaks about her mother's work as writer, as well as prewar Jewish buildings in Bratslav.
31:44
Kelmenson talks about her family, particularly her father. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. They then chat.
3:57
Family and personal introduction.
7:09
Dialectology and family.
21:22
Religious life in 1930s and family.
38:05
Postwar religious life and family.
42:50
Family during war.
50:26
Family anecdote.
51:55
Family and holidays.
45:23
Family photographs.
1:55
Family and childhood memories.
6:46
Family and work life.
14:31
Family and Birobidzhan.
17:11
Family episode.
27:44
Family and life after war.
33:32
Family and working life.
47:34
Pre-war education/religious life and family.
55:19
Family and holidays.
20:53
Family.
29:38
Burg talks about his life as a Yiddish writer and his contemporary activities in promoting Yiddish culture in schools for instance. He talks about the difficulties setting up Yiddish language classes at a Jewish school. Burg then talks about contemporary Hasidic life, before he talks about his family.
22:01
Burg provides information about his family, as well as personal information. He then shows the distinctions (Cross of the Order of Merit – Verdienstkreuz) he received from the Austrian and German government. He then shows the distinction he received from the Ukrainian Jewish Congress.
52:29
Burg talks about his family and childhood memories. His father worked on a float transporting people across the Cheremosh River 52:38. Burg’s mother gave birth to five children. He grew up with Chaye, who was murdered along with their mother during the war and Binyomen, who volunteered for the Spanish Civil War and died in battle. After his bar mitzvah, encouraged by his father, Burg moved out of his parent’s house to earn his own money in Chernivtsi. He rented a room at a poor tailor’s house and studied at a school. He was supported by his well-off uncle Max. Burg then studied at the Jewish teacher’s seminary with Eliezer Steinberg to become a teacher. After graduation, Burg worked as a private tutor. He then talks about the publication of his first story in the “Czernovitzer bleter” in 1934.
0:00
Burg talks about the rebbe of Vyzhnytsya, Menachem Mendel Hager. He describes how locals built a soccer field onto the Jewish cemetery. He then talks about his family’s life during World War I. Two of his aunts were beheaded by a mounted soldier. He then talks about the Soviet period, when the oldest Jewish cemetery was desecrated and destroyed to use the material for Soviet monuments. Burg continues talking about the liberal life under Austro-Hungarian rule before WWI, before he talks about contemporary antisemitic press. Burg maintains that the tolerance, experienced under Austro-Hungarian rule, persists until today.
24:41
Burg discusses his childhood memories in his hometown Vyzhnytsya, including Hasidic family of Hager. He mentions an episode of the local priest and the Rebbe of Vyzhnytsya, who showed mutual respect for each other. According to Burg, the rebbe carried a cross on his shoulders to help the priest. Burg remembers non-Jews, their neighbors, who spoke Yiddish. He then talks about his encounter with the rebbe of Vyzhnytsya. His mother went with Burg when he was ten years old, so he can be blessed. Burg explains that that rebbe did not bless because, according to him, Burg was already blessed.
49:11
Burg talks about his religious education, when he attended religious school (cheder) for seven years. Burg attended a Romanian school, before cheder every day. He then attended the Vyzhnytsya yeshiva. He then talks about Jewish life in prewar Vyzhnytsya and childhood memories of his grandfather. According to Burg, the majority of Jews were Hasidic. He recalls an episode about a Jewish barber who received non-Jewish customers on Sabbath. He covered the windows and locked the door in fear of rebuke from the Hasidic community. However, Burg stresses that the Hasidic community were moderate in his hometown. Burg remembers the time when his father told him stories about the Baal Shem Tov, when his family sat around the fire during the winter.
59:32
Burg talks about his and Jewish life in general in prewar Chernivtsi. His family moved from Vyzhnytsya to the city when he was twelve years old. His father continued in his profession and traveled to Vyzhnytsya every day. He passed away at 38. According to Burg, there were 76 prayer houses in Chernivtsi.
0:00
Burg recalls his encounters with Ful beShames*, who taught medieval Russian literature. Burg tells a story how Shames invited him to hear a Russian-speaking woman Nina recite a poem by Shmuel Halkin in Yiddish. She later was to become Burg’s wife. He then talks about his first time leaving the Soviet Union in 1989, traveling to Austria. He was invited by the Austrian ministry for culture. Burg then talks about his wife, who studied with Shames and then worked as a teacher. Burg taught his wife Yiddish.
11:29
Burg returns to talking about his work during the Soviet period. After he graduated from the Ivanovo State Pedagogical Institute Burg in 1947, he received a working assignment to teach at the Pyatigorsk institute for four years. He then moved to the Stalingrad region to work as a teacher for another four years. He taught German literature and his wife Russian literature. He then returned to Chernivtsi. Burg then talks about his reputation as a Yiddish writer.
18:17
Burg explains how Russian and Yiddish writers influenced him intellectually. He then talks about his encounter with Israeli, Austrian, and German ambassadors. Burg remembers the encounter with Yosef Burg in Zurich, Switzerland; and talks about other meeting with Jewish intellectuals. He then talks about his family, in particular his parents. His mother was born in Lăpușna, Moldova.
38:16
Burg briefly recites prayers. He then answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. He also discusses prewar political Jewish life and family.
27:07
The fourth part of the tape includes a formal interview with Sara (Henye-Sure) Bishevna Geinik, born 1927 in Chernivtsi. Geinik talks about her family and provides personal information. Her father, a chauffeur and delivery man, was born in Dorohoi, Romania. Her mother, a tailor from home, was born in Chernivtsi. Geinik grew up with two sisters.
31:09
Geinik discusses childhood memories from prewar Chernivtsi. According to Geinik, life under prewar Romanian rule was prosperous. Geinik attended a Romanian school for seven years. She then talks about holiday celebrations at home and childhood friends. She then talks about her family, before returning to holiday celebrations.
15:50
Kleiman talks about his life during the war. He explains how fourteen of his relatives from Vadrashkov were forced to stay in the ghetto. Only he and his parents returned home after the war. They moved to Chernivtsi in 1946. Kleiman states that forty distant relatives, including his sister, were killed during the war.
17:10
Kleiman talks about his family and describes the old Jewish cemetery in Chernivtsi, including well-known figures.
26:45
Kleiman talks about his family. He tells the story about how his paternal grandfather married his grandmother, who was his niece. His mother’s maiden name was Utshitel. Her mother’s brother immigrated to Palestine in the 1930s. His father was a shopkeeper before and worked in a shop after the war.
27:49
The third part of the tape is a formal interview with Riva Fridrikhovna Gimelbrandt, born 1932 in Chernivtsi. Gimelbrandt, nee Margulis, provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was born in Sadgora and worked as a tailor. Her mother, born in Vyzhnytsya, was a tailor as well. Gimelbrandt mentions that her grandfather Yisrol sewed suits for the rebbe of Vyzhnytsya.
32:31
Gimelbrandt discusses her childhood memories. She mentions holiday celebrations, in particular Purim and Passover. Gimelbrandt finished one year at a Yiddish school. She grew up with a sister and a brother, who attended religious school (cheder) and lives in Israel. Gimelbrandt remembers how her non-Jewish friends, who spoke Yiddish, celebrated Purim with her before the war. She then describes food customs for Sabbath, Shavuot, and Passover.
43:54
Gimelbrandt talks about her father Simkhe Fridl, who lost his parents at the age of four. Gimelbrandt explains that her father was raised within the Hasidic community in Sadgora. Her father’s sister was adopted by relatives, who lived in America. Simkhe Fridl lived in a tailor’s home and worked for him, which financed his religious school (cheder) education. He was drafted into the Red Army in 1941. Gimelbrandt then talks about her mother, who grew up within the Hasidic community in Vyzhnytsya. She also explains her grandfather’s work as a tailor for the rebbe of Vyzhnytsya. Gimelbrandt recalls how her mother would tell stories about the good deeds of the Vyzhnytsya rebbe.
52:27
Gimelbrandt talks about her family’s life in 1944, when they returned to Chernivtsi. She explains how her mother hid in a basement, because of the fear to be taken to the gulag in the Donbas region. Gimelbrandt talks about her life during the war. She describes how the Romanians forced her family into the small synagogue in the late fall of 1941, where they had to stay for six weeks in terrible hygienic conditions. Gimelbrandt remembers how her non-Jewish friends helped her out with food. After six weeks, Gimelbrandt continues, her family was taken to the railway station and forced into freight cars, headed to the Transnistria region. According to her, they traveled for roughly twelve hours in an overcrowded car and stopped at the River Dniester. The Romanians forced them over the bridge toward Mohyliv-Podilskyy and checked everybody for valuables, before sending people into a school for disinfection. Gimelbrandt remembers her mother taking off clothes from corpses for her children. From the school in Mohyliv-Podilskyy, her family had to walk twenty-five kilometers in snow to Slidy. She remembers how she bid farewell to her mother, who carried her two year-old sister, ten kilometers before Slidy. Gimelbrandt could not continue walking and stayed behind in the snowy fields. She was rescued by a non-Jew, who took her to his house in Slidy on a horse. As soon as the non-Jewish man found out that it was a felony to hide Jews, he smuggled Gimelbrandt into the Slidy ghetto, formerly a pig farm near Slidy. There she was reunited with her family. Gimelbrandt describes the horrific life in the ghetto with beatings and barely any food.
2:38
Gimelbrandt talks about her family’s life after the liberation. Her mother lived with her children in a barn for ten days. The head of the community brought her mother a certificate to denote Chernivtsi as the family’s place of residence and served as identification; which enabled them to return. Gimelbrandt talks about her life after the war. At the age of thirteen, she was sent to work in a factory. Since Gimelbrandt was visually impaired, she was sent to a color factory in Sadgora and worked there for 42 years.
5:36
Gimelbrandt talks about her family. She raised three children, a daughter and two sons. Her daughter died of a heart problem at 14. Her husband, a tailor, passed away at 56, three years after her daughter’s death. Gimelbrandt then mentions that her sons were circumcised in secret and that she evaded persecution when her non-Jewish doctor asked her about it.
8:20
Gimelbrandt talks about life after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Her sister moved to Israel and suggested to Gimelbrandt and her two sons to make aliyah. Her sons, who were raised in Yiddish, made aliyah, but Gimelbrandt only went to visit twice. She talks about the good relations to her non-Jewish neighbors.
3:16
Kofmansky, was born 1946 in Chernivtsi, provides personal information and talks about his family. His grandfather Chaim Sholem was a rabbi from Bălți. Kofmansky attended a private school and studied with a private religious tutor in the afternoons. He then talks about contemporary religious life and the synagogue, as well as shares more about his family. Kofmansky studied physics at the Chernivtsi University. Kofmansky raised a daughter and a son, who lives in Israel.
22:59
The second part of the tape is a formal interview with Roza (Reyzl) Ovsheevna Shternberg, born 1924 in Khotyn. Shternberg, nee Kerzhner, talks about her family. Her father, a merchant, was born in Khotyn. Her mother was also born in Khotyn. She explains that her parents worked for the well-off Jewish merchant Bordeynik. He had business contacts to America (also see MDV 418). Shternberg recites a Purim shpiel, she remembers from her Yiddish teacher. Shternberg then talks about life today and sings a Yiddish song about love.
29:53
Shternberg talks about her family, in particular her sister who was in the Zionist organization “Hashomer.” She explains that her sister went to Palestine before the war, but returned Khotyin when the war broke out. Shternberg grew with three sisters and one brother. She then sings the melody of the well-known Yiddish song “Vu bistu geven?” (where were you) with a different text, dealing with kibbutz.
0:00
Shternberg shows family photographs and talks about her family. Her son lives in America. Shternberg then talks about prewar Jewish life in Khotyn and childhood games, as well as political organizations. Shternberg remembers how she attended meetings of political organization on Sabbath because school was not on. She then discusses Yiddish literature.
9:31
Shternberg discusses food customs, in particular koshering meat. She recalls how she went with her mother to the mikva and discusses religious customs on Sabbath. Shternberg also mentions folk remedies.
29:46
Shternberg talks about life after the war and her return to Khotyn. She explains that non-Jewish neighbors took her house apart and used the land as potato fields. Her family moved into an abandoned house. She helped cleaning and restoring houses. Shternberg took care of the business, after her co-worker was drafted for military service, and never returned, and continued to work for forty-four years.
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Roza Ovsheevna Shternberg. Shternberg sings a couple of Yiddish songs about the good relationship between mother and daughter and about dowry.
3:45
The second part of the tape is formal interview with Shternberg’s husband Solik (Tsolel) Chaimovich Ziselis, born 1905 in Khotyn. Ziselis provides personal information and talks about his life during the war, imprisoned in the Tulchyn ghetto. He fled the ghetto and hid in the military barracks. He tells episodes about survival. He then talks about his family during the war. His father was a kosher butcher and a mohel.
14:45
Ziselis briefly recalls the beginnings of German occupation. He then talks about prewar Jewish life in Khotyn. In particular, Ziselis describes how his father traveled to the rebbe of Chortkov to receive blessings for his family. Ziselis grew up with a sister and a brother.
21:39
Ziselis talks about his family, in particular matchmaking for his sister. Ziselis worked as a kosher butcher together with his father before the war. His brother moved to Belgium before the war.
18:33
Shternberg talks about her education at the Romanian school, in particular her Yiddish teacher. He hosted the students at home and taught Yiddish songs, in addition to the regular lessons twice a week. She then talks about her family and recalls singing at home. Shternberg sings a song in lashon kodesh, she remembers from her father. She recalls a number of holiday songs in Yiddish, in particular Purim shpiels. Another song deals with an unemployed religious teacher (melamed) who tried his luck in America and fell in love.
0:00
Shternberg talks about her family and her hometown Khotyn, including a non-Jewish tailor who spoke Yiddish. Shternberg then sings a number of Yiddish songs about drinking in the tavern, living a Jewish life, and life in the Kopayhorod ghetto Shternberg wrote herself. The ghetto song deals with a girl who sits next to her dying mother.
17:10
Shternberg sings a different version of the well-known Yiddish song “Vu bistu geven” (where were you), dealing with the kibbutz. She discusses Yiddish cultural life before the war and recalls how her brother and sister used the local library.
27:03
Shternberg talks about her family and discusses her father’s work as a merchant. She then talks about the Rabbi of Stefanesti and how her mother went to see him, as well as Sabbath celebrations at home. Shternberg then sings a Sabbath song she remembers from her childhood, as well as reciting sayings and poems. She also discusses folk remedies.
0:56
Personal introductions and family
4:36
Life today and family
14:11
Family
17:25
Celebrating Jewish holidays and family
25:15
Childhood memories and family
1:31
Family and life today
4:01
Childhood memories of Yanoshpil and family
14:08
Family and prewar celebration of Shabbat
4:54
Formal interview begins with Asya (Esye) Petrovna Srulova (b. 1928 in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy (Zvil)) (part 1 of 2. See MDV 426). She describes her family life before the war, noting that her parents, a shoemaker named Peysekh (b. 1888) and his wife Feyge, had thirteen children, of which Srulova is one. She also had many maternal relatives who moved from Poland to the Soviet Union during the war between those two countries after the First World War. Listing her many siblings, Srulova states that of the twelve other children in her family, only three others, besides herself, are now alive. They live in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy, in Israel and in the United States.
16:09
Srulova describes the poverty of her family life before the war, stating that her large family lived in a one room house. During the war, her family was evacuated and those who were not sent to the front worked on a kolkhoz. She then talks about Jewish life in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy. She mentions that in her shtetl before the war there were many non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, including many of her father’s coworkers. Srulova moved to Chortkiv in 1953, at which time there were many Jews in the town, although now most of them have emigrated. Srulova describes a few sites of Jewish interest in the town, including an old, non-operational synagogue, a Tsadik’s (righteous holy man's) grave (which many people have come to visit from abroad) and several mass graves.
22:33
Srulova speaks briefly about Jewish religious life in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy and Chortkiv. She also talks about the poverty she experienced in her childhood and during the war. Srulova details her contemporary family situation. She was widowed about twenty years ago and has two daughters. Srulova completed six grades in a Soviet Yiddish school before the war, and then attended Russian schools thereafter. She briefly describes what she remembers of the Yiddish school curriculum and recites some poetry in Russian and Yiddish.
43:26
At the request of the interviewers, Srulova gives a brief summary of those autobiographical details she finds most relevant, including the poverty she experienced her whole life, before, during and after the war. She also describes some of the games she would play as a child and talks about her contemporary economic and family situation.
23:06
The second part of the tape includes a formal interview, conducted in Yiddish, Russian, and German with Mosei (Moyshe, Mauritze) Leonovich Weiss, born 1915 in Vienna, Austria. Weiss provides personal information and talks about his life during World War I. His father served in the Austro-Hungarian army and his mother evacuated to Vienna. He then talks about his family, who lived in Vienna for ten years and moved to Drohobych 1925. His mother was born in Drohobych and his father in Boryslav. He grew up with two brothers.
35:01
Weiss talks about his life during the war. He was drafted into the Red Army early 1941. His parents perished in the Broniza Woods near Drohobych, along with 12,500 fellow Jews during a mass execution. Weiss’ youngest brother died in the Plaszow Concentration Camp in Poland. Weiss describes the memorialization of the mass grave in the Broniza Woods. Weiss then talks about his military service when he served in the artillery division. 38:38 – 43:00 description (moving toward Urals and worked as ?) Weiss moved with his division to the Urals and there he became sick. In his battalion, Weiss worked financial assignments and explains the difficult conditions due to great hunger. Weiss continues that the commander-in-chief allowed him to leave after a few months. Weiss then worked in a factory, which produced military goods under the leadership of a Jewish director. He worked there until 1946. He explains how difficult it was to leave his position because he knew about the internal matters of the factory.
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Mosei Leonovich Weiss. Weiss discusses childhood memories and talks about his family. His father worked as a merchant. His mother helped out in the pastry shop, owned by his grandmother, before she helped out with his father’s business. He has relatives in America. Weiss shows a picture of his paternal grandmother and a book about Jewish life in prewar Drohobych. He then talks about Jewish political life before the war. He was the administrator of the local youth Zionist organization, HaNoar Hatzioni and describes the organization with 150 boys and girls. Weiss lists other political organizations, including Hashomer Hatzair, Betar, and Bund.
30:01
Weiss talks about his education and the teachers at a Polish school. Weiss earned extra money as a private instructor to finance his school education. He then talks about the relationship between Jews and non-Jews before the war, including visible antisemitism in Lviv. Weiss then talks about his teacher and well-known Polish-Jewish writer Bruno Schulz. He also recalls his cousin’s hidings and survival of concentration camps.
5:17
The formal part of the interview begins. Shekhovich provides personal information and talks about her family. She raised one daughter. Her father, a merchant, was born in Sambor. Her mother was also born in Sambor and raised seven children. Shekhovich’s siblings, parents, and grandparents were killed during World War II.
0:00
Shekhovich provides personal information and talks about her family. She then talks about her school education and discusses her childhood memories. Shekhovich studied at a trade school.
45:19
Shekhovich talks about her family. She explains that she survived World War II in hiding with the help of her non-Jewish husband. Shekhovich talks about her life before the war and remembers her grandmother reading tkhine (Yiddish-language prayer book).
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Evgeniia Izrailovna Shekhovich. Shekhovich talks about religious customs and holiday celebration. She then sings a Yiddish Sabbath song. Shekhovich then talks about daughter, before she sings a couple of Yiddish song she learned from her husband. The first song includes a little girl and the second one deals with poverty and dreaming.
15:53
Shekhovich talks about the fate of her family during the war in Sambor. She was the only one from her immediate family who survived. Shekhovich recalls folk remedies.
32:16
The second part of the tape is a formal interview, recorded in Yiddish and German, with Alfred Benovich Schreier, born 1922 in Drohobych. Schreier provides personal informal and talks about his family. His parents were born in Drohobych and raised him as an only child. His father was a chemist and studied in Germany. He received his doctorate in Zurich, Switzerland. Schreier grew up in Jaslo, Poland until the age of ten. His father worked as the chief chemist at an oil refinery there. Schreier explains that his father lost his work during the Great Depression. His family moved to Drohobych in 1932. His mother was a pharmacist.
35:53
Schreier talks about his family’s life during the war. He talks about the largest action in 1942, when 5000 Jews from Drohobych were deported. The majority was exterminated in the Belzec concentration camp and less than half were shot in the Janowska concentration and forced labor camp, according to Schreier. He lost his uncle, father, grandmother, and cousin, who were deported to Belzec. Schreier continues that his mother was saved from the mass deportation, but then shot in a mass execution in the Broniza Woods. Schreier explains that there were five forced labor camps in Drohobych. He was imprisoned in the forced labor camp in the village of Herafka. There Schreier worked as a carpenter in a lumber mill. Schreier maintains that he survived with the skills taught by his teacher Bruno Schulz. He briefly talks about the Polish-Jewish writer. He taught Schreier for four years at the Polish school. His mother was imprisoned in another forced labor camp and worked at the municipal factory. Schreier talks about the mass liquidation and shooting of prisoners of three forced labor camps. He explains that he and five other young Jews were taken away from the assembly point, from where Jews were forced to the Broniza Woods. They went to another forced labor camp, where Schreier worked at ceramics factory for one and a half months. He describes the selection by SS officers after the liquidation the forced labor camp. Schreier was sent to the last existing forced labor camp at the Drohobych town center, where he worked at an oil refinery. He explains that on April, 13, 1944 his camp and another one in Boryslav were liquidated and the prisoners were forced to go to the Plaszow Concentration Camp in Poland. Schreier was imprisoned there for six months, before being sent on a march westward as soon as the Red Army front drew closer. Schreier was sent to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Poland and was then selected to work further west by a German factory director. He explains that the building of the forced labor camp Schreier was supposed to go to was not yet finished and was therefore sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. In Buchenwald Schreier stayed at Barrack 59 for a short time undergoing another selection. He was then sent to the Taucha forced labor camp to work at a bazooka factory. He worked there until April 1945, before being sent on a death march. According to Schreier, the death march was organized because the Germans could not provide any food for the prisoners, as the nearby town Halle was already captured by the American army. Schreier talks about the death march with two thousand other prisoners, including Jews, Italians, and Poles. Schreier could not continue to walk after five days. Schreier recalls how he sang in the evenings, which ultimately saved him from execution when he was too exhausted to continue walking. A German prisoner helped Schreier by claiming that he was a well-known opera singer. Instead of killing Schreier, the SS officer pushed him into the trench, where he was found by a young German, who brought Schreier into a nearby village on his bicycle.
7:10
Schreier talks about his life after his return to Drohobych. He found work in a dance orchestra right away, before he studied at the local music institute and then at the Lviv Conservatory. Schreier got married in 1949. Schreier finished his studies he began at the Lviv Conservatory at the music department of the Pedagogical Institute in Drohobych. Schreier continued playing in a dance orchestra and taught at the musical institute for forty-two years. Schreier then talks about his family. He was the only survivor of his family. He also recalls his uncle Rabbi Dr. Bernard Schreier who taught religious studies at the Polish Jewish school.
19:29
Schreier talks about Jewish life before the war. He then talks about the languages he spoke at home, including Polish and Hebrew for Schreier’s bar mitzvah. Schreier’s father grew up in Yiddish and his mother in Polish. He studied with his uncle for his bar mitzvah, who told him to recite part of his parsha in Polish. Schreier then talks about the poor Jewish neighborhood of Drohobych. He recalls how he visited this neighborhood with his teacher Bruno Schulz, who drew sketches of the buildings there. Schulz worked at Schreier’s school since 1924 without an official teacher’s permit. Only after Schulz passed his exams in 1936 at Cracow University, he received an official permit. Schreier continues to talk about Schulz, who studied drawing and carpentry, including his life during the war and legacy.
1:46
Shekhter discusses his childhood memories and talks about his family. Shekhter grew with two brothers and one sister. He left his parents’ home at the age of 14 to earn his own money and worked in a factory in Ivano Frankivsk. Shekhter talks about how his was drafted for his military service two days before the outbreak of World War II. Shekhter served in the labor battalion until 1943. After his military service, Shekther worked in an artel (cooperative of workmen and peasants) in the Urals, in the city of Shverovsk* [00:03:51]. Shekhter also lived in Leningrad during the war, before he moved to the town of Zolotonosha in 1971, where he lived for twenty-five years, working in an artel.
4:11
Shekhter talks about his life after the war and his family. After his first non-Jewish wife passed away in 1969, Shekhter married a Jewish woman. His father was a cobbler.
16:36
Shekhter talks about his work. He worked at a factory and then as a cobbler with skills he learned from his father. His father, a shammes, and brother were also cobblers. Shekhter also discusses childhood memories and holiday celebrations, including Purim and Passover.
20:49
Shekhter talks about his family. After the war, Shekhter and his sister were the only surviving members of his family.
3:52
Khasidovich provides personal information and talks about her family. Her parents were born in Fastiv.
7:29
Khasidovich talks about her life during the war in the Fastiv ghetto. Khasidovich’s brother, two sisters, and parents were executed in the “mini Babi Yar” of Fastiv. Khasidovich survived the massacre. She then talks about her family. Her father worked as a tailor. Khasidovich talks about her education at the Yiddish school, where she studied for four years, before continuing her studies at Russian school. Khasidovich got married at 18 and she worked in a shop after the war.
13:35
Khasidovich discusses her childhood memories and talks about her family. She raised three daughters, one of whom lives in Israel. Her husband died fighting at the front.
30:01
Khasidovich talks about Yiddish culture before the war, including Yiddish theater. She then talks about a war memorial, which she attended to commemorate her husband. Khasidovich then talks about her life after the war. She was a caterer in a theater and then a sales assistant at a bakery until 1983. Khasidovich mentions her family, in particular grandchildren.
37:16
Khasidovich talks about reading books and her family. She then talks about Yiddish songs, before discussing Jewish life in postwar Fastiv.
41:51
Khasidovich talks about her life during the war in Fastiv. She and her three daughters hid in a basement.
55:17
Khasidovich answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. She also talks about life today and the Great Hunger in 1932. According to Khasidovich, her family did not suffer from the famine. She lived in Israel for one year.
3:05
The formal part of the interview begins. She provides personal information and talks about her family, as well as the war hero Tchaikovsky.
8:06
Kopyt talks about her life during the war. Her family walked to Kyiv. She then discusses her childhood memories and family. She grew up with one brother. Her grandmother was a baker and grandfather was a gabbai. Kopyt got married twice. Her first husband died in Chernobyl. She also addresses the Great Hunger in 1932 and her family’s hiding during World War II, as well as life after the war.
33:25
Kopyt hums a melody of a Yiddish song, she remembers from her father. She then sings Yiddish songs about a tailor and a strict mother, before she recalls a Yiddish lullaby and Hava Nagila in Yiddish. Another song deals with losing the groom to military service.
11:45
Murovanaia talks about members of the Horovitz and Kerler family in prewar Haysyn. She then talks about her family, particularly her husband.
20:00
Murovanaia talks about her life during World War II, which she spent in evacuation. Murovanaia mentions how she walked seventy kilometers in the Caucasus region. She then talks about her family, before addressing her return to Haysyn. Murovanaia raised two daughters, one of whom lives in Germany. Murovanaia briefly explains how she moved into her childhood home after the war, which was originally her grandfather's. The team then concludes the formal interview with Murovanaia.
25:41
Burshtein provides personal information and talks about his family. Burshtein's great-grandfather was born in Germany.
28:25
Burshtein talks about his life before the war, as well as his family. Burshtein's father was also born in Sobolivka and worked as tailor.
39:16
Burshtein talks about his family.
0:00
They chat about the local community. Burshtein then talks about his family. He grew up with one sister and one brother.
7:52
Burshtein talks about his family, particularly his grandfather's friendship to a priest.
10:30
Burshtein speaks about his life before the war. He addresses the synagogue visits with his grandfather on Sabbath. Burshtein explains how his grandfather would pick him up from school every day during Passover, so he would not eat any bread. Burshtein then speaks about prewar Soviet Yiddish life, including his school education.
22:26
Family and setting up the interview. Family
26:14
Childhood memories from Teberiv (Terov) and family
33:15
Jewish holidays and religious customs after the war and family
43:09
Life after the war and family
48:20
Father’s life before the war
0:00
Religious customs and family
3:32
The formal part of the interview begins. Iuris provides personal information and talks about her family. Iuris’ mother was born in Tatarbunary and her father, who worked at the main post office in Chernivtsi, was born in 5:41, 13:50, 14:00, 29:48 Moldova. Before the war, her parents owned a shop in Moldova. Iuris left Moldova and moved to Kolomyya in the immediate postwar period. Iuris grew up with a stepbrother.
11:09
Iuris discusses her childhood memories and talks about her parents. She explains that her grandmother told her to speak Yiddish at home and Russian with her Jewish and non-Jewish friends to avoid being made fun of. After the war, her parents moved from Moldova to Chernivtsi, into a house, formerly part of the Chernivtsi ghetto.
16:15
Iuris talks about Sabbath celebrations at home and her family. She remembers that her parents frequently attended synagogue. She then talks about traditional weddings after the war. She put up a wedding canopy at her own wedding. Iuris raised two sons, one of whom lived in Israel for four years.
35:37
Iuris briefly talks about her life in the immediate postwar period. She lived in Kolomyya, before moving to Ivano Frankivsk in 1970 as a result of her husband’s work assignment. Iuris then talks in Russian about her family.
44:13
Bukshtein talks about his family and contemporary religious life. Bukhstein serves as assistant rabbi. He then discusses the history of the region and prewar Jewish life in Novoselitsa. Bukhshtein recalls many non-Jews speaking Yiddish. He then lists Zionists organizations, including Hashomer Hatzair, Betar, and Poale Zion. Bukshtein was a member of the youth organization Hashomer Hatzair and recalls its activities to prepare chalutzim (young pioneers preparing aliyah to live in agricultural settlements). Bukhstein’s cousin made aliyah in 1935.
54:57
Bukshtein talks about his life during the war. His family was imprisoned in the Stanislav ghetto and Bershad ghetto. His mother, sister, and brother survived the war because they were imprisoned in the Romanian-occupied Bershad ghetto, according to him. The leadership of the tailoring factory in Mykolayiv was evacuated to Siberia. The workers were responsible for their own evacuation. Bukshtein describes how he followed with his friend the echelons with factory evacuees, including factory machinery, and traveled for one month to Novosibirsk, Russia. He further evacuated to Bolotnoye, where the tailoring factory was reestablished for the Soviet war effort. Bukshtein was drafted into the Red Army in Novosibirsk at the end of 1941. Bukshtein states that he joined his Jewish friend, who volunteered as a “westerner” and was sent to the military authority in Siberia 59:25, whereas the other draftees became soldiers. He explains how the military commander was upset about their visit because they were not allowed to serve as minors in the Red Army.
0:00
Bukshtein talks about his life during the war, when he was drafted in Siberia in 1942. He stayed in Siberia until 1944. He talks about the letter he wrote to his non-Jewish neighbor in Novoselitsa in order to learn about his family’s fate. Her neighbor informed him about his burned down house. He then exchanged letters with his mother, who returned to Novoselitsa from the Bershad ghetto. During his military service in Siberia, he met his Jewish wife Lucye.
3:03
Bukshtein talks about his life after the war. After his military service in 1947, he returned to his wife to Siberia and worked there until 1953. Bukshtein and his wife moved to Ivano Frankivsk, joining his sister and mother. In 1957 his mother and sister left for Poland and due to antisemitism in Poland in 1960, they left for Brazil. Bukshtein exchanged letters with them at the beginning, but he explains how he did not want to endanger his daughter’s studies by publicizing his relatives abroad. He only received a letter from his sister after Perestroika. Bukshtein saw his sister and aunt in Brazil in 1989 for the first time in 32 years. He stayed there for three months. Bukshtein recalls the Yiddish singing with his relatives in Brazil.
15:51
Bukshtein talks about his family. His father was a saddlemaker and born in the Novoselitsa region, living in Lipcani and Edinet. Bukhstein’s paternal aunt immigrated to America in 1937. Bukshtein then discusses his work during and after the war. The director of the tailoring factory ordered Bukshtein to take classes in mechanics. After completing his courses in Moscow, Bukshtein worked in this profession at the main mechanics factory in Siberia. After the war, Bukshtein returned to the tailoring profession and worked as a tailor’s cutter.
22:59
Bukshtein talks about his family. His maternal grandparents raised twelve children. His mother was a tailor and born in Edinet. The majority of his family was murdered during the war. Bukshtein then states how important it is to cultivate the Yiddish language and discusses Yiddish dialects. He continues to share information about his family. He grew up with four siblings. He then talks about his brother’s fate in a Romanian-occupied ghetto during the war, he learned from his mother. In particular, Bukshtein tells a story when his brother looked for food and he fell into icy water.
55:30
Bukshtein talks about life in the 1930s under fascist Romanian occupation, before he turns to life today and his family.
0:00
Bukshtein talks about his family and visits to Israel, where his daughter lives.
34:00
Bukshtein explains how he celebrated Passover during evacuation in Bolotnoye, Russia, with a family from Leningrad. He then describes Passover celebrations at home and talks about contemporary religious life. Bukshtein discusses contemporary memorialization and his wife’s family.
0:00
Bukshtein discusses cultural life before the war and sings a Purim shpiel. He mentions the local bathhouse and tells an episode about his mother, who consulted the rebbe of Stefanesti about antisemitism.
MDV 448Froim Kalmanovich Bukshtein; Genrikh (Hersh bereb Moyshe akoyen, Hesye) Moiseevich KatzIvano-Frankivs'k, 2003
3:32
The second part of the tape includes a formal interview with Genrikh (Hersh bereb Moyshe akoyen, Hesye) Moiseevich Katz, born 1912 in Tlumach. Katz provides personal information and talks about prewar Jewish life in Tlumach with a population of 9000. In particular, Katz recalls cattle trading and two kosher butchers. His grandfather traded in cattle. He then recites a prayer.
13:07
Katz talks about his family. He was the first-born and grew up with two brothers and four sisters. His parents and siblings were murdered during the war. His father worked in a distillery and was born in Horodenka. His mother was born in Tlumach. Katz then describes how he built sukkot with his grandfather.
25:41
Katz talks about his life and education before the war. Katz attended a Polish school. He worked as a locksmith in Tlumach, after graduating from a handicraft school in Lviv for three years. Katz then discusses his childhood memories. His father was a Hasid of the Stanislav rebbe’s court and Katz talks about his father would visit the rebbe.
25:32
The team speaks with a number of congregants, including Froim Kalmanovich Bukshtein, about Yiddish dialects and regions. A congregant from Proskurov (today Khmelnytskyy) talks about his family members that perished during the war. He also briefly addresses his education.
4:42
Jewish weddings and family.
6:21
Dialectology and family.
9:11
Family and life today.
14:51
Dialectology and family.
57:16
Informal chat and family.
1:08
Family (00:02:15)
12:55
Jewish life before the war and family
22:42
Postwar education and family
36:37
Family and holiday celebration before the war
4:13
His family time during World War I
32:31
Family after the war and life today
40:31
His wife Feyge and her family during the war
43:27
Grandparents and Passover celebration in Kumin
55:11
Dialectology and grandfather
0:00
Religiosity in the family and holiday celebration
2:33
Prewar Jewish cultural life in Kuznim and family
1:49
Begin of interview and family
24:37
Kartovski partisan brigade and family
31:31
Family and work
1:29
Once she agrees, the interview begins. Kraidman was born in 1923 in what was then western Poland. Sometime in the 1920s her family moved to Babruysk, Belarus, then in the Soviet Union. There she completed 10 grades in a Soviet Yiddish school, where she studied four languages: Yiddish, Russian, Belarusian, German. In 1939, this school was converted into a Russian-language institution. Kraidman also recalls the town’s Yiddish library, where she attended a reading of “Notre Dame” by Gogol’ in Yiddish. Kraidman also mentions other Yiddish authors she read for school, such as Dovid Bergelson.
9:17
Kraidman’s father, Shmuel, worked as a brushmaker and was from the Poland/Belarus border area. He came to the USSR, according to Kraidman, to find work. She has two younger siblings: Yoysef and Luba, the latter of whom lives in Israel.
12:50
Before the war, Kraidman spoke Yiddish with her family at home. During the evacuation, Kraidman switched to Russian, a language she reports speaking with Jewish workers from Odessa who were also evacuated to the same area.
13:48
Kraidman married a man named Mikhail in 1945 in Zhytomyr. Although he spoke some Yiddish, they spoke only in Russian to each other. Her husband’s uncle lived in America, but they lost contact with that branch of the family when he died.
20:27
Kraidman mentions how her grandparents stayed in Poland, when her immediate family moved to the Soviet Union. Kraidman reports that she has a large family spread throughout the world; an aunt of hers also moved to the Soviet Union before the war; her children now live in the United States.
21:24
Kraidman speaks about her work as an accountant and her two sons. Kraidman states that she can read and write in Yiddish fluently, but finds speaking difficult. She takes pride in the fact that she recently translated Yiddish-language archival material for a scholar from Kam’’yanets’ Podil’s’skyy for his dissertation research.
27:11
Kraidman briefly discusses the Yiddish theater in Babruysk. Her parents would go to the theater, while the children would stay at home. Nevertheless, she remembers that the plays would be translations of world literature into Yiddish.
30:13
During and after evacuation, Kraidman spoke to her mother in Russian. Her mother would answer in Yiddish, as she never learned to speak Russian well.
7:31
The tape cuts to Professor Kerler singing and then speaking Yiddish with Dr. Lemster at the request of another Hesed employee. Liudmila Makedonskaya returns and talks about her grandmother. She also mentions that her grandson learns Hebrew in the local Jewish school and comments on the linguistic and demographic composition of the contemporary community. Yiddish was once taught in the town’s Jewish school, but in Cyrillic characters. The woman states that she has three children and seven grandchildren, some of whom live in Israel. There is a debate among the employees as to who speaks Yiddish in the town and to whom to send the team. Dr. Lemster suggests that there may be Jews in the town unconnected to Hesed, but Liudmilia assures him that those who are not connected to Hesed are likewise unconnected to Jewishness [evreistvo].
21:34
Gaiviker worked for sixty-plus years as a barber, like his father before him. He has been retired for thirty-plus years and lives with his wife Sonya Volkovna Gaiviker (née Sosne). Gaiviker received a traditional “kheyder” (religious school for boys) education, but no longer remembers how to pray properly.
26:24
Gaiviker shares basic biographical information about himself and his family. He was named after his grandfather Nekhemye, who served in the Tsarist army as a cantonist. His parents were named Shmil and Sosye. His mother died when he was six years old. Gaiviker also discusses his contemporary economic and health troubles.
29:28
Gaiviker studied in two “kheyder” schools with his teachers Motl der Shvartser (Motl the Black), and Khayim Mezhibuzher (Khayim from Medzhibozh). In his youth, Gaiviker would go to synagogue every day with his father, then eat and then go off to work and/or study. His father re-married and had several more children. Gaiviker’s step-mother was good and kind, but Gaiviker himself admits that he was a wild youth, who loved to party and listen to music, especially jazz.
49:04
The researchers begin an interview with Sonya (Sosye) Volkovna Gaiviker (née Sosne) who was born in 1920 in Khmel’nyts’kyy. She contrasts her youth with that of her husband’s, stating that she had a rich family with many animals and a big courtyard. They had plenty of food, experienced no famine and helped others in need. Her father, Volf, was killed in 1942 with her entire family in Khmel’nyts’kyy. Before the war, her father worked with horses. Her mother, Khone (b. Khmel’nyts’kyy, 1883) would bake twice a week in their oven. On holidays the whole family would come together.
9:42
The interviewee describes the streets where he lived and the typical professions held by Jews in the town. He also discusses the pogrom in the town in 1919 ("a shver shtikl tsayt") in which many of his friends and family were killed.
11:26
Gaiviker relates how many of his family died in evacuation during the war, and also details how he met his wife after the war. He thanks her for being such a good partner from 1945 onwards (“a yidishe neshume iz zi”).
17:11
Both interviewees comment on how they have known many non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. Sonya Gaiviker spoke to her daughter in Russian, but she reports that she does understand a bit of Yiddish.
19:12
Naum comments on being the only one of his generation left in the town and shares some of his war stories. He again thanks his wife for everything and she discusses contemporary political instability in Ukraine.
31:01
Sonya Gaiviker reports that both her daughter and granddaughter married ethnic Russians, but that her granddaughter is somewhat observant of Jewish religious law as she now lives in Israel.
34:46
Sonya Gaiviker worked several jobs after the war, but as soon as she married she decided to stay at home.
0:00
This tape consists of a formal interview with Sonya (Sure) Petrovna Yarmolnik (née Gravits), born in 1929 in Khmel'nyts'kyy. She grew up in a Jewish family that celebrated all the holidays. Her maternal grandfather, Shloyme, was a blacksmith. He had twelve children who moved all over the world to Germany, America, as well as many nearby towns. Yarmolnik also states that her father was born in 1918 [sic].
4:30
Yarmolnik begins a story she heard from her mother about a pogrom in 1921 in Khmel'nytskyy led by Petliura’s troops. Integrated into this narrative are details from her family’s experiences during the Great Patriotic War. Yarmolnik lists the deaths of numerous family members throughout her lifetime, commenting that she is now all alone. [00:08:31] During the evacuation to Uzbekistan, Yarmolnik worked in a war factory as much as eighteen hours a day.
10:37
Yarmolnik does not remember her grandmothers, at least one of whom died before she was born. She tells a story about her grandfather who went blind, survived a flood and had an operation, after which he regained his sight. Her father fought in the war and was killed on May 16th, 1945, exactly a week after victory. Her mother died in 1968.
15:58
In the postwar period, Yarmolnik would secretly bake matzo with her mother. Her mother frequently attended synagogue after the war.
17:31
She briefly discusses her family’s life during the evacuation in Uzbekistan.
18:32
Yarmolnik’s husband was from Medzhibozh. She talks about the one remaining Jew in the town, who recently passed away. She comments on the tourist infrastructure that is now in place there with new hotels and rebuilt synagogues. Yarmolnik was once taken to Medzhibozh by her husband to see the Besht’s grave.
21:45
In the postwar period, Yarmolnik reports, few people knew about the Besht or his gravesite but her husband, Misha/Monia Borisovich, told her about it. Yarmolnik lived with her husband for forty-six years. Their one son was circumcised in a private home by a local rabbi, an action she was unafraid to take, although she knew it was risky. (“Why should we have been afraid? I was not a Party member, my husband was not a Party member”). Yarmolnik states that she was not afraid of being sent to jail or of what the non-Jews might think or say. Professor Kerler also asks Yarmolnik about her use of a particular Ukrainian-language expression in her Yiddish.
28:20
Yarmolnik states that there were many non-Jews who spoke Yiddish in Khmel'nyts'kyy since, on her street for instance, non-Jews were a minority. Yarmolnik speaks briefly about her maternal aunt, whose husband was a Party official and registered her as an ethnic German.
30:43
Yarmolnik spoke only in Yiddish with her husband and son. Her grandson understands but does not speak Yiddish. Her grandson finished the local Jewish school.
34:15
Yarmolnik mentions her estranged family members in Israel and states that she is all alone except for her grandson.
35:10
Yarmolnik spoke in Yiddish to her son and he would go to synagogue with his father on all the Jewish holidays. Before the war, Yarmolnik’s brother graduated from the Yiddish school in Khmel'nyts'kyy before it was closed.
0:00
This tape consists of a formal interview with Aba Davidovich Kaviner, born in 1921 in the town of Derazhnya, Ukraine. He received a double education in his youth, graduating from a Soviet Yiddish school, while simultaneously attending a yeshiva. At 19 years of age, he was drafted into the Red Army, a year before the war broke out. With his entire family killed, after the war, Kaviner moved to Khmel'nyts'kyy, where he got married. His wife died four years ago. Kaviner shares his attitudes towards “loshn-koydesh” (the “holy tongue” of scripture) that he learned in yeshiva, in comparison with the “Sephardi dialect” of Modern Israeli Hebrew.
19:33
Kaviner comments on the concept of “gite yidn” (righteous Jews), and talks about pilgrimages to various rebbes. He also tells a story about his great-grandfather, the rich merchant Yidl, and his dealings with the town’s dishonest khevre kadisho (burial society).
49:06
Kaviner lost all his childhood friends in the war. In the postwar period, he had a daughter; his grandson now works in Hesed (a Jewish communal organization). His grandson is uncircumcised because there was no one to perform the ritual.
24:45
His father, Duvid (b. 1889), worked as a barrel maker and his mother, Ester, was a housewife. He does not remember his grandparents, but he had two siblings: Milke (b. 1920) and Shmilikl.
14:11
Kaviner tells a story about an encounter he once had with an old Jew who intermarried and who was later disowned by his children in his later years.
21:37
Kaviner reports that his daughter, who lives in Khmel'nyts'kyy, understands, but doesn’t speak Yiddish.
30:36
Kaviner tells the story of one of his most memorable reading experiences: When he was twelve years old he visited a local rich man’s large library from where he obtained Avraham Mapu’s “Ahaves Tsiyen" (Love of Zion) in “loshn-koydesh” (Hebrew). He remembers hiding in the attic in the summertime to hide from his father in order to read it. Kaviner further discusses “Di klasiker” and the Soviet Yiddish writers that he read in his youth.
52:03
Kaviner comments on his life today, focusing on his health problems, his daughter’s career and his pride in his grandson, who used to work in Hesed (elderly welfare organization), but now works in a Ukrainian government agency.
5:01
Kaviner begins to tell a story about how his father once saw Eliyahu haNuvi (Elijah the Prophet).
6:14
Kaviner continues the story about his father and Eliyahu haNuvi as well as another tale by Avrom Reyzen that he read in Sovetish Heymland.
2:36
Vaisblai states that there was a synagogue in his family’s home when he was growing up before the war and that he has worked as “gobe” (administrator) in Khmel'nyts'kyy’s contemporary synagogue for many years. His father Avrum (known more commonly as “Umenyu”) worked as a cap-maker who was paid in potatoes for his work. His mother Nunye worked as a housewife until her death in 1937. Vaisblai’s paternal grandparents, Pesye-Rokhl and Biumen had thirteen children.
9:03
Vaisblai then describes his hometown of Chemerivtsi in the years before the war. According to Vaisblai, there was a synagogue in his family’s house because his father was crippled by an injury he received in a Petliura-led pogrom. Vaisblai describes the poverty and hardships of his youth, stating that although his father remarried a rich woman who bought food for shabes (the Sabbath), he and his two siblings often went hungry.
52:22
Vaisblai states that he knows many songs, some of which he learned before the war from his father and others which he learned after the war from demobilized Jewish soldiers.
37:52
The camera then cuts to the Jewish community center where a formal interview is conducted with Ilia (Elye) Zelmanovich Kramer (b. 1927, Berezdov). He shares his basic biographical information and speaks about his experiences during the war years as well as his family life.
47:53
He expands on the latter topic, stating that his father worked on a Jewish kolkhoz; there were two kolkhozy in the town, according to Kramer, one Jewish and one Ukrainian. Kramer’s sisters also worked on the kolkhoz, and he himself worked there from the age of fourteen onwards.
51:32
Kramer describes prewar Berezdov. He mentions that his father worked in a brick factory. Describing his prewar educations, Kramer states that he finished four years in a Yiddish school before attending a Ukrainian-language institution. He describes the town’s butchers, its rabbi, and the town synagogue that operated until 1939.
54:43
In the postwar period, Kramer served in the army until 1951, moving to Khmel'nyts'kyy in 1955, while his family lived in Slavuta. Kramer worked as an engineer in a factory until 1992.
56:59
Kramer returns to the subject of his youth, focusing of the hardships that he and his family faced. In 1933, for example, his family lost their house because the deed of sale was written by a rabbi and thus unrecognized by the Soviet government. Kramer recalls his family’s connections to relatives in America and to the Joint.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Ilia (Elye) Zelmanovich Kramer (b. 1927 in Berezdov). He recalls that his father was a religious man, who completed kheyder (a traditional religious education for young boys). Although uneducated from a secular perspective, Kramer’s father was talented in mathematics and languages. Kramer briefly describes the atmosphere of his childhood home, mentioning holiday celebrations, and how his parents would pray in the mornings. Kramer’s mother was also educated at a Russian-language gymnasium.
50:07
Kaviner speaks about his daughter and his grandson, and their respective education and career paths.
39:02
Kaviner shows Professor Veidlinger different photos of recent life events, such as a meeting in Hesed (elderly welfare organization), a trip to Medzhibozh, and different moments with his grandson.
4:58
He talks about his family, including his grandparents, Biumen and Pesye-Rokhl, his parents, Avrum and Nunye, and his siblings, Gitl and Berish. He also comments on who worked on the kolkhoz and what particular duties he and some of his family members had there.
7:39
Vaisblai’s father could not walk because of an injury, so he worked as a cap maker rather than on the kolkhoz. Vaisblai also speaks about the changes that occurred in his family after his mother died in 1937 and further describes life before the war in his hometown.
55:56
In the immediate postwar period, Vaisblai returned to Chemerivtsi, where his neighbors returned to him his father’s pillows and allowed him to live in his grandmother’s old house. He then describes his life in subsequent years, focusing on his family and their various occupations.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Semyon (Yisrul) Aronovich Vaisblai (b. 1930 in Chemerivtsi). He discusses his family life, work and education in the postwar period and shares his views on Jewish emigration to Germany.
6:43
He sings “Rebe Reb Shneyer” (“Rebbe Reb Shneyer”), recalling that he learned many Yiddish songs from Jewish soldiers and from his older sister. He then talks about his sister’s life, the hardships she faced, and about her children in Israel and the US.
42:24
Vaisblai describes his home life in the postwar period and talks about his children now living in Israel and Germany.
4:21
Kaviner speaks about his family life in the postwar period, specifically talking about his wife, daughter and grandson.
0:00
Snook discusses childhood memories, family, and holidays. Snook recalls a Purim saying and recites the morning prayer “modeh ani.”
10:26
Snook talks about her religious education; she studied with an unemployed teacher for three years together with some other girls. She remembers Passover celebrations before the war, as well as other religious customs to avert the evil eye. Snook then talks about her family.
18:04
Snook discusses prewar religious life, when services were held in a “shtiebel” (a little room). She also discusses her family and holiday celebration, including food customs. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren live in Israel.
51:56
Snook talks about her family, in particular her son, born in 1946. He attended religious school (cheder) in Drahovo. Snook describes her daily routine and tells about holiday songs.
9:01
Katz provides personal information and talks about his family. He grew up with six siblings. His father was a coachman with two horses. Katz then talks about prewar Jewish life and childhood memories. He attended religious school (cheder) until his bar mitzvah. Katz then discusses his father’s work as a coachman, transporting wood. Katz supported his father’s work during vacation. In 1939, when his father was "drafted" into the Hungarian army forced labor battalion, Katz continued his father’s work with the help of an assistant. His parents received a plot of land after their marriage.
27:57
Katz recites kaddish and discusses holiday celebration of Passover and Purim at home. He then talks about his father’s hard work as a coachman. Katz then explains how children celebrated Purim before the war. Katz was not able to participate in the Purim shpiels because he had to help out with his parents.
41:45
Katz discusses life during the war, after his father was drafted into the Hungarian army in 1939. Katz continued his father’s work as a coachman until 1943. He then talks about his experience delivering wood. His father returned from the army in 1943 due to health reasons and took up his previous work as a coachman. Katz then explains that his uncle and cousin were ultimately taken to the railway station in Khust by the Hungarian police in 1941. The train was headed to Ivano-Frankivsk, before moving further to Khust. Katz explains that they were deported from Khust to the Iza ghetto in 1944 and stayed there for three weeks. He recalls the hardships of acquiring food. After three weeks, Katz continues, they were sent to a brickworks in Khust, going through health check and selection for three days. Katz was then deported to Auschwitz. Katz recalls the first days of undressing/showering and selection at the concentration camp. Katz spent two days in Auschwitz and was then sent to a sub-camp of Auschwitz, Monowitz. Katz worked at a factory there.
19:17
Katz discusses his life in the liberated camp. He remembers people dying from eating too much after living on starvation rations for so long. Katz and his uncle and cousin registered as Czech and moved toward the Soviet-occupied zone. He describes the way back home and the change from Czech regime to Soviet regime in Ukraine. Katz describes how while staying at a hotel with his cousin and uncle, he was nearly sent to Siberia. Instead, they headed to Budapest, where they stayed and received food, before continuing the journey home. In Budapest, they met a fellow Jew from Khust and spent the night at his house.
6:16
Zinger continues to talk about life today and his family. His daughter lives in Uzhhorod. He visited his son in Israel once, supported by a Swiss organization.
38:38
Zinger talks about his father’s work as a tombstone carver. The team concludes the interview with Zinger.
45:22
Snook sings a Yiddish song about the bride and marriage. Snook then talks about life after the war. In particular, she addresses life during the drought in 1946 and the famine in 1947. Snook then talks about her family, in particular her husband. After the war, she and her husband worked with horses and sold different materials. Her children live in Israel.
55:33
Snook sings a Yiddish song about the longings of love. She then remembers her return with her husband home after World War II. Her husband slowly rebuilt life. She discusses family and life today.
5:13
Snook talks about her family and her life during the war. She explains how she took care of a child in Auschwitz and attributes her own survival to her young age.
7:32
Snook sings a Sabbath song and recites prayers. She then discusses religious life today and talks about her family.
35:00
Snook discusses life at the beginning of the war in 1941, when her family was deported. Snook returned home in 1945. She then talks about life after the war and her family. Her son Shloyme was born in 1946.
31:22
Family and concluding the interview.
2:33
Life and family today.
7:19
Family and teaching Yiddish.
12:07
Life during the Soviet period and family.
18:51
Childhood memories and family/neighbors.
31:29
Life today and booklet with family information.
11:19
Family photographs and family.
10:16
Family.
0:35
Formal introduction and family.
6:13
Childhood memories from Solkhov and family.
14:23
Holiday celebrations and family.
21:26
Family and prewar life in Solkhov.
8:52
Hunger and family.
17:15
Family and Jewish life in Zhmerynka.
31:32
Genealogical research and publications.
20:02
Celebration of Yiddish writers and her father Itsik Kipnis.
24:40
Itsik Kipnis’s life after the war.
0:00
About Itsik Kipnis.
11:01
Personal information and family.
19:30
Early childhood memories about grandparents.
24:16
Grandparents.
5:05
Formal introduction and family.
12:02
Childhood memories and family.
23:17
Yiddish literature and family.
0:00
Research about his family.
6:54
Formal introduction and family.
21:53
Family.
33:34
His newspaper articles and his father as a teacher.
35:51
Yiddish literature and family.
46:17
Personal information and family
MDV 514David (Duvid-Hersh, or sometimes Duvid-Tsvi when called up to the Torah) Abramovich ViderKolomyya, 2003
0:00
This tape consists of a formal interview with David (Duvid-Hersh, or sometimes Duvid-Tsvi when called up to the Torah) Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei). He provides Professor Kerler with a brief tour of the synagogue and a look at its old Torah scrolls, and discusses Kolomyya’s contemporary Jewish religious community. Vider talks about his traditional religious education in a yeshiva, where he learned to speak Hebrew. Vider’s father Avrum-Mayer worked many jobs as a shoykhet (kosher butcher), melamed (religious teacher) and a khazn/bal-tfile (cantor and/or prayer leader). Vider states that he remembers all the prayers and liturgy he learned. He briefly describes how he and his father once led Simkhes-Toyre (Simchat Torah) celebrations together. Vider then shares his and his family’s basic biographical details. He was born in the town of Sighetu Marmatiei, moved with his family at the age of three to Hîrlau, and then moved again around the age of twelve to Iași where he attended yeshiva.
14:04
After some audio and logistical problems, Vider continues, explaining that he moved to Russia in 1940 without knowing any Russian. At the age of eighteen, he began working in a mining town in the Urals and then worked for some time as a mechanic in the Garagum (Kara-kum) desert in Turkmenistan, where he earned a decent living, but hated living in that area. After that job, he worked in a mine in the L’viv area, staying there until the age of seventy, at which time he retired to Kolomyya, a town he had visited often as his sister lived there. Vider learned how to cook and bake a whole repertoire of traditional Jewish foods from his sister, and he shares a recipe for chicken liver.
20:15
Vider returns to the subject of his family life before he moved to the Soviet Union, richly describing shabes (Sabbath) and Passover celebrations, as well as his five siblings’ life stories.
45:20
Vider talks about his prewar family life, focusing on his mother and father’s work, the family house in Hîrlau, and that town’s geography. He comments on the Yiddish dialect differences in the places he lived in his youth, and speaks about Kolomyya’s synagogue and contemporary Jewish community. Vider reports that he reads and writes in Yiddish. He shares his attitudes towards different dialects and talks about different people in Kolomyya with whom he speaks in Yiddish.
54:06
Vider discusses his family relationship with the Botoshaner Rebbe, noting that he officiated his sister’s religious wedding. He also speaks about Jewish weddings and match-making in general. Vider also shares his memories about the Rebbe’s wife, family and court, and mentions that his mother’s cousin, Reb Mayer was a khazn (cantor) and tsadik (righteous holy man).
11:06
Vider briefly shares the history of the Kolomyya synagogue and how these pilgrimages began. He also talks about his two marriages: Vider’s first marriage was to a Communist Jewish woman; he is now married to a Christian woman from Kolomyya. Vider had no children with his first wife, nor did they get married under a "khipe” (wedding canopy) as she was a committed Communist. He shares some details of his difficult relationship with his first wife. Vider also mentions that he enthusiastically listens to records of cantorial music.
48:50
He then sing another "pirimshpil” entitled "Got hot indz gegebn tsvey gite simunim” ("G-d gave us two signs”) that he and his brother used to sing while performing another skit dressed as a rabbi and his wife. Vider states that he learned all these songs and ditties from his father, who was well-educated and encouraged his children’s learning. Vider’s father was especially adept at mathematics, and Vider shows Professor Kerler how his father counted on his fingers in a special way. Vider then switches into Russian to demonstrate another mathematical trick that he learned from his father.
0:00
Vider answers questions from Professor Kerler’s sociolinguistic and dialectological questionnaire. He also speaks about how his mother made "khale” (special bread for the Sabbath).
21:32
Vider recalls the local and visiting Yiddish theater troupes and circles in Hîrlau. He also describes the Yiddish and Romanian-language newspapers that were read in his youth and discusses Jewish interactions with Romanian anti-Semitic and fascist organizations in the prewar period. He mentions that there were many Zionists group in the towns in which he lived, including Gordonia (of which he was a member), and Shomer HaTsa’ir and Makabi (to which his brother belong). Vider then tells the short story of how his brother emigrated to Palestine after the war.
29:24
Vider briefly discusses the Jewish bathhouse in his shtetl that was used as a mikve (ritual bath) by the town’s men on Friday night before shabes. From this topic, Vider and Professor Kerler discuss the origins and uses of the idiom "firn in bud arayn” (lit. "to lead somone into the baths”). Vider reminisces about the nignum (traditional wordless melodies) sung by his Rebbe. He then sings a loshn-koydesh (the Hebrew-Aramaic language of prayer and liturgy) song that his father would sing at the third meal before the end of shabes.
39:10
Vider reports that he read a good deal of Yiddish literature in his youth in Romania, as his mother had poor vision and he would often read aloud to her. Vider’s mother was a "firzugerin” (women’s prayer leader) in the synagogue, and he describes how the women used to pray.
41:04
Professor Kerler and Vider return to the sociolinguistic/dialectological questionnaire. Vider also details how he mother cooked and shares his recipes for "gefilte fish” and other foods.
39:34
The camera then cuts to a formal interview with Iosef (Yosl) Grigoryevich Grayf (b. 1922 in Kolomyya). He discusses his prewar family, describing his parents, Gershon and Etl, as well as his many siblings. He details the geography of the region, noting how the political borders in Bukovina shifted many times in the last century.
0:00
This tape consists of a formal interview with David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei). He recites a "pirimshpil” (rhyming Purim play) about a chimney-sweep and a woman that he and his brother performed in his youth. Vider also speaks about his early childhood in Sighetu Marmatiei and Iași. Speaking about his family life in general, Vider mentions that his father was a "shoykhet” (kosher butcher), but pitied the animals too much and so worked as a "khazn” (cantor).
10:44
Vider shares his earliest childhood memories, noting that although he did not attend kheyder (religious boys’ school) his father taught him privately at home. Vider also recalls helping his father with his cantorial duties, and describes his later education in a Yeshiva as well as in a Jewish school where Romanian and Modern Hebrew were taught.
17:20
Vider talks about his many siblings and about their fates both during and after the war. He also describes the curriculum of his Jewish school and states that he remembers so many Jewish songs and traditions because he would sing to himself on long fishing trips.
25:14
Vider briefly discusses the day-to-day operations of Kolomyya’s current synagogue, including its system of donations and the kinds of people who come. He also states that he learned traditional Jewish cooking from his sister.
29:06
The research team begins a formal interview with Krotsh, speaking first about the interviewers and the AHEYM project in general. Krotsh shares his basic biographical information and speaks about his family life in his childhood. He also speaks about the Stefanester Rebbe, recalling how overcrowded his shtetl (town) became when people came from all over the world to attend his funeral. Krotsh discusses his many siblings and the poverty that characterized their youth. Krotsh was educated in a "kheyder” (traditional religious boys’ school), a Romanian-Modern Hebrew Jewish school, and a yeshiva, where he studied Talmud and other traditional texts. Although Krotsh was an excellent student and remembers everything he once learned in yeshiva, he also studied to be a tailor in order to make a living.
21:21
Krotsh discusses the Yiddish songs his parents would sing. Vider and Krotsh then sing a fragment from a song about a Ukrainian shtetl. Krotsh then sings a short Modern Hebrew song to the tune of the Yiddish song "ele-bele”. While there were no Yiddish newspapers in his shtetl, Krotsh notes that there was a rich Jewish organizational life, which included many Zionist groups.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Semyon Semyonovich Krotsh (b. 1922 in Stefanesti). Another AHEYM interviewee, David Abramovich Vider (b. 1922 in Sighetu Marmatiei), is also present. Krotsh discusses his contemporary health problems, as well as the state of Yiddish in the Kolomyya present-day Jewish community. Krotsh speaks about his marriage and three sons of whom only one is now alive. Krotsh moved to Kolomyya in 1949.
27:29
The camera cuts to a formal interview conducted in Russian with Roman Bileichuk (b. 1963 in Kolomyya), an aspiring convert to Judaism. Bileichuk shares his basic biographical information, describing his childhood without a father, and his education and early career path. After an extended period of religious exploration, Bileichuk recalls how one sleepless night after reading the Torah he somehow wandered three kilometers to Kolomyya’s synagogue, a place he was totally unfamiliar with before, and joined the Rosh Hashone (New Years) services that were then taking place. Despite conflict with his family, Biliechuk has been attending the services at the synagogue and observing Judaism for about 2.5 years, and has written to several rabbis in Kyiv about the possibility of formal conversion. Meanwhile, he states that he is trying to follow all Jewish religious laws and reads Jewish journals and traditional texts, trying, "like everybody else” to find Truth in the world.
34:30
Bileichuk discusses his family life and shares his attitudes towards Subbotniki, Christian Protestant sects and other faiths. He also discusses why he sees as the inherent truth in Judaism, the "stealing” of its principles by other faiths and his personal religious journey.
50:33
Bileichuk further details the conflict he has had with his family over his new faith and notes the paradox of how the commandment to "honor thy mother and father” in this case would compromise his faith. He also describes how he prays at home with a homemade "bima” (prayer lectern). Bileichuk states that he keeps all commandments to the extent possible, and reports on what he calls the deceptive nature of the Catholic and Christian Bible, wanting the world to recognize the truth in Judaism. Bileichuk began his religious journey 4-5 years ago starting asking these religious questions, noting that he had a very Christian upbringing and was always of a very spiritual orientation. He also comments on his relations within the community, and, comparing himself to Abraham who took on G-d’s covenant at a late age, states that he will let no one deny him his right to convert. Bileichuk mentions his relationship with a non-Jewish woman who is also an aspiring convert and with whom he has a son. Bileichuk also complains about the politics of conversion and its connection to bribery in Israel.
0:00
Iosef (Yosl) Grigoryevich Grayf (b. 1922 in Kolomyya). He speaks about prewar Jewish life in Kolomyya and his education in a supplemental twice weekly Hebrew school. He also talks about his parents and Jewish religious life in the town, describing its numerous synagogues. He also makes several comparisons with the much reduced Jewish life in Kolomyya today and how the contemporary synagogue often has trouble securing a "minyen” (minyan, prayer quorum of ten men).
15:31
Grayf talks about Jewish organizations and clubs in Kolomyya before the war, including HaPoel and the Bund. Grayf’s mother had seven kids. During his youth Grayf’s family lived in an apartment near the town hall.
20:14
Grayf discusses his war experiences, during which he was evacuated and then served in the Red Army. He also shares the fate of other members of his family who were either killed or survived and eventually immigrated to Israel. Commenting on Ukrainian-Jewish relations during the war, Grayf states that anti-Semitism was introduced by leaders such as Stepan Bandera and has since remained in the country.
26:11
Grayf discusses his military service and return to Kolomyya after the war. Although he found no family left in the town and few friends, he decided to stay and describes the general atmosphere of the period as stable, secure and peaceful.
2:10
Vider talks about the song "Ven indzer futer yakoyv iz geleygn afn shteyn” (When Our Father Jacob Laid Down on the Stone), which he heard from a cantor at an evening concert in Iași. He then speaks about how his father used to practice and then read from the Torah on shabes (the Sabbath) with the proper "trop” or cantilation.
11:16
Vider then sings two songs: andquot;Ven indzer futer yakoyv iz geleygn afn shteynandquot; (When Our Father Jacob Laid Down on the Stone) and "Got hot indz gegeybn tvsey gite simunim” (G-d Gave Us Two Good Signs). He heard the latter song from his father.
16:04
Vider sings andquot;Zeyger tsvelefandquot; (Twelve O'Clock), a song that he heard from his older sister in which there is a dialogue between a mother and a daughter.
19:16
Vider’s father failed at being a "shoykhet” (kosher butcher) because he had too much sympathy for the animals. Vider’s father served four years in the Austro-Hungarian army after he finished yeshiva and was wounded during the First World War. Vides briefly discusses the fate of his father and brother, who were killed during the Second World War while he was in the Soviet Union.
27:26
Vider shares his memories of how his father educated him at home taught him the Jewish alphabet and basic prayers before he started school. He also shows the researchers his father’s unique finger counting system and several other math tricks he learned from his father.
56:29
Krotsh answers other questions related to Yiddish linguistics, discussing religious customs, such as "tashlikh” (going to the river on the Jewish New Year to rid oneself of sins). He also speaks about his visit to his hometown in Romania in the postwar period and begins to detail his family’s wartime experiences.
0:00
This tape consists of a formal interview with Semyon Semyonovich Krotsh (b. 1922 in Stefanesti). He speaks about his visit to Botoșani in Romania in the postwar period where his father lived after the war. Krotsh visited the town again most recently about five years ago, and reports that there are no Jews left there or in any other small towns. Krotsh also speaks in general about Romanian Jewry after the war and their mass emigration to Israel.
5:58
Krotsh details how he came to live in the Soviet Union beginning in 1940. Krotsh left Romania for the USSR in order to be with brother and other friends who were already in that country. He worked in a Moldovan village as a tailor for a year before the war broke out, and was then evacuated to the Caucasus region, working in several kolkhozes (collective farms). When the Germans took Rostov-na-Donu, he was evacuated further into Azerbaijan where he got sick with malaria while working on yet another kolkhoz.
15:48
Formal interview begins with Aron (Urn) Kalmanovich Biter (b. 1918 in Popel’niki). He discusses the prewar history of the village and its eighteen Jewish families. He also talks about his education in a "kheyder” (traditional Jewish religious boys’ school) and a Polish-language gymnasium. Biter shares his memories of prewar family life, noting that his father served in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War and how his family changed their surname from "Shafir” to the less Jewish-sounding "Biter”.
25:57
Biter speaks in greater detail about his family’s name change and the work his parents, Kolmen and Yeti had before the war. He then shares his wartime experiences, beginning with a pogrom in the village in 1941 led by local Ukrainian nationalists before the Germans invaded the town. When the town’s Jews were deported, Biter jumped from a train window and wandered from village to village, surviving with the help of non-Jewish friends. Biter was eventually able to arrange false papers that stated he was an ethnic Ukrainian and worked for the Germans in a village for the rest of the war.
51:48
Biter speaks in greater detail about prewar family life mentioning that his father immigrated to Canada, where he lived for three years and worked on the land. His grandfather held an arrenda (leasing right) and operated a tavern. Discussing prewar religious life in his village, Biter states that there were two "minyonim” (prayer groups of ten or more adult men) in his village; as such, communal functionaries, such as a shoykhet (kosher butcher) and kheyder teacher visited regularly from nearby villages. Biter briefly describes how he was given his "lapsterdekl” (lit. "small coat,” i.e. "talis kotn,” or Jewish male ritual garment) at the age of thirteen. Biter explains that his father wanted him to be a religious Jew, but his maternal grandfather, who was a Reformist and worked as a lawyer insisted he attend the nearest gymnasium in Snyatyn. Graduating in 1938, Biter then attended an agricultural lyceum.
2:46
Biter shares his father’s stories of military service during the First World War. He also talks about Jewish religious life in his childhood home, detailing Sabbath and holiday observances and food customs.
26:04
Biter details the social, political and economic changes that occurred in 1939 when the Soviets annexed his village. He notes that the ethnic Poles were mostly displeased with these changes, while the Jews welcomed the new regime as the old government’s nationalist policies were overturned. He then tells a story of a Jewish millionaire from Snyatyn who left the country during this period for Romania and the consequences this had for his family members who stayed behind.
48:25
Biter states that as a Jewish survivor, he now receives financial compensation from Germany. He also talks about the contemporary economic situation in Ukraine, his children’s economic conditions in L’viv and Israel, and describes some of his medical problems.
57:22
Vider shows family photographs, particularly of his parents and himself.
25:00
Krotsh mentions that he attended a yeshiva for two years. He then speaks about his father who consulted the rebbe about his trial concerning the imprisonment in a German prison during World War I.
28:17
Krotsh speaks about his family. He then talks about his life before the war, particularly education and work. Krotsh explains that he studied at a yeshiva in the mornings and worked as an apprentice in the afternoons.
55:12
Krotsh speaks about prewar religious life. He then speaks about his life and work after the war. He got married to a non-Jewish woman in 1949. Krotsh lists the places he lived after the war, including Kuban, Russia, 56:49. He moved to Kolomyya in 1949.
0:00
Krotsh speaks about prewar Jewish life in Ştefăneşti. He then talks about his life during World War II and family. His father was a cobbler and also born in Ştefăneşti. Krotsh's mother was born in Săveni.
3:53
Krotsh tells a story concerning family friends and military draft under Tsarism he heard from his father.
8:43
Krotsh talks about prewar Jewish life in Ştefăneşti, including the wealthy and his master craftsman. He also speaks about his education at a yeshiva and his family.
5:19
Vider speaks about his life today. He then mentions that he studied at a yeshiva in Iaşi, as well as speaks about his family. Vider states that his father died in a pogrom before the war.
34:28
Vider speaks about his first wife who was Jewish and his life after the war. He also mentions his sister's family.
38:28
Vider speaks about his family. His father was a kosher butcher and religious teacher (melamed). He then addresses Hershl Ostropoler stories.
44:32
Vider briefly speaks about his life during the war in Russia. He then speaks about his life and friends before the war. Vider moved to Hîrlău from his birth town Sighetu Marmaţiei at the age of three. Vider lived in Hîrlău for ten years and then moved to Iaşi, where he attended a yeshiva and learned carpentry. Vider then explains how his mother convinced him to learn an easier profession and hence became a tailor.
10:38
Krotsh speaks about his family's life during World War II. His parents were imprisoned in the Botoșani ghetto. He then speaks about his life during the war. Krotsh joined the Red Army with his younger brother. He grew up with three sisters and two brothers. Krotsh's older brother served in the Romanian army.
26:35
Krotsh speaks about his family. His mother was born in Săveni. Krotsh describes how his mother sought advice with the Ştefăneşti rebbe. He then speaks about contemporary life.
0:00
Krotsh sings again the song about non-Jews not understanding conversations among Jews. He then speaks about prewar religious life in the region, as well as his life before the war. Krotsh also mentions how his father decided for him to drop out of the yeshiva.
16:05
Krotsh speaks about his father's observance and visits of rebbes after the war.
6:13
Krotsh talks about his family and visit to the Rădăuţi synagogue. They then address non-Jews who speak Yiddish.
41:56
Krotsh speaks about his family, particularly his son. Krotsh also mentions people with whom he communicated in Yiddish after the war.
0:00
Family
6:26
Family and life before the war
22:28
Family
40:11
Family and Shabbat celebrations
47:46
Studying with grandfather
52:36
Parent’s evacuation and Passover before the war
40:11
Family
22:52
They go inside the community center and join the members for Shabbat celebration. Rashkovsky introduces the team to several community members. The team informally chats with one member about his family in Hebrew.
13:13
Ocheretianyi provides personal information and talks about his family. His father and grandfather worked as blacksmith. His father was born in Korsun. Ocheretianyi grew up with two brothers. His brother Chaim served in the Red Army and fought at the front during World War II. His uncle was the director of a kolkhoz in Ukraine. His brother Shloyme moved to Israel.
26:19
Ocheretianyi discusses his childhood memories and Jewish life in prewar Korsun. According to him, the synagogue was closed down before the war. Ocheretianyi refers to postwar prayer services in private homes. He then talks about his observant father.
51:42
Ocheretianyi answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. He then talks about life today and his family in Israel, as well as Jewish life in prewar Korsun.
59:56
Ocheretianyi talks about his uncle, who was the director of a kolkhoz before the war and his fate during the war.
MDV 544Mikhail Zakharovich Ocheretianyi; Samuil (Shmiel) Borisovich BelobrovKorsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyy, 2005
0:00
The first part of the tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Mikhail Zakharovich Ocheretianyi. Ocheretianyi talks about prewar Jewish life and addresses the synagogues. He then describes childhood games and talks about the observance of his father, who was imprisoned before the Revolution.
10:01
The second part of the tape is a formal interview with Samuil (Shmiel) Borisovich Belobrov, born 1929 in Korsun. Belobrov provides personal information and talks about his family. He also briefly addresses the history of his house, built in 1897. Belobrov’s father, a tailor, was born in Boryslav and his mother in Shpola.
14:41
Belobrov discusses his childhood memories. He attended a Ukrainian school for five years. He then talks about his family. He grew up with two brothers. His brother Peisye, born in 1938, died in evacuation in the Kazakhstan. Belobrov’s other brother Meylekh, born 1931, lives in Vladikavkaz, Russia. Belobrov’s grandparents and uncle were killed during the war.
19:23
Belobrov talks about his life and work after the war. His father was drafted into the Red Army in 1941 and returned to Korsun before his family arrived from Kemerovo.
30:24
Belobrov answers a series of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire and addresses food customs. An unnamed woman talks in Russian about her family. Belobrov also compares a “dorf” (village) and a “shtetl” (market town).
7:55
The formal part of the interview begins. Kislinskaia provides personal information and talks about her family. Part of her mother’s family lives in America and supported Kislinskaia’s family before the war. In particular, Kislinskaia talks about sewing machine sent by her uncle from America. Her father passed away when Kislinskaia was nine years old. Kislinskaia raised a daughter in whose house the interview is recorded and where Kislinskia moved back in after the war.
11:51
Kislinskaia discusses childhood memories and Sabbath celebrations. She remembers a neighbor, who provided soup for her family on Sabbath. Kislinskaia attended a Yiddish school for seven years. After graduation, she helped out her mother, who worked in a button factory.
14:34
Kislinskaia talks about life today and neighbors. She then talks about her family and life after the war. She grew up with two brothers, one of whom lives in Israel. After the war, Kislinskaia returned home and lived in her prewar home. She then moved into a house next-door that her son-in-law built. Her father was a cobbler.
25:13
Kislinskaia discusses her childhood memories and prewar Jewish life. She recalls the poverty in her family. She then talks about her life during the war, when her family evacuated. Kislinskaia describes how they evacuated and lived in evacuation:I was 17 years old when the war broke out. And my brother was 15 years old. When the war broke out we were walking to the train station. What could have possibly taken with us?! Nothing. To put on some clothes. We couldn't even take a pillow because it would have been too heavy to carry. It was five kilometers away. [...] We needed to walk five kilometers there. When we arrived there and the rail car was standing there, in which we should... We were sitting down and they would take us. Where to and when and with whom we didn't know. The money for the amount of work we did wouldn't be paid off. Everybody would take their own and we tried to get out. We were passing through quite a few stations and then they would take us off the train and they would take us to a canteen and gave us something to eat. This is how we traveled for I don't remember how long. It was not a passenger train, but a freight train. [...] Then they would take us off the train and would set up for us to work in a kolkhoz. They gave us a cart with two bulls and they would take us to the kolkhoz. [The kolkhoz was] in the Rostov region. This is where we worked and there was a German kolkhoz. We would understand them a little what they talked about and they would understand us a little. Yet (mayn?) we spoke in Russian and not Yiddish. Then the Germans came when we had stayed there until winter. And then we had to continue to travel. They gave us the two bulls with the cart. [...] And it was still at this kolkhoz where there was someone with five children. Her husband was drafted for the war. She was sitting with the children and we had to walk by foot after the bulls. Here we were traveling and the German came toward us. So, we had to turn around, to continue on a different side. The bulls had no more strength to lead us. But we managed to escape. We arrived in ? where were sitting and sitting. Then they would give us a ship and we would travel. And we arrived in Shkalov. There the Germans wouldn't get there. There I worked, the brother worked and my mother worked. My mother was a janitor in the factory and my brother was taught to be a locksmith. And I would not struggle (?) in the factory. I left for Shkalov where they told me. I went to work in a ? factory. When I worked at a ?, I received products. I would receive flower with a piece of bread, a piece of soap - whatever one didn't need I received. And I lived where my mother was with my brother. We were there until the war was over.
38:09
Kislinskaia discusses her childhood memories. She specifically addresses the transition of artisans’ occupation, working from home to factories in the 1930s. She then talks about her family and prewar Jewish life. Her parents were born in Korsun. Her maternal grandmother worked as a shammeste (synagogue caretaker). She recalls how she went to the synagogue with her mother.
45:41
Kislinskaia discusses religious life after the war. She remembers a woman who held private services, which Kislinskaia’s mother attended. She also talks about her family in Israel.
4:53
Kislinskaia describes how to prepare gefilte fish. She then talks about her family and observance.
11:32
Kislinskaia describes a regular day at a Yiddish school. She then remembers observant Jews and talks about her grandfather.
MDV 548Tsili Davidovna Kislinskaia; Tsadik (Tsolik) Naumovich GroysmanKorsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyy, 2005
15:03
The third part of the tape includes a formal interview with Tsadik (Tsolik) Naumovich Groysman, born 1923 in Tarashcha. Groysman provides personal information and talks about prewar Jewish life in his hometown. In particular, he recalls how he attended synagogue with his father. Groysman then talks about his family. His parents were born in Tarashcha. His father, a watchmaker, descends from a family dynasty of watchmakers. Groysman’s father had four brothers, who were also watchmakers. His sister married a watchmaker. He grew up with two sisters. He also addresses his mother’s cooking. Groysman’s wife was also born in Tarashcha and he met her there before the war.
23:23
Groysman talks about his life after the war during the Soviet period. Although Groysman began to study at a medical institute before the war, studying ENT, he joined his father’s work due to his injuries. Groysman was promoted to foreman and does not recall antisemitism. Groysman moved to Korsun in 1952. Immediately after the war, Groysman took courses for massage therapy and worked in the same hospital, he recovered in from his war injuries. Groysman then moved to Alma Ata, where he joined his uncle working as a watchmaker. Groysman’s father joined the family in Alma Ata, but worked in a different shop. Groysman continues that after his father passed away, he joined the business his father used to work at. He then returned to Tarashcha to meet his former girlfriend, whom he married in 1944.
31:11
Groysman talks about his son’s circumcision in Kyiv after the war. His son was born in 1945. He then returns to his life during the war. In particular, he addresses how he started to believe in God during battle.
33:31
Groysman talks about his school education before the war. He attended a Yiddish school for seven years and finished his school education at a Ukrainian school. Groysman then recalls the farewell from his parents when he was drafted for his military service, as well as when he first met his parents after the war in Alma Ata.
38:50
Groysman talks about his education at a Yiddish school in Tarashcha. He then describes his family’s observance.
46:54
Groysman talks about his family today and then describes a regular day at a Yiddish school. He then shows a photograph of veterans.
6:23
Groysman talks about his family and traditional weddings.
0:00
Angelova addresses her family's fate during World War II. She describes how her immediate family was killed in a mass shooting Kotovsk (Yiddish: Birzule).
2:08
Angelova speaks about her family. She grew up three brothers and one sister. Angelova then talks about her life and evacuation during World War II. She also served in the Red Army during the war and worked as bookkeeper [in 00:04:45].
12:11
Angelova speaks about her life and education before the war. She attended a Ukrainian school. Angelova also returns to holiday celebration and her family.
21:27
Angelova speaks about her life after the war. She also addresses postwar Jewish life in Kotovsk. She worked as bookkeeper in the Krasnoyarsky district, Russia [00:22:00]. Angelova was married in 1965, which took place in Kotovsk. She also talks about her family. Angelova raised a son and a daughter.
30:26
The team concludes the formal part of the interview with Angelova. She also speaks about her family's life before the war.
3:56
The formal interview begins. Obodovskii and Leiderman provide personal information and talk about their family. Obodovskii's father was born in Rîbnița, Moldova, and his mother was born in the village Korytne.
6:45
Leiderman talks about prewar Jewish life in Pishchanka, as well as her family. Her father was born in Obodovka and was a laborer 9:58. Her mother was born in Sobolivka. Obodovskii also talks about his family and describes his parent's work on a kolkhoz near Kotovsk. His family moved to Kotovsk in 1939.
16:33
Leiderman talks about her family. Her mother was a homemaker and sewed. Obodovskii joins the conversation about his family and specifically recalls his grandfather.
23:45
Obodovskii talks about his family. He grew up with one sister and one brother, and his father died in combat in the Red Army. He then returns to his life in evacuation, as well as life in the immediately postwar period. Obodovskii states that his neighbor gave away his family's possessions and used their home, by cutting a doorway into the wall during the war. In 1959, Obodovskii's mother bought a house in the town's center. He then returns to discussing his family.
29:24
Leiderman talks about her family. She grew up with a brother and a sister. Leiderman then speaks about her life after the war. During the war, she worked in a military factory. Obodovskii and Leiderman then talk about how they met in 1962 and discuss the use of Yiddish at home.
35:54
Leiderman returns to talking about her family, as well as her life after the war. She worked at a bank for thirty-seven years. Obodovskii was a construction worker. They also address Jewish and non-Jewish relations.
39:51
Obodovskii talks about Yiddish songs, he heard in his family. He also talks about military achievements of his maternal uncle.
42:03
Obodovskii recalls a popular Yiddish drinking song. They then address life today, before Leiderman talks about her family. Leiderman also mentions their visits to Bershad.
48:58
Obodovskii speaks about prewar and postwar Jewish life in Kotovsk, as well his family. He recalls a small synagogue in 1944. They then address contemporary Jewish life and recall a kosher butcher after the war. Obodovskii also describes his work as construction worker.
28:30
The camera collects footage of the center, while the team meets members and an unidentified woman gives a tour of the center in Russian. The woman also talks about her family.
50:51
Family
8:18
Family.
4:11
Pensatii provides personal information. He moved to Kyiv from Odesa in 1934, before moving to Lviv in 1939. He then speaks about his family. Pensatii became an orphan in 1919. His father, who passed away in 1919, worked at a printing plant. Pensatii grew up with one brother, who died in Odesa in 1941.
45:25
Pensatii speaks about his father who was shot in 1919 by French soldiers. His older brother took care of him at an orphanage. Pensatii then addresses Yiddish literature.
10:56
Dorfman provides personal information and speaks about his family. He lived in Chişinău until World War II. Dorfman explains that his parents were imprisoned in 1940 under Soviet occupation. His mother was released in 1947 and imprisoned again in 1949 until 1957. She then lived in Lviv from 1953 through 1963. Dorfman's father was a laborer.
14:35
Dorfman talks about his education at a religious school (cheder), kindergarten and Tarbut school, which he attended four years. Dorfman states that he grew up in a Zionist home and his mother was a well-respected figure within the local Zionist environment. Dorfman was a member of Gordonia. He then speaks about the Soviet occupation in 1940.
17:39
Dorfman speaks about his family. He grew up with one sister, who was killed in the Chişinău ghetto.
22:59
Dorfman addresses his primary schooling at a Tarbut school. He then speaks about his parent's observance and recalls soldiers joining his family on holidays.
50:54
Dorfman addresses prewar Hasidic life, as well as local intellectual figures. He remembers Hasidic visitors at his grandmother's house.
44:08
Nisman shows family photographs, particularly her husbands'. Nisman's first husband was shot. She then speaks about her cultural activities today and also describes how she became aquainted with Dorfman. Nisman also shows a copy of Eliezer Steinberg's collection of poems. She states that she bought the book from his widow.
4:47
Nisman discusses her family. Her father was born in Raşcov, Moldova. Nisman grew up with five siblings. Her mother, however, gave birth to eight children.
7:42
Nisman mentions that she was imprisoned in the Chernivtsi ghetto and speaks about politics about ghetto imprisonment. Nisman explains how she saved her parents. Nisman then continues to talk about her siblings.
21:37
Nisman talks about postwar Jewish life in the region. She then discusses her childhood memories in an observant home, as well as her parents. Her father was a caretaker in a forest. Nisman recalls poverty at home. She also answers questions about cultural terminology.
3:14
Nisman talks about her first husband, who worked as accountant. She then speaks about her relationship with the writer Kubi Vol 4:20. Nisman then recites his last Yiddish poem and shows a fotograph of him. Nisman then lists prewar Yiddish writers of Chernivtsi.
17:51
The team concludes the formal interview with Nisman. She speaks about life today and her family. Nisman also answers questions about cultural terminology, before camera records family photographs. One of Nisman's daughters lives in Israel.
28:49
Leibel provides personal information. He then speaks about his family and mentions cousins who made aliyah in the 1930s. Leibel's father was a merchant and his mother helped him. Leibel's parents died in the Rivne ghetto.
32:50
Leibel speaks about his life before the war. He studied at an institute in Lviv in 1939. At the beginning of the war, he was drafted into the Red Army. Leibel then speaks about his family.
35:00
Leibel speaks about daily life in Rivne before the war. In particular, he remembers how his mother bathed him on Friday and local bookstores. Leibel also addresses his family. His father was a POW held by the Austrian army during World War I. Leibel grew up with two sisters. His parents were also born in Rivne.
2:48
Leibel talks about his family and observance. He then addresses the relationship between Jews and non-Jews before the war.
11:25
Leibel speaks about his education, particularly his private religious tutor, who studied with him in the evenings. He also addresses his parent's observance.
28:57
Dorfman speaks about his family, particularly his wife's biography. He raised a son and a daughter. Dorfman also addresses his Hebrew language skills.
5:48
The formal interview with Khonigsman begins. He provides personal information and speaks about his family. His father was a carpenter and his mother, a rabbi's daugther, was born in Ostrów Lubelski, Poland. His father was born in Lublin. Khonigsman grew up with a half-brother, who died in the Spanish Civil War. Khonigsman grew with another brother, as well as a sister. He then talks about his relatives in America, who sent his family money on holidays during the postwar Soviet era.
MDV 565Professor Iakov Samoilovich Khonigsman; Isaak (Itche, Itskhok-Avigdor) Moseevich MelerL'viv, 2003
34:09
The interview with Meler begins. They talk about a Torah scroll. He then speaks about his family, who did not survive the war. Meler was drafted into the Polish Army in 1940.
42:57
Meler provides personal information and talks about his life before the war. He was named after his mother's family, although he explains that at first his surname was Volf. His father's name was Samselik. Meler's family moved from Glina Navariya to Lviv in the early 1930s. He then describes prewar religious life in Glina Navariya. Meler has relatives in America.
49:43
Meler provides personal information. He speaks about name changes at the beginning of the Soviet occupation in 1939. Meler then talks about his family and talks about the move from his hometown to Lviv for economic reasons. Meler grew up with three sisters. He mentions that he went into a merchant apprenticeship at the age of fifteen.
54:37
Meler addresses prewar religious life in his hometown, particularly the synagogue and the local rebbe. According to him, approximately forty Jewish families lived in Glina Navariya. Meler then speaks about prewar occupational structure. His father and grandfather were kosher butchers.
0:00
Meler speaks about his family and childhood memories, particularly education. Meler explains how his mother paid for his religious school education with food. Meler then describes his work as apprentice and remembers poverty within his family.
11:42
Meler talks about his family. His father worked odd jobs, including with sausage dealer. Meler also speaks about prewar Jewish life, including occupational structure.
34:09
Meler speaks about prewar cultural life, including Zionist organizations that organized plays. Meler lists youth organizations, including HaNoar HaTzioni, Hashomer Hatzair and the Bund. Meler's step-brother made aliyah with a group of local halutzim. Meler then talks about local libraries.
53:50
Meler talks about his family and life today. His daughter married a non-Jew.
21:09
Dorfman speaks about his parents. His father died in a prison in Karagandy, Kazakhstan. Dorfman's mother was imprisoned for fifteen years along with his father. The camera continues to collect footage.
30:41
Brandler addresses his childhood memories and education. He attended religious school (cheder) at the age of three and recalls how his father emphasized religious education at home. Brandler then describes his teachers (melamdim) and his experience as student. Brandler's father passed away in 1934.
48:01
Brandler speaks about his education and family. He attended a Polish school for seven years. Brandler's father worked as egg packer and traveled to Germany often. Brandler explains how he wanted to become a baker and his parents suggested cobbler instead. Brandler completed a tinsmith apprenticeship. During the prewar Soviet period, Brandler learned to be a tractor driver in the village Pokhortsi (51:43), Sambir region. Brandler worked as instructor until 1941.
14:51
Brandler talks about his life after the war. He returned to Mostiska and then to Sudova Vyshny, joining his sister. Brandler then moved to Lviv, where he was trained at the municipal collection office. Brandler worked as supervisor in municipal offices in Peremyshlyany for thirty years. He then describes his work as tax collector during the Soviet era.
31:19
Brandler speaks about his family. He was married in 1948 and raised a son and a daugther, who passed away. Brandler moved from Peremyshlyany to Lviv in 2003, where his son lives.
51:55
Brandler speaks about his life before the war, particularly his cheder melamdim. He then speaks about his family. In particular, he addresses his father's obervance. Brandler's mother sold milk bottles to merchants for a living.
1:01:44
Brandler addresses a performance of the play "Dos groyse gevins" (the big prize) by Sholem Aleichem. His sister participated in the play.
0:00
Brandler answers questions about cultural terminology. He then speaks about his family and the their view on his sister's acting. Brandler's father was married twice. Brandler grew up with three half-siblings and four siblings.
21:04
Brandler speaks about his family, before addressing the occupational structure in prewar Mostiska. He also mentions a local fire, before talking about Jewish prewar press.
41:28
Leibel provides personal information. He also talks about prewar Jewish life in his hometown Rivne. Leibel also addresses his childhood memories and family. Leibel's father was a scrap dealer. Leibel attended a Polish school until 1939, before attending the university for two years.
57:16
Leibel speaks about his life after the war. He returned to Lviv and graduated from military school. Leibel then speaks about his family. He met his wife in 1948 and raised a son.
0:00
Leibel speaks about his family. He grew up with two sisters. Leibel also shares an episode from his childhood. Leibel's father was born in Rivne.
14:58
Leibel speaks about prewar press and then his family. In particular, he addresses his parent's work and recalls poverty.
16:15
Leibel talks about postwar community in Rivne, after his demobilization. He then addresses his father's observance, briefly touching upon the Polish school.
19:29
Leibel speaks about prewar Purim celebrations at the local Polish-Jewish secondary school and other organizations in town. Leibel describes how his father examined him on Sabbath.
25:53
Leibel addresses Sabbath food customs and celebrations at home before the war. He then speaks about his family.
29:06
Leibel answers questions about cultural terminology and speaks about his family. He then talks about prewar cultural life, particularly Yiddish theater performances and cinemas. Leibel describes how his school organized trips to the theater and recalls the play "The Dybbuk."
44:50
Leibel sings a song about Yidishkayt and suppression of religious life during the postwar Soviet period. Leibel then talks about prewar Yiddish culture and life in Rivne before the war. Leibel also remembers traditional weddings at the Lviv rebbe's home before the war. Leibel mentions that his father hired a musical instructor to teach him clarinet.
1:54
Diner provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was shot by the Bolsheviks in 1917. Diner was born in Skalat, but his family moved to Pidvolochysk shortly after his birth. Diner returned to Skalat after 1921.
7:34
Diner discusses his childhood memories and education. He attended a religious school (cheder) and then a Polish-Jewish school in Skalat. He also speaks about his family. Diner grew up with a sister and a brother. His mother passed away before he attended primary school. Leibel then lived in a orphanage in Skalat until he was twelve years old.
20:30
Diner talks about his life after the war and return to Lviv. He explains that his sister and brother did not return home. He also mentions his work at a military factory in Moscow for two years. Diner received military awards for his service. Diner got married twice and his first wife was Christian, whereas his second wife is Jewish. He raised one daughter.
32:27
Diner speaks about his life before the war. He was a member of the Zionist youth organization Gordonia. Diner's sister attended meetings at Hashomer Hatzair.
34:47
Diner addresses his time in the Red Army and antisemitism. He then speaks about his siblings' fate during the war.
11:42
Family and life today
15:58
Life after the war and family
36:00
Family and life before the war
12:53
Family
51:24
Serving in the army and family
2:09
Personal introduction and family
13:23
Family and life today
30:00
Origins of Yiddish name for town Sofievka and family
5:19
Personal introduction and family
12:50
Family and arrival of the Germans
21:28
Family and speaking Yiddish
24:19
Family and Jewish holidays
0:00
Kaplan expresses the view that Ukrainian Jews should care about their own history and laments how all the religious and scholarly Jewish leaders in today’s Ukraine are foreigners from USA and Israel rather than local Jews. Expanding on this point, Kaplan explains that organizations such as the Joint (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) and the Sochnut (The Jewish Agency for Israel) have unfairly encouraged post-Soviet Jews to leave the countries of their birth. He presents a series of reasons why he believes Jews in the former Soviet Union should not emigrate from their native lands: "I see it like this: one must not drive anyone away. In Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, indeed everywhere... Jews should still be living there because they have been living there for thousands of years already... so that Jewishness should be present throughout the world". Instead of making Jews leave their homes, states Kaplan, the Joint and other organizations should help them stay and maintain a good standard of living there. Kaplan further states his belief that if the leaders of these international Jewish organizations want to know the truth about Jewish life, they should come to the shtetlekh and smaller communities to see what happens there. Kaplan then details the activities of the town’s contemporary Jewish Sunday School, which is run by an educator from Vinnytsya who teaches Hebrew among other subjects. While Kaplan was born in 1933 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, his parents where born in smaller villages nearby. His mother Minikhe Velvls (who worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature) and her family came to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy from Ozaryntsi, a village 10km away. His father Duvid b”r Avrum (who worked as a soap maker) and his family came from Slydy. His paternal grandfather was “like a Rov” and was a bal-tfile (prayer leader) in his town’s synagogue. When the family moved to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy in 1924, this grandfather worked as a cantor. Kaplan takes great pride in his 30 years service in the army (starting in 1951) and is proud of the fact that his twin brother Lev/Leyb and grandchildren have also served. Kaplan grew up in a traditionally religious Jewish home, but did not learn in the local kheyder (religious school for boys), but with a melamed (private teacher) named Tseburskii for four years. From these lessons he learned numerous stories, how to pray, and how to read and write in Yiddish. While in the army, Kaplan says that he forgot how to read, write, and speak in Yiddish, only re-learning how to speak the language since returning to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy and working in the local Jewish community. His formal education was exclusively in Russian-language institutions.
28:35
The camera cuts to a formal interview with Tsilia Borisovna Khaiut, who was born in 1917 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Her father, a shoemaker known as Berl Adeser, was also born in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Khaiut’s mother Rukhl was born in Bessarabia, a fact which causes her to remark about the dialect difference between her Yiddish and that of Bessarabia, as well as the killing of Bessarabian Jews in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy during the war. Khaiut’s maternal grandparents and their family immigrated to the United States during the Tsarist era and she remembers how her mother used to receive dollars from them, with which they paid rent. When Soviets took power, Khaiut remarks, however, the official exchange rate made these remittances worthless and contact between these familial branches ceased. Khaiut had two sisters, Ester and Ronya, and a brother, Khoskl (who moved to Israel) all of whom have died. Khaiut also talks about her education in Soviet Yiddish schools and the traditionally religious life at home during her youth. Before beginning her formal education at ~4-5 years old, Khaiut studied with a melamed (private religious teacher) named Mendl. The melomdim were the very poorest people in the shtetl, and she tells a joke/anecdote about their poverty. Her first son (b. 1938, d. at age of 42) also learned with a rabbi. Khaiut has another son who still lives in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, as well as four grandchildren in Ashdod, Beer-Sheva and elsewhere. Khaiut shares her views of child-rearing and the difference between children today and in her youth. In her home as a child everything was done “Jewishly”. Khaiut discusses her marriage and family life, including the custom of taking off a bit of dough from the khale (challah) and burning it. She speaks about the curriculum of Soviet Yiddish schools, recalling for instance "Vi bisti geveyn ven dus gelt iz geveyn" (Where were you when there was money) as one of the songs they learned. In school she studied writers, such as Sholem Aleichem and Itsik Fefer, as well as sciences and mathematics, algebra and chemistry all in Yiddish. The interviewee also answers a series of questions related to linguistics and dialectology. During the war, Khaiut lived in the ghetto in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy and was transferred to a camp in Transnistria. She relates how she would dress as a Ukrainian woman and buy goods in the bazaar, taking off the yellow star that identified her as a Jew, but was nevertheless hit by a German on one of these outings. At this time, her husband was serving on the front with the Red Army. Khaiut also recalls a number of recipes of Shabes (Sabbath) foods, including: yukh (chicken soup), tsimes fasolyes (bean stew), kigel (casserole), and different kinds of fish. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, Ivano-Frankivs’k, Ashdod, Beer-Sheva.
4:20
She then demonstrates how to make gefilte fish, using a knife and newspaper. Khaiut also explains some aspects of pre-war Jewish life in the town, including how each profession had its own synagogue and brought in guest cantors from time to time. Khaiut remembers Sidi Tal’ and various Yiddish theater troupes that came to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy before the war, putting on plays such as Sholem Aleichem’s 200,000. After the war, Jewish artists, such as Iosif Kobzon, also visited the town. Professor Kerler asks the interviewee about how she dealt with the potential contradiction of attending a Soviet Yiddish school, while maintaining a religious practice at home. She states that it's a lie that they made fun of religion and/or religious people in the schools. Nevertheless, in the 1930s, Khaiut reports, many of the synagogues in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy were closed down. Khaiut then recalls several food and gaming customs associated with holidays, such as Shavuot, Chanukah, Purim, Passover, Sukkot and Yom Kippur. Khaiut can still read in Yiddish, and even reads Professor Kerler’s interview notes out loud. Her son Sema understands and speaks some Yiddish. Khaiut then shares some Yiddish idioms and sayings. Both of her sons are circumcised. When her second son was born in 1946, she got a moyl (mohel) from Chernivtsi to come and circumcise him. The interviewee also answers a series of questions related to linguistics and dialectology. Khaiut also talks in detail about her own pre-war Jewish wedding, which featured Jewish klezmorim led by “Moyshele der Puker mit der Muzike” (Moshe the drummer with the music). At her wedding, as at others, there was a chuppah, and the bride circled the groom accompanied by her parents. Berl Sanver presided over the occasion as a kind of master of ceremonies/badkhn, and spoke with rhymes and songs. Khaiut also shares more of her linguistic knowledge as well as recipes for tsimes (stew) and fludn (dessert).
43:18
Khaiut gives the team samples of her homemade rose jam, all the while sharing more of her profound knowledge of culinary customs and recipes. The interviewee also remembers folk remedies from babkes (folk healers). Khaiut then shares her romantic history with her husband, who was in fact her second suitor. Her husband Khayem had received a Moscow residency permit, but after three years writing letters back and forth with Khaiut, he returned to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy to marry her in 1937. Khaiut then shows old photos of her and her husband. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, Chernivtsi
0:14
The camera then cuts to a formal interview with Abram Davidovich Kaplan, born 2 May, 1933 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Kaplan begins this interview sharing much of the information about his parents and siblings that he gave in his first interview. His twin brother Leyb/Lev has lived in Germany for the past seven years, where his wife was stabbed to death by a Rom (Gypsy). His youth was marked by poverty and a strict, disciplined upbringing “like Tsar Nicholas”, i.e. very strict.
10:07
Kaplan remembers the deported Bukovina, Bessarabian and Hungarian [sic] Jews that were sent to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy during the war. Kaplan also describes how the Russian school had two classes set aside for children who grew up in Yiddish-speaking homes and didn’t know Russian, and so studied in Yiddish, Ukrainian and Russian, only later being integrated into the mainstream Russian school system after seventh grade. Kaplan himself did not enter school until after the war (he was supposed to enter in Sept. 1941, but could not attend as hostilities had already broken out by then). Kaplan also discusses synagogues in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy both before and after the war. His mother was, as he says, “more frum (religious) than necessary” and fasted every Wednesday and Thursday. She died in his arms as soon as he returned from the army.
19:08
His father worked as a soap-maker and a cantor in one of the town’s synagogues. Kaplan relates shabes (Sabbath) customs from before and after the war, detailing, for example, how his mother sometimes employed a shabes goy. During the war, Kaplan was in different camps in Transnistria, and tells the story of how his family escaped and returned to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy in 1942, all the time hidden and cared for by non-Jewish neighbors. Kaplan notes that many Jews collaborated with the Germans and Romanians, forming special Jewish police battalions, and relates the story of the sinking of a ship of Jewish orphans who had supposedly bought freedom off the coast of Constanta, Romania. Kaplan also speaks about contemporary war memorials and ceremonies, as well as ties to landslayt (former town residents) from abroad and the post-Soviet revival of Jewish life led by Sobol [late husband of interviewee Maria (Molke) Iosipovna Sobol (née Cioban)]. Kaplan then sings a fragment from the song "Shik mir a shtral" (Send Me a Ray (of Sunlight)). Kaplan also speaks about the different sections of the Jewish cemetery, how holidays were celebrated sometimes in secret before/after the war and answers some questions related to linguistics and Yiddish dialects. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, Kozenits, Ozaryntsi, Pechera, Constanta, Bucharest.
MDV 586Mikhel-Shmiel (Misha) Gilevich Leger; Berta (Betya) Aronovna VaisburdMohyliv-Podil's'kyy, 2005
0:30
The next part of the tape consists of a formal interview with Mikhel-Shmiel (Misha) Gilevich Leger (b. 1935). He is officially registered, i.e. legally named “Mikhel-Shmiel”, although Misha is his nickname. His father Gilel worked as an accountant/bookkeeper, while his mother Faye worked as a nurse. He was born in Feburary 1935 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Leger claims to have learned to speak Yiddish in the wartime ghetto, because before that his family spoke to him only in Russian. During the war, his father was on the front, while he and his mother tried to escape to the nearby village of Chernivtsi (Kleyn Tshernovits), but Germans had already captured it. Leger recalls how his mother gave birth to a stillborn daughter in that town. After a few months there, his father found them there, and they all went back to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, ending up in the ghetto. With upwards of 30-40 people living in one room in the ghetto— including Bukovinan and Bessarabian Jews— there was great fear of a typhus outbreak and so Leger was moved with a cousin into another house with fewer people. The children would hide when the Romanians and Germans would come rounding up Jews for work, but his parents had to labor. After the war, Leger continued to speak Yiddish with his parents and other children. The interviewee also describes his Russian-language schooling and how, although he is illiterate in Yiddish, he is now trying to learn how to read Hebrew characters. Leger reminisces about traditional celebrations of holidays such as Passover and Simkhes Toyre (Simchat Torah) (audio problems: 13:50-14:01; 14:09-14:12). At the conclusion of the interview, Leger addresses post-war and contemporary Jewish life in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. In the Soviet period, according to Leger, prayer was legal and took place in private homes, but only older people went to services since most people were afraid of the consequences. His father, for example, would go only on yortsaytn (commemoration of a relative's death). Today, in Leger’s estimation, there are 300 Jews in the town, a figure which includes families of mixed backgrounds
24:39
The rest of this tape consists of a formal interview with Berta (Betya) Aronovna Vaisburd, who was born in 1931 in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. While her father, Arn, a factory worker, was born in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, her mother Gitl was born in a very small village nearby. Without siblings, Vaisburd is an only child. During the war, Vaisburd was in the Pechera camp along with her mother, aunt, paternal grandmother Reyzl, and cousin, the latter of whom was in charge of burying the camp’s dead in the forest. One night in 1942, this cousin smuggled Vaisburd, her mother and her aunt (her grandmother had died in the camp earlier) in a wagon generally used for carrying corpses. At first, the family hid in Sharhorod, and then returned to Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, where they squatted in abandoned houses, and then were sheltered in a cellar by a Christian neighbor who knew Vaisburd’s mother from her village. Although this cellar was used as common storage by many families, Vaisburd and her relatives were never given up. Eventually, Vaisburd’s mother and aunt found an abandoned one-room house, where they and seven other kids lived until the war’s end. Vaisburd remembers in particular going to the local Russian market in disguise in order to buy food. Vaisburd also shares her few memories of the Pechera camp experiences, such as when people were shot for trying to get drinking water from the river. Vaisburd then turns to the pre-war period, describing her grandmother, and the different foods she would make for shabes. Before the war, Vaisburd’s family raised geese, a multi-purpose affair she describes in detail. She also shares her family’s recipe for gefilte fish. Her paternal grandfather died on the way to America. After the war, Vaisburd studied in Tashkent, where she married a non-Jew. She has two daughters, one of whom lives in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, and another in Israel; her grandchildren live in Canada. Vaisburd also recalls her mother’s folk remedies against the evil eye and the one pre-war Jewish wedding she attended, the most memorable aspects of which were the food, her mother’s relatives and the klezmorim. Throughout the latter part of the interview, Vaisburd also answers the research team’s questions related to linguistics and dialectology. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy, Chernivtsi (city), Chernivtsi (Kleyn Tshernovits), Nemie, Pechera, Sharhorod, Murafa, Tashkent, Beit She’an.
0:00
The first part of the tape includes a continuation of a formal interview, recorded in Solotvyno with Dora Abramovna Fiksler, born in 1924 in Solotvyno. Fiksler makes a number of phone calls, before they go inside to talk about Fiksler’s library, which includes prayer books. Fiksler then shows photographs of her family. Fiksler briefly talks about religious life before the war.
12:01
Fiksler’s son Iakob arrives. He provides biographical information and talks about his family. Iakob was born in Uzhhorod. He then talks about life today.
29:37
Fiksler discusses the last two years of World War II. She explains that she was forced to live in a ghetto in 1944, before she was taken to Birkenau. She was then deported to Austria and worked in a factory. She was liberated by the Americans in Austria. Fiksler then talks about her life after the war, and her search for surviving family members.
50:57
The team travels to the next interview with Hershel Ylyevich Vider in Mukacheve. After they enter his apartment, the team sets up the formal interview with Vider, born in Mukacheve in 1922. He provides personal information and talks about his family. His three brothers moved to Canada after the war. Vider then sings a Hasidic song in Hungarian, before he talks about Jewish life in Mukacheve today. Vider laments that Yiddish is not passed on to the next generation.
58:55
Vider recalls prewar Jewish life in his home town. He attended religious school (cheder). At home, he spoke Yiddish with his grandparents and Hungarian with his parents. Vider then talks about his family. His father served in the Austro-Hungarian army.
0:00
Vider talks about his family and prewar Jewish life. Vider’s daughter lives in Hungary and his son is a Canadian citizen. His father was born in Sighetu Marma?iei. Vider recalls the wedding of Eluzer Spira’s daughter in 1934, as well as the rebbe’s funeral. He then talks about religious life today, praying in Russian. According to Vider, people called prewar Mukacheve “little Jerusalem.” He claims that even half of the non-Jews in the city spoke Yiddish. Vider explains that the former director of the local Hebrew school, Dr. Haim Kugel, became the mayor of Kholoniv after the war.
30:10
Vider talks about Frume’s (Spira’s daughter) wedding. He also sings Yiddish songs. He then talks about his family. Vider put up a canopy for his wedding in 1949. His son was circumcised in 1955. He then shows a book on the Holocaust of the Transcarpathian region and other illustrated books about Mukacheve. Vider then talks about food customs and shows a video of a relative, playing music.
50:08
Vider talks about his family, in particular his great-grandmother Zisl Berger. He then describes the folk custom “leshn koyln,” before recalling prewar Hasidic life.
56:35
Vider talks about his life during World War II. He was imprisoned in the Vorkuta gulag (building railroads) from 1940 to 1946, accused of spying. His brother Mendl hid in Budapest and his other brother Moyshe served in the Czechoslovak army during the war. Vider then talks about his family, in particular his children.
55:21
Vider talks about his experience at the Vorkuta gulag. Vider worked ten to twelve hours a day of hard labor building the railroad tracks from Pechera to Vorkuta. Vider then talks about his family and childhood memories. His father was a commission merchant for two retail companies (metal and colonial goods) from Prague. Vider explains how well-off his family was because they owned a telephone.
0:00
The first part of the tape is the continuation of a formal interview with Hershel Ylyevich Vider, recorded in Mukacheve. Vider talks about his childhood memories and his family. Vider then discusses prewar Jewish life, in particular his political activity. He describes how he joined the Betar movement.
25:39
Nayman talks about his education at a yeshiva in Korsun, together with 300 other students. He studied with the rebbe of Mukacheve, Chaim Elazar Spira , until the age of eighteen. He then provides personal information and talks about his family.
31:18
Nayman talks about his childhood memories of Klyachanovo (Yiddish: Klitshanif), where eighty Jewish families resided. He attended religious school (cheder) until the age of thirteen. Nayman then recites prayers. His parents farmed land and owned six cows. They produced butter and cheese and distributed it among the surrounding villages. Nayman helped out his parents. He then talks about his yeshiva education and recites prayers.
54:44
Nayman talks about his childhood memories and his family. He grew up with four siblings. His parents produced kosher wine. He then recalls different holiday prayers.
23:37
Nayman talks about his childhood memories and his family, in particular his father taking care of the cattle. He remembers different folk customs. Nayman then recalls the prayer books he studied with in cheder. He then recites prayers.
38:02
Nayman talks about his family, in particular his father. Nayman helped his father carrying food items. He then talks about contemporary religious life.
20:56
Nayman talks about his return after the war and his family. He then discusses his life during the war. He was taken for forced labor in 1942.
12:22
The second part of the tape consists of the continuation of a formal interview with Hershel Ylyevich Vider, recorded Mukacheve. Vider shows a number of photographs: family, a postcard from the synagogue of Mukacheve, Frume’s (daughter of Haim-Elazar Shapiro) wedding, Mukacheve ghetto, Hebrew school, and Haim-Elazar Shapiro. He then shows several documents and newspapers.
24:38
Vider talks about his life after the war, when he returned from the Vorkuta gulag. He explains that initially, he was not allowed to return to Mukacheve, because Vider was told that it did not belong to the Soviet Union then. Vider was sent to Nadvirna. When the war broke out he was sent to prison in Nadvirna, before he was sent further to the Vorkuta gulag. Vider continues that upon arrival in Mukacheve he did not find his parents or relatives and stayed with a friend. He worked several odd jobs before settling for the mineral water facility in Svalyava, where he remained for twenty-three years as chief of a department. He explains that he could not become director of the factory without a party membership.
49:34
Snook discusses her family and Jewish life in her home town of roughly sixty families. Her father transported items with his horse. Snook grew up with five siblings, who were all killed in 1943 in Poland.
54:58
Snook talks about Jewish life today, before she continues talking about her family. Snook got married at 17 and lived in Drahovo for forty years. In 1971, she moved to Khust with her family, where there was a more active religious community.
0:00
Pasik provides personal information and talks about her family. Her mother was born in the Jewish agricultural colony Efingar, located in the village Plyushchevka, Bashtanka region, Mykolayivsk district. Her father was born in the village Dobre. After Pasik was born, her family moved to the Efingar colony to escape the Great Hunger in 1932/33. They lived there until the outbreak of World War II in 1941.
2:44
Pasik talks about her life during World War II. She evacuated eastward, where she spent nearly two years in the Saratov and then another two years in the Stalingrad district. They returned to the village Plyushchevka in 1944. She then talks about her life after the war and her family. Her brother was born after the war and now lives in Israel. Pasik’s brother was six months and her younger sister seven years old when their father died. She explains that the neighbors helped out her family and therefore avoided that the children were given into an orphanage. Her family lived in Plyushchevka until 1965 and then moved to Mykolayiv. Her younger sister and brother got married in Mykolayiv. Her brother immigrated to Israel in the 1970s. Pasik recalls how her brother supported her family by sending money from Israel.
6:43
Pasik talks about her childhood memories in the Efingar agricultural colony and her family. In the village were two kolkhozy, where Ukrainians and Germans lived as well. The name of the kolkhoz her family worked at was called Rakoshe and Molotov was the name of the kolkhoz her maternal uncle worked at. He had a leading position in Molotov. According to Pasik’s mother, there were three active synagogues before Pasik was born. During her childhood, only one synagogue was officially open in both kolkhozy. Non-Jewish students also attended the local Yiddish school.
9:17
Pasik discusses Jewish holidays and food customs, in particular Passover. She then talks about her family. Pasik’s mother worked on the kolkhoz after the war.
15:18
Pasik talks about her life during the war in evacuation. She explains how eleven family members evacuated on a horse and wagon and travelled for three months. They then took the train to Saratov, Russia. Before moving on to the Stalingrad region, her family stayed in Saratov for approximately one year.
19:55
Pasik discusses her childhood memories and life after the war. Pasik, unlike her siblings, does not have any formal schooling and worked on the 21:40 kolkhoz, which became Russian after the war. Pasik talks about the different kinds of work she did on the kolkhoz and life after retirement, including her family.
27:41
Pasik discusses prewar cultural life, in particular cinema and theater. She then talks about her family, in particular her uncle, before moving on to contemporary life.
46:51
Pasik discusses prewar Yiddish culture. She remembers translators at Yiddish theater plays for the Russian-speaking audience. Pasik then talks about prewar religious life on the kolkhoz and mentions traditional weddings, before talking about her family.
52:29
Pasik talks about her life during the war in evacuation. Her family lived on the 52:35 kolkhoz in the Khvalynsk district, Saratov region, Russia, for one year, before moving on to the Stalingrad region.
53:09
Pasik talks about Jewish life in Mykolayiv, where she moved to in 1965. Her mother’s father-in-law worked as a kosher butcher in the 1960s. Pasik’s sister mentions how her family acquired matzos after the war. Pasik then discusses faith and her best moments in life. She also addresses contemporary Jewish life and episodes about prewar antisemitism.
10:45
Endelshtein talks about his family. After Endelshtein was released from his military service in 1945, he returned to his hometown and reunited with his grandmother. He also addresses contemporary Jewish life in Mykolayiv. His mother was a nurse and his father a clerk.
25:32
Endelshtein talks about his family, in particular his grandfather, and addresses prewar religious life. He recalls how he attended the New Synagogue. Endelshtein then discusses holiday celebrations at home, including Passover with singing. He sings the beginning of Chad Gadya.
31:38
Endelshtein talks about his family. His mother’s family lived in Odessa. He then discusses his childhood memories and recalls the beginnings of Romanian fascist rule. Endelshtein describes how he and his classmates had to go to the barber, who shaved a cross on their head. Endelsthein describes the population structure, consisting of Jews, Bulgarians (the majority), Romanians, Moldavians, and Roma. He studied with Bulgarian students at a Romanian school and addresses the positive relationship among the students. He remembers non-Jews who spoke Yiddish.
52:16
Endelshtein recites the Morning Prayer and describes religious customs among his family before the war. He mentions how he continued to say the prayer during his military service.
0:00
Endelshtein talks about his family after World War II, when he returned from his military service in 1945. He was involved in the memorialization of Jews who were killed in the synagogue and mass shootings during the war.
21:32
Endelshtein talks about his life after the war. He reunited with his mother in Dnepropetrovsk at the hospital. Endelshtein studied at the Moscow Institute for Folk 22:17, which he finished in 1950. During and after his studies, Endelshtein worked at a bank. He was the 22:50 of a bank for 64 years in Voznesenski, Russia.
32:12
Endelshtein talks about his family and prewar Jewish life Bolgrad, in particular halutzim. He grew up as an only child. Endelshtein also mentions meeting a Jewish girl, who gave him a prayer book. The girl took the book from her grandmother after a mass shooting.
39:19
Endelshtein talks about his family and life after he moved to Mykolayiv in 1980. He raised two daughters, one of whom lives in Israel.
0:34
The formal part of the interview begins. Tzentziper provides personal information and talks about the Jewish agricultural colony in Dobroye, where he was born. Jews worked together with a minority of Germans and Russians. He distinguishes the colony as the place to live and the kolkhoz as the place to work. His family lived in Dobroye until 1940, when his father received a work assignment in Mykolayiv. He grew up with one brother.
4:10
Tzentziper talks about his life during the war. He evacuated and his father was drafted into the Red Army at the beginning of the war. While Tzentziper was also drafted soon after his father, his mother and brother evacuated to Kazakhstan. He then talks about his family. His father worked as ware loader and was born in Dobroye. His mother was born in Dobroye as well.
12:56
Tzentziper talks about life today, before he discusses his family.
21:02
Tzentziper talks about his life after his army service. He explains how he had to return home to help his severely injured father, despite the offer of prolonging his service. In recognition of his service, he was able to choose his work and before retirement he worked in the 21:45 factory. There he was the chief administrator of a department.
0:00
Tzentziper sings a Yiddish song about longing for the years of youth. He then talks about his family and religious tradition, before he sings the song again. He then sings another song from his childhood about a rebbe meeting a girl.
18:06
Tzentziper talks about life today. He then addresses his life during the war, in particular his wedding in Kazakhstan in 1942. He evacuated with his wife, before drafted into the Red Army. Tzentziper then discusses his family. He grew up with two brothers, one of whom immigrated to America.
23:20
Tzentziper talks about his life after the war and his family. He raised a daughter and a son. His grandchildren live in Israel.
0:00
The first brief part of the tape includes an informal chat on the street with Mark Borisovich Lipkovich. Lipkovich talks about his family and mentions that he only spoke Yiddish with his grandmother.
1:15
The second part of the tape is a formal interview with Mikhail (Meyshe) Vladimirovich Kenin, born 1921 in Nizhyn. Kenin talks about his family and life today. He then provides personal information.
4:14
Kenin talks about his family. His parents and grandparents were all born in Nizhyn. His father was a leather worker. Her mother was a homemaker, but learned tailoring skills from her father. Kenin grew up as an only child.
10:45
Kenin talks about his life after the war, supporting his parents. As a factory worker, he worked at a machine plant for thirty years.
34:31
Kenin talks about holiday celebration, in particular Passover. His family requested matzos at a bakery. He then talks about contemporary Jewish life and his family. He raised a daughter, who lives in Israel.
9:00
The second part of the tape includes town footage of Nizhyn. The team talks in Russian to neighbors on the street about contemporary life and family.
17:16
The third part of the tape is a formal interview with Naum Ilyevich Masovich, recorded in Chernihiv. The team plans the interview with Masovich, born 1926 in Nizhyn. He briefly talks about his family. His father, an undertaker, was born in Nizhyn.
21:34
Masovich shows family photographs and talks about his father.
23:13
The formal interview with Masovich begins. He provides personal information and talks about his family, including his father’s work as undertaker in Nizhyn. He also talks about his life before the war. His family left the town in 1941 and went into evacuation to Saratov, Russia.
30:13
Masovich talks about his life after the war. His family lived in a communal apartment and shared the kitchen with two Christian families. He then talks about his family. He grew up with a brother, who was killed during the war.
33:59
Masovich sings songs about a tailor’s work and shares more information about his family. He learned the songs from his father. He also discusses his childhood memories, including games.
44:52
Masovich talks about his family. He then discusses Sabbath celebrations at home, as well as Yiddish dialects.
0:00
The team sets up the formal interview with Trachtenberg and walks toward his home. He briefly talks about his during the war, when he was imprisoned in the Mykolayiv ghetto. He then addresses prewar Jewish life in Novoseltsy with approximately 10,000 people. He then talks about his family and provides personal information. He raised two sons, one of whom lives in Israel.
4:58
The formal part of the interview begins. Trachtenberg talks about contemporary Jewish life and provides personal information. He also talks about his family and life during the World War II. His father was a leatherworker. His mother raised two sons and two daughters. Trachtenberg maintains that approximately one thousand Jews were shot by Germans, Romanians, Italians, and Hungarians on 25th June, 1941.
15:59
Trachtenberg talks about his school education. He then talks about his life during the war, in particular in Mykolayiv and the Bershad ghetto. In particular, Trachtenberg addresses the Mykolayiv massacre, where 939 Jews were shot. After the shooting, Trachtenberg and his family assembled to be taken to the Kosharyntsi ghetto, where they were imprisoned until 1943. In 1943, Trachtenberg was taken to the Mykolayiv concentration camp, where he was later liberated in 1944. He recalls that mainly Jewish boys from different place in Ukraine were imprisoned in the concentration camp and sent to forced labor.
26:57
Trachtenberg describes how he met his wife when they were childhood friends. He reunited with her in 1955 after his return to Novoseltsy. He then talks about his sons.
32:16
Trachtenberg talks about prewar Jewish life, including the different synagogues. He then talks about the devastations of Novoseltsy after the war. Trachtenberg and his brother were the only surviving members of his family. He then describes living conditions in barns and barracks, located in the Kosharyntsi ghetto and the Mykolayiv concentration camp.
0:47
Family.
1:35
Personal introduction and family.
9:11
Family and life today.
15:26
Personal introduction and family.
23:51
Family.
28:25
Family.
1:33
The second part of the tape is a formal interview with Sima (Sima Ilinichna) Moiseyevna Listengurt in the town center of Odesa. She was born 1932 in Odesa. The team meets Listengurt on the street and sets up an interview with her. She talks about her life during the war. She evacuated to 01:58 Siberia. She then talks about her family. She then gives a tour of homes of well-known Jewish figures, including Hayim Nahman Bialik. She also talks about prewar Jewish life and continues showing buildings of the former Jewish neighborhood.
10:12
Listengurt talks about her childhood memories, living with other nationalities in one building. She then addresses her family. Her father was born in Voznesensk and her mother in Lyakhova. Her parents were both orphans and moved to Odesa in 1921. She grew up with an older sister who was a nurse at the front. Listengurt evacuated to Tashkent during the war. Listengurt continues the tour of the former Jewish neighborhood, explaining former buildings, including a tuberculosis treatment center and a Yiddish school. Listengurt also addresses her uncles’ encounter with Felix Dzerzhinsky in 1920.
35:28
The formal part of the interview begins. Listengurt talks about different periods of Jewish history in Odesa and party politics. She then talks about her family, in particular her sister.
42:51
Listengurt talks about her education, her family, and Yiddish literature.
51:46
Listengurt talks about her family and Jewish writers. She then talks about contemporary Jewish life and music.
56:23
Listengurt talks about her sister, who studied at the Odesa Medical Institute. She served as a nurse during the war returned home from Romania. She then talks about her life after evacuation in the Caucasus. Listengurt’s sister finished her medical studies after the war and worked as a doctor.
3:15
The first part of the formal interview with Medved, nee Chernousova, begins. She provides personal information and talks about her family. She worked as 3:55 for thirty years. She lived there for 43 years.
4:21
The camera cuts to the third part of the tape, which includes a formal interview with Alexander (Shure) Ilyich Cherner, born 1935 in Balta. Cherner provides personal information and talks about his family. He then talks about his grandfather who was a klezmer musician, as well as his own klezmer melodies. Cherner played the Fidl in klezmer bands.
14:05
Cherner talks about Yiddish culture, in particular theater, after World War II. He then talks about his work. He moved to Kharkiv and worked at a factory as turner and locksmith. After the war, Cherner lived in Balta until 1952 and moved to Odesa in 1961. He then talks about his family.
26:11
Cherner discusses holiday celebrations and recalls the local kosher butcher after the war. He then answers questions about cultural terminology and talks about his family. Cherner was imprisoned in the Balta ghetto.
37:31
Cherner talks about his family and holiday celebrations, as well as touching upon food customs. He then talks about prewar Jewish life.
47:13
Cherner talks about his life during the war, when he was imprisoned in the Balta ghetto. Cherner’s family lived at a neighbor’s house. He recalls Jews from different regions, including Bessarabia and Romania. Cherner talks about the shooting of his uncle, who was locked with other people in a room at the train station.
54:35
Cherner discusses Yiddish dialects. He then talks about his family. His mother was born in Balta and his father in Odesa.
56:48
Cherner talks about the song he sings at his mother’s grave. He then talks about the song “Yerushalayim” he wrote the melody for in Israel.
0:00
Medved provides personal information. She talks about life today and her family. Her father worked as 5:15 until the war and was killed fighting in the Red Army. She describes how her father perished.
10:31
Medved talks about her life before the war. She moved to Odesa in 1932. She then discusses childhood memories. When she was five years old, her family moved to Bershad due to her father’s work assignment. Medved also addresses her grandfather’s work as a textile merchant.
13:47
Medved recalls how her father sang in Russian. She also remembers Yiddish tailor songs, she heard during her childhood. Medved then talks about her family, in particular her grandfather.
17:25
Medved talks about her childhood memories in Bershad. She grew up with two siblings. She also addresses the Great Hunger of 1932/33. Medved then talks about her life during the war in evacuation. Her family worked on a kolkhoz.
30:16
Medved talks about her family, in particular her mother. She recalls sayings from her mother.
46:44
Medved talks about her Tatar childhood friend, as well as her family and friends. She raised two children.
50:55
Medved tells an anecdote that takes place at a cinema in Odesa. She then talks about her family and learning the Yiddish language. Medved then talks prewar Yiddish cultural life and Yiddish schools. Her father participated in the local Yiddish theater in Horodkivka. Medved lists several theater pieces and recalls a performance by Clara Young at a summer theater in Leninogorsk in 1943. She also remembers performance by Anna Guzik in Makhachkala in the 1960s.
16:30
Medved addresses her mother’s cooking before the war. She then talks about prewar trial about Jewish slaughter customs.
19:27
Medved talks about prewar Jewish life, in particular her father’s religiosity. She then talks about her family and her work as a port dispatcher.
6:57
Tokar provides personal information and talks about his family. In particular, he talks about his grandfather. His father served in the Imperial Russian Army and participated in revolutionary activities in 1905. His grandfather dressed him in girl’s clothing and sent him to Paris in order to evade punishment. He returned after two years and then served in the army during World War I, where he spent time in German captivity in Germany. His father’s profession was a painter, but he later owned a convenience goods store.
24:17
Tokar talks about his life during the war. He states that his parents and sister were shot on May 9, 1942. He then discusses prewar Jewish life in Zheludok and neighboring towns, including educational and political institutions, as well as sports clubs (Tarbut school, Poale Zion, Hashomer Hatzair, Mizrakhi, Algemeyne Tsiyonistn, Betar, Kholes Hatzair). He recalls enmities between Yiddishists and Hebraists.
29:45
Tokar talks about his education at a Yiddish school and his father’s cultural engagement as a school board member.
37:17
Tokar talks about his life after the war. Since he could not find work in his hometown Zheludok, he moved to Scucyn and got married there in 1954. In 1956, Tokar and his wife, a doctor, moved to Odesa, where his parents-in-law lived. He then talks about his wedding and his friends, who joined the partisans during the war and emigrated.
41:28
Tokar talks about his family. He raised a daughter who works as an accountant. He then talks about prewar cultural life, including libraries. He then talks about his contemporary work, leading a Yiddish language and history circle at the community center.
59:54
Tokar talks about his family, in particular his father. Tokar attended religious services on holidays with his father. His father was born in Zheludok.
6:32
Tokar talks about life today, before talking about his life after the war. He attended evening courses at a Construction Institute for six years. His wife worked as the doctor for the district.
13:15
Tokar talks about contemporary Jewish life in Odesa. He also talks about his wife.
26:04
Vainbrand talks about his life before the war. He moved to Murmansk, Russia, in 1935. He tells anecdotes about the Valedniker Tzaddik, Vainbrand remembers from his childhood. His father was also born in Valedniki.
30:40
Vainbrand talks prewar religious life at home. He then talks about his education at a Yiddish school and his family.
33:59
The formal part of the interview begins. Vainbrand provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was cobbler. He also shares his childhood memories. He grew up with three brothers.
45:25
Vainbrand reads from a prayer book and addresses prewar religious life in Valedniki taking place in different prayer houses. He remembers how his mother provided shelter for pilgrims, visiting the Tzaddik.
54:19
Vainbrand talks about his life during the war. He served in the Red Army for seven years until 1949 in the artillery division in Murmansk. He then talks about his education after school graduation and his family. He worked as an accountant. He raised a son and a daughter, who lives in America.
58:12
Vainbrand talks about prewar cultural life and his education. He attended a Yiddish school for seven years. He also addresses prewar holiday celebrations, in particular Simchat Torah and Passover. Vainbrand remembers how his mother baked matzos at home.
15:00
Vainbrand touches upon Yiddish literature. He then talks about his family, in particular his wife. He then talks about prewar life and recalls a non-Jewish boy who attended a Yiddish school. During the war, he became a police officer and worked as a translator for the Germans.
20:42
Vainbrand talks about his postwar wedding and his son’s circumcision.
24:53
Vainbrand talks about prewar Jewish life and how his family prepared for Sabbath. He then mentions his mother’s matzos baking. Vainbrand then talks about his family.
29:07
Vainbrand talks about visiting the rebbe’s grave in Valedniki and his life after the war. After Vainbrand returned from his military service, he joined his wife in Ovruch.
40:53
Vainbrand talks about prewar religious life, when pilgrims stayed at his home in Valedniki. He then talks about his family and mentions the Ukrainian police officer who attended a Yiddish school.
51:58
Vainbrand talks about his family and faith.
9:51
The Brodskys provide personal information and talk about their family. His parents and grandparents were born in Odesa.
13:30
Brodsky talks about his life during the war. He served in the Red Army for four years and fought at the Romanian front as tank driver and then part of the motorized infantry. He spent the remaining days of the war in Vienna, after moving through Hungary. Brodsky then provides personal information and talks about his family.
18:23
Brodsky talks about contemporary Jewish life and his family. They also address prewar holiday celebrations. Brodsky’s father was a manufacturer and his mother was a dressmaker, working from home.
31:45
Brodsky talks about his life before the war, in particular mentions Jewish kolkhozy. His school volunteered working on kolkhozy. He then talks about his family. He grew up with one brother, who died on the Leningrad front.
38:06
Brodsky talks about his wedding after the war and his family. He then discusses prewar food customs and holidays.
4:16
The formal interview begins. He speaks about his family. Lerner's daughter lives in Israel and his wife was also born in Ostroh. His father owned a shop and both of Lerner's parents were born in Ostroh. Lerner also has relatives in America.
35:59
The team greets Kipervaser and sets up the interview with her. She speaks about her family.
39:21
The formal part of the interview begins. She provides personal information and speaks about her family. Kipervaser's father, who worked at a Jewish kolkhoz, was born in Velykyy Pravutyn and her mother was also born in Berezdiv.
42:03
Kipervaser discusses prewar Jewish life, including holiday celebration, in Berezdiv. She also talks about her family, particularly her husband. Kipervaser met her husband at school in Berezdiv.
57:23
Kipervaser talks about her husband's family and fate during World War II. She then speaks about her and Jewish life in Slavuta after the war. She moved to Slavuta (Yiddish: Slovita) in 1944. Kipervaser then speaks about her daughter's education.
14:16
Family.
3:49
Family and religious school education.
5:25
Prewar life and family.
30:51
Family.
46:41
Father's death in 1919.
49:42
Life after the Revolution and family.
21:33
Father's religion and Volednicker tzaddik.
23:44
Region of Ovruch and family.
42:01
Best moments of life and family.
0:00
Religious life today and family.
16:53
Work and family.
43:45
Life after the war and today and family.
47:31
Family and reciting prayers.
4:59
Family and Yiddish-speakers in the region.
9:37
Volednicker rebbe and family.
13:54
Yiddish school and family stories during the Civil War.
47:02
Family and childhood memories.
58:27
Speaking Yiddish among family members.
20:39
Family.
30:01
Commemorating the dead and family.
34:35
Family.
49:57
Parents' wedding.
50:41
Father's return home in 1942.
56:40
Family photographs.
MDV 639Isaak Grigorievich Vainsheinboim; Moisei (Moyshe ben Zalmen) Zelmanovich Fish bRivne, Slavuta, 2003
48:17
The tape then switches to a formal interview (Part 1 of 2 See MDV 640) with Moisei (Moyshe ben Zalmen) Zelmanovich Fish b. March, 1922 in Rivne. He talks about how towns and villages in the area were heavily Jewish before the war, but most of his family was lost during the war. His son lives in Russia, near Finland. He can read and write in Yiddish.
51:52
Fish begins to discuss his family life in the pre-war era. His father was known as Zalmen der Miler (b. 1883 in Koloniya Olizarka) since he worked as a house-builder and brick-layer, a profession called miler in that region. Fish remembers his father being called to the Torah in synagogue as Zalmen ben Reb Shleyme-Khayim haLeyvi. His mother, Khaye, was born in 1887 in Zholuds’k, a nearby town. His parents moved to Rivne at the start of World War I in 1914. Since birthdays were not celebrated in his youth, he does recall the day his parents were born, but only the years. His mother worked as a balebuste and raised the family’s five children, of whom he was the youngest. His siblings included: Etl-Raytsl Gratsh (b. 1904), who was married to Pinkhes-Refuel, and with she had three children. The first of these children was named Berl (b. 1925) at birth, but as he was a sickly child, he was brought to the Rovner Ruv, who renamed him Alter [This short story is found at 00:58:42-00:59:32]. The other two children in this family were: Peretsl (b. 1935) and Gitele (b. 1941). This whole family was killed in the early years of World War II.
0:00
This tape begins in the middle of a formal interview with Moisei Zelmanovich Fish. He further describes his pre-war family life. His siblings further included: Mordkhe-Yoyne (b. 1909), who worked as a tailor. He was married to Rukhl (b. 1915); they had one child: Gitele (b. 1939). Fish had two more sisters: Genye-Leye (b. 1913), who married Ayzik Bednyi (b. 1912) (both killed); and Miryem (Mirl) (b. 1918), who married Berl Plotnik (b. 1910) seven days before Germans entered Poland. Fish states that he had approximately one hundred relatives before the war, but does not remember them all.
47:18
Fish then details the final years of the going through Belarus, Poland and Germany, where he was wounded in the leg by grenade shrapnel. He moved back to Rivne in 1946 and found a job as the head account in Restaurant Ukraine, where he worked until 1982. In 1946, Fish married a Jewish woman from Kalinindorf, one of the Joint-supported Soviet Jewish kolkhozy, where she attended a Yiddish school. Fish and his wife had three sons: the middle son lives in Russia, andthe others live in Rivne.
55:58
He describes the early post years in greater detail and tells about how he met his wife, Ida. They were quickly married in the ZAKS (Official Marriage Registration Bureau) then had a religious ceremony later.
1:00:14
Fish also reflects on how he and his wife prepared to immigrate to Israel, but could not go in the end because of his wife’s health.
0:19
The sound turns on. Fish describes old photographs of his family.
10:02
Kurliandchik’s father, Motl ben Zorekh, was born in 1886 in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy and died in 1933 during the Great Famine. He worked as a Yiddish language teacher and a bookkeeper.
14:11
His mother, Ruse Shlayen, was born in the village of Rogachëv in 1886. She was a housewife and took care of Kurliandchik and his three siblings: Boris, Basya and Yoylik.
18:32
Zorekh graduated from Yiddish School No. 1 in 1941. Yiddish School No. 2 was converted into a Russian-language school, he reports, because Jews wanted to send their children to Ukrainian/Russian-language schools. All his siblings studied to some extent in the Yiddish school. His sister worked as a telephone operator and his middle brother worked as a bookkeeper until they were both drafted into the army.
23:24
When his father died, he was the only one able to say kadish, because his other siblings were members of the Komsomol (Communist Youth League). His mother would not allow him to join the Komsomol, specifically so he could go to synagogue on his father’s yortsayt [anniversary of death] every year to say kadish and he followed her orders.
32:05
After the war, he returned to Novohrad-Volyns’kyy, where he found his eldest brother and his family; his other brother was killed during the war in Crimea in 1942.
47:29
After the war, Kurliandchik lived for 1.5 years in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy. He met his wife Hasia in Chernivtsi. He then talks about his children, who live in Ukraine and Israel.
50:31
On shabes, his mother would light candles and his father would go to synagogue. Kurliandchik’s grandfather was a rich merchant as he sold Judaica and other ritual objects. Kurliandchik’s older brother learned in a kheyder and knew Hebrew well.
7:20
Litvak speaks about life before the war, focusing on the hardships of the 1933 famine, during which her brother Leybl was born. She also recalls swimming in the river in the summertime.
17:34
Litvak still has many books in Yiddish, even though her husband did not speak Yiddish. She spoke Yiddish with her first son (b. 1950), who, she claims, has “not a drop of goyish in him”. He observes shabes (the Sabbath) and cares about Israel; “he has a Jewish heart".
20:32
Her father, Sheylik, was born in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy. He used to say that their family originally came from Spain and then to Lithuania. Litvak’s paternal grandfather, Yerikhem, was also born in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy.
22:25
Her father used to tell a story about the Russian Civil War in 1918: A soldier in Deniken’s army grabbed him by the river and tried to kill him, but another non-Jew intervened and saved his life.
23:14
Litvak’s father worked as a hat-maker and was sometimes paid in salt during the years of poverty.
24:24
Litvak’s family survived the famine intact because they were able to hold onto her grandmother’s savings from her work as folk-healer despite harassment by White Army soldiers during the Civil War.
27:10
Before the war, Litvak’s aunt moved to America, from where she would send the family five dollars a month. Litvak’s mother cut off communication, however, as new Soviet laws made this a dangerous activity. Litvak recalls how her mother had to sell her silver Passover dishes for oil and grains.
32:46
Litvak then describes the professions of her grandfather, father and brother who worked in a tannery, as a hat-maker and as a tailor respectively. Her mother was named Leyke and her maternal grandparents were Leybl and Etl the folkhealer. Her paternal grandmother, Malke, was killed during the war in the town of Romaniv along with many other family members. Her siblings were: Etl, Nume, Dvoyre (who died at four years old during the Famine), and Leybe (Leybl). She notes that this was not a big family for that time. Her mother worked occasionally, as a freelance seamstress, which was illegal under Soviet law.
1:00:06
Litvak then tells a story about how she was sick after she had given birth to her first son, and she could only speak in Yiddish, even though her husband did not understand her.
16:19
Litvak describes the conflict within her family during the postwar year when she decided to marry a non-Jewish man. Litvak herself, however, believes in G-d and that her marriage was bashert (destined). Thus, she has no regrets, despite the troubles. Her in-laws, she notes, always treated her well because her husband showed them that he loved her.
40:57
Litvak describes how her younger brother would ask the fir kashes (Four Questions) at the seyders.
55:22
Litvak explains how Jews always used to give nicknames to each other. Her father, for instance, was Sheylik der shvartser (Sheylik the Black/Dark) because of his and his family’s dark complexion. She then tells a few brief stories related to her family’s darker complexion, which her father said they had on account of their origins amongst the shvartse yidn (“black Jews”) of Spain.
59:55
Litvak recalls the Jewish baths in her town. Once a year, her mother took her to the mikve (ritual bath) that was attached to the regular Jewish baths.
13:30
Shteingart shares basic biographic information about himself and his immediate family. His father, Pinkhes, worked as a teacher of Yiddish and Hebrew in a private Yiddish-language school. His mother, Khane, was a balebuste (home-maker) who raised Itsik and his three sisters: Liza, Sonia, and Brukhe.
28:12
Shteingart describes his father's work, and how he learned how to read Yiddish at home from his father. He then continues with his description of pre-war Kovel’, a town with many non-Jews, Poles and Ukrainians, who spoke Yiddish. Shteingart also remembers the town’s various churches.
35:28
There were many youth groups in Kovel’ according to Shteingart. Although he did not participate in them, his sisters did and he remembers how Liza was a “farbrente” (“ardent”) Zionist.
10:19
She details the severe poverty of her childhood, but notes that it was nevertheless a happy time. Her father, Leybke worked with horses and died of typhus in 1919 when Khiterman was still young. Her mother, Khane, worked at home and as a cook. Khiterman had two younger brothers: Shaye and Shleyme.
15:25
Khiterman briefly talks about her family’s experience during the war. Her brothers were sent to the front, while she was evacuated to the Caucasus region.
18:43
Khiterman returns to the subject of pre-war life in Novohrad-Volyns’kyy, describing her work in the town bank, the early death of her husband, Gershon, in 1943, and how she raised their two sons by herself. Khiterman also talks about her sons’ later careers in the military and shows off photographs of her grandchildren.
24:40
Khiterman shares the few memories she has of her father from before his death.
25:18
Khiterman’s mother was a very pious woman [an erlekhe], but was frequently sick, and so the rabbi allowed her to eat on Yom Kippur. Khiterman tells other short stories about her mother and other family members from the pre-war period.
30:53
Khiterman shares her family’s gefilte fish recipe and comments on her mother’s cooking and baking.
34:22
Khiterman also speaks about her sons’ inability to speak Yiddish. Her older son does speak some Yiddish, but, Khiterman laughs, with a very strong accent. Before the war, according to Khiterman, there were many non-Jews who spoke Yiddish. She remembers one such person, Nikolai, who spoke the language particularly well.
37:42
Khiterman speaks about her and her family’s difficulties reconciling religious duties with the harsh realities of everyday living. On this topic, her grandfather Alter would say: “vos mir zaynen, zaynen mir, ober yidn zaynen mir” (What we are is what we are, but [in the end] we are Jews).
41:08
Khiterman's grandfather was descended from a family of cantors, and as such his family was very religious. They once went to Jerusalem, Khiterman reports, and brought back soil, which people would buy [for their burial plots] before they died.
42:08
Khiterman explains that “they didn’t have time to sing” in her childhood as people needed to work in order to survive. Khiterman further clarifies, saying how she had to raise her two younger brothers after her mother died.
45:03
Khiterman describes how the children in her family celebrated Passover with a seder led by her grandfather Alter. This same grandfather would bake matzo for the whole family. Her mother celebrated the holiday separately with her siblings.
59:07
Khiterman shares her memories of her grandfather, explaining how he was a “sheyner yid”, a pious, decent and observant Jew. Her childhood, she states, was a very happy time.
11:03
Life after the war in Berezov (need verification) and family
27:42
Formal introduction and family
35:11
Family
42:03
Family and religious customs
46:58
Family and life in the camp and escape
56:31
Family
4:55
Showing the research team an old photograph, Fish describes his family life before the war. His mother, Khaye bas Yoyne, worked as a housewife, raising Fish and his four siblings: Etl-Rayzl, Mordkhe-Yoyne, Leye and Mirl.
18:33
Fish remembers his father and his occupation as a “miler” (bricklayer, housebuilder).
19:51
Fish also describes the the town’s Jewish bathhouses, where he went every week with his father.
59:18
Fish’s mother worked as a housewife, raising him and his siblings. He comments on the differences between gender roles before and after the war, and sings two songs he heard from his mother: a Yiddish/loshn koydesh rhyming song and “Papirosn.”
0:00
Moisei Zelmanovich Fish describes how on Friday nights, he would go to synagogue with his father and how his mother would always “bentsh lekht” [bless the Sabbath candles].
6:04
Fish shares the details of how he met his wife, Ida Lakir, a girl who had grown up on a Jewish kolkhoz (collective farm) in Ukraine. Fish also talks about her family and their prewar and wartime experiences.
11:04
Fish has three sons who are currently living in Germany, Russia and in Rivne. His first son was circumcised. He has seven grandchildren.
14:45
Fish enumerates the surrounding shtetlekh where a few Jews can be found, but comments on the inclination toward mixed marriages even among his own sons.
0:00
Continuation of interview with Abram (Arkadii, Abrashe) Khaimovich Vaisman, born 1940 in Sharhorod. (Part 2 of 4. See MDV 655, MDV 656, and Accession # 09-010.58-F MDV 776) His father, named Khayem was also born in Sharhorod, and, having lost his right hand, did not work. His grandmother owned a store. Vaisman is named for his grandfather Avrum. His mother Blume was born in Chernivtsi (Kleyn Tshernovits), a shtetl 15km away and worked as a seamstress. Vaisman has three siblings: Roza (b. 1923), Danya (b. 1929) and Kolmen (b. 1936), the third of whom now lives in Israel. Although Vaisman is now retired, he worked for the local newspaper as a photographer/photo-journalist, a craft he learned from his brother Danya and loved to do. Vaisman remembers Jewish religious holidays and how his father used to pray in shul (synagogue). Although he has been told that there were eight synagogues in the town before the war, he remembers only one shul, which was burned down after the war 40-45 years ago. Vaisman went to Ukrainian schools growing up and learned some English, but he cannot read or write in Yiddish. Vaisman describes his town as a Jewish city until emigration and shows old photos he took of the town’s elderly Jews, most of whom have since left for America or Israel. In Sharhorod, according to Vaisman, there were all kinds of Jews in the town, both religious and non-religious. He also tells the interviewers about the two tsadikim (righteous men) buried in Sharhorod’s cemetery who have been popularly credited with the fact that no Jews were killed when the Germans came to the town (Vaisman adds that some Jews also bought their way out of danger). Unlike other shtetlekh (towns) in the area where all the Jews were killed, in Sharhorod the Romanians killed no Jews.
0:00
Klava Vaisman (Abram's daughter) used to work as a machinist and typist, although she has never learned how to work on a computer. The camera cuts to the Vaisman family outside their house, speaking about contemporary Jewish life in the town and why they do not want to leave. Abram leads the research team to the old Jewish cemetery where the local tsadikim (righteous men) are buried. Shots of the street leading away from cemetery. Passing the plant on the road, Dov-Ber Kerler explains thistles, which are thrown in the hair of those crying on Tisha b’Av. Abram leads the team to the home of Faina (Feyge) Rivelis. The researchers go into Rivelis’s house and begin a formal interview. She remembers her parents, Shmil Khayem and Sheyve Srulovna Rivelis, as very pious. Her father was a tailor and had four kids, of whom she was youngest (b. 1916). She remembers the shul (synagogue) in town, and religious holidays, including Passover. As a child, she attended Yiddish schools where she learned to read and write in that language. Faina lived in Germany for a year, but returned to Sharhorod to be between her “fir vent”, her “four walls”. Rivelis recalls how the Jews in her town survived the war years, but nevertheless lived through hardship and hunger. Faina worked for fifty years in the village government. Rivelis answers a series of dialectological and linguistic questions about the Yiddish language. Outside Rivelis’s home, the researchers also talk to Faina about her father’s old prayer books. Shots of the town’s old synagogue. Video of the team driving on the road at night.
0:00
The camera focuses on the interior of his house with its newly placed mezuzahs. Exterior shots of courtyard. Street scenes of Bratslav. Researchers speaking and taking photos with the informant outside his home. Street scenes of Bratslav. Kupershimdt leads the team to the Bratslav cemetery where Reb Nosn haTsadik is buried and tells them about the shtetl along the way. Scenes of the Bratslav cemetery. Scenes of Sharhorod. The researchers begin a formal interview with Mikhail (Motya) Isaakovich Yerikhman, who was born in Sharhorod in 1939. (Part 1 of 3. See MDV 658 and MDV 659) He starts his interview talking about his family, including his son, now in Israel, and his nephew, who still lives in Sharhorod, who has became religious. Yerikhman remembers Sharhorod as being a Jewish shtetl into the 1990s, where all the non-Jews spoke Yiddish. During the war, Yerikhman tells the interviewers, only two Jews died in the town, both of whom, a deaf man and a woman, were killed by accident. He also describes the town’s wartime ghetto population as being almost exclusively women and children, as most of the local men were drafted into the Red Army and were thus on the front. Yerikhman also talks about the Pechera camp where Jews from the whole region were killed.
0:00
Yerikhman spoke Yiddish with his mother, but when she died in 1988, he had fewer people with whom to speak. His father (1913-1958) was a trader/merchant and fought in the war. In his own professional life, he worked almost entirely with Jews and spoke Yiddish at work, even with some of the non-Jews in Sharhorod. Yerikhman recalls Jewish religious services led by an old Jew in a private home where they kept a Torah Scroll and he was able to say Kaddish for his father. Yerikhman also remembers celebrating shabes (Sabbath) and eating traditional foods, such as yoykh (soup), gefilte fish and cholent. Yerikhman answers a series of dialectological and linguistic questions about the Yiddish language, during which he talks about the differences between the “accents” in his Yiddish and those of local Litvaks, who spoke differently. Yerikhman remarks that the Sharhorod cemetery, in addition to its two famous tsadikim (righteous men), is full of Romanian Jews who died from hunger and sickness, having been transported to the town during the war. The recording ends with Yerikhman expressing his political views about the current state of post-Soviet society, commenting on the differences between those who live in small towns and those who live in urban locales. He also talks about what he views as “Gorbachev’s mistake” in allowing emigration from the USSR, as too many Jews have left what was still a good life in Sharhorod.
0:00
Yerikhman explains his views against emigration to Germany, Israel, etc. and why he is in love with his shtetl. His nephew Igor’ takes the team inside to look at and read from old religious texts. Scenes of Sharhorod and exterior of the synagogue. Yerikhman explains more about Jewish life in the shtetl as the team goes inside the synagogue (it is now a wine factory). More scenes of Sharhorod from the exterior of the synagogue. Screen goes black for a moment until it reveals Luda, his sister-in-law, inviting the research team inside Luda’s cafe-restaurant Dana (named after grandaughter). Dov-Ber Kerler explains to the camera that although Luda is not Jewish, she learned to speak Yiddish by talking with her mother-in-law. Luda understands most of the questions posed to her in Yiddish, but finds it easiest to respond in Russian. The research team meets and interviews “Bobe Klara” (Klara Lvovna Kurman), who was born in 1930 in Sharhorod. (Part 1 of 2. See MDV 660) Kurman speaks first of all about her family, including her grandfather Leyb the apothecary, her father Leyb the feldsher (born in Kam”yanets’-Podil’s’kyy, d. 1954), her mother Rivke (d. 1976) and siblings Boris, Etta and Misha. During the war, her family hid in a cellar in the house where she still lives. She remembers the Romanians and the Romanian Jews who came to Sharhorod during the war and how they paid for help.
0:00
Kurman remembers going to synagogue with her mother, a woman who, as she describes it, knew Yiddish, loshn-koydesh (Biblical Hebrew) and loved to pray. She remembers the interior of the synagogue as decorated with painted murals on the walls as well as with candles. Although the synagogue was closed before the war, her father continued to pray in a private home with other Jews—he was a pious man and Kurman remembers how he would make blessings before and after eating. Kurman’s father decided to send her to a Russian school because career opportunities would be better than with a Yiddish education—she therefore can neither read nor write in Yiddish. Kurman recalls celebrating Passover and the hiding of the afikoymen (matzah), but says that when her siblings got older they were more interested in going to the theater than in the holidays. Kurman then answers a series of dialectological and linguistic questions about the Yiddish language. Kurman remembers Dr. Taykh, a rich Jew from Bukovina, who died in Sharhorod during the war and is buried there. It was with his help that she and her family survived. The camera cuts to the research team in Shpykiv at the home of Evgeniia Krasner. (Part 1 of 4. See Accession # 09-010.45-F MDV 664, MDV 665, and MDV 666) When Evgeniia (Sheyndele) Isaakovna Krasner finally emerges, she and the team introduce themselves to each other, telling jokes. She sings a Russian song and tells the researchers about Reb Shulem-Munye (Shulemunye), the local tsadik (righteous man). Krasner then sings “Ay iz dus a Rebenyu”, a theater song she knows from her mother with whom she spoke only in Yiddish. The house Krasner currently lives in belonged to her uncle, who was killed in the camp in Pechera. Evgeniia recites a children’s counting ditty and nursery rhymes and then sings another Yiddish song learned from her mother.
0:00
Kopyt talks about her family and the camera records family photographs.
6:22
Shvartsburg talks about his family and explains that he learned to speak Yiddish from his family. He has been the chairman of the Jewish community for the past fourteen years.
40:11
Shvartsburg talks about his family, in particular his grandparents. He also addresses Hasidic life until 1917. Shvartsburg has two sons.
14:04
Family
16:02
Family
16:51
Formal introductions and family history of the printing house
22:29
Return of brothers and first Yiddish school
25:40
Family
38:37
Family
50:34
Brothers Shapiro
54:21
Family
13:59
Family.
17:03
Family and rabbis.
19:19
Family’s post-Soviet life.
42:40
Prewar religious life in Slavuta and family.
2:43
Family.
7:39
Family and stories.
20:56
Her sister Khayke.
22:19
Family and religious teacher.
41:34
Postwar Yiddish plays in Chernivtsi and family.
47:53
Family and religious life today.
3:34
Family and dialectology.
14:02
Photographs and wife.
27:01
Family.
34:16
Family.
37:17
Family.
48:58
Prewar and postwar Jewish life and family.
54:29
Prewar education and family.
7:54
Family.
13:51
Evacuation and family.
21:44
Husband and postwar Jewish life.
29:59
Family.
38:41
Holiday celebration after war and family.
40:16
Life in evacuation and family.
43:01
Cultural terminology and family.
1:41
Formal introduction and family.
12:29
Family and childhood memories.
48:31
Family and prewar education.
32:41
Berger talks about his family. He grew up in Holubyne and moved to Svalyava forty years ago.
33:31
Berger remembers snippets from a Yiddish song about raising children. They then talk about religious life today and his family. His older sister lives in Israel.
1:00:50
Tartinets talks about her family and holiday celebration.
20:45
Burshtein speaks about his liberation by the Red Army in 1944. He then talks about his family's fate during the war and mentions that he visits Sobolivka every year. Burshtein then talks about his life and work during the postwar Soviet period. He worked in the Haysyn sewing factory until his retirement and as as chief engineer for thirty-seven years.
0:44
Yakuta provides personal information and speaks about her family. Yakuta has relatives in Israel. She grew up with three brothers and two sisters. Three of her siblings perished during the war. Yakuta's parents were also born in Teplyk. Her father was a hatter. Yakuta then describes her father's work. Yakuta mentions that her mother made pilgrimages to Uman.
17:37
Yakuta talks about her family's fate during World War II. She explains how her father was selected as artisan to stay in the ghetto, whereas his family was selected for deportation to another ghetto. She maintains that he decided to join his family instead.
3:49
Yakuta talks about prewar holiday celebration, including Passover. She also recalls praying customs. Yakuta then talks about her family's life in the 1930s. She recalls how the Yiddish school was turned into a Ukrainian school. Yakuta maintains that the community agreed with the closure of the Yiddish school to be able to advance in careers.
10:07
Yakuta speaks about prewar Jewish and religious life in Teplyk. She describes how the community gathered in private homes in the 1930s. Yakuta then addresses her family's life in the 1930s. Yakuta explains how Ukrainian officials arrested her uncle in search for money.
18:09
The team chats with Veliye, born in Sharhorod, about her life today. Veliye moved to Israel six years ago, and now visits her son in Teplyk. She also talks about her family and life in Israel, as well as contemporary Hasidism.
30:04
Veliye answers questions about cultural terminology. She then speaks about her and her family's life during World War II. Veliye was imprisoned in the Sharhorod ghetto.
0:00
This tape consists of a formal interview with Tatiana (Taybele) Moiseevna Marinina (née Palatnikov, b. 1921 in Teplyk) (part 1 of 2. See MDV 686). She discusses her family, including her parents and grandparents. Her grandparents lived to the ages of 118 and 115, and had moved to America with Marinina’s uncles before the war. She details what her uncles did for work in America and states that she lost contact with that side of the family after those uncles passed away. She also talks about other relatives who more recently immigrated to the United States, as well as her son, who lives in Germany, and her daughter and grandchildren.
26:12
Marinina returns to the subject of her youth in the Crimea and sings a fragment from the popular Soviet Yiddish song “Dzhankoye.” She also comments on the various Yiddish writers she read for pleasure and in school. She states that although her father was not religious, he was nevertheless a highly educated and proud Jew. He thus encouraged Marinina to speak, read and write in Yiddish. She recites a fragment from the song “Makheteyneste Mayne.” Marinina’s mother was very religious and strictly observed Passover. Marinina observes Passover today and makes many of her mother’s traditional foods.
31:20
Marinina explains the differences between the kinds of “lotkes” (latkes) made for Chanukah and Passover, and further discusses her mother’s baking and cooking. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Teplyk, Trenton (New Jersey), San Francisco, Kiev, Simferopol’, Bershad’, Raygorod, Bratslav, Leningrad, and Haysyn.
10:33
Marinina shares her family’s traditional recipe for “gefilte fish,” stating that her daughter has already forgotten the tradition and makes her fish in a “non-Jewish” way. Marinina also notes some regional differences in how gefilte fish is prepared. She also briefly talks about the Passover seyder on the kolkhoz, stating that her father led the meal, despite the fact that he was not religious.
0:00
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”.
11:04
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.
0:00
This tape is a continuation of a formal interview with Sofia (Sonye) Moiseevna Palatnikova (b. 1927 in Teplyk) (part 2 of 3. See MDV 687 and MDV 689). She discusses prewar Jewish life, noting that holiday celebrations did not take place in the synagogue, but rather at home. She remembers how Passover was strictly observed with a different set of dishes. Reflecting on her father’s work as a butcher, Palatnikova discusses the differences between Jewish and non-Jewish consumption of meat before the war as it related to the kosher status of the meat and different kinds of fasts that non-Jews observed. She also comments on contemporary eating practices of chicken.
16:08
The camera cuts to a formal interview with Izrail (Yisruel) Yosifovich Gliazer (b. 1919 in Podgaytse, Ukraine) (part 1 of 3. See MDV 691 and MDV 693). Gliazer speaks about his father (b. 1880), who served in the Austrian army during World War I. His father worked as a glass and window maker. His mother, Pesye Levit, was from the town of Skalat. Gliazer was the youngest child in his family.
30:35
Gliazer recalls his home life as a child, describing his mother, his sister who immigrated to Palestine in 1927 and his pious maternal grandfather (d. 1939). He also details the various types of people that lived in his shtetl (town).
25:23
The camera cuts to a photograph in Gliazer’s home, while he and the research team drink tea. He underlines the importance for youth to understand the peaceful multiethnic character of prewar Europe. Reflecting on his father’s service in the Austrian army during the First World War, Gliazer states that "human beings are essentially good (lit. “humane”)"; the change during the Second World War is the fault of Hitler and others.
3:08
The team drives to the town’s Jewish cemetery, where Professor Kerler reports his great-grandfather is buried. Kliuch mentions that financial assistance from an American “landsmanshaft” (former residents of the town) organization is used to keep the cemetery in good condition.
43:17
Back in the car, Kliuch relates further anecdotes about the town’s history as well as the stories of some of its families. Cities and towns mentioned on this tape: Kremenets’, Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy
15:43
Gliazer briefly mentions the family he had that moved to America before the war.
4:56
Shveibish provides personal information and talks about her life after the war. She studied at the medical institute in Vinnytsya to become a nurse. She worked in the medical profession for fifty years. Shveibish then talks about her family.
26:00
Shveibish discusses her childhood memories of Tulchyn and talks about her family. She grew up with two brothers.
29:50
Shveibish talks about her life after the war and her family, before she addresses contemporary Jewish life in the surrounding towns.
32:47
Shveibish talks about her family, in particular her father. She describes the moment when he was arrested in 1937 during Stalinist purges. Shveibish's father delivered sheet metal.
36:05
Kogan provides personal information and discusses his family. His father passed away during the Great Hunger in 1933. Kogan's father was also born in Bershad and was a soap-maker. His mother was also born in Bershad and was a candy-maker. Kogan moved to Tulchyn from Zhabokrych in 1960. Kogan lists the kind of candy his mother would make.
40:17
Kogan speaks about his siblings. He grew up with a half-brother and a sister.
10:16
Kogan speaks about his wife's experiences during the war. She was born in Zhabokrych and imprisoned in the Zhabokrych ghetto. According to Kogan, only three people survived the massacre in Zhabokrych. Kogan also speaks about their life today.
18:24
Kogan talks about his life and religious customs in Bershad before the war. According to Kogan, there were three synagogues. He then addresses Passover celebrations at home, as well as his family.
18:30
Kogan speaks about prewar Jewish life in Bershad, including locals. He then briefly addresses prewar holiday celebration at home, as well as his family. Kogan's father visited America before World War I. He grew up with one brother, who lives in America and two sisters.
35:59
Kogan talks about his family, before he answers questions about cultural terminology, as well as dialectological questions.
1:29
Presler talks about her arrival at the camp with her immediate family. Presler grew up with two sisters. She then speaks about their daily lives. Her sister, dressed in peasant clothing, snuck out of the camp at night in search for food. In particular, Presler tells an episode when her sister went to the Tulchyn ghetto. According to her, the Jews in the ghetto turned her away and her sister received help from a ethnic German acquaintance. Presler also speaks about the encounter with Romanian soldiers, who took her sister to Bortnyky, where she joined other Jewish prisoners. She then describes their escape plans and how Presler's sister was taken back to Pechera.
9:43
Presler talks about her sister's arrival at the camp, as well as how the Romanian soldiers and Ukrainian police tortured her in 1942. She then describes how officials organized a show trial for her sister, which resulted in beatings and torturing of her older sister and mother as well.
13:32
Presler continues to speak about her life in the Pechera concentration camp. She recalls the fate of her relatives, before talking about how inmates were deported for forced labor. Presler describes the selection, a month after her family's arrival. According to her, her sisters hid during the selections. Presler also describes the torturing of her family.
26:04
Presler returns to the epsiode when Romanian soldiers prevented a deportation. She also speaks about her sister's fate and daily camp life. Presler explains how inmates took care of corpses.
32:08
Presler speaks about the remaining months in the camp, before her liberation. She also talks about her family's fate, as well as the moment when the Germans returned to the camp toward the end of the war in 1944. Presler discusses inmates' escape plans and recalls mass shootings. During that time, Presler continues, she was hiding and then liberated by the Red Army.
48:57
Presler talks about her return home to Tulchyn, after her liberation from the Pechera concentration camp. She also addresses her family's fate during the war and housing conditions.
50:46
Presler provides personal information and talks about her family.
46:30
The formal interview with Golfeld begins. He provides personal information and speaks about his family. Golfeld grew up with two siblings.
55:50
Golfeld speaks about episodes when he snuck out of the camp in search for food in the villages. He encountered a rebbe in Chechelnyk and joined him for services. Golfeld also addresses his mother's observance. He then remembers a Ukrainian who brought a Torah scroll from the Tulchyn community into the Pechera concentration camp.
59:31
Golfeld speaks about his mother's observance and religious dexterity. He recalls prayer services at home. Golfeld then talks about his family.
1:42
Golfeld talks about his life before the war and private Yiddish-language education. He attended a Russian school. Golfeld then speaks about his family.
7:25
Golfeld shares an episode from his life today, when he met a survivor from the camp, who lives in America. He then speaks about his life after the war. Golfeld worked at a shoe factory for forty-nine years. He raised a son.
21:22
Golfeld talks about his family. His mother was born in Tulchyn and his father was born in Olhopil.
2:28
Presler speaks about her life before the war, specifically her education at a Yiddish school for four years. Presler then speaks about her life after the war, particularly how her family rebuilt their lives in Tulchyn. Presler states that unemployed people were taken to labor camps between 1946 and 1948. Presler's husband was taken to a labor camp in the Donbas region and returned after three years.
7:37
Presler speaks about her education and work after the war. She attended a night school to finish ten grades and then worked at a shoe factory for thirty-seven years. Presler also discusses her family and the working conditions in factories during the postwar Soviet period.
15:27
Presler briefly speaks about her life in the Pechera concentration camp during the war. She then talks about her family and prewar holiday celebration at home. Presler states that she started fasting at the age of ten.
17:30
Presler speaks about the living conditions in the Tulchyn ghetto during the war and describes how her mother took care of cooking. Presler then describes their kitchen dishes and how her mother cooked before the war.
23:23
Presler talks about her mother's cooking and baking for holidays. She describes how her mother used the oven for Sabbath.
0:00
Kogan provides personal information and talks about his family. His father worked at a soap factory.
2:18
Kogan talks about his life in the Bershad ghetto during World War II. He recalls beatings by Romanian soldiers, while he was out to get potatoes. Kogan then speaks about the fate of regional refugees in the ghetto. He states that his mother helped them out with food.
6:20
Kogan recites the words of his song "Dos lagerl" (the camp) and explains how he tailored the song to the experience in the Bershad ghetto. Kogan also mentions the fate of artisans and describes how his family shared their house with other Bershad residents. Kogan then remembers refugee families.
5:15
Kogan then shares more of his writings, including his Yiddish song "Tsezeyt un tseshpreyt" (scattered and dispersed) about regional refugees in the Bershad ghetto and "Dos lagerl." Kogan also mentions a fire in his mother's home during the war, which destroyed his writings.
22:09
Kogan speaks about another writer, who took his writings. He then talks about the market in the Bershad ghetto, as well as his family. Kogan then addresses his life after the war, after he was demobilized. He met his wife in Obodivka, introduced through Kogan's sister. Kogan worked at a liquor factory in Bershad, draining molasses.
26:30
Kogan talks his wife's fate during World War II, as well as her family. He then speaks about his parents, particularly when his father passed away during the Great Hunger in 1933.
47:11
The team concludes the formal interview with Kogan. He also speaks about his family and talks about a teacher from the Yiddish school in Bershad.
13:26
The formal interview with Yurkovetskij begins. He speaks about his family and provides personal information. Yurkovetskij raised two sons who live in America, as well as one daughter.
16:00
Yurkovetskij talks about his childhood and family. He grew up as an orphan with two older brothers and was raised by his maternal grandmother. He lost his parents during the pogroms of 1919. Yurkovetskij's father was a barber and his parents were also born in Tulchyn.
18:43
Yurkovetskij speaks about his life and family before the war during the Soviet period. He worked as driver for fifty-three years. His older brother supported the family by continuing his father's barber business. One of his brother immigrated to America.
23:13
Yurkovetskij speaks about his life and family before the war. He remembers how the community helped his family. Yurkovetskij then talks about prewar Passover celebrations at home. He states that he began working as chauffeur in 1936.
25:18
Yurkovetskij addresses his life before the war, particularly his wedding in 1937. He was drafted into the Red Army in 1937. He then talks about his family.
28:08
Yurkovetskij and Shveibish talk about Jewish life in the Pechera camp. He recalls a kosher butcher and a rabbi. He then speaks about underground economy in the camp and states that Jews of Tulchyn hid their possessions in basements. Yurkovetskij then addresses his life and family's life in the camp. Yurkovetskij explains that he frequently drove to Tulchyn as chauffeur.
35:19
Yurkovetskij talks about his family, specifically his sons' circumcision, done by a mohel from Bratslav. He maintains that since he was not a member of the Party, he did not have to fear Party exclusion.
2:34
Spectrovna speaks about her life and family before the war. She learned how to speak from her grandmother. Yurkovetskij addresses the prewar relatioship between Jews and non-Jews. They also discuss non-Jews who speak Yiddish.
7:29
Spectrovna speaks about her family. Her mother was born in Balta and her father was born in Tulchyn.
15:21
Yurkovetskij speaks about his best moments in life after the war. He also briefly addresses his life after the war. Yurkovetskij then talks about his family, before the team concludes the formal part of the interview.
3:17
The team arrives at a courtyard and greets Khaye Katsman, born 1931 in Tulchyn. She speaks about her family.
7:09
The team greets Yenta who speaks about her husband Lev Kolodenker, including his work (see MDV 728,729). She raised two sons one of whom lives in Canada.
9:39
The formal part of the interview begins. Yenta speaks about her family, particularly her husband's military awards. He served in the Red Army for seven years. Yenta then speaks about Nisen's fate during World War II, when he was imprisoned in the Tomashpil ghetto.
12:14
Nisen Kiselman, born 1927 in Tomashpil, joins the conversation and provides personal information, as well as talks about his family. Pesia also speaks about community life today. Nisen grew up with five brothers. They discuss Nisen's imprisonment in the Tomashpil ghetto in 1941.
14:24
Kiselman speaks about his life and family before the war. He grew up near the "Gigant" kolkhoz in Tomashpil. His parents worked on the kolkhoz. Kiselman's father was also born in Tomashpil and was a coachman. He passed away during the Great Hunger, 1932/33. Kiselman attended a Yiddish school.
16:40
Kiselman talks about his life during the war. Alexandr and Tolkovitz explain how Kiselman's family was imprisoned in the ghetto. He describes the beginning of the war, when the Germans entered in 1941 and set up the ghetto. Kiselman states that he escaped from a massacre in 1941, where his mother and sister were murdered. He was believed to be a non-Jewish boy and left with a relative.
24:07
Yenta addresses Kiselman's return to Tulchyn after the war. In particular, she addresses how he joined his aunt's family (Pesia's mother). Kiselman was married to Pesia. Pesia then talks about her family.
26:59
Yenta talks about her time in Israel and why she returned to Tulchyn, upon her husband's request. She also speaks about her family, as well as life today.
34:14
Alexandr provides personal information, before he speaks about his life in the Pechera concentration camp. He shares an episode of cannibalism, as well as describes the occupiers' violence. Pesia then recalls inmates' deportations for forced labor and Yenta addresses starvation of her relatives. Pesia also shares episodes of daily violence.
41:13
Yenta speaks about her life in the Pechera concentration camp. She recalls when the Germans came into the camp to collect inmates, including her mother, for forced labor. Her mother escaped the collection, according to her.
44:32
Yenta speaks about her family's fate during World War II. She then provides personal information and speaks about her family. Yenta's mother was born in Tomashpil and her father was born in Tulchyn. Yenta then shares episodes about daily life and food acquisition, as well as sharing, in the Pechera camp. Yenta explains how her father, a designated grave digger, received food from non-Jews, which he brought back to the camp. Yenta also describes her mother's survival mechnisms.
0:00
Yenta talks about her family's fate during World War II, including her father's work as grave digger. Pesia then recites a Yiddish song, she heard in the Pechera concentration camp. Pesia then describes the singer, Elke Bartik, before she recalls other individuals begging for food.
20:53
They discuss prewar religious customs. Pesis then speaks about her family and observance, before she remembers the local poor Jew Ayzik. According to Pesia, he taught her to build a mezuzah. Yenta also describes Ayzik. Among other episodes, Pesia describes how he helped her during "his visit" to the Pechera concentration camp when she was sick with typhus. Pesia's family also helped Ayzik out after the war.
37:11
Yenta speaks about her family before the war. Pesia then discusses naming customs.
1:10:28
Pesia talks about her family before the war. She grew up with three siblings and her mother was a candy wrapper, before becoming a homemaker.
30:46
Kogan talks about his life during World War II, when he was imprisoned in the Bershad ghetto. He shares an episode about daily food acquisition, while he encountered Ukrainian police. Kogan then addresses mass killings in the region, before he talks about his brother's fate during the war.
34:13
Kogan speaks about life today and relations to non-Jews. He then briefly talks about his wife's fate in the Zhabokrych ghetto. Kogan then addresses his and his family's life in the Bershad ghetto. He also remembers Jewish refugees from other areas.
47:16
Kogan talks about his family, especially his father's family in America and his mother's work as candy-maker.
21:08
Kogan speaks about his military service and fellow Jewish soldiers, before talking about his positions after the war. Kogan also mentions a fire at his mother's house after the war, which destroyed his notebooks. Kogan returns to talking about how he met his wife and life after the war.
MDV 728Lev Shayevich Kolodenker; Aleksandr Shayevich Kolodenker; Pesia Kolodenker and 1 moreTul'chyn, 2009
1:32
Lev Kolodenko talks about his life during World War II. He was drafted for military training in the Voroshilovgrad Province and then sent to the Urals, before fighting on the front. Lev was trained in an artillery school and graduated as sergeant. He describes his experiences during training and when he was in command of seven soldiers on the front through Poland to Berlin. Lev also briefly addresses his father's fate during the war. He fought in the First Belarusian Front under Zhukov.
6:07
Lev provides personal information and talks about his family. His father was also born in Tulchyn and worked as coachman. He then addresses the fate of the Tulchyn community when the Germans occupied the region in 1941. Lev describes forced assemblies, disinfection in the local Yiddish school and forced marches to the Pechera concentration camp. He then speaks about his family's fate, as well as living conditions among Jews from different regions in the camp. Among other themes, Lev addresses cannibalism, forced labor, mass graves in a near-by forest and burial.
14:04
Lev speaks about commemoration of the Pechera camp. He also addresses Yenta's family's fate in the camp.
15:50
Pesia recites the words of a Yiddish song they heard from a woman in the camp. Lev then mentions how Ukrainian acquaintances threw food over the camp's fences. Alexandr explains the occupational structure of the camp, before Pesia shares episodes of daily life, including water acquisition from the Southern Bug river and living arrangements. She also talks about her family's life in the camp.
33:23
Lev talks about his life after the war, including the relationship to non-Jewish neighbors. Yenta and Lev spent eleven years in Israel and frequently visited Tulchyn. Yenta then speaks about her family. She has one sister.
51:07
Lev surveys Jewish history, before Yenta addresses postwar religious life in Tulchyn. Her father was a baker and frequently attended services after the war. Lev's mother was born in Tomashpil.
MDV 729Lev Shayevich Kolodenker; Aleksandr Shayevich Kolodenker; Pesia Kolodenker and 1 moreTul'chyn, 2009
4:33
Lev speaks about his life and work after the war, when returned from his military service to Tulchyn. He took chauffeur lessons and worked as truck driver. Lev then talks about his family, particularly his son.
5:42
Pesia speaks about Jewish life before the war, particularly recalling the Great Hunger of 1932/33. Specifically, she describes how her grandmother would collect scraps in the cafeteria she worked at. Pesia also describes persecution during the Great Purge (1934 to 1939), as well as talks about her family. They also mention wealthy local people.
13:51
Yenta talks about her family. Pesia then addresses Jewish naming customs. Yenta and Lev speak about their life in Israel.
33:02
Yenta talks about her family. Yenta then speaks about prewar Jewish life in Tulchyn and recalls poverty. Pesia also addresses prewar religious life and mentions a local synagogue. Lev shares an episode where they officials would not allow an extension of the synagogue.
0:00
Pecherskaia speaks about life today and her experiences in Israel. She raised a daughter who lives in Israel.
4:33
Pecherskaia speaks about her family and her life today. She also raised a son. Pecherskaia also addresses contemporary antisemitism.
8:07
Pecherskaia shows the team family photographs, which were taken in Israel and America. She talks about her family. She was married in 1945. Pecherskaia has three half-sisters, who live in America. She then speaks about her life today and mentions towns she visited.
16:36
Family and life during the war
22:40
Family
24:53
Early childhood memories and family
26:12
Life during the war and family
29:50
Family
37:37
Personal information and family
58:10
Religious customs before the war and family
21:43
Wishes for the Jews in America and family and emigration
34:55
Family visiting Buki from America before the war and life today
38:02
Religious life today and family
0:00
Life today and family
10:37
Religious life today and family visits
23:20
Life today and family
40:28
Life in Uman before the war and family
47:12
Family and life today
54:18
Family
MDV 741Nukhim Moiseevich (Moshkovich) Gvinter; unidentified informant (Bershad'); Efim VigodnerUman', Bershad', 2008
26:33
Family
0:00
Katz discusses his childhood memories and family. In particular, he recalls holidays, when his mother would read from the tsene rene (Yiddish rendering of the Bible).
29:45
The next part of the tape is a formal interview with Ernest (Ari) Osipovich Halpert and Tubi Halpert in Uzhhorod (Yiddish: Ungver), born 1923 in Mukacheve. They moved to Uzhorod after the war. Ernest explains how they ceased to speak Yiddish after the war.
31:11
The formal part of the interview begins. Ernest discusses his childhood memories of Mukacheve, where half of the population was Jewish, as well as his family. He grew up with two sisters, who now live in Israel. He descended from a Hasidic family. His father taught at the yeshiva and his grandfather worked for the burial society (chevra kadisha). Ernest attended religious school (cheder) from the age of three until his bar mitzvah, at age thirteen. After his bar mitzvah, he worked in a factory. According to Ernest, work was hard, but it was sufficient to make ends meet. His father owned a small store.
37:32
Ernest discusses his military service. As soon as he was mobilized, the war ended. He returned home in 1947 from military service. He then talks about life after the war and about his family. Ernest and Tubi are childhood friends. Tubi returned to Mukacheve after she was liberated from the concentration camp to live with her sister. Ernest moved in with friends. They married in 1947 and have two children. Peter lives in Germany; his other son lives in Uzhorod and works in the communal support center (chesed). His grandchild lives in Israel. Ernest worked as engineer in a factory. According to Ernest, they lived well during the Soviet period.
49:51
Ernest talks about his family, in particular his sisters. After they were liberated from the concentration camp, they continued to live in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia until 1948. As soon as Czechoslovakia was about to become another Soviet satellite state, his sisters emigrated. He learned from his cousin that his sisters emigrated, because after his military service he was not allowed to communicate across borders. He was able to meet his sisters for the first time after the war in 1964 in Prague. However, until the collapse of the Soviet Union, he could only stay in touch with his sisters through his cousin who lived in Czechoslovakia. He communicates with his sisters in Hungarian. He only spoke Yiddish with his parents at home.
5:11
Tubi talks about her life during the war, in particular the transport from the Mukacheve ghetto to Auschwitz. The postcard she sent to her husband from Auschwitz was supposed to include twenty-five words with the content that life is good in the sanatorium in Wannsee, near Berlin. Tubi arrived in Auschwitz on May 20, 1944. In the Mukacheve ghetto, Tubi worked at a sugar factory; before they were sent to Auschwitz in trains, loaded with eighty people in every car. Tubi stayed in Auschwitz for three months, before she and 150 other women were taken to a forced labor camp Reichenbach. In Auschwitz, they awaited work assignments. Tubi then talks about her arrival at Auschwitz with her brother and mother Hilde, and the initial selection. She and her brother were separated from their mother, who was taken away in a car. Every morning, she reported to roll call for two hours. Ernest’s two sisters were also sent to Reichenbach. Tubi worked in an electric factory for nine months until May 8, 1945. She recollects the terrible working conditions during winter.
20:39
Ernest talks about his name change, Ari, Arn (in cheder), Arnusht (Czech), Ernu (Hungarian), Ernest (Russian), Ari bácsi (uncle Ari, today among friends), Arn ben Yoshua (in the synagogue) under different occupations. He then talks about his family and prewar Hasidic life. His father Shi’ye (Yoshua) owned a small general store. His mother’s name was Pearl, nee Kalush, and was born in Kalush. His father’s family is descended from Mukachever Hasidim. Ernest remembers several rebbes, including the rebbe of Shpira, who blessed him. Ernest recalls the burial ceremony of the Mukachever rebbe, which the Shpira rebbe also attended. He also recalls the wedding of the Shpira rebbe’s daughter Frime to Borukh Rabinovich. The children from cheder were sent out to wave at them with small flags. After the wedding, people were celebrating for seven days. Rabinovich became the rebbe of Mukacheve.
49:21
Ernest discusses his family, in particular his grandfather Paysekh, during holiday celebrations. He then sings Passover songs and remembers melodies.
41:25
The second part of the tape includes a tour through the former Jewish parts of Uzhorod with Nusn Leyb Naybauer, born 1924 in Velké Kapušany in today’s Slovakia. They drive to the three former synagogues of Uzhorod. Today the buildings are used as a concert hall, local phone company, and university building. His mother was born in Mala Dobron. His family moved to a village when Naybauer was one year old, where his father worked in an equestrian military facility. His father’s friend arranged work for him. His family lived in Mala Dobron until their deportation to Auschwitz.
49:00
Naybauer talks about life during World War II, during his imprisonment in the Hungarian forced labor (i.e. "Munka Tabor") within the labor battalion of the Hungarian army. They arrive at the former Great Synagogue. Naybauer discusses religious life after the war. The Jewish community used the synagogue until it was closed down in 1948. When the former head of the Jewish community, Bergider, heard that the Great Synagogue was about to be closed down, he went to Moscow to speak with Golda Meir to prevent the closure. As soon as Bergider returned to Uzhorod, he was arrested and sentenced to twenty-five years in jail. Bergider was in jail for seven years and died two weeks after his release. Naybauer then briefly remembers prewar Hasidic life; before talking about holiday celebration today. Naybauer remembers that Jews hid their belongings in two synagogues, before they were forced into the ghetto. He then returns to talking about prewar Jewish life and institutions. Naybauer grew up as the oldest of five siblings. His father could not work for health reasons and therefore Naybauer had to help the “kosher sausage dealer “ carry meat.
11:35
Naybauer continues the tour through town and points out a former Jewish theater and they walk along the former Jewish street. Naybauer talks about his observant family. His parents and siblings were killed in Auschwitz. He then talks about a typical Sabbath afternoon in Uzhorod before the war, explaining how people would stroll through town. He discusses the religious school education he received until the age of thirteen. They arrive at another former synagogue, now used by the local telephone company. In this building, Jews hid their belongings before being forced into the ghetto. The former mikva is now used as a cafeteria for students. Naybauer tells as tory about how his uncle was murdered by the police. Naybauer moved to Uzhorod in 1935.
29:26
The team meets Ernest Osipovich and Tubi Halpert on their tour. Halpert remembers the Talmud passage he read at the Mukachever yeshiva, when he was studying with the rebbe of Shpira. Naybauer then talks about his working life before the war. He went into apprenticeship with his uncle, who was a tailor. After the war, he successfully worked as a tailor for forty-five years, specializing in suits, and had a variety of business contacts in Moscow. He then talks about family, before talking about life today. He has two children in Uzhorod.
48:38
The team begins the formal interview in a restaurant. Naybauer talks about his family. His father and sister perished in Auschwitz. Naybauer then talks about his childhood memories of Mala Dobron, in particular his father Avrum, who died of the flu in the 1930s. He then lists several Jewish families who lived in Mala Dobron and discusses prewar religious life.
0:00
Naybauer talks about life in the immediate postwar period in a DP camp. Naybauer had to move to another camp once the Russians took over. When they arrived, he encountered a Jewish official in charge of the camp. The official told them there is no room for them in the camp and sent Naybauer and his brother-in-law to stay in a sugar factory, where they were brought food regularly, before moving further to Prague. There they received money to travel to Budapest. They set up their camp near a former girls’ school. Naybauer explains that he would go to the school building every day in order to check the list of camp returnees. Naybauer signed up for moving to Palestine.
6:16
Naybauer talks about a Yiddish language book on the history of Uzhhorod. He continues his recollections of life in the DP camp. He explains that he met a cousin, who had been in the same concentration camp as his mother, and who told him that his mother was still alive and was looking for him. In the hopes of finding his mother, he decided to purchase a train ticket to Uzhhorod instead of going to Palestine. Naybauer then talks about the reunion with his uncle and mother.
23:54
Naybauer talks about his brothers and one sister, who perished in the concentration camps. He then recalls the arrival at Auschwitz in June 1944, where they were led to different camps. Naybauer explains that as soon as he reached the central camp, he was forced to go to Dora. He speaks about the food rations they were provided with.
57:27
Naybauer talks about life before the war. His father fell ill when Naybauer was 13 years old, and Naybauer had to support the family.
10:18
Naybauer discusses prewar antisemitism, before addressing contemporary religious life. He then recites prayers, before discussing religious life after World War II. Naybauer got married in 1957 and his son was circumcised in 1959. His mother agreed to bring Naybauer’s son to the mohel and was sentenced to three years in jail, but with the help of Jewish journalists she could evade the sentence. Naybauer then talks about synagogue activities after the war.
23:22
The interview begins and Zinger provides personal information and discusses his family. He was born in Velykyi Bereznyi.
28:31
Zinger talks about life during World War II. He was sent to forced labor by the Hungarians in 1940. He then talks about his family. His father fought in World War I.
40:39
Zinger talks about life after the war. Since his entire family perished in Auschwitz, he moved to Uzhhorod into his sister’s house. Zinger then discusses his family. He grew up with two siblings.
43:55
Zinger recalls Jewish life before the war in Velykyi Bereznyi. His father worked as a tombstone carver (matseyve kritser) during the summer. Zinger assisted his father in the cemetery. During the winter, his father was a frame builder and glazier. Zinger then talks about the local prayer house, before addressing religious life today.
29:36
Liudmila remembers a Yiddish song from her mother about a bright future.
32:56
Liudmila sings the well-known Chanukka song "Oy Chanukkah." They then answer questions about cultural terminology. She remembers her father-in-law's work as rebbe. They also discuss prewar religious life.
39:16
Liudmila sings a Yiddish coachman's song about traveling and women. She remembers it from her father.
13:38
Personal information and family
5:01
The team formally introduces Chirkova and she provides more personal information. She then addresses her family. Chirkova's parents were also born in Krasnoye. Her father was the local rabbi and her grandfather was a cantor.
7:45
Chirkova speaks about her family, particularly her grandfather's fate during World War II. She then tells the history of the local Jews' fate during the war, before she says a personal prayer thanking God for her survival.
15:03
Chirkova briefly speaks about her life after the war. She worked as a nurse. She then discusses her family and friends that passed away.
21:21
Chirkova speaks about her life before the war. She finished seven years of schooling, before applying to a technical institute. She also speaks about her family and bribing during her educational years. Chirkova also discusses keeping her faith.
26:08
Chirkova talks about her family and parent's graves. She then speaks about her life after the war, when she graduated from the pedagogical institute in Vinnytsya (Вінницький Державний Педагогічний Інститут ВДПІ). Chirkova also shows a present from the institute.
30:03
Chirkova speaks about her family, particularly her mother. She grew up with two sisters and two brothers. Chirkova then explains her mother sold her children to a Ukrainian female neighbor to avert the evil eye.
35:10
Chirkova speaks about her family's life and Christian acquaintances before the war. She then addresses her father's work as forwarding agent, before she talks about her life today. Chirkova also describes contemporary antisemitism.
0:00
Chirkova speaks about her life today, as well as the support she receives from her children. She then discusses religious customs, particularly explains how to bless Sabbath candles. Chirkova also shares a personal prayer.
14:16
Chirkova talks about her family, as well as her personal piety and faith.
21:40
Chirkova addresses her life after she returned from the front. She then speaks her life during World War II, when she served as part of a factory for the war effort in Uzbekistan. She also speaks about her sister's work.
5:52
Personal information and family
9:51
Family
10:38
Brother’s life during the war
27:33
Life after the war and family
4:55
Furer talks about his family and social life today.
12:41
Furer addresses contemporary religious life, before he turns to poverty and hunger before the war. Furer states that his father passed away when he was fourteen years old.
18:25
Furer speaks about his family's religiosity. He recalls how his grandfather prayed at home, before continuing to answer dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire. Furer also addresses contemporary religious services.
21:32
Furer addresses holiday food customs before the war. He remembers how his grandfather would keep geese in the attic. Furer also addresses contemporary religious life.
6:40
Vainer-Shpak talks about Jewish life before the war, particularly Yiddish books and press. She also speaks about her family, as well as prewar religious life. In particular, Vainer-Shpak remembers the local cantor and her father chanting at the synagogue.
8:55
Vainer-Shpak addresses prewar holiday celebrations, particularly Sabbath. She recalls her father singing on holidays.
13:22
Vainer-Shpak speaks about her mother's cooking and baking for the Sabbath. In particular, she shares her mother's recipe for gefilte fish. Vainer-Shpak then addresses food and drinking customs in general before the war.
20:32
Vainer-Shpak talks about her family and her faith in God. She then answers dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish linguistic questionnaire.
1:12
Entering Barshteyn’s apartment. Jewish life today and family
7:15
Family
31:50
Religious customs in her family
0:00
Biographical information and family before the war
4:14
Family and life today
7:02
The Great Famine and family
56:50
Life today and family
0:00
Barshteyn explains how the community takes care of the Sharhorod cemetery. She then points out her graves of her relatives. The camera then records footage of the old Jewish cemetery.
2:51
Barshteyn explains graves of various locals, as well as distant relatives. She then points out the place to wash the dead prior to burial ("toytshtibl").
0:00
Personal information and family
17:12
Family and life today
28:38
Family and husband
37:07
Her husband and wedding customs in 1944
42:30
family
44:49
life today and family
52:45
family and happiest times
57:33
speaking Yiddish and family
0:00
Personal introduction and family
26:23
Mother Malke
34:43
Interview with Aron Tsodikovitch and family
57:51
Work and family
2:42
Khazin moved to Vinnytsya when he was two years old and lived there until 1941. His father was imprisoned in 1937, and he lived with his grandmother and then with his aunts. He spoke primarily Russian growing up.
4:46
Khazin mentions that he just received medals in honor of the 63rd anniversary of the victory in World War II. He served in the Red Army as a high ranking officer. Khazin discusses his time in the army, in addition to showing military documents and explaining his war medals. In 1941, he joined a Komsomol (Communist Youth League) military unit. Khazin was wounded in Dnipropetrovs’k. From there, he was taken to Tatarstan, where he met up with his mother, grandmother, and sister. They traveled together to Chelyabinsk, because they heard that the Vinnytsya railroad administration was there. They went to look for Khazin's father, who had worked for the railroad and was drafted into the army. They did not find him there. Someone suggested that the family travel to a small village 90 km from Chelyabinsk. He discusses his work as a blacksmith in this village. He was not very successful at the job, so he was sent to study to be an assistant machinist. He worked as an assistant machinist for several months. He then worked as an electrician, which very negatively affected his health.
9:34
Khazin's mother worked as a dish washer at the train station. She supported the grandmother and the sister. Some time later, they moved to another small village to be with his mother's sister, who had been evacuated there. On the way, Khazin's mother and sister caught typhus. Khazin worked for a while fixing tractors; then he studied to be a tractor driver. In January 1943, he was drafted. During training, he suffered from extreme hunger. He was finally sent to the front and participated in liberating Vinnytsya.
23:25
After being demobilized, Khazin returned to Vinnytsya. His parents had already returned to Vinnytsya from evacuation by then. His father had been wounded and had health problems. Khazin married a student from the English department of a pedagogical institute, Sof'ia L'vovna Polik. They had two children, who now both live in Israel.
24:30
Khazin's paternal grandmother spoke to him in Ukrainian but in Yiddish to his mother. Khazin's wife left him for another man. Khazin's daughter, who was five years old at the time, chose to stay with her father, but his son was only one year old, so he was sent to live with Khazin's ex-wife's mother. When Khazin's daughter grew up, she went to live with her mother in order to attend university, since the second husband of Khazin's ex-wife was an influential surgeon in Mohyliv-Podil’s’kyy. Eventually, Sof'ia's second husband passed away, and she moved to Israel with all of the children.
27:56
Khazin also remarried. His second wife's name was Sof'ia Borisovna Novoseletskaia. Her cousin is the leader of the Jewish community in Vinnytsya. Khazin had two more children with his second wife, Igor' and Fima. All of his children received a higher education.
30:50
Khazin shows off his medals. Then he talks about how his father was imprisoned for seven and a half years because of slander. He says that his wife passed away two years ago from stroke. She had had diabetes. Khazin lives with his youngest son, who is 38 years old.
35:10
The son married a Ukrainian woman. They lived together for five years but had no children, so they got divorced. When Khazin's wife passed away, he and his son attended synagogue and said the Kaddish in her honor. His son decided to become circumcised.
36:23
Khazin talks about the meaning of his last name. He mentions that he is a “koheyn” (member of the Jewish priestly tribe). He learned the Yiddish that he knows from his two grandmothers. His grandfather was a salesman who traveled to sell Singer sewing machines, thus supporting his family of twelve. His other grandfather was a bookbinder. He passed away from heart trouble. He was not religious, so Khazin's grandmother had to accompany him to synagogue to make sure he went.
44:40
Khazin mentions that there were more than 10 synagogues in Vinnytsya before the war. He recalls some Yiddish songs, especially comic songs. His father and mother both used to sing.
49:57
The interviewers talk about AHEYM. There is discussion of Jewish last names. Khazin sings "Vyo vyo ferdelekh" ("Giddyup, horses"). Khazin's mother was born in 1903. Her side of the family was from Nemyriv, where Khazin had spent some time.
6:52
Khazin talks about his maternal grandmother and how she used to sell pots and feed pigs before the war. Khazin talks about the anti-Semitism that he has experienced. Then he mentions his children, who live in Israel.
33:00
Khazin talks about his trip to Israel, when he attended the wedding of his cousin's daughter. He also mentions that the wife of one of his sons is not Jewish. There is further discussion of politics, particularly in Israel. The interview concludes with a discussion of foreign humanitarian aid to the contemporary Jewish community in Vinnytsya.
15:39
Personal information and family
21:11
Childhood memories and family
23:48
Childhood memories and family
28:15
Family and Jewish cultural life
37:06
Family and life after the war
42:46
Family
4:59
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.
23:29
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.
30:27
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.
40:40
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.
0:00
Nayman talks about her husband’s life during the war and his return home. He was imprisoned in several concentration camps and ghetto. He was liberated in Auschwitz. Nayman then talks about her life during the war. Nayman was imprisoned in Auschwitz and talks about her difficult life there. Nayman was selected for forced labor in another camp in the woods. She worked at a factory in town, welding metal during the day for three months until the camp and factory was bombed by the Red Army. She was then forced on a death march for five days. When she reached another town, she was sent to forced labor in a field, building trenches to prevent tanks from crossing over.
17:10
Nayman answers a number of questions about cultural terminology from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. Nayman then talks about her family.
18:10
The team arrives at the home of Polina (Pepe) Shulimovna Lebvol (b. 1920 in Zhovkva). She speaks of her recent visit to her daughter in the United States and her family life before and after the war. Her parents, Shulim and Rekhele, had eight children: Sima, Sure, Ksil, Khayim-Volf, Ester-Libe, Rivkele, Zishe and the interviewee herself. Her father worked as a butcher and a glass-blower. Lebvol also speaks about the region's contemporary Jewish community and the recent visit of her relatives from abroad.
57:20
Lebvol describes customs related to the High Holidays, including “shlugn kapure” (a custom related to the forgiveness of sin) and “farfastn” (feasting before the fast on Yom Kippur). Lebvol shares an episode of intergenerational understanding of Judaism and “kashres” (kashrut) between her and her religious son-in-law.
14:29
Lebvol speaks about life before the war, in particular Jewish occupational structure and conversion. Lebvol also addresses the relationsip between Jews and non-Jews. She then describes the store, where her family bought hering, and how her father exchanged his glass work for food in the fall season.
37:59
Lebvol talks about her life during the World War II. She evacuated to the Stalingrad region and worked on a kolkhoz. Her mother and four children were killed in Belz.
38:22
Lebvol speaks about her life after the war. She returned to Zhovka in 1945 and worked at the civilian registrar's office and then worked at a legal office. Lebvol attended a Polish school for seven years. She then talks about her family. Her first husband, whom she married in 1940, died during the war. She raised three daughters, who live in Russia and America.
45:34
Lebvol speaks about prayer customs. In particular, she recites a prayer to avoid dog bites. She then describes how her father read out loud on Sabbath and explains how her family celebrated Sabbath.
4:48
Life today and family.
5:26
Relatives and life during war.
7:02
Family and early childhood memories.
0:00
Religious life today and family.
14:20
Life in Babruysk and family.
30:06
Hunger in 1932/33 and family.
31:32
Biographical introduction and family.
38:16
Return after evacuation and family.
11:53
Personal introduction and family.
20:39
Passover celebration and family.
30:58
Family and life after the Revolution.
36:41
Family and (post) evacuation.
53:04
Family.
0:22
Personal information and family.
6:30
Life today and family.
9:37
Prewar cultural life and family.
18:01
Life today and family.
21:11
Personal information and family.
11:57
Geller’s life today and family.
42:26
Personal information and family.
43:01
Great-grandmother.
44:08
Family and Sabbath celebration.
48:21
Prewar life in Pulen and family.
55:31
Family and name Nibulskiy.
7:39
Purim celebration and family.
0:00
Personal introduction and family.
2:35
Education and family.
16:14
Religious life and family.
31:32
Life after war and family.
36:59
Food customs and family.
43:23
Husband.
6:51
Life during the war and family.
15:27
Evacuation and family.
28:41
Family and life today.
41:10
Family and life today.
55:20
To be a Jew and his wife Mere.
4:24
Family and wedding custom.
11:22
Biographical information and family.
21:31
Life today and family.
24:54
Family and rebuilding Volgograd after war.
2:49
The interview with Mester begins. She provides personal information and speaks about her family. Mester's father was a tailor. She grew up with three sisters.
13:33
Mester explains the Yiddish song "papirene kinder" (paper children). She then talks about her family. She then returns to her childhood memories of Stolniceni.
26:24
Mester talks about prewar religious life in Stolniceni. She shares episodes about her sisters seeing the Rîbnița rebbe and describes the custom of seeing the rebbe. According to Mester, the rebbe visited her home village once a year. Mester also compares the Rîbnița and the Ştefăneşti rebbes.
Passages where only the machine transcript mentions this topic
813 passages whose catalogue entry does not mention the topic but whose transcript-based description does — many of them on tapes the catalogue describes only with labels. A paraphrase of a machine reading; how this layer was made.
Show the 813 passages
5:06
From the machine transcript
At Kerler's request Rezmovit sings again a comic song about the rebbe and the rebbetsin, and the funny Zionist song about the attic and the halutsim. He then repeats a saying of his mother's, in her way of speaking Yiddish, about a curfew and the gendarmes. They discuss the origin of one word in it. He describes his mother's sense of humor and her stories.
8:51
From the machine transcript
Rezmovit tells stories his mother told about Froim the merciful, a trickster figure. In one he eats at a Jewish inn and escapes without paying by tying the landlady's eyes. In another he steals from a Catholic priest by getting the dogs drunk. Kerler asks about the word for the rising agent used in baking. Rezmovit then recalls his mother's patience and wisdom, and how in the deportation wagon she and other Jewish women dealt with pork fat packed in a bundle.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits recalls his Israeli army service, including a commander who had asked him to travel with him and who was later killed with five comrades. He mentions a friend from Hungary, named Reiner (?), whose father was shot into the Danube. Kerler asks about his family background and how long he served. Rezmovits then describes learning bricklaying and building water pipelines in the Safed (Tsfat) area, and says he took on any kind of work.
12:50
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits recalls the Passover seder at home before the war, where the youngest boy asked the four questions and the afikoman was stolen, which upset his father. He then reads a text of his own about the four questions and antisemitism, and mentions writing in school.
20:06
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits speaks about his religious schooling, the study of Mishnah, and why neither he nor his brother attended yeshiva. He mentions Folkovitch (?), his last melamed, who was strict, and the melamed's Hungarian origin. Kerler asks about his languages, and Rezmovits tells a story from the Israeli army about a Canadian-English-speaking officer who watched who did not laugh at him.
24:06
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits sings or recites a song about poverty and a village fool that his mother knew. He says the family was poor and seldom travelled, and describes Sabbath meals of soup, meat and fish without sugar. In answer to Kerler's questions he gives words for a non-Jewish cemetery, talks about Christmas customs and a rhyme about Yossl, and describes 'zakhor' bundles and a charm against the evil eye.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks why Galambos moved between different yeshivas. Galambos says he himself decided to go, having heard about another yeshiva at home, and that a brother also studied in several. He and Kerler discuss how yeshiva study worked: study with a partner, lectures by the head of the yeshiva, the difference from the talmud torah, and the move from partner study to attending lectures.
6:12
From the machine transcript
Smajovics says his father was a field worker. He went away to learn blacksmithing and was in Budapest when the war began. He came home in the summer of 1943 and was called up that October into a labor battalion.
5:22
From the machine transcript
Smajovics says non-Jews who knew Yiddish lived nearby, and that Jews spoke Hungarian or a different Yiddish so as not to be understood. He gives his parents' birth years as asked and says that the region had no yeshiva of its own, so boys were sent to yeshivot in Seliš, Khust, Mukachevo and Slovakia. He describes the big cheder with outside boys who ate at different homes, and the age limit of 13 or 14 for studying there.
14:50
From the machine transcript
Smajovics talks about the prayer books he used and says that his village synagogue was Ashkenazic. He tells how a Sephardic-style service in Israel (with his brother) and a stay in Tokaj, with an American Jew who objected to his Torah reading, differed from his own practice. He compares the Sephardic and Ashkenazic ways of saying kaddish, and then recites kaddish at Kerler's request, with the transcript largely garbled for the recitation.
53:17
From the machine transcript
Smajovics answers a question about the word for 'sick' and then describes his time in Budapest, where before the war he worked for nine months in 1942 (?) and lodged with an old Carpathian Jew who spoke Yiddish. He says that he settled in Budapest in 1978, with his daughter having come earlier, that the move was difficult, and that he met a friend from cheder again.
41:40
From the machine transcript
Herbst describes Sabbath in his parents' home before the war: his mother baking challah and bread in the early morning, cholent and kugel baked in the oven, and thin flat breads. Meat was not always affordable and there was no fish, so mock fish was made, with farfel as a side. He recalls a neighbour, a butcher, who survived the camps and now lives in Brooklyn.
38:39
From the machine transcript
Dof says he worked here after the war and stayed beside his ill mother for years; he is called a devoted son. He and Kerler exchange names, and Kerler gives his card and says he lives in America. Dof explains that his name is Yitshak Dof, not Imre (the Hungarian form), and mentions his mother's brother Bernstein in America, a confectioner. He then recalls the Purim play only dimly and says his wife also speaks some Yiddish.
23:33
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb says she spoke Yiddish as a child and learned Hungarian in school, with some German. She mentions many Jewish children around her and that some non-Jewish children also knew Yiddish. She remembers her mother as clever and helpful, then describes the Sabbath food: soup, meat, compote and the baked Sabbath stew (cholent). She also talks about fish dishes and the difference between Hasidic and other tastes.
5:58
From the machine transcript
Rezmovits recalls sayings and songs from his Carpathian family tradition, such as not boasting about money. His parents came from Sighet and his grandfather was a melamed. He tells how his father, angered by a Romanian tax collector who seized his grandfather's tefillin bag, threw the man to the ground and his grandmother calmed the man with brandy. Kerler asks about songs of the grandfather and father, about love, and about a comic song about paper children; Rezmovits cannot place the last.
7:58
From the machine transcript
Herbst recounts that he travelled once to Romania, to a married sister in Vişeu de Sus (Oyber Visheve), where her husband was a melamed and he stayed a year before the war. He describes the border crossing with a one-month passport and how people advised him to buy a half-price train ticket. Kerler then asks when the war began.
51:32
From the machine transcript
Herbst speaks about a recent operation and hospital stays, and a prayer for protection. Kerler asks whether the Jews of Berlebash wore beards, and Herbst says his father did and shows photographs of his parents, naming them as Ephraim Fishl and Perl. He says the family spoke only Yiddish at home and Russian with non-Jews, and that after the war he had to learn Hungarian.
37:15
From the machine transcript
Herbst explains the paintings on his living-room wall. The portraits of his parents were done by a painter friend and his wife. Another friend, a disabled artist whose name is unclear, gave a gift picture. A woman's first large work from art school, made from his father, and a village landscape and still life by another Jewish painter also hang there. He gives the Hebrew name Yona Binyomin ben Moshe Yisroel for one friend and tells how that friend asked him about the shofar blast. He adds that people in the hospital at first laughed at him.
6:19
From the machine transcript
Deutsch speaks about his education in Budapest, mentioning a school in a street whose name is unclear and the absence of a yeshiva in Budapest. He then says that his parents died in the war and that three brothers were left.
48:29
From the machine transcript
Pearl says he stayed attached to Jewish life under Communism, kept out of the party, and made patents as a scientific worker, three of which were accepted, and is working on another. He could keep Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at the factory, where colleagues knew he had a holiday. His children went to the Sunday school and he sent them to cheder, and he tells of being checked once about where he lived and how he raised them. The Russians asked for him as a specialist in Russia but local officials would not let him go.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Pearl describes a folk cure for the evil eye from his childhood, in which pieces of bread (or coal) are dropped into water and the result is read; his father's sister performed it for him, and the water was poured at the doorpost near the mezuzah. Kerler asks for details, such as what the number of pieces means. Pearl says only Jews did this. The passage ends with Kerler's question about the mother's salting of meat and Sabbath fish.
29:08
From the machine transcript
Pearl talks about his copies of the tsene-rene and a prayer book that his grandfather owned. He found the prayer book in a synagogue after the family was taken to the ghetto, around Passover 1944. He recalls Yiddish speech, Sabbath prayer and Yom Kippur in a labor camp. He also describes how he made pots from scrap metal to survive, and he names grandparents.
44:44
From the machine transcript
Asked about the best time of his life, Pearl names his childhood, with family Sabbath meals and harmony at home until 1938. He did not want to emigrate despite an uncle in America; his son did leave. He says he is dissatisfied with the situation in Hungary today and with antisemitism, and he speaks about the wartime bombing of Budapest in 1944.
1:32
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb says Yiddish and Hungarian were spoken in her childhood, with Hungarian at school and Yiddish at home and in the courtyard. Her courtyard had many children, and she mentions a family of twelve of whom three remain. She recalls playing with nuts on Sukkot, then talks about lighting the Hanukkah candles on the eighth day and singing Ma'oz Tsur.
3:54
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb names the dreidel as the Hanukkah game of her childhood (in the form 'trendele'). Kerler looks at a booklet about the Yismach Moshe, and Gotlieb mentions her son, who died at forty-eight. The name of her hometown is garbled, and Kerler asks what she remembers of it and its childhood years.
6:53
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb talks about living in Budapest and says she lost her husband and her son. She has relatives in Israel, speaks with them by phone a few times a year, and wishes to visit once more, but she and Kerler note the current war there. Kerler then asks when she left her hometown.
19:21
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks how the dreidel game was played, and Gotlieb says she now plays it at the club with others. A woman present is mentioned as a teacher of the holy tongue. Gotlieb names her mother Chaya Sara and father Shlomo, then recalls Hasidim visiting town from Brooklyn, London and elsewhere, around the time of a rebbe's death (a year like 1928 is heard). They discuss the Yismach Moshe's grave and a document in Kerler's archive.
37:48
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb recalls a song from childhood and then talks about cantors. She says her father sang in the synagogue and she went with him as a child, and mentions a cantor with a fine voice today in a Budapest street. She mentions her little town and a visit there, then Kerler asks whether the family was Hasidic.
24:32
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb talks about her work in Budapest and her return home. She worked in a kosher community kitchen and went back and forth to her home town. She says she returned to live in Budapest in 1987 after her son died. At eighteen she worked in a factory, not in the kitchen.
34:56
From the machine transcript
Gotlieb recalls a grand wedding in Sátoraljaújhely of the rebbe's daughter, married to the son of the Munkács rebbe; Kerler places it in 1933. She speaks about the rabbi (Meizels), his Yiddish and her neighbours. The conversation moves to Yiddish speakers today, who can speak it but will not, a planned visit to the grave of a tsadik, and relatives' marriages in Hungarian.
17:10
From the machine transcript
Blobshteyn describes Purim in his town: wealthier Jews went around with two Roma musicians and Purim players to collect money for matzo for the poor, while children went around with Purim plays and received small coins and sweets. He tells a story from his childhood about his mother hiding honey cakes and his taking the key. Kerler also asks about Purim plays, and Blobshteyn recalls the sung greetings and rewards.
34:59
From the machine transcript
Herbst speaks about weddings and food customs before the war, recalling his sister's wedding with a fiddler. He describes dishes such as bundlekh (a dumpling-like dish) and the simple meals eaten when he worked in the forest. Kerler asks about the word takan (?), which Herbst explains as a flour dish.
43:06
From the machine transcript
Herbst talks about working to support his parents before the war and giving all his wages to the family. In answer to Kerler's questions, he says he was a good child and discusses words for a non-Jewish cemetery, mentioning the Jewish and reformed cemeteries in his town. He says the Jews lived among the non-Jews.
3:19
From the machine transcript
Herbst describes a visit to the Bronx in America, where he was pressed to lead the morning service in a synagogue. Kerler then asks about Yiddish words and expressions, such as the Russian-derived word for 'right away', the meaning of 'apakn' and related words, and the word for 'now'. Herbst then answers questions about his family in America and Israel, and about a friend who became a rabbi. Kerler asks about a song on the coming of the Messiah.
5:12
From the machine transcript
Doman recalls that after the yeshivas he returned to Budapest, where he was drafted into forced labor when the Holocaust began, and survived. In 1944 (?) he began university studies and, in parallel, the rabbinical seminary, which he explains was Conservative. In answer to Kerler's questions he distinguishes the Hungarian Neolog communities from the Orthodox; his parents were Orthodox.
10:36
From the machine transcript
Doman and Kerler discuss differences between Yiddish and Hungarian Yiddish-German, including some words (Sukkot, travel to Vienna), and Doman's learning of German in school. He says his mother and grandmothers were strictly Orthodox and spoke Hungarian. He explains that Hungarian Jews' language shifted after emancipation in 1867, with women first. They also discuss Polish and Galician Jews in Hungary, such as those from Munkács and Ungvár, who spoke Yiddish and quickly learned Hungarian.
49:47
From the machine transcript
Reti speaks about Nyírmada, a larger village than Rohod, where the rabbi lived and travelled to nearby villages. This was Rabbi Yankl Yosef Yungrays, from a family of rabbis. He says that the rabbi's family of twelve was sent to Auschwitz and killed together in the crematorium, and about the selection to left and right at Auschwitz.
19:35
From the machine transcript
Reti says the best time was going home from the yeshiva at the end of a term and for holidays, when the family were all at home. He tries to recall a Hasidic melody, says he cannot remember songs from his parents, and recites or sings a plea to God about Jewish troubles that was sung before the war in times of persecution.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opening of the interview, with Kerler giving the date and place. Reti explains that his father owned fields with a name that carried an unfavorable association under the Communists, so the family name was changed to Reti. Kerler remarks that a Hungarian passage cannot be translated and asks Reti to go back over what he remembers.
17:10
From the machine transcript
Stern talks in Hungarian, with some Yiddish interpreting, about Jewish life today. She keeps kosher with the help of a woman who shops with her, and the meat comes from Budapest. One of her sons lives in Israel, where the household is kosher, and her daughter lives in Debrecen, where it is not. The other speaker asks questions about her children and where they live.
21:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what her parents called her in Yiddish and who her grandfather was. Stern says in Hungarian that she had no trade and, after moving to Debrecen, worked in a cooperative making plastic children's toys. The conversation also covers the words for city and village, an American Yiddish speaker, and her husband's job as chief bookkeeper on a state farm. She says they wanted to emigrate but were refused. The tape ends with some talk about travelling on to Oradea and about a woman from Mukachevo who lives in the building.
27:02
From the machine transcript
Mostly informal conversation, much of it in Hungarian, about food and drink offered to the guests, fruit, her diet and illness, and her flat. Kerler and David touch on a Purim greeting and on which towns it is known from, and S2 remarks that men rather than women used to speak Yiddish. David talks of her health, an operation, her age, and a move to the present flat from the Kossuth street flat (?). Kerler says he recently came from America and describes his travels and his parents' ages at death. The passage ends with thanks and goodbyes to David.
16:26
From the machine transcript
Galambos answers questions about which prayers and Sabbath rituals were sung with a melody, such as Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Friday night and kiddush. He sings a song about the town of Belz and childhood there. They then mention a brother who has died, and Kerler asks about his years in yeshiva.
31:00
From the machine transcript
Galambos recites the words of 'Papirene kinder'. Kerler remarks that the film in which it appears came out after the war. Galambos says 41 people came back to Vaja and that he says Kaddish for his brothers, and Kerler asks about his brother's widow.
48:31
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler about prewar holidays in Vaja, Galambos says everyone went to the synagogue and held a Passover seder. He describes the comic Four Questions his father used to stage, and says he was the middle child and a twin. He speaks about Purim and recites at Kerler's request a rhyming Purim shpil verse, repeated for the recording.
12:08
From the machine transcript
Altman recalls a Yiddish saying about a slap and a word, and talks about a dispute with a neighbour. Kerler asks about stories her parents told. She explains the expression for 'empty dreams' and says she cannot recall old tales. She speaks of her pious mother and of her children's Soviet schooling.
18:47
From the machine transcript
Altman answers Kerler's questions about her mother's cooking, including a Viennese soup. She recalls Yom Kippur fasting and the morning prayer, which she tries to recite. She talks about Hanukkah, with latkes and honey pastries, and about Purim: gifts of food and the Purim play, which she was ashamed to have her brother take part in. She recites Purim rhymes, describes Passover, including the four questions, and ends with a brief exchange about a fire brigade.
34:22
From the machine transcript
Altman answers Kerler's questions about travelling theater troupes that played in Russian, and about the Yiddish theater in Beltz. She saw the play Tevye the Milkman there after the war, because before the war she had no money for the theater. She then talks about her earnings and sewing a dress for herself, and about her father's low wages and the hard life.
29:15
From the machine transcript
The sisters describe the end of Sabbath, when the mother said a blessing for a good week, a prayer on rising, and the custom of putting a piece of bread in the water pail. Kerler asks who taught Dzigifker to read and write Yiddish. She says she was sent to cheder in Mărculești but the boys would not let a girl study, so her father took her out and hired a private tutor. The sisters offer songs and stories, and Katz greets them and joins in.
45:21
From the machine transcript
Dzigifker recalls Purim in prewar Mărculești, with a festively decorated turkey for a party buffet and children dancing. She tells how the rebbe Shmuel Zandl, from Rashkov(?), stayed in their home for six weeks with two attendants. People came to him for help, her mother's limp was healed by his blessing, and the mother refused payment. The father died after the family went back to the village, leaving three orphans. Practical talk about the recording and a Russian conversation about a scarf and photographs interrupt the passage.
17:29
From the machine transcript
Bukshpun says that today old Jews attend the synagogue, speaking Yiddish, mainly on Sabbath. He then speaks of the war, naming the Obodivka district in Transnistria and the village of Petkovka (?), where about 750 prisoners were kept in a pigsty. There his father, mother and a brother died of hunger and cold. He came back in 1944 with his brother Shloyme and sister Leyke.
50:01
From the machine transcript
Reizman recounts the war: with her parents she was evacuated from Tighina to Tiraspol and then further as the front approached, and when no transport was provided they walked to a station. She describes her sister's small children and a Christian woman's help. They reached Makhachkala, where they ate fish heads and were sent to a poor kolkhoz with a mud-floored room. She then worked at a canning factory until the war ended. Her parents died of hunger in Makhachkala, and she returned with her older sister. The Russian and Yiddish words for a rack or cart are discussed.
57:50
From the machine transcript
Goldberg describes the Călărași market and recalls the custom of kapores before Yom Kippur. She says her childhood and prewar and postwar life were hard, and that her best time was after her marriage when her children were born. The synagogue was closed by the Soviets, and people travelled to Chişinău to pray. At the end she says that people at first miss a place they have left, and that she has lived in Călărași all her life.
11:29
From the machine transcript
Roif describes his family's wartime ordeal. He mentions a wealthy local mill owner, Winkelstein (?), and his father's house built with money earned in America. The gendarmerie took over the house, then gathered the Jews of the village in the yard of a neighbor's house and took them to a camp at Rîșcani, where they spent three months. He describes the hunger, disease and lack of water, then the forced march toward Dubyna. Near Cosăuți the marchers were shot into pits, and Roif spent a night in a pit after falling in with a doomed group. He also recounts atrocities he witnessed, including the shooting of a pregnant woman.
18:31
From the machine transcript
Zelda sings a song urging people to be human, to live and let live, and to help the poor. Kerler asks her to repeat the first four lines and then asks whether such songs were sung in the camp. Roif and Zelda go on to relatives, a Beyle who was Mendl's wife, and an anecdote about Moyshe Vinkelshteyn the tailor and which Moyshe was meant.
30:54
From the machine transcript
Zelda sings two songs. The first is about a cheder pupil, Motl, who is beaten by the rebbe and complains to his father; the second is about a drunkard in a tavern who threatens his wife. She says she learned them from Sroel/Israel of Edineț, a relative of Lemster's, but does not recall how they were taught. Lemster mentions that he held his bar mitzvah in Edineț, where musicians played.
48:47
From the machine transcript
Roif and Zelda are teased by Lemster about how they met and why she chose him; Roif had served five years in the fleet. They go on to acquaintances and relatives, including people in Israel, a Rîșcani book in Yiddish by someone named Yozik (?) and a relative who left as a halutz in the 1930s. At the end Lemster and Kerler elicit a word of Moldovan origin (written as skapet) for something dropped or lost.
40:22
From the machine transcript
Mester describes three years in the Berlivka camp, including a stay in Vertiujeni where Romanian gendarmes beat prisoners and tore at rabbis' beards. She recalls being held in a forest for a few days and her elderly mother being helped to walk. In Berlivka, prisoners lived in a barn, her mother sewed for Christians in exchange for food, and they were taken to repair a bath house. Young people sang and danced; Germans searched for partisans, and the camp was freed by partisans in German uniform. Lemster and Kerler ask about words in camp speech.
46:13
From the machine transcript
Tkach names Jewish dishes she makes, such as gefilte fish and kugel, learned from her mother. She describes hunger and hardship in Chișinău after the war until about 1950, queuing at night for bread. The family found their house destroyed and lived in a shed; she was given a flat only in 1970. Her father played classical music, and she does not remember Jewish music at home.
56:28
From the machine transcript
Kerler states that it is 20 December 2005 and that they are in Zlata Tkach's flat in Chișinău, and he begins the interview with Bengelsdorf by asking him to tell what he remembers about his father.
15:06
From the machine transcript
Bengelsdorf continues on the late 1940s arrests, the murder of Mikhoels in 1948, and his mother's return in 1956. He recalls visiting a camp with his father and staying in Moscow with former fellow prisoners of his mother. He finished the conservatory and worked in Chișinău as a pianist and concertmaster at the opera theater and for many years as a teacher at the music school. With perestroika he joined Moisei Lemster and Boris Sandler (?) in reviving Yiddish culture. He then speaks of a composer acquaintance, Bitkin (?), who has become religious, and a kitchen-arrangements exchange.
39:57
From the machine transcript
Kishlyansky tells of the war's start in Briceni in June 1941: robbery and killings, then Romanian soldiers marching the Jews on foot toward the Dniester. Shootings and rain on the field are recalled. He was held about half a year in the Sokolon ghetto behind wire, where peasants sold food once a week. In October they were sent on to Ukraine, where many died of illness; he worked herding pigs on a kolkhoz. After the Red Army arrived his father was taken and shot.
33:06
From the machine transcript
Abramovich talks about what remains of Mendele's legacy: autographs, the library, the museum, and his translations and interest in natural science. She says the family fled in 1941 when she was seven. She mentions a Polish song and a poem by Maksim Rylsky dedicated to Mendele, stories her grandmother told, an album made in Vilnius and now in Israel's National Museum, and her father's pseudonym. The visit then turns informal: cake, Israeli press clippings about her, a tennis-champion article, and book sales and names.
17:50
From the machine transcript
Roif sings a love song about a girl abandoned by the lover who gave her a ring, and says her husband stopped her singing in the car. After declining to sing more, she tells Katz that Passover was the best holiday, with dishes brought down from the attic. She says she and her father went to the kloyz on Yom Kippur and Sabbath. She begins to say that her mother was ill and died, and her father remarried.
39:55
From the machine transcript
Roif cannot say anything about Zionists or Bundists. She says her husband was a gifted son whom his father wanted to send to study, but the war destroyed that. She says some non-Jews who worked for or traded with Jews spoke good Yiddish, and she adds that mixed marriages are common now but were not before the war.
31:16
From the machine transcript
Gordin tells of the war: his father was called into the Red Army, and the mother and children set out on foot via Vertiujeni and Camenca across the Dniester to his grandfathers' village in Ukraine. They went on to Kryzhopil and Zhabokrych, where his father worked in a German bakery and Jews were shot in a cellar. They were then held in a ghetto in a village whose name is unclear (Mierskivka (?)), where his father also worked at an oil press and on road building. The family bought its way out of the deportation of Bessarabian Jews to Kryzhopil. Gordin recalls hunger, disease and Red Cross clothing, and that they stayed there until 1944.
33:19
From the machine transcript
Sherman describes the Jewish holidays before the war: on Yom Kippur eve the shops on his street closed for Kol Nidre. At Passover his father led the seder, reclining on a couch and reading the Haggadah, with the children asking the questions. Sherman does not remember who asked.
17:08
From the machine transcript
Diner recalls Simchat Torah with an apple and a candle, and the interviewers ask about other holiday customs. She sings two Yiddish songs she learned from her mother, one telling the listener to stay cheerful and hide pain, the other about not having listened to one's wife. She says her mother also sang Russian romances and that her mother's family name was Gutman, from Edineț.
55:20
From the machine transcript
Diner is asked about Fălești and says Jews travelled to Chișinău, Bucharest and Iași. Kerler and Lemster ask about customs of going to a healer, quenching coals against the evil eye and similar practices. She says that when the Soviets came her mother went to a Jewish woman healer who told her she would not see her son and daughter again.
27:10
From the machine transcript
Muchnik compares her own prayer habits with her father's. He prayed in Ashkenazi pronunciation, while she uses Sephardic (modern Hebrew) pronunciation from school. At Kerler's request she recites the morning prayer Modeh ani and a blessing, in the way he said them. She then recalls a childhood Passover seder, where she as the youngest asked the questions, and her parents' custom of inviting soldiers as guests.
35:18
From the machine transcript
Muchnik describes Sabbath food in her family, including gefilte fish, of which she gives a recipe with onions cooked in water and then oil, egg and bread. Lemster asks about the ingredients. She also mentions an unfamiliar dish called pitshe, noodles, kugel and small cookies, and tells how her mother baked challah every Friday. The cholent was sent to a neighbour's oven or their own, and she recalls the family kitchen with oven.
49:57
From the machine transcript
Muchnik describes the family sukkah built by her mother, with her father busy in his workshop, and her brother killed at about twenty. Meals were eaten there. She recalls Passover preparations, the special dishes brought down from the attic, the hungry day of Passover eve and her aunt feeding her. Asked about Hanukkah, she says her mother made various pastries and she describes receiving small sums of money for ice cream.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Muchnik recites Heine's Lorelei in German, which she learned at the gymnasium, after Kerler asks her to repeat it. She then starts to speak of another piece or of an article she wrote, which she sent to a brother in America, and recalls her elder brother's participation in a Yiddish theatre.
6:28
From the machine transcript
Muchnik discusses a prayer text and a request to transcribe it into Russian letters, and her reaction to being called a nationalist because of her support for Israel and the Jews. In answer to Kerler she says she must believe in God. She stresses that she is the last of the Muchnik family and tells a story of a friend rescuing her from a fire, which she calls a miracle. Kerler then starts asking how one says 'why' in Yiddish.
9:40
From the machine transcript
Goldman describes Jewish life in Ialoveni before the war: many Jews lived on two streets, and he recalls two or three synagogues, later saying there were five, one of them large. His father prayed daily with tefillin and tallit and attended synagogue. He cannot say how many Jews lived there.
23:30
From the machine transcript
Asked about a Yiddish library, Goldman says there was one in another town and mentions relatives there, including his father's sister. He cannot recall what he read, whether Yiddish newspapers came, or Yiddish theatre, though he says there was one Yiddish book at home. Asked about the war years, he mentions two Jews with him, one named Shaykele Bikhman (?), who is now in Israel and unwell. The passage breaks off with Goldman asking to finish.
15:15
From the machine transcript
Goldman recalls her childhood schooling: four years in a Romanian primary school from age seven, then a Yiddish professional school where she learned reading and writing in Yiddish and trained as a tailor. She describes the school, its building later turned into a museum, and staying with an uncle named Yisroel and his family, with Sabbath candle-blessing there.
54:35
From the machine transcript
Benderskij speaks of his childhood and two friends, one now in America, and games played with ball and the Romanian game of zurka. He describes the arrival of the Soviet troops, an exchange between neighbours, and a grandfather's warning about children. Lemster asks about rescuers; the speaker recalls non-Jews who helped Jews and the search for relatives' property on return.
19:29
From the machine transcript
Dajch recalls the preparation for Yom Kippur, in particular the custom of swinging a chicken (kapores) which her mother performed with poor means. She describes children helping wash and dry walnuts for sale to visiting Americans. She then talks about working in an office and a fixed-price task connected with a textile firm and checks.
22:44
From the machine transcript
Dajch describes children's games in response to Kerler's questions: stone knucklebones, sticks, buttons in a hole, and nuts. She then recalls how her grandfather brought a sugar lump from synagogue on Sabbath mornings and how the children shared it. She also covers Sabbath bread and meals and what her mother cooked, and Yom Kippur at home, including her brother's prayers. She begins to recite a poem.
29:00
From the machine transcript
Dajch recites a Yiddish poem her mother taught her, about an educated girl in Warsaw too choosy about suitors, and repeats the last lines at Kerler's request. Asked about songs, dancing and courting, she says she did not dance or like balls and read Romanian books and Sholem Aleichem instead.
38:07
From the machine transcript
Answering Lemster, Dajch describes Jewish life in Nisporeni: the old and new synagogues, one for the poorer and one for the wealthier, and her mother's synagogue attendance. She recalls Rosh Hashanah customs and lanterns, a brother's disapproval of a boy's bicycle, and the Jewish population with its shops, taverns and a few craftsmen. She tells of a Greek baker who was friendly to Jews and who taught her mother to trade grain for flour.
57:04
From the machine transcript
Dajch says cantors visited the town to sing in the synagogue. Asked about the evil eye, she describes her mother's cures: pouring wax, quenching coals in water, and the ritual after a fright, including covering the child and a visit to the synagogue. Kerler asks about related sayings and songs; the passage ends with a song fragment.
54:24
From the machine transcript
Rotner recalls how she met her husband, who returned from the war and had been called up from Chișinău, in the family's first postwar months. They married in 1946, after returning in 1945, and describe their poverty and housing difficulties.
40:33
From the machine transcript
Fershtman talks about working life in Odesa as a young man and then about the war: his older brother brought a certificate, and they left by ship in 1941 for the evacuation. A passage of side talk between the interviewers follows, and the interviewer asks him to continue about the evacuation.
35:35
From the machine transcript
Rojtman recalls Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, including fasting and the kapores custom, and trips to the Dniester. She says everyone built a sukkah in the yard. For Sabbath, her father returned from synagogue with friends who had no family and came to breakfast, and her mother baked and cooked well, including in the Russian oven in the yard. She talks about papalikes (?) and balabushkes, candle blessing, and her mother's observance.
27:51
From the machine transcript
Yaruskaya recalls the arrival of the Soviets and the outbreak of war. The family fled, walking for months to Rostov and passing Dubăsari. Local Ukrainians gave them bread and food, and the children briefly lost their parents. From Rostov they went by train to Makhachkala and then by steamer across the Caspian Sea in a storm, in which many people were lost. They lived on the street in Krasnovodsk, then in a camp-like settlement outside, where the parents worked and the mother was weak.
11:59
From the machine transcript
Leibelman talks about her life today: she is old and ill and cares for three people with little help. She mentions a brother in Israel with four sons and a local official unfriendly to Jews. Lemster then asks about Jewish observance during the war.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what village Jews did for a living. Kleyman says there were few craftsmen, only some tailors, and that many Jews worked the land and threshed alongside others. She mentions her family's poverty and her father's aunt, who left many daughters. Kerler then asks terms for a peasant, a tsadik and a rabbi, and Kleyman discusses how Yiddish differed between Latvian, Ukrainian and Bessarabian Jews.
12:16
From the machine transcript
Kleyman answers questions on folk healing: a spoken charm against the evil eye, used by non-Jews, and a Jewish woman's story about asking a rebbe to perform one. She tells how her infant sister fell ill after a wedding and was cured when a non-Jewish woman performed a charm and quenched coals. Kerler then returns to wedding customs, asking about the entertainer and the songs her mother sang.
15:37
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Kleyman to tell her war experience. She describes being driven to Balanivka and then Bershad, where they were in the ghetto. Many were taken to work in Tulchyn and Mykolaiv and did not return. She also recalls a forest where Germans on one side and Romanians on the other, at a bridge, had people sent to a shooting. Her brother-in-law was a gymnasium graduate. The transcript is partly garbled.
17:57
From the machine transcript
Kleyman talks about hardship today: the small quarterly payment from Germany that Jewish survivors receive, her expenses for soap, utilities and gas, and aging acquaintances who are sick or paralysed. She complains that non-ghetto survivors get nothing and contrasts Germany's treatment of Jews with the poverty here. Her son went to Germany six years ago and is an immigrant there. Katz questions her about the sums.
MDV 187Maria Leibovna Kleyman; Iosif (Yosel) Matveyevich Shvartzman; Raisa Aizekovna ShvartzmanLipcani, 2005
53:08
From the machine transcript
Raisa talks about life today: money lost in the currency changes, pensions, the children, and her son, a gynecologist, who runs a minibus business. Lemster then asks about Jewish holidays.
7:06
From the machine transcript
Shvartzman answers Lemster's questions about the rebbe of Ștefănești and says she has travelled to Sadagura (Sadhora) and wants to visit Vyzhnytsya. She explains her upbringing in a poor but observant home and her habit of giving food to anyone who comes in. Asked about folk remedies, she describes treatments for the evil eye and for fright, including quenching coals. She also tells a story about a husband who was unfaithful.
24:20
From the machine transcript
Lemster and Kerler ask about her youth. The talk turns to her husband's army service, when he sent her parcels and money. She also talks about hunger and about a golden wedding. She recalls her son's wedding in a restaurant. Interviewers ask about Hasidim; she says she heard nothing about them. Katz explains that he teaches Yiddish in Vilnius, and a Russian phone call interrupts.
28:11
From the machine transcript
After the formal questions end, Katz asks whether Akkerman sang Yiddish songs; she says she knows songs but cannot sing. Kerler and the others then talk with a second speaker, apparently her son, about the Jewish population of Edineț before and after the war, the loss of Jews in the war, and a possible painter. The exchange ends with contact details and email for keeping in touch. Much of the passage is garbled.
20:09
From the machine transcript
Mundrian speaks about Yiddish in the family: with her mother and aunt it was the language used, and her son understands it. In a communal apartment from 1962 she lived with four Jewish and four Russian neighbours. She recalls Purim customs, Purim gifts and her mother's charity, and her son's bar mitzvah. Lemster mentions an interview made the previous day in Chișinău. She discusses non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, good relations with fellow pupils and a convert family in Susleny who left.
31:46
From the machine transcript
Mundrian says that during the war she was in the Caucasus with her mother, who worked on a kolkhoz, while her father was taken to the front. She describes the journey home. At a station her mother was pushed off the train by two Polish Jews and ran after it for days, until a Russian general in a car heard her crying and helped her catch up. Lemster asks about Polish and Lithuanian Jews.
7:19
From the machine transcript
Kigel talks about childhood before the war. She attended a Romanian school, and her brother learned Hebrew and was in Maccabi. She says a Jewish tutor from Lithuania was hired by her parents to teach them Yiddish, but she and her sister ran away and avoided lessons. She marks the arrival of the Russians in 1940.
44:55
From the machine transcript
Grinshpun describes evacuation at age five in a Don Cossack settlement and Kazakh area. The family suffered hunger, ate flour found in sacks, lived among Cossacks and described their food. Her father arrived from Stalingrad to Nilovka (?) and took them out as the Germans approached. Her grandfather died on the way.
59:15
From the machine transcript
Grinshpun speaks about life today and her mother's tkhines. Kerler says he is leaving on the eleventh and lives in Bloomington, and she asks about Jews in America. She says she travelled little, only to Romania, and cannot afford Israel; relatives abroad help her and write letters.
35:24
From the machine transcript
Sharhorodskij answers Kerler's and Lemster's questions on how holidays were kept at home. He mentions Passover, Shavuot and fasting on Yom Kippur, and describes his mother's baking for Purim and the dishes she cooked. He does not remember the recipe for the fish dish.
15:06
From the machine transcript
Kotliar talks about the Sabbath and holidays at home before the war, including Passover. Her father prayed at the window, matzo was baked, and the parents ate only what was permitted. She says God was remembered at home, but that her sister was much younger and remembers little of the prewar years.
20:57
From the machine transcript
Kotliar speaks about her mother-in-law's encounter with the Rîbniţa rebbe, and about the rebbe's winter bathing in Rezina(?), his work as a ritual slaughterer and his help to the poor. Lemster then asks about Moldovan words her parents used and she gives a few. Kerler encourages her, and Lemster notes the words he records.
12:34
From the machine transcript
Boiarskaia says the synagogues in the area were closed and people feared even to mention them, but her father kept up Jewish observance until the war. She recalls the seder led by her grandfather and then her father, the Passover dishes and the separate chest in the attic, and Purim treats. She explains that she baked matzo herself in her own oven for her children.
52:59
From the machine transcript
Boiarskaia describes how her mother prepared cholent: the oven heated on Friday, the dishes sealed in, and the noodle kugel everyone waited for. Lemster asks about Passover dishes such as kezl, malakekh or pletselekh from potatoes, stuffed derma and goose fat, and she names some terms from Bessarabia. She goes on to the braided challah, her mother's chopped fish with matzo meal and onion, and horseradish, beet borscht and its uses on Passover and Shavuot.
24:30
From the machine transcript
Plotnik describes her mother lighting Sabbath candles and her father's languages: Hebrew, Russian, Romanian and Yiddish. She mentions a Jewish library in Dumbraveni run by the community. She says nothing is left from before the war and begins to tell of being driven from her home.
57:10
From the machine transcript
Plotnik describes the High Holidays before the war. Her mother prayed in the women's section as a prayer-leader, and the family had a field with nut trees. She fasted from age seven and describes the meal before Yom Kippur and the tea afterwards, and the words for these. She says that in the Bershad ghetto she wanted to fast and to eat, and mentions begging.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Plotnik recalls how the holidays were kept in her parents' home before the war. She goes through the period after Yom Kippur, Sukkot (eating in the sukkah, her mother going to the synagogue), Simchat Torah, Hanukkah and Purim. Her mother gave Hanukkah money, and Plotnik recalls the dairy dishes of Shavuot. For Passover she describes the special dishes kept in the attic, koshering them with a hot stone, and the matzo and potato dishes. She notes that the Bulgarian Jews in the camp or ghetto made matzo, and that at the seder as a child of about seven she remembers the hidden afikoman, opening the door for Elijah and her father's singing. Katz and Lemster prompt her on each holiday.
18:37
From the machine transcript
Plotnik answers Katz's questions about the meaning of a few Yiddish words, including dybbuk and golem. She describes how she was treated against the evil eye: her mother took her to Jewish and non-Jewish healers, an old Christian woman and a Jewish woman called Malke, who used spoken charms and a knife. She also describes pouring wax for fright. Lemster asks whether she remembers more, and she says she does not bless properly.
MDV 205Meyer Khaimovich Furman; Tsipora Yankelevna Furman; Dina (Dine, Donye, Dosye, Dintse, Disele) Abramovna MirenburgBălți, Soroca, 2005
51:56
From the machine transcript
Mirenburg talks about her family's observance, including Passover and the writing of a Torah scroll funded by a great-grandfather's gold chain. She describes Sguritzy before the war, saying there were fifteen thousand Jews and at least three synagogues; one on her street later became a school. The family kept separate dairy and meat dishes. Kerler asks about the Torah scroll and the synagogues.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Mirenburg answers questions about Sabbath in her parents' home: her mother's blessing over the candles, the non-Jewish 'Shabbes goy' who came to heat the stove, and her mother's baking of challah and salting of meat. She recalls her grandfather, who knew Yiddish and Hebrew and acted as a peacemaker. She remembers beginning to fast on Yom Kippur at age nine (and fasting in the camp/ghetto), and recounts a childhood incident when she told her mother that her sister sewed a sack on Sabbath. She then describes the Passover seder led by her grandfather, the afikoman gift, the four questions, and Passover foods such as matzo pancakes, potato cakes and 'Pesach bagels'.
19:11
From the machine transcript
Mirenburg says there were craftsmen in Sguritzy, though none in her family, and recalls her mother sending her with Sabbath food to a poor tailor's family with several children. She also describes the kapores custom before Yom Kippur, with a chicken for each child, which was given to the poor.
46:06
From the machine transcript
Roif tells how a holy book was passed on to her uncle in the camp and kept in Bălți. She then sings two songs learned in the camp: one of longing for home, the other about a hungry child who steals bread. She says the songs come from camp life and that she has forgotten others.
29:33
From the machine transcript
Plotnik describes how a neighbor heated the oven for the family on Sabbath, and the Jewish-style chopped fish her mother made. She recalls her sister asking the four questions at the Passover seder, going to fetch matzo, and Purim customs such as masked visitors and singing. She also mentions her mother's charity after her father's death.
54:00
From the machine transcript
Plotnik says she remembers few prayers and customs, such as kapores, and recalls her Kaddish. She speaks of her son and family today, then sings a version of Tumbalalaika with a riddle verse. Lemster and Kerler ask about further songs and she says she cannot recall them. A second voice then sings a Yiddish song about Bershad.
7:09
From the machine transcript
Plotnik recalls coming back home after the camp to find the cellar dug up by people looking for gold, and a later visit to Dumbraveni with her boss. She describes yearly visits by her son to the family graves and walking the cemetery with her sister. Lemster asks about other people from Dumbraveni who might be interviewed, and the talk turns to one now in Israel.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about folk protection against the evil eye. She recalls women who whispered charms to avert it, and a question about quenching coals. She recalls that people used to consult a rebbe or a 'good Jew'. She tells her mother's story of her widowed grandmother going to such a rebbe with a neighbour. The rebbe may be the one of Rybnitsa (?), and Kerler asks about the word for a rented room.
17:04
From the machine transcript
Milevskaya describes the local Jewish community: about 120 people receive assistance, of whom about 50 are Jews. Some stay for reasons of health or because their children live nearby, and mixed marriages are common. She mentions her daughter in Odesa, her son's three children in Israel, and her grandchildren's army service. Kerler then asks if she remembers a story or song from her grandmother.
42:20
From the machine transcript
Dunaevskij recalls Sabbath at home: his mother lit the candles and made the blessing, baked challah every week, and prepared sweet gefilte fish, made with horseradish and tomato and ground with a hand grinder. Kerler then asks about Yiddish cinema.
12:49
From the machine transcript
Klichinskaia says the family was evacuated to the Stalingrad region, where she and her mother worked in a hospital. She was 15 when the war began. At home they spoke Yiddish, but in evacuation they no longer did, and her father put on tefillin out of sight. She mentions her sister Adl, who had an operation.
48:34
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what she wants remembered about Bender. Klichinskaia says there were many poor people under the Romanians, and things were better under Soviet rule. Her father worked in a cooperative whose owner was Jewish, so he did not work on Saturday. Her grandfather died in June.
28:26
From the machine transcript
Luminskaia talks about Yiddish songs and the sadness of Yiddish melodies. She recalls her mother telling her about the First World War and singing a song from that time, and begins to recite its words, about a wounded soldier writing to his parents.
23:53
From the machine transcript
Goldshteyn answers Lemster's questions about folk customs for averting the evil eye; he recalls charms and a non-Jewish woman who performed them. Luminskaia recalls that when she fell ill at the age of four, her grandfather covered her with a black prayer shawl and healed her, with a local healer also mentioned. She describes her affection for him. Goldshteyn then returns to the custom of dispelling the evil eye.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Luminskaia talks about the songs her mother sang, including sad ones and a fine Sabbath song, and says the words stayed with her. She then sings a Yiddish song in the form of a letter from a wounded soldier to his parents, who has lost the use of his right hand and his sight. Kerler remarks that it was sung in three verses, and the two interviewers thank her.
15:26
From the machine transcript
Butorski says his childhood friends were Jewish children and that he was in a Soviet school, not a Yiddish one. He recalls Sabbath at home with candle-lighting and the food his mother cooked, including gefilte fish and chopped herring. He gives her gefilte fish recipe in detail, then speaks of other dishes such as cholent, kugel and kishke, and compares her cooking with his wife's.
30:19
From the machine transcript
Butorski recounts the evacuation from Bender in 1941. His father hired a wagon and the family went to Tiraspol, then by open railway cars to the Rostov region and Stalingrad, where he worked on a tractor team. From there they went to Makhachkala, Baku, Krasnovodsk and Tashkent and ended on a kolkhoz in the Pavlodar region. He describes his work in the fields and fishing, and says he returned in October 1944.
40:08
From the machine transcript
Elizaveta recalls holidays in poverty, including Passover, burning the chametz and Purim baking, and says there were no Purim players in the town. She says her mother did not make gefilte fish; she learned it herself. She describes buying on credit from a wealthy employer, the Sabbath hen and cholent, and how the family kept house after her mother's death.
30:47
From the machine transcript
Meir says his mother sang lullabies he no longer remembers, and that he himself did not sing. He names a local singer, Khaim Dabrish (?), and says young people sang mostly Romanian songs.
27:49
From the machine transcript
Finkel says she cannot recall her childhood friends, who have gone to Israel, and that she had no close friend. She tells how she met her husband: he lived in Botoșani and she in Sulita, and friends who later left for Israel introduced them. The match was arranged and she had to consult her parents. She cannot recall the wedding meal.
36:46
From the machine transcript
Brief says he worked as a dental technician for forty-five years. He says he dislikes Romanian-style dancing at weddings. His father sang well, Russian songs among them, and Brief recalls a Yiddish saying about children. He tells how he avoided drinking in Botoșani and discusses vodka and brandy.
11:09
From the machine transcript
Footage in Rădăuți and a visit to the community museum. Grinberg shows items from her parents' home, including a megillah, her father's tallis, shofars and Hanukkah lamps. She says her parents were pious and that this made the museum possible.
12:45
From the machine transcript
Cohn answers a question about the word for a windowpane. He then explains he fell in love with his wife and met her in Botoșani. He describes the wedding, with a rhymester-entertainer named Finyele (?) and a badkhn. The musicians were a klezmer band, including some Christians, led by a Jew and playing modern and Yiddish songs.
49:04
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld describes Sabbath eve in his grandparents' home, with a grandfather reminding his wife to light the candles, the fish from the local river, gefilte fish, soup and meat with noodles. He recalls the family singing Sabbath songs at the table and kugel on Sabbath day, and says Yiddish was spoken there although he did not study it in school. He also speaks of Yiddish speakers he met in Israel (?).
1:01:14
From the machine transcript
Grunfeld says he spent the war doing forced labor in Tighina fortress and other places in Romania. He mentions that Cluj Jews were sent elsewhere, some to Transnistria, and that his mother lived in Turda near the Hungarian border during the war, then Hungarian-ruled.
37:04
From the machine transcript
Hershkovich speaks about postwar Jewish life, noting that many did not return and that Jews left after the communists came. He mentions prewar Zionist organisations such as Mizrachi and Hashomer Hatzair. He says he lived in Israel in the late 1980s, where his daughter works as a doctor, and why he came back, citing the heat; he also mentions relatives in America, and Kerler then asks about weddings in Dej.
11:51
From the machine transcript
Kerler ends the interview with Hershkovich and asks for a few closing words on the continuity of Jewishness. Hershkovich comments on genealogical research by relatives from America. The camera then records family photographs. He identifies a sister, Shindl, and a brother, Yisroel (?), both in Auschwitz in 1944 (?), and shows a photograph of a synagogue.
33:35
From the machine transcript
The second man sings a Hungarian-language song, then a Hasidic song attributed to the Kaliver rebbe. He says his grandfather used to sing it. He tells how the rebbe is said to have heard the melody from a shepherd child and bought it from him. Kerler praises the singing and begins to thank the interviewees.
5:43
From the machine transcript
Freundlich recalls speeches by Jewish public figures at a Munich event about Jewish continuity. She says that, unlike under the Communists, Jews elsewhere are free to practise. She mentions a brother and sister in America and says that no one in her family married out. She is then asked her surname.
37:16
From the machine transcript
Freundlich discusses Sabbath table songs (zemirot, Shalom aleichem) and the Passover songs, and recalls her father singing at home. Kerler asks about a Passover song, about Hasidic melodies and whether the songs were sad. She mentions her two brothers, one buried in Satu Mare, and reflects that Jewish joy is never complete in exile.
42:16
From the machine transcript
Freundlich speaks about traditional prewar weddings in Satu Mare, including the mitzvah dance, her sister's wedding and her own. She sings a wedding song heard at a postwar wedding in Dej with a badkhn. Her own wedding was quiet, with the seven blessings only, and Kerler asks about singing in the camps.
41:30
From the machine transcript
Freundlich describes the seder at home before the war, which lasted until morning, with counting of the omer the next night, and the Passover foods. Kerler asks about the Yiddish word for 'to try' (prombirn). The rest of the passage is Hungarian talk about photographs and her grandchildren's musical careers, with Kerler asking to copy them on camera.
10:45
From the machine transcript
Freundlich recalls prewar Jewish weddings with the 'mitzvah dance' and the hired announcer. She then talks about relatives in Várdan (?), about Jews left in Satu Mare and Cluj and the community's problems. She goes on at length, partly in Hungarian, about her husband's family (Weinstock) and their business, an uncle in Nyíregyháza who was head of the Judenrat, and a minister who helped them. Kerler also asks about a humorist who was paid to amuse guests at weddings.
23:04
From the machine transcript
Freundlich mentions songs sung at Passover and a haggadah she gave to her grandchildren. The talk turns to people from the community who are still alive, and to the lack of a minyan in Satu Mare. She goes on in Hungarian about the Jewish population of the region, the ghettos and rabbis driven out of Székely towns, and a landowner's fate. The latter part is in a long Hungarian monologue about the Weinstock family dryer and a minister.
54:49
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Sabbath songs (zemires); Grunfeld recalls his grandfather at the Friday-evening table and singing Eshes Khayil and Sholem Aleykhem. They then discuss matchmaking and an observant man who ate only kosher food, died in Cluj, and was buried in Israel. They also describe religious life since the 1980s–90s.
17:25
From the machine transcript
Miller describes Friday night at home before the war, with a white tablecloth, candles and two large challahs, and his father singing and chanting the Sabbath hymns and prayers. He chants and sings long stretches, the transcript of which is too garbled to read, and tells a story about Joseph who honors the Sabbath and finds a jewel in a fish. He closes with remarks on Jewish tradition and the Holocaust.
50:33
From the machine transcript
Isidor recounts postwar religious life in Dorohoi, where lay cantors led the services. Once the cantor fell ill before the High Holidays, he was pressed by his strict mother to lead prayers himself, which was his debut. He studied at a cheder for about three years just after the war, then with a Hebrew professor, and he was elected president of the community. He also explains how local Jewish traders used to gather at his home for religious services.
23:25
From the machine transcript
Grimberg shows her Yiddish tkhine book, which she inherited from her mother, and says it contains prayers for weekdays, Sabbath and Passover. Kerler notes that it looks printed in Przemyśl. She then reads aloud a Sabbath morning prayer. Asked who taught her, she talks about her mother's practice of saying a prayer at the end of the Sabbath.
33:12
From the machine transcript
Grimberg says the family went to Transnistria in 1941 and returned in 1943, when friends and acquaintances helped them and her father came back. Lemster asks about her role as prayer-reader and consultant, and she gives an example. She describes how meat is kashered by soaking, rinsing and salting, and recalls her mother's Friday baking of challah and cracklings.
42:08
From the machine transcript
Grimberg talks about postwar synagogues in Dorohoi: two remain now, and before there were three on her street. She attended her grandfather's synagogue until about the 1960s, after which it fell into ruin. She says her mother went elsewhere for a good cantor after her father's death, and her husband prayed at another synagogue. She says she worked as a teacher, including of Russian. They ask about earlier women prayer-readers, whose names she cannot recall.
54:17
From the machine transcript
Grimberg answers questions about terms such as dybbuk and golem, and connects dybbuk to the play she knew. She recalls Yiddish theater companies visiting Dorohoi from Bucharest and Iași. She describes how her father took part in moving the Ştefăneşti rebbe's remains to Israel and how she brought an item from Israel. She also tells about her visits to Israel and her sisters in Jerusalem.
39:44
From the machine transcript
Lipovici speaks about the war years in Dorohoi. He recalls Germans arriving and being put to work, and says Jews worked in a labor unit, about two hundred according to the transcript. Lemster asks whether he has married and Lipovici, apparently, is still a bachelor. Kerler asks what language he spoke with his siblings and he answers Yiddish and Romanian. Kerler also asks whether he prayed.
9:52
From the machine transcript
Hirsch describes Jews being taken from Turda to a labor camp until the Red Army arrived in August 1944. He mentions the fascist government, the Iași pogrom and deportations to Transnistria, saying that only a minority returned. Kerler then asks about his father, who was named Avraham.
16:43
From the machine transcript
Hirsch discusses antisemitism under communism and today, calling it a paradox that it exists where almost no Jews remain. He says his son lives in Israel, apparently since 1987. He explains that his mother tongue was Hungarian and Yiddish was also spoken at home, and that the town was split between Hungarian and Romanian speakers. He studied in cheder in Yiddish and recalls Jews from the villages being concentrated in a ghetto in Luduș.
21:34
From the machine transcript
Hirsch describes Jews from the villages being gathered in Luduș and then taken to a camp in Turda. He then recounts forced labor in a stone quarry near Constanța in Dobruja until the Soviet troops came in August 1944. He says every Jew could write a novel, and mentions his mother's work as a nurse with the Red Army and relatives who perished. He recalls Romanian soldiers returning from Odesa who told openly of killing about 15,000 Jews, mentions a recent visit to Odesa, and talks about Auschwitz and his parents' whereabouts during the war.
14:12
From the machine transcript
Hirsch talks about the years after the war: Jews returning to Luduș and settling in Turda, Cluj and elsewhere, and the 23 August 1944 armistice. He recalls that many Jews emigrated to Israel and that his parents left in 1960, and talks about Romania being neither communist nor capitalist, with poor people and the postwar growth of industry. Kerler then asks about his family's religiosity, and Hirsch answers that his father was religious but modern, not Hasidic.
21:10
From the machine transcript
Asked about Yiddish songs, Chajim says he remembers only verses he composed himself, about the old prices compared with today and about workers' hardship. He speaks of his age (nearly 100) and good health, and of his father's sayings about what to keep silent. He mentions his late wife and again recites cheder letter lessons.
24:00
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks what he remembers of songs, including Romanian ones. Chajim says he sang much but has forgotten most, recites a few lines of a song, and talks about a rich employer who paid late. He recalls his father telling him as a boy to go to the synagogue and then make Friday-night kiddush.
37:29
From the machine transcript
Chajim talks about having been a foreman in Hîrlău under the Communists, and about problems with payment. He then speaks of a visit to Israel, where he stayed with a Polish Jew and bathed in Bat Yam, and of a brother in Israel. Lemster asks how he met his wife, but he answers about speaking with Jews from Edineț.
55:44
From the machine transcript
Chajim says he chose his wife as a poor girl, not a rich one, and gave wine at the wedding, with a shoykhet slaughtering for the meal. He describes his home today, with a vineyard, apples and a garden, and his wood for heating. He says he leaves enough money to his daughter, and mentions a relative in Germany.
57:49
From the machine transcript
Asked about kosher meat, Chajim says he buys meat slaughtered by a Jewish butcher and never ate from a Christian. His wife observed the same custom. He speaks about the mezuzah on every door and about blessing the Friday-night candles. He tells of an heirloom Hanukkah lamp from his father's father that an American wished to buy, and of going on errands before Rosh Hashanah.
0:00
From the machine transcript
The interviewee describes Hîrlău before the war as a Jewish town of merchants and tradesmen where earning a living was hard. He names his father, who was born in Hîrlău, as did his mother. He says his home was kosher and he keeps special Passover dishes today. Answering questions from Lemster and Kerler, he recalls his father leading the seder and himself, the youngest of four children, asking the four questions. He also recalls dressing up for Purim as a chimney sweep, small Jewish klezmer bands, and a Purim song that he and Kerler recall together.
5:20
From the machine transcript
The interviewee and Kerler finish recalling the Purim song, and he mentions a small book. Asked about his parents, he names his mother as Rezl (?) and she was a housewife. His father was a merchant who dealt in goods, and the transcript does not make clear in what. Lemster then asks about the interviewee's own trade.
28:36
From the machine transcript
Chajim says he was held and made to work in Vyzhnytsya (Ukraine) during the war, in transports and wagons. He tells of a young friend whose father was taken to a camp and mother to Auschwitz, where she was killed, and the boy died at about eighty in Rădăuți (Bukovina); the rabbi there sent a letter and Chajim said kaddish for him. He says he played trumpet in the military band and used to sing, and Kerler asks about a Purim play.
39:34
From the machine transcript
Chajim recites kaddish, mostly unintelligible in the transcript, for several people, with the woman Shifra and a Romanian-speaking bystander supplying names. The names heard include Malbin, Ben-Tsvi, Avraham, Leyzer, a Simon ben Khayim and Khayim Itsik. Kerler also asks that a tallit be put on him.
54:01
From the machine transcript
Chajim tells of working as a forced laborer in the Romanian army during the war, in and around Edineț, building bridges and doing other labor. He recalls Jews shot and buried in a pit there, among them his uncle. Lemster asks how many Jews lived in Hîrlău before the war. Chajim also mentions his friend Shmuel (whose father was sent to Auschwitz), with whom he worked in a Poland-related place, and that the boy later died in Rădăuți.
1:45
From the machine transcript
Chajim shows the family hanukiah, and the interviewers ask how old it is. He says it is about two hundred years old, inherited from his grandfather and father. He recalls blessing and lighting the candles himself and, in the past, his father and brothers lighting them, and the interviewers help repair the object.
5:41
From the machine transcript
Chajim says an American once offered money for the old hanukiah and he refused to sell. He describes living alone in a house with furnished rooms, which came from his father-in-law, and recalls having worked in Yedinets (?). The interviewers thank him and say goodbye, and the crew then discusses footage and repeats a line for the camera.
47:44
From the machine transcript
Chat in the synagogue about the painted decoration and the painters, a name such as Steigman, and names of fathers and sons, with some dates. Grinberg and Kerler discuss whether the Yiddish word means painter or is a surname, and she refers to texts in Hebrew and English. Some of the content is unclear.
13:39
From the machine transcript
Finkelshteyn recalls a hard childhood: his father's work was seasonal, and in winter his mother preserved food and rendered fat for the family. He says he was born in 1923 and the family lived through the Depression and rising antisemitism. The children attended four years of Romanian school, and at eleven he began learning his father's trade, working as a carpenter until his pension. His sisters worked as seamstresses and two brothers as sales clerks.
43:49
From the machine transcript
Finkelshteyn describes his time in Podu Iloaiei (spelled unclearly) until November 1941, when the men were put to work in agriculture and he worked with a Christian carpenter who paid him. Through this carpenter he sent money, hens and food to his mother. In May 1942 he was taken to a labor camp. He says Jews no longer believed the war would end.
48:24
From the machine transcript
Finkelshteyn describes his childhood courtyard in Iași with fourteen Jewish families, each with its own room. He recalls the Passover seder at the long table his father made, with childless neighbors joining, and his mother's week of baking for Purim. Gypsy musicians visited on Purim. On Sukkot he built the sukkah for an uncle, and he mentions the Jewish bath and mikveh.
51:38
From the machine transcript
Finkelshteyn describes the Jewish bath, the mikveh and Friday bathing, and then synagogues in Iași: the street of the synagogues, with over a hundred prayer houses before the war. He talks about the town rebbe and how people brought disputes to him. Kerler asks whether he was Hasidic, and Finkelshteyn does not distinguish. He also recalls Sabbath evenings with the rebbe and his father's role in resolving disputes.
34:42
From the machine transcript
Ruti and Davidovich answer questions about which language was spoken at home and recall that German was forbidden to them in Transnistria. Kerler asks about Volhynia place names, and Davidovich talks about his wish to visit Obodovka, Pavlovka and Pishchana; they discuss Bershad and a song Kerler recorded. They then retell their father's jokes and sayings: that a Jew is beaten twice, the rebbe who divides a sack of nuts, the woman who comes to the rebbe about her husband, and a joke about queueing. There is also a story about a synagogue and a shop selling yeast.
49:43
From the machine transcript
Davidovich says his father led the family seder with a fine singing voice and that he recorded it on cassette. Asked about Jewish life after the war, he says he was not in Siret but in Botoșani (as the name is heard), where the organizations included Bnei Akiva, Gordonia and others. Pnina says they sang many songs, held literary evenings and studied Zionism and hakhshara.
15:33
From the machine transcript
Iakob finishes the story about his mother and the postcard from her sister, and the interviewers and interviewees laugh. This closes the interview.
10:35
From the machine transcript
Shtaigman describes the night-time expulsion of the Jews of Rădăuți and the march to the Dniester, where a gendarme struck his father over a cap. They were held in Mohyliv-Podilskyi, then briefly in a former kolkhoz and in the town of Dzhurin. There the family lodged with a Jewish tinsmith for over three years, all ill with typhus, and his father's heart was affected. They survived by selling gold teeth for food until the Russians arrived in 1944.
8:19
From the machine transcript
Shvartz says he was a child during the war and cannot say how many Jews lived in Bîrlad then. His father worked away from town. He says his friends spoke and read Romanian rather than living in a Yiddish world, and he mentions the Holocaust. Lemster then asks about the Yiddish school he attended.
58:21
From the machine transcript
Chirilau says she worked as a tailor, in handicraft and in the fields after the war, and that her husband was an accountant. Kerler asks about her family name, Haynts, from Filip's family. She says the family was Romanian and that, before the war, Jews spoke Yiddish at home, though doctors spoke Romanian or German.
9:00
From the machine transcript
Chirilau explains that she spoke Yiddish and German at home as a child and Romanian at school, and that Romanians also spoke some Yiddish. She describes Mihăileni as a fine town and discusses the Jewish cemetery, now locked, and a family who tended it. She tells of Moshe Itsik Bernshteyn (?), who was in Transnistria with his children, and whose son Natan lives in Israel. Natan had a gravestone made for the grave of his father.
27:49
From the machine transcript
Leichtner says he learned the butcher's trade from his father before being taken to forced labor. He describes traditional Jewish weddings: the blessings, drinking wine, breaking a plate, shouting mazl tov, and men and women dancing separately. His family did not travel to rebbes. On holidays people visited relatives, travelling by wagon since there were no cars.
13:58
From the machine transcript
Shwartz explains that after his father's death a yeshiva student named Mordkhe was assigned to study Talmud with him. He recalls a soldier billeted in their yard during the First World War who gave him sugar, and Kerler works out his age at that time. He describes the mixed Hungarian and Yiddish of the cheder children, depending on whether they were Hasidic or Ashkenazi, and says that his father was Ashkenazi and Orthodox.
4:20
From the machine transcript
Freundlich shows photographs, including a birthday picture of her son and the grave of a Jewish actor. She recalls declaring Yiddish her mother tongue to an official in 1977 and mentions her daughter, a piano teacher in Satu Mare, and her son the professor. She also talks about Christians who spoke Yiddish, answering questions from Kerler and Lemster.
17:35
From the machine transcript
Freundlich answers Lemster's questions on the terms dybbuk, golem and the words for a cemetery. He mentions having seen Sidi Tal perform in Sighet (?) or Baia Mare (?), his father's love of cantors and operettas, and neighbors gathering around the first radio in the street.
28:50
From the machine transcript
Freundlich recalls that his mother taught him the prayer modeh ani at age five, and tells of her checking whether he said his morning prayers properly. He says that as a Communist he was imprisoned and then sent to labor, which he regards as luck, and that he still prays daily and knows the services by heart.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Freundlich talks with the interviewers about an acquaintance from a nearby town who speaks good Yiddish and is religious. The interviewers ask where the town is, and the discussion turns to the name of a town (Hungarian Nagyvárad or Nagyvárad-type 'Gros-Vardan', in a Hungarian-named area (?)), its old fortress and the early Jewish families there. He gives numbers for the Jewish families, which are unclear. The passage also touches on the Bukovina region and his father's origin.
14:44
From the machine transcript
Freund compares the Yiddish of Transylvania, Maramureș and Moldavia, tying differences to Austro-Hungarian influence, and mentions rebbes. He recalls attending school and cheder, and the Jewish lyceum in Oradea after the war (1944–45?). He says Hungarian was spoken at home, though both parents knew Yiddish. He says his father took him to prayer from age five and studied in Talmud Torah, and that his father was not a hasid.
21:17
From the machine transcript
Freund says he cannot recall Purim play pieces. He talks about his father singing Sabbath songs (zemirot) while sewing at home. He says his mother baked challah for Friday night and that Sabbath was observed strictly. He did not attend Jewish weddings before his deportation, and there are no weddings or circumcisions among Jews there now.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opening of the interview: Kerler gives the date and purpose. Macarie gives her Romanian name Macarie and Yiddish name Khaye Rivke, and says she was born in 1925 in Sighet. She grew up in a village about three kilometres away, where only Jews lived, with one Hasidic synagogue. Her father, Yosl, wore a beard, sidelocks and a shtreimel, and was about sixty-five when the family was deported to Germany. Lemster closes by asking his occupation.
8:25
From the machine transcript
Macarie names siblings and relatives who perished: a sister with two sons and a daughter, and a boy whose Yiddish name was Moshe Leyb.
14:44
From the machine transcript
Macarie describes working in a laboratory with medicinal plants after the war. She recalls her childhood up to eighteen in a large, happy family where Yiddish was spoken at home and Romanian learned at school. Asked whether the Yiddish of Maramureș differs from that of Moldova, she says no. She recalls holiday preparations and what her mother taught her in the kitchen: cooking, kneading bread, Sabbath cholent and kugel.
31:16
From the machine transcript
Macarie says she cooks Romanian, Hungarian and Jewish food today, buying kosher meat. After the camp she returned home and married; her second husband has died. Her son is a school director with a good wife, and a daughter married a Jew from Johannesburg (?). She had no children with the second husband. Lemster asks about her first Jewish wedding.
32:44
From the machine transcript
Macarie describes a Jewish wedding, apparently a cousin's, with a chuppah set up (in the temple, though one word is garbled), and her own second marriage. She uses and explains a word for a decent, upright person, and describes her good relations with her son, grandchild and daughter-in-law.
15:29
From the machine transcript
Freundlich describes his heder years and the rebbe, who beat the children. He says richer children paid for the talmud-torah while his family could not. He recalls the daily schedule, the long hours, and playing football with stones on the way to school. He says he was taught in Romanian at school but spoke Hungarian with his brothers and Yiddish with his mother. His father was proud of Hungarian culture. His mother was very pious, wore a head covering but no sheitl, and spoke Yiddish.
22:12
From the machine transcript
Freundlich talks about his parents. His father Moshe studied in Vienna and spoke good German. His mother Rivke came from a small town near Baia Mare, and her parents were deported. He describes summers with relatives, with a large orchard and a mill, and also an aunt and uncle in Jibou (?). He recalls a relative's harsh manner and speaking Hungarian there. Kerler asks how to say 'poor relation' in Yiddish.
52:48
From the machine transcript
Freundlich speaks about his siblings: of seven brothers and sisters five survived, an elder brother died in Israel and a sister in Argentina. Kerler asks about relatives, including a woman in Cluj. Freundlich talks about her family, children in Canada, and a relative's son whose fingers were injured. He mentions a relative named Lustig, a committed Communist.
57:00
From the machine transcript
Freundlich tells about a boy who was taught to swim by a trainer despite a heart condition. This became a reason he became a doctor and not a musician, though whose son this is, his own or a relative's, is unclear. Kerler then thanks him and ends the session, saying they are heading to Cluj.
1:59
From the machine transcript
Shwartz recounts how, on doctors' orders, he gave up heavy work, left his town in 1966 (?) and began working in Oradea. He recalls attending the local yeshiva until about sixteen and eating at his mother's table, and says he did various jobs, including making kosher wine at a vineyard. He mentions that he had six sisters and a brother.
25:19
From the machine transcript
Shwartz says the family on his side lived in Hungary and that he hardly knew his grandparents. Kerler then asks about his work today as a kashrut supervisor, and Shwartz begins to say that he checks that no blood remains.
53:19
From the machine transcript
Asked by Kerler whether she saw Mengele, Mezei describes being in the Birkenau C sector near the infirmary block, where Mengele came a few times a week and the women feared a selection. She tells how her mother was taken by Mengele in October. She reflects that the world knew and stayed silent, and that men suffered more in the camp, including the Sonderkommando and Russian prisoners of war. She tells of a friend's brother, a lawyer in the Sonderkommando, who asked her through the fence about his sister.
6:55
From the machine transcript
The talk about the object she made as a girl continues briefly. It then turns into Hungarian-language talk about Budapest: a villa, an aunt, a walk along the boulevard in 1948 and a postcard sent to a friend. The recogniser makes much of this passage unintelligible. At the end the speakers seem to be arranging how to carry on. The catalogue mentions family photographs, but they are not evident in the transcript.
28:05
From the machine transcript
Freundlich recalls his years at yeshiva, living in poverty with an aunt and eating each day at a different Jewish home. He describes the weekly round of meals, including Sunday leftovers from the Sabbath, a rich friend's home, a widower's home with small children, and a Sabbath at a monastery-side village with a minyan. He contrasts the black bread there with the white challah at home.
21:23
From the machine transcript
Grinberg talks about prewar religious life and charity in Fălticeni: collecting donations for the needy, and the two rabbinical families, including the Rozen family. She says a Rozen rabbi gave her father the name at her naming and names the role of the marriage helpers, with Kerler and Lemster asking about naming customs for girls and the term for the person who gives the name.
42:45
From the machine transcript
Grinberg speaks about the future of Yiddish and about the many Jews who no longer know it. Kerler asks about her late husband, described as a khabadnik. She explains the word and talks about Chabad and Lubavitch. Her daughter recalls a rabbi (name not recovered) who took in about a hundred orphaned children from Transnistria after the war and married some of them.
12:52
From the machine transcript
Cojocaru says she was in Transnistria (Moghilev) with her stepmother, sister and father; the brother had been born there. After the war many Jews lived in Dorohoi on all streets. She mentions the Romanian and Yiddish word for the cemetery.
43:50
From the machine transcript
The formal interview with Cojocaru begins. She says there are few Jews left, mentions a grandchild in Warsaw who does not know Yiddish, and says she has lived in Săveni for thirty-four years. The interviewers ask her year of birth, and she says she was born in Dorohoi (the year is unclear in the transcript).
37:37
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks about Yiddish writers and theater. Salamon knows Sholem Aleichem's name and says a theater company visited Sighet, but she has read nothing by him. She says she can read Yiddish only partly, and that she has prayer books with Yiddish translation. She shows prayer books and a wedding photograph with her first husband and parents. Kerler asks about names in one prayer book, including a person from a village near Sighet (the name is unclear in the transcript).
37:28
From the machine transcript
Kurtsberg recalls his prewar childhood: his father at work and his mother sewing. His father was very religious and prayed at the synagogue in Bershad and in Siret; Siret had a street of synagogues. He tells stories of his observant grandfather, including a Passover joke about wrapping, and the Four Questions with riddle-like questions.
21:18
From the machine transcript
The talk turns to quenching coals, a custom against the evil eye, which Petraru does not remember his mother doing. He says his grandmother died in America at age 105. Lemster asks about kosher meat, and Petraru says his wife makes it. Kerler asks to go into the large synagogue.
7:10
From the machine transcript
Bercovici is asked what was done against the evil eye and says she does not believe in it and calls it superstition. She says she has gone to the synagogue for the memorial prayers (yizkor, in the transcript as 'Ischer') since her father died in Transnistria in 1944, and on the holidays. She describes herself as a good Jew but not religious and says she cooks ordinary food. She then recounts her schooling: lyceum in Chernivtsi, a university in Iași, and work as a teacher (dates unclear) and later at the national bank. The conversation ends with her saying that she has been interviewed before.
35:08
From the machine transcript
Weinberger recalls carrying kosher milk to Jewish homes in the early morning as a boy for his uncle's cows. The date of the interview is stated as 18 December 2006, in Kislev, during Hanukkah, and there is a place-name exchange mentioning Mukachevo. He then begins his personal information: his name, father Leyzer, mother Gitl, sister Leah and brother Shmuel.
52:26
From the machine transcript
Weinberger says no relatives remain, and that he visited Israel in 1969 for about five weeks (?), at a friend's invitation, and met Stropkov landsleit there. He then speaks about the contemporary Jewish community, including a woman from Breznica in Bratislava who knows Yiddish, an ethnographic project in Bratislava, other survivors of Auschwitz from the Stropkov area, and a book on Stropkov published by a woman in Be'er Sheva. He also mentions the Halberstam family and a Košice rabbi with an ohel in Košice.
32:18
From the machine transcript
Weinberger and Kerler discuss the fate of Jews in the region during the war. Kerler's family is mentioned: his parents served in the Red Army and his mother's relatives were murdered. Weinberger recalls the Babi Yar massacre and a book on it by Kuznetsov, which he read in Slovak. He says that after the war the Soviet authorities did not allow the killing of the Jews to be spoken of openly.
23:03
From the machine transcript
Chaimovic says his mother would travel to the Spinka rebbe in Mukachevo with kvitlekh, requests for health or exemption from military service. He answers Kerler's questions about folk healing: pouring out coals, cupping, leeches, and the Slovak currency used in the cupping rite. Kerler also asks how long he stayed in Prešov.
33:47
From the machine transcript
Chaimovic says his mother read the Yiddish Tsene-rene on Sabbath to women. He says he studied at the Hanušovce yeshiva with about sixty to seventy students and a rabbi who inspected them. He gives the town's Jewish population as 1,200, tells how it is said in Yiddish, and answers questions about newspapers, Hungarian, the term ba'al shem, and a wooden synagogue.
40:48
From the machine transcript
Chaimovic chants Lekha Dodi at Kerler's request. Kerler offers to send him a cassette, and he talks about how his brothers took turns leading prayers and how his father immersed in a stream on Sabbath. Kerler and S2 discuss the Slovak and Yiddish words for stream and lake.
57:37
From the machine transcript
Pivnik and her daughter answer questions about cultural terminology and Yiddish words, such as dibbuk, golem, a nickname, 'latke'-type terms and the word for a convert (meshumed). They discuss the origin of some terms. Kerler asks about the prayer modeh ani and her mother's candle-blessing, and she says her mother died young. Lemster ends by asking about Jewish life in Birobidzhan and why it declined; she mentions her sister Khana.
19:47
From the machine transcript
Asked by Kerler about the best years, Khotenko says there were none, and the worst were the prewar and war years; now is somewhat better. Lemster asks about the years after her son's birth in 1952. She then talks about her son, who speaks Hebrew and Polish, works two jobs, and has an Israeli passport, and about his family and travel plans.
41:46
From the machine transcript
Gorberg answers a few terminology questions: she does not know dybbuk, and gives answers for golem and meshumed. She says that in her home Russian was spoken, so her children know no Yiddish, and that her son in Israel noticed her Yiddish books. She mentions a Yiddish primer given by a teacher, then Lemster and Kerler look at family photographs; she shows her husband, the club and the Yiddish play.
3:50
From the machine transcript
Lerner explains that her street was called Lesnaya before the revolution and was later renamed after Kirov. Her grandfather moved from Rybnytsia to Balta in 1930 and bought the house. She describes the house room by room, including a passage room, the stove, a south-facing room with a balcony and a bedroom. She says she once took in lodgers and painted the floors herself. She also recalls returning from evacuation in September 1944 and living in part of the house.
16:10
From the machine transcript
Lerner talks about a cousin's wedding: the cousin Roza married Rudolf in Vitebsk and later moved to Beltsy. Lerner visited them as a student, and Roza later went to Israel. She says she remembers Jewish weddings in Balta, Beltsy and Kishinev only poorly. She also says she was a Komsomol member and an athlete. She describes playing chess for Balta at a first-class rank and taking fourth place in a regional competition in Kotovsk.
42:38
From the machine transcript
The formal interview begins. Angelova says she was born in Topole in a region whose name is unclear in the transcript. She grew up there until the war, in about 1920, and her parents worked in a shop. She also mentions that Jews in Krasne Okny were killed.
45:24
From the machine transcript
Kerler thanks Kazakevich and wishes good health to her, her daughter and grandchildren. She mentions the yortsayt of her father, killed by the Germans.
10:14
From the machine transcript
Vaynman describes Jewish life in Bar after the war, when survivors returned and lived in the few remaining old Jewish houses, which Kerler asks about (white walls, benches outside). She says her mother observed the holidays, her stepfather less so, and that she herself still keeps Passover and eats no bread then. Kerler asks about her mother's songs and Yiddish songs known from childhood, and about stealing the afikoman at the seder.
35:45
From the machine transcript
Zhovtis tells in a long and hard-to-follow account of the German occupation. He describes the first killings of Jews and communists near Khmilnyk, and the roundup of Jews from the town and surrounding villages, including his mother, siblings and himself. He escaped while his mother was being beaten and was taken in by a non-Jewish villager, who gave him milk, but a local officer turned him in. He also describes forced labor for German and Romanian commanders, repeated escapes, and falling ill. He was taken to Mohyliv-Podilskyi. He names several places, but their spelling is not clear in the transcript.
47:24
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether Zhovtis's parents survived. Zhovtis says that his family were taken to be shot in a village near Khmilnyk, and describes a collective farm there with Jews and Christians. Kerler tries to clarify what he has understood.
4:45
From the machine transcript
Zhovtis speaks of relatives in Israel and of life there, mentioning Haifa and a place where people travel to work. He says his wife came from Lithuania and speaks Yiddish better than he does. He talks about a flat or plot bought for a large sum, and says he cannot travel because of his health and a daughter's death.
15:01
From the machine transcript
Zhovtis answers questions about Passover food and the seder: potato and matzo-meal pancakes. His father did not lead the seder, and the household gathered at a relative's, but he does not recall the four questions. He says his father did not teach him the morning prayer, and tefillin are mentioned.
15:21
From the machine transcript
Marmalevskaia says the family was poor when she was nine, her father worked in a tailors' cooperative, and she and her brother attended a Yiddish school in Bila Tserkva for ten years, finishing in 1940. She cannot name the school or the subjects, says she can read but has forgotten how to write Yiddish, and still has Yiddish books. She mentions marrying in 1946 and that her husband's family was killed by the Germans.
MDV 335Khariton Berman; Chara Yakovlevna Bublitskaia; Chara (Chare) Yakovlevna BublitskaiaBila Tserkva, 2005
26:57
From the machine transcript
Bublitskaia describes how her mother prepared for the Sabbath on Friday. She cooked chicken, beans, noodles, sweet carrot dishes, kugel and gefilte fish, not too sweet. Her mother blessed two candles and the children were not taught the blessing. She mentions her brother's bar mitzvah at thirteen with tefillin, and says she was not taught morning prayers.
2:25
From the machine transcript
Bublitskaia talks about her housing, exchanging a large apartment for a smaller one, and says she lives alone. She says she turns eighty in August, on the 24th, and mentions that her husband died. Kerler then asks about the Yiddish theater.
9:12
From the machine transcript
Bublitskaia recalls a few lines of the song Afn pripetchik and 'Mayn shtetele Belts', and says she has not spoken Yiddish for 65 years since leaving Beltsy because her husband knew none. She speaks about her brother in Kyiv, who died years ago and who was a Zionist before the war, and about her maternal uncle who left Romania for Israel in 1970 and whose family she writes to. She says her mother could not travel in Soviet times.
12:48
From the machine transcript
Kerler closes the interview and gives her a copy of his address. She shows photographs of her father and mother, her brother's late wife and herself at twenty. Asked about favorite books, she names the classics and Pushkin.
7:31
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler, Shor describes Orhei as a Jewish town, 90 per cent or so Jewish (?), where people traded and lived well in Moldova's good climate. His mother's brother lived in a village with large wine-making holdings. Shor remembers sowing tobacco and wheat there, and says the estate was later dispossessed under Soviet rule.
25:34
From the machine transcript
Kerler puts a long series of dialect questionnaire items, including attic, sun, son, tooth, book, deaf, bluish, 'a lot of Jews' and Purim pastries. Shor answers some and says he has forgotten others. In the middle Shor says that after the war he went to Orhei when his mother's sister died aged 85, and describes the Jewish cemetery, where the dead are laid on boards, not in a coffin. He also gives the meaning of 'golem' and answers questions on Purim food.
31:44
From the machine transcript
The Vaismans discuss the 1930s, including the Great Hunger of 1933, which Isaak was too young to remember well; there was little bread, and many Jews and non-Jews died of hunger. They then describe the arrests of the later 1930s, when people were taken at night. Beyle Vaisman says her father kept a rucksack ready, and others in their courtyard were taken.
32:56
From the machine transcript
Talks about Jewish religious life under Soviet rule before the war. The parents were learned and observant but the children were afraid to study openly, the cheder was forbidden, and Jews were taught in a Yiddish school for four years and then sent to Russian schools. Katz asks how the Soviet Yiddish school differed from the earlier education, and the informants describe the generation gap and intermarriage.
22:47
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii describes his school routine: cheder from nine to twelve, then the four-class Yiddish school from twelve to three. Some non-Jewish pupils spoke Yiddish well, and one later became a director and still spoke Yiddish with him after the war. He talks about the Yiddish alphabet and spelling and recites the letters when asked. Katz and Kerler ask about the "good and bad tsadik" letter forms, and he turns to the killing of his parents and the mass grave at the airfield.
37:34
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii recalls that on Hanukkah his father gave each child money, and that nuts were played with outdoors. He does not remember the song Khad gadya. Asked about the four questions, he says the children asked them at the seder while the father sat on a cushion, among four brothers, and he gives the first question. He repeats that he attended cheder until 1928 and then moved to the Yiddish school, where everything was taught in Yiddish.
10:59
From the machine transcript
Kerler begins an informal interview with Fania in Yiddish. She is a native of Berdychiv and speaks Yiddish at home. Her father was imprisoned under Stalin, in the 1930s (?), leaving her mother with four children. She says non-Jews, including a friend whose father was also imprisoned, spoke Yiddish before the war, and that Jews did not marry non-Jews. Her husband is an invalid.
22:09
From the machine transcript
Fania describes how her mother observed Jewish holidays such as Passover and kept to tradition. Her father was jailed as a party man. She went to the synagogue with her mother, who said such observance would die out with the older generation, and contrasts this with the young today.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Chukh gives the date and place of the interview and says the Berdychiv tsadik's grave is a pilgrimage site for visitors. She says she was born in Berdychiv, as were her parents, and was evacuated to the Caucasus during the war. Trained as a nurse, she wanted to go to the front but was kept at hospital work because she had a small child. She worked as an operating-room nurse and was later recognised as a war participant. She names her parents (father Yosl/Iosif, a sieve-maker from a place in Poland whose name is unclear; mother Tsirl, a quilt-maker) and her brothers, one in Germany. She describes her Jewish school (school no. 13, seven grades), her later nursing school and her long postwar nursing career in a Berdychiv hospital. She recalls childhood games, dolls she makes today from broken ones, and home life with Yiddish-speaking parents. She tells of the hungry early 1930s, when her mother sewed quilts to feed the children and the school later fed them. She remembers Soviet-era closing of synagogues, the synagogues of Berdychiv, the Hasidic rebbe's prayer house and holiday observance at home but not in school. Chukh also recalls Yiddish literature and press, a large library, visiting Yiddish theaters, the seltzer seller Itsik, and about 60,000 Jews in the town. She describes weddings with music and a rhymester, and Sabbath and holiday foods. She then answers Kerler's dialectological questionnaire: translating Russian words and sentences into Yiddish (greetings, household words, animals, colours, adverbs, body and illness terms), plus words like dybbuk and golem.
23:44
From the machine transcript
In the synagogue Skobilitskii says his mother was a prayer-leader in the women's section and his grandfather a rabbi in Chervone, and that the Germans killed his father. He was an artillery battery commander at the front. The talk turns to the synagogue building, which was once a beis-medresh of rich men with an organ and where cantors were brought. Money from Moscow and Leningrad helped to rebuild it in 1946–47 under Soviet permission.
55:30
From the machine transcript
Skobilitskii describes prewar drinking customs, including Berdychiv's seltzer water, and remembers a Purim theatre and visiting artists from Kyiv and Moscow. He recalls a cantor from the Kyiv opera hired for Yom Kippur and a singer in postwar Berdychiv, whose name he cannot remember. He talks about learned Polish Jews who had settled in the town, including his father, who came from Poland. The talk ends with how their Yiddish differed.
40:17
From the machine transcript
Furman says he was born in Berdychiv and was drafted in 1939 to the Far East fleet, where he served until 1941. In the war he was sent to the front and fought at Stalingrad, where he lost a leg. He returned to Berdychiv in 1945 and found his parents, brothers and sisters killed. He says he is a war invalid, group II, and the interviewers record his name, David Zelikovich, from his father's name Zelik.
44:00
From the machine transcript
Furman says his work continued after the war on his artificial limb. He was a carpenter before the army, and his mother was a dressmaker. Kerler then begins to ask about holidays before the war.
46:54
From the machine transcript
Furman talks about his childhood and school in Berdychiv. There were many Jewish schools alongside Russian, Ukrainian and Polish ones. About 60,000 Jews lived there, and many were killed at the airfield. He gives his siblings' birth years and says his friends were killed in the army. He studied in a Yiddish school, remembers Tolstoy and Sholem Aleichem, and says non-Jews also spoke Yiddish. He lived near the edge of town.
56:07
From the machine transcript
Furman is asked about customs. He mentions Hanukkah gelt and Purim noisemakers. He does not know the Tisha b'Av custom, and says his father was not rich. He had one aunt and one uncle, whom he visited for coins.
58:29
From the machine transcript
Furman answers Kerler's questions about his mother's cooking. She made gefilte fish, a little sweet, fish and soup, and baked cookies, strudel and challah, and lit candles on Friday. Kerler and Lemster ask what it was filled with and what else she made.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Furman speaks about his wartime army service, including Stalingrad and the Volga, where many soldiers drowned. Kerler and Lemster ask how he learned that his parents had been killed, and he explains that the Russians wrote letters while he had no one to write to. He mentions soldiers' slogans for the motherland and for Stalin, and the interviewers ask about them.
2:55
From the machine transcript
Furman recalls being in hospital, where his leg was amputated, and coming to Berdychiv in 1945 to find no one. He bought an apartment, married and settled; his wife died thirteen years ago. He mentions the bombing of his evacuation train and being wounded, and says he worked as a furniture maker and did not go to synagogue. The passage ends as Kerler starts asking the Yiddish word for the cross.
6:07
From the machine transcript
Furman remembers attending a school in a small street and the terrible famine of 1933, when people fell dead from hunger. He had to leave school to work for half a kilo of bread, and Kerler asks whether Jews also died and for the Ukrainian word for the famine. He says his father was a learned man who prayed well but taught him little. He cannot recall Jewish jokes or songs and mentions only anecdotes about Hershele.
16:56
From the machine transcript
Soyfer recalls his childhood. His mother died when he was eight, and he lived with her sister in a village not far from Zhytomyr during the famine. He gives his mother's name as Sara (?) and says he was named after his grandfather David. He lived with relatives, and his father was a shoykhet; Kerler and Lemster question how he could work in Berdychiv as one.
21:43
From the machine transcript
Soyfer describes being evacuated, in the Northern Caucasus with his grandmother, who was later killed by the Germans, and then to Kazakhstan, in Alma-Ata. He tells of antisemitism, being beaten, and working as a child. His uncles' fates are given, one killed in the war and one living in Moscow, and he says his grandmother had six children.
25:31
From the machine transcript
Soyfer says his grandmother Rakhl lived in a village (named as Sadyba, doubtful) near Zhytomyr, and that after his mother died he was taken to Kyiv. Kerler asks how Zhytomyr differed from Berdychiv.
30:46
From the machine transcript
Soyfer says that his father had remarried and that he found them on his return to Berdychiv in 1945. He mentions antisemitism, Jews being mocked, and that he was in Moscow. Kerler asks questions about the family.
31:49
From the machine transcript
Soyfer speaks about army service, which began in about 1950 (?), where Jews were mocked but not beaten. He was a Communist for thirty years and worked for thirty-five years. His family's apartment was taken, and he has one daughter.
44:57
From the machine transcript
Soyfer speaks about antisemitism in the army. Jews were mocked but not beaten, and he was asked about what Jews had done, probably the Doctors' Plot. A Belarusian colonel asked about it and he said he was glad the Jews had been released. Lemster asks about his youth, and he mentions his mother's death in Zhytomyr four days before Hanukkah.
48:21
From the machine transcript
Soyfer talks about life today: the family's pension and income are small, he lives with his daughter, and the Joint helps them. He recalls a mother-in-law's death, lost savings, and prices, saying life was easier in the Soviet period. His daughter and wife speak some Yiddish, though at work he spoke Russian. He ends with a story about his father being questioned about the synagogue.
11:07
From the machine transcript
Berzon describes holidays at home before the war, especially the Passover seder led by her father with the whole family, and the four questions asked by the youngest. She says the family did not learn all the prayers. Her grandmother kept strict kashrut, and the household did not eat pork. She adds that after the war her mother prayed with other women in a place near the synagogue.
12:58
From the machine transcript
Berzon says she prays in Yiddish, not Hebrew, for her family and for Israel, and quotes the sense of her prayer. Kerler asks whether her grandparents told her about the history of the town. She answers about her father's family in Poland.
13:58
From the machine transcript
She recalls the arrival of refugees from her father's town in Poland to Berdychiv in 1939, seen from her window, while her father's parents and brothers stayed there and perished. She tells about a photograph of relatives that her granddaughter took to America, and about her three grandchildren there.
19:16
From the machine transcript
Berzon says the family celebrated Purim, Shavuot, Passover and other holidays at home, and that she went to synagogue after her mother died. She gives her father's birth year and death in 1946 and speaks again about his trade as sieve-maker and his brothers' printing works in Poland.
34:52
From the machine transcript
Berzon tells of a mixed marriage in the family, and says that before the war a Jewish child did not marry a non-Jew. She says the couple's children were taught Yiddish by the rabbi's wife and went to synagogue. Kerler asks about other non-Jews who speak Yiddish, and she mentions antisemitism among the young.
39:23
From the machine transcript
Berzon says she did not hear of an anti-religion campaign in the Jewish school. She repeats her mother's stories that someone went to cheder, where the teacher beat unwilling children, and that he attended cheder before school. She says she knew the late Skoblitski(?), who also told of cheder.
44:24
From the machine transcript
Semyon Berzon gives his father's name as Leyzer, born in 1887, and his own birth year as 1923. He says he worked until 1975, among other things as retoucher and photographer, and also at a cinema and a hairdresser. His mother Khane Lipshe was a cook and later sewed at a factory. Both parents were born in Berdychiv. He says he did not go to cheder but attended a Jewish school for seven years and then a Russian one, and cannot recall songs from school.
5:55
From the machine transcript
The interviewee tells of the war, in which she lost her father, mother and a young sister, and says some forty family members were killed. She speaks of her anger at God over the passing years and of her husband's help.
7:47
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Yiddish songs from before the war. Vaisman recalls that prewar life was hard: he was a child when his father died, and his mother, with a disabled sister, worked in a factory. Another voice adds that in her own home they lived well.
9:04
From the machine transcript
The interviewee describes her prewar life as comfortable. She speaks of a relative's education, including institutes and a yeshiva in Warsaw, and says Hitler started on the Jews.
9:59
From the machine transcript
The speakers discuss the German occupation. Some say wealthy people stayed in Berdychiv and thought gold would protect them, but the Germans took their money and killed them. Vaisman tells of evacuation and army service from 1943 to 1946, and the woman recalls her trip to Kharkiv with her mother at the start of the war and her father's Jewishness.
12:26
From the machine transcript
The interviewee tells of Jewish holidays kept at home and her father's knowledge of Jewish history, while Soviet rules kept them from synagogue. Asked about Purim, she says it was celebrated at home but there was no Purim play.
48:21
From the machine transcript
Kogan speaks of finishing seven classes in a Yiddish school in Bershad, of his teachers, and says that neither he nor his wife is from Tulchyn; she was from Zhabokrych (?).
13:32
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim tells of the first days of the German occupation, an attempt to flee that was abandoned, and the September roundup of the family to a camp. His mother hid him in a baking oven, and he escaped from two policemen and hid in a straw shed. He tells of the family's separation, of being held in a cellar before the shootings, and of an escape naked through fields. A Russian woman helped him, and he was then hidden by an old woman in a village. He recounts his escapes from the Germans, from the police and from his father's group, the killing of his mother, sisters and brother in 1941, and the fate of his aunt and her child in 1942.
43:37
From the machine transcript
Asked about Yiddish songs, Vainshelboim recalls a song about a Jew with seven daughters and sings a few lines of a tailor's song. He says his father played violin, mandolin and similar instruments and sang with young people on Sabbath. He mentions a Yiddish theater near the building of a former factory.
4:21
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Yiddish schooling. Those present recall the Yiddish schools that were closed in the 1930s, and one woman says she attended one briefly but now speaks no Yiddish. The interviewee then says her father, Moyshe Reinsdorf, from a Warsaw family, finished two institutes and came to Berdychiv as a refugee during the First World War.
7:26
From the machine transcript
They describe Berdychiv before the war as a Jewish town of over thirty thousand Jews, with many synagogues and prayer in private houses. Under Soviet pressure Komsomol members could not enter the synagogue. After the war some returned from evacuation. They also say how the couple met, that they lived in the same courtyard, and that her father died in 1928.
11:28
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the great famine of 1933. The speakers say their family did not feel it much because the father had work, though many people died. They also recall the shortage and high price of bread in 1947 and the mother trading in the market.
14:15
From the machine transcript
She names the relatives lost in the war: her mother Sara, her sisters Ester and Zisl (the youngest was four), and her grandmother. She says she will show photographs. Kerler then asks about non-Jews in prewar Berdychiv and Yiddish. Both speakers say Yiddish was widely heard in the streets and that many non-Jews spoke it. They describe a Ukrainian locksmith who spoke good Yiddish, and say that few Jews now remain and Yiddish is spoken between themselves.
24:05
From the machine transcript
Asked about Jewish culture before the war, they recall visits of Jewish troupes and artists from Moscow, Kyiv and Odessa, concerts, and full synagogues at holidays. They remember Jewish weddings with a fiddle, and her father's work as an accountant and his many languages.
27:37
From the machine transcript
They discuss the war years. Wealthy Jews stayed in Berdychiv because the Germans had not harmed Jews in 1914 and they believed money would save them. One family lost its relatives, and they recall the interviewee searching for her family at the station. She also reflects on war today in Israel.
30:48
From the machine transcript
They talk about life today: the possibility of travelling to their children in America, staying at home, pensions and war benefits, rising prices of medicine, and the fall of the dollar. They also speak about the Skver rebbe's family and his grandson, and the death of the rebbetsin, who left eight children.
36:40
From the machine transcript
She recalls prewar Passover at home, with the large table, the whole family gathering and the grandfather leading the seder. Asked about Purim, they say they remember nothing particular. They add that the family lived comfortably though not wealthily, and her father knew Jewish history.
42:12
From the machine transcript
The interviewee recalls a home prayer room with a Torah scroll that was stolen in wartime, and says Yiddish is spoken in Berdychiv. She explains which languages were used at home and with her grandchildren. They discuss the Yiddish school, which she knows only a few letters of, and letters in Yiddish from her grandmother and mother that she will show.
47:44
From the machine transcript
The couple shows and reads Yiddish letters and family photographs to Kerler, including a letter written in 1941. They identify her parents Sara and Moyshe Reinsdorf, her sisters Ester and Zisl, and a relative who died in Donetsk. They also remark on a photograph of a soldier.
56:37
From the machine transcript
Conversation about a singer, Jewish theater and the happiest times of life, with talk of a daughter in America who works in a mikvah. They also discuss visiting other towns and travel, and Kerler's remarks on Russian.
10:31
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what was eaten at Hanukkah and what customs were kept. The second informant mentions latkes made of buckwheat flour, singing the Hanukkah song, dreidel and Hanukkah money. She describes Jewish home life, her father-in-law putting on tefillin and praying, and says no one taught her to pray. Vaisman adds a remark about a relative in the army before the war. Kerler thanks them and closes the interview.
11:05
From the machine transcript
Soyfer recounts that he fled in the war and went to the Caucasus, where Germans came and his grandmother was killed. His father was taken into the army. He says he served as a soldier and could not have killed an old person, and mentions that his wife died half a year earlier after twelve years of illness.
MDV 359Rita Davidovna Shveibish; Aleksandr (Sasha) Shayevich Kolodenker; Mikhail Aronovich Vainshelboim and 1 moreBerdychiv, Pechera, 2009
0:00
From the machine transcript
Shveibish talks in Yiddish about the Pechera camp and the transports of Jews, especially from Tulchyn, with others from Shpykiv and Mohyliv. She mentions a local policeman and the liberation, when soldiers on horseback came. Kerler learns that about 330 survived. She recalls the forced march and the freezing, overcrowded night, the lack of water and toilets, and the deaths. Her father was killed and her mother died within a month. Near the end the talk turns to Russian as they approach the camp and a memorial plaque.
56:32
From the machine transcript
Sara, born in Berdychiv, talks about her family before the war. There were four children, and the elder brother was killed at the front. Her father Yankl Yakov Katz worked in a sausage factory, and her mother Dobe was a housewife. The family lived on the street near the market that was formerly Zhytomyrska and later Lenin Street. She went to a Jewish school and then a Russian one, and was evacuated to Bashkiria. They also remark on the large prewar Jewish population compared with today.
1:01:11
From the machine transcript
Sara recalls that Yiddish actors and singers used to come to Berdychiv. Her elder brother played football for the Progress team, and she remembers going to the stadium that still stands.
1:01:50
From the machine transcript
Sara recounts the family's evacuation, leaving on 5 July after the war began, and the loss of the family dog. Her father worked on the water and the family travelled by horse-drawn carts. Under German bombing they sheltered among trees on the way towards Poltava and Kyiv.
10:30
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim speaks about his army service, which lasted four and a half years and was with aviation units in the Baltic region. Kerler asks where he served and whether Sara waited for him; she did.
23:24
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim describes his prewar home: six children, father a painter with seasonal work, mother selling herring and oil at the market. He recalls the famine of 1933, with rumours of cannibalism and selling of human flesh, and shortage of food. He explains that collective farms were still weak and grain was exported, and recalls soup made from grain. Sara remarks that people in America should not know what they lived through.
48:49
From the machine transcript
Burmenko says she attended the Jewish school, number four, finishing seven grades before the schools were closed. She married in 1936 (?) and by about 1937 had a son aged three and a half who was killed by Hitler. Her son was named after her father, and her daughter, now in Israel, after her mother. Asked about childhood games, she mentions hide-and-seek and says one friend was killed in the war.
59:07
From the machine transcript
Burmenko talks about her work as a girl at a sack factory until she married. Her mother-in-law said the husband should support the family. Her first husband, Monia, was also from Berdychiv, his family name was Furman, and his parents were Pesl and Sruliq.
1:01:19
From the machine transcript
Burmenko recalls her life after the war: a friend of her husband's, who had been in the army, wanted to marry her, and she married him in 1946 (?) after reluctance. He was Zalmen Mendelevich Dimant, and he died in 1948. Her son was born in 1947 and is now 62. She says she stood by the pit when people were shot, and that her mother and sister were taken.
1:04:43
From the machine transcript
Burmenko says her mother went into the pit with two grandchildren during the war and she herself was not taken. Kerler then returns to the topic of songs from childhood in Berdychiv. The passage is short and partly garbled.
1:05:36
From the machine transcript
Burmenko says that her father died when she was four, that her mother was a widow, and that she had a stepfather. Kerler provides the Yiddish word for it, shtiftate. A phone call comes in. She says she lives alone, and that her daughter urges her to move to Israel but she does not want to.
1:08:00
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim remembers Yiddish songs. He says his father played mandolin and guitar and young people gathered to sing in the happy prewar world. He recalls verses about a tailor, a shoemaker, vareniki, and a tumbalalaika-type song about a boy who cannot decide whom to marry. He says his father sang in Russian.
1:15:35
From the machine transcript
Burmenko is back in the room, and Kerler and the household drink together and make toasts. They talk about her son, his position, and her two children, and Kerler says he had guessed it was her son at the door. The passage is largely informal.
13:01
From the machine transcript
Burmenko says her best years were before the war and that she married at eighteen or nineteen, with a difficult father-in-law. She also speaks of her obedience as a child and of how things are different now. She mentions Germans in Berdychiv and says today's younger people do not know Jewish history.
20:42
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim guides the team through Berdychiv and tells of the German occupation and the roundups and killings of Jews. He tells of the murder of 960 young men, the grave pits, and his own escape when his father was shot. His mother, sisters and brother lie in the mass grave. He also mentions a brick factory and a pit for hiding Jews, the Soviet memorials, the erection of the Star of David, and gold-seekers digging up bones.
15:46
From the machine transcript
Hodinger describes his hard life after leaving the army: odd jobs with an electrician and at a factory. Later he and his wife bought and built a house. He mentions that his sister Chane, aged about 83, is in Israel and had heart surgery, but he cannot visit her.
2:36
From the machine transcript
Hodinger continues on Hanukkah, recalling his father's friends coming to the house and playing late. Kerler then asks about the family of his sister Chana.
11:35
From the machine transcript
Mostly camera-and-car talk on the way through Berehove. Hodinger sings a short song, and Kerler checks his sister's name and her flat in Haifa. The group stops briefly and speaks Russian and Romanian with people about visitors and university work, and about Efraim Berkovich's home and daughter (names unclear). Little of the content about the Great Synagogue or its plaque can be made out. Much of the speech is garbled.
4:14
From the machine transcript
Snook says she was about twenty when she was taken before the war. She tells how a relative's wife, after her brother-in-law's death, asked her to take one of two children when Jews were being taken to the camps. The transcript is garbled about who exactly the relative was.
7:53
From the machine transcript
Snook says she was able to study little and attended a Czech school, which cost money. Her father was a middle-class man who kept a cow and a pair of horses. She also mentions a rebbe's grave in a nearby place where people go (the name is unclear), where a building has gone up.
16:08
From the machine transcript
Snook says her son was taught by a melamed. She herself went to a lame teacher for lessons so as to be able to pray. She did not read Yiddish newspapers, which came from Israel. The village had a library with various books, and her daughter-in-law knows Yiddish.
43:18
From the machine transcript
Outside, Kerler and Snook's daughter-in-law talk about a man named Misha Berger (?), who held the key to the holy place, and about her brother, who died long ago. She says her siblings and children are in Israel. They speak of the children phoning daily and of her husband.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler opens with the date and Kozak's address, then she gives personal details: her Yiddish name Sheyndl (Zhenya in her passport), her birth in Bershad and her maiden and married names. She names her parents, Avrom Hershkovich and Blume Shlomovna, and their birth years; her father was a furrier who worked in the villages, and her mother was a homemaker and, after the war, a baker selling bread at the market. She recalls her siblings, a Ukrainian eight-year school, evacuation to the Caucasus and Central Asia, and her return in 1944 to find strangers in their home. She then describes prewar Bershad as a Jewish town, her grandmother the midwife and her grandfather's death after a rescue in the snow, and the town's water-carrier, shoykhet and mohel. Kerler asks about weddings and klezmer musicians, a relative's wedding in Khust (?), Sabbath cholent and challah, fish dishes, latkes, Passover and Sukkot, and the old synagogue. She ends by singing two Yiddish songs, one of passionate love and elopement and one about a poor orphan boy.
7:32
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions about prewar holiday customs at home, Kozak recalls Hanukkah (candles, grandmother's gelt, no memory of the dreydl), Shavuot (cheese-filled pastries) and Purim (hamentashn). Near the end she offers to show photographs.
9:45
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about prewar Bershad' and the local rabbi. Kozak names him as Yankl Lipman(?), a rabbi rather than a rebbe, with a fine beard. She says his second wife's daughter lived in Odessa, that he died around 1958, and gives her own parents' death years.
10:35
From the machine transcript
Bershadskaya talks about Hanukkah in Chernyotka, held in a rented house, including the dreidel and latkes made of potatoes. She says her father taught the children what they needed in Yiddish, and mentions that her mother died before the war. Kerler then leads into the war years.
16:40
From the machine transcript
Bershadskaya recalls the liberation of Bershad', when Soviet tanks entered in March, and bombing. After the war the family returned to their house, which non-Jewish neighbors had occupied and then left. She studied at a teaching institute, the family repaired the house, and she and her brother traded soap across a river by raft to get food.
36:51
From the machine transcript
Asked how his mother kept the Sabbath, Shor lists Sabbath food: fish, meat, bean dishes and cold jellied dishes. The fish was carp (?), and he and Kerler discuss the names for gefilte fish and chopped fish. The end is interrupted by Russian and side remarks.
6:16
From the machine transcript
Shor recites cheder rhymes and ditties, including a macaronic Hebrew-Yiddish verse about meat (basar) and humorous nonsense rhymes. He mentions that many songs existed in the ghetto-era (?) setting. Kerler then turns to photographs, and Shor shows pictures of himself and his wife at a resort and of his family, including a brother.
8:49
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Shor to say the Four Questions as he asked his father, and Shor recites them in Hebrew with Yiddish translation and other Haggadah passages. A second voice asks when he got his prayer book. Shor shows his father's books, including a book of Selihot printed in Poland (Przemyśl is named), and Kerler asks about a word for mixing up the prayer book.
3:21
From the machine transcript
Gvinter talks about his forty years in a small sewing workshop whose staff were three Jews and two women. He mentions prices of bread and goods, and a wish for peace in Israel, America, Ukraine and every synagogue. He says he was born on 5 August (1936), with a forelock, so that his mother thought he was a girl, and begins to speak of his brother Yuzia.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Gvinter talks with Kerler and Lemster about the song of going to Palestine, which was sung in secret in the ghetto and more openly after the war, and comments on politics and the Israel–Palestinian conflict today. He mentions his own illness and a daughter's family. He answers terminology questions about Bila Tserkva, about words for non-Jews and for a foolish or wicked person, and about a convert. He recalls the Bershad' ghetto, people from Chernivtsi held and shot at the stadium, and non-Jews who learned a few Yiddish words. He then speaks about his own life: neighbours and the shoe workshop, the sale of a building he was asked to sell, his marriage in 1958, his children, and his siblings. Finally he explains why one synagogue in Bershad' stayed open after the war while others were closed, and mentions the building turned into a cinema.
0:00
From the machine transcript
The second man opens by explaining that the synagogues were closed before the war and that after the war only a few were allowed. He recalls that a synagogue building stood on a spot in Bershad', and points out the main street, which became Lenin Street. Sklyarskiy then gives his name and patronymic and says he was orphaned young (his mother died when he was three, his father when he was seven) and brought up by an aunt and uncle in the shtetl Zhornysche, where about two thousand Jews lived. He tells how in 1942 the Jews were driven out by police, he was shot at and wounded, and the family hid in a dugout in a field. His sisters and their children were killed when he went out for food; he then joined the partisans and was wounded again. He describes his father as a carpenter, his sisters, and his schooling: a four-year Yiddish school, then a Russian one. He talks about the shtetl before the war, a rabbi, holidays in the synagogue and the postwar murder of a Jewish man. Kerler asks about the length of the hiding and the number of people in the dugout, and asks him to retell the first shooting and the forced labor under the Germans, including burying dead soldiers.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Sklyarskiy shows his documents and talks about his status as a partisan and war invalid, with a utility benefit that reduces his electricity charges. Kerler asks when his sister took him, and Sklyarskiy says he recovered in the Lipovets district. His sister was an officer in a field hospital, and he travelled with the hospital. Kerler also asks about the person who shot at him.
18:32
From the machine transcript
Loyf says that during the war she lived with her mother, grandmother and grandfather in the Dzegovka ghetto. Her mother told her that the Jews were driven out to a square and were nearly killed, until the Romanians came. Many Jews were driven there from surrounding villages.
21:59
From the machine transcript
Loyf talks about her son's circumcision in Dzegovka after the war, with the year not clearly heard. She describes the Jewish town with its one synagogue and the Jewish houses, and says no non-Jews lived in the town. She recalls the church gold hidden before the Germans came, and her mother's fear of speaking about her grandfather in 1937. She also notes that her mother, raising three children alone, had little time to tell stories.
31:58
From the machine transcript
Loyf describes her wedding in Dzegovka in the 1950s. It was held under a chuppah with Jewish music from local players, a big meal and dancing, though no one knew the traditions anymore. The talk turns to her husband, who does not speak Yiddish, and to his time in the army.
37:51
From the machine transcript
Loyf recalls the shoykhet in her town, whom people visited on Fridays, and how her mother koshered meat, though she cannot recall the blessing. She says her mother baked bread in an oven every Friday and worked hard all week, resting only on Sabbath.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler recalls what was grown and eaten (wheat, peaches, maize porridge), and Pustilnik then speaks about her mother in the war, in the Pechera camp. A German soldier there helped them with food, and Kerler explains that the Romanians were the camp's masters. She then turns to the family's return after the war to a looted house, with a mother who was ill for years.
10:16
From the machine transcript
Pustilnik describes the march on foot to the Pechera camp, where those who could not walk were shot. She mentions a small book of Jewish survivors, and Kerler notes that he has recorded people in Tulchyn who were in the camp. She tells how the pregnant mother and small children escaped from a Gentile who had been paid in wheat to take them. The father was in the Red Army, and the passage ends with the mother pregnant in 1942.
5:01
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about Jewish observance after the war. She mentions the memorial-day custom, a lamp burning day and night, and not knowing where her father lies. Of Purim there is little; for Passover she bakes her own matzo at home. She describes Jewish weddings after the war, with Yiddish music and songs, a wedding entertainer (?), and her grandson's groom's cap.
21:08
From the machine transcript
Talks with Lemster and Kerler about places she was taken to during the war, including Berlovka (?), and about now living in Boryslav with no one to talk Yiddish with. She mentions her poverty, her marriage in 1960 (?), and her two children, a daughter nearby and a son in Israel. She describes the son's family and his three children, a trip to Israel, and her work there as a massage therapist. She also says she took a grandson to a synagogue. The questioning then turns to a rabbi in her home village.
9:30
From the machine transcript
Kupershmidt talks about prewar Sabbath at home, with his mother's blessing and the cholent kept warm. The conversation turns to Kerler's own background and where he and the others live, and Kupershmidt says Poles also killed Jews and speaks of the ghetto. The passage ends on an apology that is not clearly explained in the transcript.
MDV 394Musya Moiseevna Vaynshteyn; Sofia (Sime-Leye; David (Dovid) Geller and 1 moreUman', Bratslav, 2005
9:05
From the machine transcript
She says Yiddish was still spoken in Dzhurin after the war and life was hard; her mother was left alone with three children. Her father died at the front, and the family learned of it later; she describes the circumstances of the grave and annual visits.
12:28
From the machine transcript
The interviewee describes the Dzhurin synagogue (large windows, white stones, women seated) as Kerler asks about its appearance, then Katz invites her to recall early childhood. She sings a little of a lullaby, says her mother could read Yiddish and wrote to relatives in America, and recalls a parable of a rich and a poor brother.
18:18
From the machine transcript
She explains the family went to Sharhorod for Passover to celebrate with her husband's parents and brothers, and the discussion turns to the names of the grandparents, including the grandmother's Yiddish name. Kerler asks about the husband's father's name and birthplace.
25:34
From the machine transcript
Asked for a Yiddish word for a gravestone, she gives it and says her grandfather's stone in Dzhurin has Yiddish writing. After the war the family brought a rabbi to read it, but no one in Dzhurin now can.
17:23
From the machine transcript
Sofia tells how her family left Bratslav on the father's horse wagon. The journey took six weeks, with the parents, siblings and a brother's wife, to the Luhansk area of the Donbas, where they worked on a kolkhoz. In December 1941 they travelled by freight train to Tashkent, then to a kolkhoz near the Iranian border in Kashkadarya oblast. There her mother took the hungry children to a nearby town. Her parents' names are given as Avrom Elye and Kheyke, and a brother is Leyb.
51:43
From the machine transcript
Kupershmidt shows photographs, mainly of his son Naftali (Tolya), newspaper clippings and letters from abroad, and a self-published book about the Pechera camp. Kerler and he discuss its title and how to find it. Russian and garbled stretches mean much of the detail is unclear.
11:07
From the machine transcript
Asked about prewar religious life, Khavin says the Jews were very observant and each of the three synagogue halls held a minyan of about a hundred men. He explains the terms tsadik and guter yid, and recalls his father bringing poor guests home from the synagogue for the Sabbath. A visiting guter yid stayed with the family for about a week and Khavin spoke with him about Pushkin and Tolstoy.
22:17
From the machine transcript
Khavin recalls the cheder, where a melamed taught him and two other boys, and being put in a Yiddish school for half a year before his siblings moved him to a Russian school. Answering Kerler, he explains the move partly through growing antisemitism and the situation under Stalin, and says he attended the melamed until about 1932. He describes the teacher as a cultured man who taught Chumash and prayers, but says he himself did not pray until after returning from the army.
44:06
From the machine transcript
At Katz's request, Khavin remembers the holidays at his parents' home, beginning with Rosh Hashanah: the big challah, the festive table with fish and a fish head, apples with honey, and why his father did not eat gefilte fish. He recalls the candles his mother made for the Ten Days, and Yom Kippur eve with the chicken meal and the shoykhet. He says his father made his own wine and never bought it, and begins a story about his grandmother's wine.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Khavin recalls Hanukkah before the war: his grandmother gave each grandchild five kopeks of Hanukkah money, and his father fattened geese that were slaughtered by the shoykhet for the holiday. Kerler asks about force-feeding geese, which his father avoided, and about the goose cracklings and fat. His mother made buckwheat pancakes fried in goose fat, and Khavin and Kerler discuss the terms for pancakes and latkes. Katz asks about Hanukkah and Purim games and noisemakers.
21:13
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether Khavin's father told stories about rebbes and tsadikim; Khavin says there was no such talk in Soviet times, though his father took him to the synagogue. They discuss which cities counted as Jewish: Vilna, Kyiv, Vinnytsia (?) and Chernihiv. Khavin gives figures for Chernihiv's prewar population, and Katz clarifies them as 56,000 inhabitants of whom 26,000 were Jews.
5:30
From the machine transcript
Lifshitz recites or sings fragments of a song about being drawn to Palestine and Zionism versus staying in Russia, and a second song about the landlord and America. He then speaks of his brother, who was shot at some point in Birobidzhan by non-Jews or police, and says he had to work hard for years.
8:31
From the machine transcript
Lifshitz recalls Passover as a child: his mother cooked and matzah was eaten. Jews saw to it that each family had matzah. He mentions his siblings, some of whom died, and that the family was poor. He says both parents were Jewish.
11:58
From the machine transcript
Lifshitz describes Birobidzhan and the Jewish kolkhoz at Bergefeld (Birefeld), where the family was given a house, a cow and chickens. He says life was hard but better than in the surrounding villages. There was a Yiddish school, and he recalls no Yiddish songs. He left after the war and came to look for his parents, his father having died before the war.
22:46
From the machine transcript
Bielaia recalls Hanukkah and other holidays at home, her father being very religious and attending synagogue on Friday and Sabbath. Katz asks about Purim and the Hanukkah top, but she has forgotten its name.
25:41
From the machine transcript
Bielaia remembers the Passover seder led by her father, with a handsome table and matzah. Her mother blessed the Sabbath candles and Bielaia, the youngest child, helped. She mentions the war and her husband's not returning.
39:16
From the machine transcript
Bielaia talks about her prewar life: she married in 1937, her husband acted in a Yiddish drama circle and she went to rehearsals and acted too. She worked at a Jewish institution until the war, when she was evacuated, borrowed Yiddish books from the library, and had a small daughter.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Bielaia answers dialectological questions: words for coming closer, being asleep or tired, pious and honest, seeing poorly, and the plural of a noun for rows or beds (?). Kerler asks how a word was said in Nizhyn. She then says she was one of eight children and that her father and grandmother perished in the war. Her husband did not return. She came back to Chernihiv with no flat or belongings, spent three days in a wagon, and began life alone. Kerler confirms her surname, Bielaia.
18:35
From the machine transcript
Khavin recites a prayer for the dead at the graves, ending with an Amen. Katz asks about Kaddish, and Khavin explains that in Chernihiv Kaddish is said only when there is a minyan. He then begins to speak of his parents, saying his mother died in 1957 (?) and his father earlier, in 1947 (?), and mentions a severe frost in December.
11:28
From the machine transcript
Khavin tells a story about his father in the army, apparently while the speaker was a soldier, and about cigarettes at the front. The details are unclear in the transcript. The catalogue's 'encounter with soldier' is not clearly confirmed.
13:02
From the machine transcript
Khavin describes the Passover seder in his parents' home before the war: the search for hametz, the foods, the seder plate, and his father's song. He also mentions Purim gifts carried to relatives, Shavuot as a favorite holiday, and the Sabbath songs at home. Kerler asks whether songs were sung for Purim and Hanukkah.
26:01
From the machine transcript
Khavin reflects on why six million Jews died, saying he can accept his own guilt but not that of children and pious women, and mentions a relative who came to Moscow to his sister. He begins a longer story about relatives in Moscow and a trip toward Oster (?), with a question about the Yiddish form of that name. The recording is interrupted by a Russian request not to disturb the filming.
19:00
From the machine transcript
Burg reads aloud his own Yiddish story about the binding of Isaac, which draws on his childhood. It describes his birth on a Friday evening in May, his mother's songs, his father's tales and the cheder teacher who vividly retold the Torah. It ends with the Holocaust, in which many Isaacs were killed in gas chambers. Kerler thanks him afterwards.
33:31
From the machine transcript
Burg speaks about his memory of the weekly Torah portions and his bar mitzvah haftarah, then recounts the Jacob and Rachel passage he was told to review. He calls it poetry, history and Zionism together, and defends cheder education as the source of Yiddish writers. He answers Kerler's questions about cheder and yeshiva in Vyzhnytsya, whether he was called a heretic, and his religious practice today. He describes Sabbath in Vyzhnytsya, including his father's pipe, and compares the town's moderate Hasidim with Hungarian ones, with a remark on Yom Kippur in Chernivtsi.
54:11
From the machine transcript
Prompted by Kerler to discuss the Soviet period, Burg says he came to the Soviet Union already a writer. In evacuation in Chelyabinsk he wrote an article on Jews in industry, which he sent to Eynikayt, and he met its editor in Moscow in 1945. He learned from a reply that his mother and sister had been deported to Vinnytsia oblast and shot, so he did not return to Chernivtsi; he was sent to the pedagogical institute in Ivanovo, where Levin was prorector and he befriended a docent connected to Dovid Hofshteyn.
29:56
From the machine transcript
Geinik recalls being taken to the Chernivtsi ghetto, where the Germans and local Jews beat people, and that her father went into the army. Her two sisters left for Israel in 1958 and she has lost contact with them.
37:07
From the machine transcript
Shternberg describes Khotyn as a commercial town with many Jews. She tells how the town was bombed in the war and how the Jews in prayer shawls begged the Germans not to burn it. Her father was killed. She also recalls the Romanian school, where her Yiddish teacher Yanever came twice a week while the Christian children had religion lessons with a priest. She recites the Passover and Hanukkah songs that he composed, and sings other songs, including a Shavuot song of the cheder. Kerler asks whether non-Jews became Jews in Khotyn; she says this was not known.
51:22
From the machine transcript
Shternberg talks about a video interview made for a Ukrainian project, in which she sang two camp songs, and mentions Spielberg. She and Kerler look at a newspaper clipping about her late husband, a cantor at the synagogue, and about the Hesed. She then sings a song about childhood years and the house where she was born, and Lemster asks about the camp songs again.
3:50
From the machine transcript
Shames answers brief questions about Yanoshpol: there was one synagogue in the small town, and her father was a miller. She says she had another sister who was killed.
5:47
From the machine transcript
Shames speaks about the war years and after. She worked in a factory in evacuation and then came to Khmil'nyk, where her mother had survived the war. She worked as an accountant, did not attend a Yiddish school (she was taught at home at eight), then switched to Ukrainian. She tells how her father was killed and how her mother hid and survived, and cannot recall details.
21:12
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks whether her mother made gefilte fish and whether she could read Yiddish books. She repeats that as a child she learned Hebrew from a teacher but forgot it. Questions about whether her mother taught her candle blessing and about the arrival of Soviet rule (1919 (?)) follow. She cannot recall details of her studies in a technical school elsewhere.
28:22
From the machine transcript
Kerler notes that Khmil'nyk was a spa town after the war and asks whether Jews came in summer. Shames says they did, but Jewish practice faded. She worked as an accountant in an office where Jews spoke Ukrainian or Russian. At home with her mother she spoke Yiddish.
56:36
From the machine transcript
Kerler invites Shames to tell something freely in Yiddish; she says she has nothing to tell and did not expect the visit. The interviewers explain they study the Yiddish language. She says she learned Yiddish as a child and speaks it now with nobody. She describes working for 23 years in a textile factory, where co-workers spoke Russian or Ukrainian because the boss was Christian. She recounts evacuation to the Urals, her parents being taken, her return to Khmil'nyk, where her mother had survived.
2:08
From the machine transcript
Kerler states the date and purpose of the interview, and Gammer gives her name, born Goldis, with her father Fayvesh, and says she was born in Khmil'nyk in 1924 to Khmil'nyk-born parents. Her mother was Eni. Her father was born in 1893 and was a tailor; her mother worked as an employee (a shop cashier, it seems) and died shortly before the war. During the war the family lived in evacuation in Central Asia. A second woman gives her name as Genia, and the town is said to have had about twelve thousand Jews before the war.
30:51
From the machine transcript
Gammer and her daughter show family photographs. They identify her father's partisan relatives, including Tule (Naftule) Goldis, a brother of her grandfather, and a cousin. Kerler relates one man to the Petliurists.
32:25
From the machine transcript
Gammer recalls being taken to the synagogue by her mother. Wealthy women could not pray, so they gathered around her mother in the rich synagogue and repeated what she said. Kerler asks whether she learned Modeh ani. Her father did not attend services because he was a partisan and a Soviet man.
37:51
From the machine transcript
Gammer says she worked 37 years in a bread shop and now lives on a pension. Her daughter is also an invalid. She spoke Yiddish with her husband at home, and her daughter Genia learned to read Yiddish from her father. She comments on Jews who left for Israel, Germany and America, and on the town's Jewish population: about twelve or thirteen thousand before the war and five or six thousand after.
28:48
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about her working life. She says her father and mother worked, and that she was an accountant after the war.
31:45
From the machine transcript
Kapustina talks about her work after the war. She says she did not read Yiddish. She was asked to take a job at a textile factory, using her ten years of school, and says her father was shot, in one of six graves. There was nowhere to live.
35:43
From the machine transcript
Kapustina describes being gathered in winter 1941–42: the family went to her aunt's house to be together, her father heard Germans on the road, and they were led in deep snow past the bridge toward a pit, with dead bodies lying about.
8:34
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about her earliest memories. She says she studied at a Ukrainian school and that Jews spoke Yiddish among themselves. She recalls Passover being kept as Jews did at home and that she was the eldest sister.
18:13
From the machine transcript
Shames describes her evacuation, living with a Christian woman who treated her well and working in a factory. She wrote letters to find her mother, who had survived, and then returned to Khmil'nyk, took up work and rented lodging. Kerler also asks about her health, and she says she has not gone out for a long time and is wary of a neighbour.
23:23
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the Christian woman from whom she rented a room in evacuation. Shames says she was good to her, and the woman rejoiced when she learned her mother had survived. She then returned, took up work and buried her husband.
35:19
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Shames what being a Jew means and whether God exists. She answers briefly that there is nothing to think about and that it is a Jewish God. She married after the war and had no children. Kerler thanks her and praises her Yiddish.
29:22
From the machine transcript
Srulova describes Passover at home: her mother koshered the dishes with hot water and stones. She mentions beating kapores before Yom Kippur, Purim noisemakers, the dreidel and Hanukkah foods such as latkes and doughnuts. She also gives her way of making gefilte fish and recalls asking the four questions at the seder.
29:41
From the machine transcript
Weiss talks about his schooling in Drohobych and his studies at the Polish polytechnic in Lviv, where he trained as a mechanical engineer. He could hardly find work in his field. An uncle from America arranged for him to study abroad and sent papers to the consulate in Warsaw in 1939, which were lost at the outbreak of war. Under Soviet rule he was unable to leave and worked as assistant cashier at the regional bank until mobilisation in 1941. His parents and youngest brother were killed.
18:33
From the machine transcript
Weiss describes the Sabbath table at his father's house, with gefilte fish, challah and wine, and answers questions about the taste of the fish and about singing zmires. He recalls holiday customs: Simchat Torah, Passover preparations and the seder (his younger brother asked the questions, his brother Edmund found the afikoman), Purim masqueraders and Hanukkah menorahs. He says there was no local Yiddish theater, although a traveling troupe once came and he rarely went to the theater.
49:51
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Shavuot, Hanukkah, Yom Kippur and Passover food and customs; Shekhovich remembers little, saying that her parents spoke Yiddish but the children Polish, that her family was not so religious, though Yom Kippur was fasted and Passover had a seder without bread. She says her daughter makes gefilte fish very well, but declines to give a recipe, calling it women's business. Later there is talk of Polish and Ukrainian language, her birth year (probably 1919), and her views on Israel and troubles there.
38:48
From the machine transcript
Shekhovich says that she and other children spoke Polish as they grew up and that all teaching was in Polish. She discusses Yiddish theatre visiting from elsewhere and recalls a relative from America. She tells how Jews were poor and rich and how life was difficult, and the postwar life in Drohobych. When asked about her siblings, she says she can say little, only that there were troubles under Hitler.
3:41
From the machine transcript
Khasidovich speaks about the war years. She says some Jews hid because they feared being taken into the army, and that people hid from the Germans. Kerler and Lemster press her on who took her parents (the Germans) and who brought her food while she hid. She says many Jews of Fastiv perished and few remained. She says some people helped them, among them Jews who were with the Germans, and that bread was distributed in other ways. She mentions a family that did not hide and was lost.
43:36
From the machine transcript
Kopyt talks about her aunts, who sang, and about neighbours during the war: the Grossman family, whose children were hidden by Russians. She says that her grandmother's home housed many families. She tells of being pressed to testify that people were Jewish, and she talks about Jewish writers from Fastiv such as Khashevatskaia (?) and Khentin. She says she gets no Yiddish newspapers, only Sovetish Heymland, and that she has helped make a museum in Korsun with artifacts.
15:47
From the machine transcript
Murovanaia speaks about her life today in Haysyn, her pension and her children's help. She mentions the few remaining Jewish friends and says she has relatives in Israel and does not wish to leave. She describes her roughly 45-day visit to Israel, her impressions of it and the climate, and children who live in Germany.
15:51
From the machine transcript
Burshtein talks about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at his grandfather's house, and his father not praying. Questions from a second voice and Kerler cover the Passover seder and its foods, gefilte fish and how it was made, and Hanukkah money and food. Also covered are tashlikh on Yom Kippur and the Ninth of Av.
0:00
From the machine transcript
A formal interview, mostly in Russian, with an elderly woman from Odesa who says she knows no Yiddish. She recalls her grandfather's Passover seder and her father, who trained as a draftsman and architect in Odesa and studied in Switzerland. She also describes her private Russian gymnasium, antisemitism around Palm Week, and the hardships of revolution and civil war. She speaks of regretting not learning Yiddish, a Ukrainian husband who knew a few Yiddish words, and an episode at work in Bershad' when she could not understand a conversation in Yiddish.
45:03
From the machine transcript
Beigel talks about her father's work after the war and her own studies and work as a medical assistant. She married a man who returned from the front and a former classmate; he was from Voroshylivka (?) and his father was killed. She names her siblings, Esi and Grisha, and her grandfathers.
59:28
From the machine transcript
Beigel speaks about her contacts in Israel: a sister's child, and two boys who work there. Lemster asks whether she knows Yiddish songs. Her parents sang Yiddish songs to her son, but she cannot sing and did not learn them, having gone to a Ukrainian school.
3:56
From the machine transcript
Long dialectological questionnaire in which Beigel gives Yiddish equivalents, often mixed with Russian or Ukrainian words. Items include words for the senses, greetings and wishes such as congratulations and thanks, everyday and household words, pronouns and verb forms, and religious terms such as praying, honest or pious Jew, and Christian. In the middle she tells at length about her youth and marriage. She mentions a Bukovina acquaintance who left for Israel, her husband's wartime imprisonment and later head illness, and her 46 years caring for him. She remarks on her failing memory and that the questioning tires her.
10:42
From the machine transcript
Beigel says she had no good years. The war began when she was a teenager and brought only hardship. Now she does nothing and her children help her. Asked about lullabies, she remembers none.
21:56
From the machine transcript
Iuris talks about postwar Yiddish culture in Chernivtsi, including visiting singers, a Yiddish newspaper and theater. She shows Yiddish letters from relatives in America, names the relatives in a photograph, and says her mother's sister lived in Romania. Kerler reads the address on a letter. She says she lost contact with her family and wants to trace them; she also gives the birth years of her parents.
MDV 448Froim Kalmanovich Bukshtein; Genrikh (Hersh bereb Moyshe akoyen, Hesye) Moiseevich KatzIvano-Frankivs'k, 2003
55:41
From the machine transcript
Katz mentions his membership in a youth organization, Hashomer Hatzair, but cannot recall Hebrew songs. Asked about Passover at home, he says his father, a Hasid, took little interest in the Four Questions. His father worked for a Polish landowner whose name is only partly clear in the transcript.
36:10
From the machine transcript
Katz confirms that his parents and siblings were killed, and Kerler lists their names. He then describes life in Soviet Stanislav (later Ivano-Frankivs'k) after the war: no synagogues, private prayer in homes, a closed city. He says he has no relatives abroad but had friends in Israel from the Hashomer movement. Kerler ends by announcing a set of words to translate.
18:06
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks when the village club play took place, and Lys places it in the late 1920s. He describes Kornitsa as a Jewish shtetl where people traded in cows and boards. His father, a carpenter, had to leave after the militia threatened him and settled in Izyaslav after marrying. The end of the passage is garbled.
20:21
From the machine transcript
Lys says he finished first grade before the war. When the Germans approached in July, his mother packed and the family left by freight train. His father was drafted. After months of travel they reached a destination that sounds like Mordovia (?), where they lived about four and a half years. His mother worked and he studied, they were very hungry, and his mother wept over his swollen legs.
44:37
From the machine transcript
Lys describes a letter from a man researching the Lys family and his son-in-law's use of the internet. He arranged for photographs of old gravestones, since he cannot read the Hebrew inscriptions, and Kerler comments on how hard they are to read. In answer to S4's questions he gives Jewish population figures before and after the war. He describes how Jewish houses became few in the old town, and mentions intermarried neighbors and his own Jewish family.
17:53
From the machine transcript
Geller tells how, on a trip to a village with a Russian investigator and a police chief, he told a joke in Yiddish, and says he picked up Yiddish on his own. He says that throughout the war he never concealed being a Jew. He then tells how in 1940 his father was away visiting his mother's relatives in Moldova.
20:23
From the machine transcript
Geller recounts the outbreak of war in 1941 and the family's evacuation. At the station his mother, a former partisan with Kotovsky, secured a cart by force for the family. His father came back and missed them; he later sent two men with boots. The father then disappeared at the front and was never found, and Geller speaks of how he was missed in Kuzmin.
15:10
From the machine transcript
Kerler puts the dialectological questionnaire to Geller, covering words for a good or holy place, a pious person, a good Jew, hasidim, 'dybbuk', 'golem' and 'goyets'. They go through Russian-prompted words and sentences: politeness phrases, cold, high, fast, near, early and late, and being ill. They also take body parts, house and building terms, the days and numbers, and words for a rabbi. Geller's idiom for 'Lithuanian Jews' and a story from his work after retirement appear in the course of it. A few religious terms he does not know.
29:17
From the machine transcript
Geller tells of the start of the war: his father went to Kishinev while the mother took Geller and his sister and evacuated. His father returned to Kuz'myn to look for his son, but the Germans were near, and the transcript does not make clear his fate.
34:37
From the machine transcript
Geller talks about police work and about thieves, with no Jews among them. Asked about his mother's songs, he says he was too young to remember. He tells how he later led the automobile and motorcycle society for years, describes his car and his pension, and his Yiddish learned from his parents in the Yiddish-speaking town of Kuz'myn. His first wife Feyge died in 1991; her parents were killed in the war. He remarried after meeting a woman by chance, they registered and have been together some fifteen years. He mentions his son in Moscow, his garden, and the Colorado beetle.
0:00
From the machine transcript
After greetings, Later shows Kerler photographs from his war service, including a German officer's interrogation and the liberation of Vienna. He gives his name and says he was born in Smotrych. He names his parents, grandparents and teachers, and says he directed the Yiddish school there. He describes his schooling: a Soviet Yiddish seven-year school, a Ukrainian ten-year school, and Moscow institute courses. He also describes the kheyder and rabbi, the two synagogues, local non-Jews, and the Yiddish amateur theatre circle he led. He recalls the expulsion of the Poles in 1936 and the 'golden night' when Jews were forced to give up gold. The remainder covers the closing of the big synagogue and his brother's death in the war, followed by holidays, Soviet anti-religious campaigns, red weddings, the Jewish court, performers and klezmer musicians, songs, and the Yiddish literature he studied. The recording breaks off during talk of the Yiddish press and the Kyiv Yiddish theatre.
0:00
From the machine transcript
The passage begins with Later's postwar work as director of a large wholesale warehouse and chairman of a cooperative; he mentions a Yiddish journalist. He then tells his life story at Kerler's request: he went into the army in 1940, served at the front, and was twice wounded. He lists his many orders and medals, and mentions the extra pension he receives from the Ukrainian state. He names the places he passed through at the war's end, among them Warsaw, Germany, Vienna and Prague, and says he came on a camp soon after its liberation. He also says he came back to his home town on a short leave and found his mother, brother and other relatives had been killed. A Ukrainian friend of his had told him how this happened. He moved to Kam'yanets'-Podil's'kyy in 1955 and worked there until his eighties. From about 14:00 Kerler turns to a questionnaire on foods and words, and on how Yiddish was spoken in Later's home area. Items asked include gefilte fish and sweet or sour dishes, potato pancakes, words for devil, golem, thanks, please, mouse, house, wife and husband, and numbers. They also cover bodily words, colours and emotions, plurals, 'flowers', 'store', 'attic', 'beam', 'rich man', 'enemy', and the phrase 'to come back'. Later gives local forms and says which ones his own family used.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Gelman gives his Yiddish name and birth date in 1921 and says he lived in Kam''yanets' until the war. He describes his parents and grandparents, including a maternal grandfather who traded in Kitaygorod (Ketaret), and names his three siblings. He then recalls his childhood: leaving a Jewish school after four grades during the 1933 hunger, selling coal he gathered at the station, and his father's hospitalisation. He tells at length of his Red Army service, from the first bombing in 1941 through hospitals, a long march and tank-unit service, to the advance on Berlin in 1945, and mentions a decoration, work in Germany afterwards, and his later work buying cattle. Kerler's questions then turn to prewar Sabbath and holiday life in a poor household: meat versus challah, the mother's blessings, driving for others on Sabbath, the town's trades, the Jewish street, ritual slaughter, Passover preparation, Jewish and non-Jewish friends and neighbours, Hanukkah foods and the bathhouse and mikveh. These parts include terminology for shops, trades and foods.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about non-Jews who converted to Judaism. Gelman recalls two brothers, shoemakers from the Pozamke (?) area, one of whom became a Jew and kept Jewish observance more strictly than born Jews. He then mentions villages in Russia of converts. Kerler asks about prewar Jewish sports clubs, the Kamianets yeshiva, Zionists and Hasidim, and Gelman remembers little beyond what his mother told him about Zionist meetings. He speaks about keeping yortsayt for his parents at home or in synagogue after the war, his one year in cheder, and his inability to read Yiddish letters. From about 12 minutes Kerler turns to dialectological questions. These cover the meaning of idioms, the Litvak (Lithuanian) Yiddish versus local speech, regional names for Jews, greetings and farewells, and many individual words (body, household, food, colors, adverbs, kinship, time words). The questionnaire also has sentences to translate. At the end a second person speaks Russian about a certificate, a prize and a son who is a sugar-factory director.
MDV 463Arkadii Isaakovich Gelman; Abram Davidovich KaplanKam'yanets'-Podil's'kyy, Mohyliv-Podil's'kyy, 2003
0:00
From the machine transcript
Outside Gelman's house and on the drive to the old town, a speaker (probably Gelman) with Kerler discusses a small prayer house and the old buildings of the Jewish district of Kamianets-Podilskyi, when they were demolished and when the synagogue was closed by the Bolsheviks. At the former Great Synagogue, now a restaurant, they talk about its origin under Turkish rule and its later history, and local Russian speakers describe its fires and restoration, the old town, the prison, the burnt archive and the church. The speaker (apparently Gelman) tells how his family fled in the war, the sister died on the way and the father died in 1943 (?), and he found his mother and a brother on returning in 1946. From about 26 minutes Kaplan, in Mohyliv-Podilskyi, tells Kerler about the Jewish museum, the community room, the old cemetery with its tzadikim and the synagogue's weekly and Passover events, and about Polish volunteers, the monuments to victims of the camps and ghetto (Pechora, Skazyntsi), his army service and communism, and how prayer continued in homes until a synagogue opened in 1948. He discusses prewar Jewish numbers, synagogues, hasidim and shoykhets, relations with the Baptists who took over a synagogue building, the community leadership, and a critical view of Joint, Hesed and Sochnut aid and of emigration.
31:01
From the machine transcript
Kraidman recalls the journal Sovetish Heymland and says its editor Arn Vergelis was in the same school class in Lyubar as her husband. She says he befriended a Ukrainian writer, apparently Yevtushenko. She has not read Polyanker, recalls buying Yiddish newspapers at a kiosk, and has heard of Birobidzhan, where Jews went and later left.
39:47
From the machine transcript
Sonya tells of her husband's childhood: at the age of six he lived through the pogrom in the street where Jews lived. Her account describes hiding in the attic, bandits demanding gold, and the killed Jews found outside. Gaiviker adds that later the Poles came and took his father away for a time.
53:34
From the machine transcript
Sonya describes how her family baked matzo at home, with her old grandfather at the oven and the five children helping, and how the family waited for the father at the seder. The home was strictly kosher, and she learned cooking and baking from her mother.
55:10
From the machine transcript
Sonya explains how she makes sweet-and-sour meat and says that her great-grandchildren in kindergarten asked why the teachers did not cook like their grandmother.
56:25
From the machine transcript
Sonya describes how she makes gefilte fish, removing bones, chopping and adding onion, eggs, pepper and matzo meal. Kerler asks whether the fish is sweet or salted and what it is called, and she describes meat with plums and cookies with raisins. Everyone, including her great-grandchildren and a Christian son-in-law, loves her food. She then mentions the family's hard life today, her husband's invalid pension and small payments.
40:21
From the machine transcript
Asked about his wedding, Kaviner says he and his wife simply registered, with no ceremony, in 1949; she went to teach at the school and he went to work. He then mentions a book about the Gulag from those years.
12:28
From the machine transcript
Vaisblai tells how, as a hungry schoolboy, he stole other children's bread and butter and once climbed through a window to eat food cooking in someone's house. His father beat him for it. He then began working in the Jewish kolkhoz in Chemerivtsi.
16:39
From the machine transcript
Vaisblai recounts the German occupation of Chemerivtsi. The rabbi says the Jews must go to the slaughter for their sins, though Kerler's question shows it was unclear who said it. A man took Jews' gold, and his family was driven on foot fifty kilometres to the Kam''yanets'-Podil's'kyy ghetto. He describes hunger, an old and a new ghetto, escapes by day for food, narrow escapes and hiding, and flight to Dunaivtsi and beyond.
43:53
From the machine transcript
Vaisblai recounts his return to Chemerivtsi and says only two families on the kolkhoz knew he was Jewish. He lived in his grandmother's old house. He then describes postwar work in several places, including a trip to Chernivtsi (?), as a shop manager and trader, and a stay in Zakupne (?), with brushes with the militia and officials over theft and goods.
1:51
From the machine transcript
Vaisblai sings 'Nokhemke mayn zin'. Kerler asks for rarer songs, including one about a wagoner. Vaisblai then comments on the dwindling of Jewish life in Khmel'nyts'kyy, with many Jews dead or gone to Israel and Germany. His son is in Israel and his daughter in Germany, and he mentions a grandson who could not join the German army. He also tells of his wartime ability to understand German.
16:20
From the machine transcript
Bivson answers what it means to be a Jew: having pity for everyone, loving animals, and being honest and good. She mentions her two cats and a dog and her flowers. Lemster returns to the questionnaire with items on flowers and a flowerbed, a Yiddish expression, 'come', and the word for book. She then speaks of her age, the war and the people she lost, and of her forty years as a telephone operator, including calls from Israel.
22:32
From the machine transcript
Bivson describes the peaceful, Yiddish-speaking home she grew up in, with a good mother and a father who worked and handed over his earnings, and says this is why she is as she is. She recalls her mother's lighting of Sabbath candles and her own custom of lighting candles for a year after her mother's death. Lemster asks about prayers and songs she knew, and she says she does not remember them. She hopes that Lemster's students will be good people and will know Yiddish, and Lemster thanks her.
31:22
From the machine transcript
After demobilization Kaviner returned to Derazhnya, saw the graves of the murdered including his parents', and soon moved to Khmel'nyts'kyy to work. He describes the postwar famine and his work as head of a carpentry workshop, and says there were good and bad years.
53:00
From the machine transcript
Kaviner talks about prayer and his religious education. His father and grandmother arranged for him to learn from age three, and he went through a melamed, a talmud torah and a yeshiva, where learning came easily and he spoke Hebrew better than Yiddish. He tells what became of the yeshiva's teachers, who became bookkeepers, directors and mathematics teachers, and says the yeshiva was closed in 1938.
11:13
From the machine transcript
Vaisblai describes his wartime experiences as a boy of eleven. His family was taken to Kam"yanets'-Podil's'kyy, where his father, mother and grandparents are buried; he escaped on his father's urging and was held for a time by a German. He describes the old and new ghettos, bringing food to his father, the killing of children, and an uncle Zelik, a wealthy man. He then wandered among Dunaivtsi, Kupyn and other villages, hiding that he was a Jew and being helped by various non-Jews. Much of the passage is Russian or garbled.
35:11
From the machine transcript
Vaisblai arrives in the village of Demkovtsy, where a non-Jewish woman who knew his grandmother, a dealer in cloth before the war, takes him in. He was dirty and lice-ridden, and stayed in her house for two weeks. He then goes to religious villagers of a sect and answers Kerler's questions about which villages he passed through, in what order.
10:16
From the machine transcript
Vaisblai says he came to Khmel'nyts'kyy in 1977 after living in Horodok from 1945. He says there were more Jews in Horodok than in Chemerivtsi after the war, and recalls praying at his father's house in Chemerivtsi. He tells long stories about a miserly man named Khaim Bronshtein and a thief named Yozye Stoharski. Kerler then asks about his sister Gitl's songs, and Vaisblai sings a short rhyme.
30:18
From the machine transcript
Snook says that non-Jewish neighbours knew Yiddish and recalls one, Mikhail, a simple non-Jew who even prayed in Yiddish. She recalls baking hamantashn with preserves for the neighbours and discusses the terms for the filling and for potatoes, sending Purim gifts, and drinking at Purim. She tells of her husband Biel, who died fifteen years earlier, and who could lead prayers. Kerler also asks about Sabbath songs.
41:55
From the machine transcript
Snook describes the hardship of life after the war, working at whatever she could, and her marriage and move to Drahovo (?). She gives her son's birth year, 1946 (?). She mentions emigration to America in the 1950s, the surviving minyan in Khust and the old synagogue, which has been repaired with American help. Kerler asks about the synagogue under Soviet rule, and he asks again for songs and prayers; she recites a prayer for the parents.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Katz describes his time in Monowitz: assignment to a barrack under a veteran kapo, the daily march to the factory accompanied by a prisoner orchestra, and digging trenches and carrying pipes. He, his cousin and his uncle obtain lighter work in the camp's work offices because they are young, and he helps a German political prisoner who is the block elder. After the bombing he is sent on a winter death march with almost no food, then on a week-long journey in open wagons to Buchenwald, where he recalls coffee and the crowded bunks. He and his cousin end up in the children's barrack and do no more labor until liberation by the Americans on 11 April, after being driven out of the barrack just before the end.
26:17
From the machine transcript
Zinger recalls the local shoykhet's prayer and recites the Shema and blessings. He tells how he was called to the haftarah and gives details of his bar mitzvah. He remembers a tailor and his parents, who perished. He speaks of Velykyi Bereznyi's trades and professions, naming a tailor, shoemaker, tinsmith and the Jewish doctor Munk. Kerler asks about a folk remedy, "quenching coals", and Zinger explains it. He mentions Hungarian interviewers and the cassettes he received from America. He tells of visiting his wife's grave and the Yiddish headstone designed by a rabbi.
16:38
From the machine transcript
Snook talks about Kaddish and a hired person saying it, while a visitor who has come by car (her son, per the catalogue) leaves. She talks about her health, her descendants, relatives in Israel and America, and keeping kosher. Kerler asks the Yiddish words for 'Jew' and for 'non-Jew' or 'fool', and the word for a crowd, which she explains. She offers the guests a drink made of grapes.
51:29
From the machine transcript
At Kerler's request Snook sings a comic Yiddish song about a gluttonous wife, and explains a word from it. Katz asks about wedding songs. She talks about her health and her son's care, and wishes the interviewers good health, asking about their parents.
9:32
From the machine transcript
Snook talks about Jews in Israel and America, saying they are decent and speak Yiddish, and she also mentions less observant Jews. Kerler asks what she makes of a word for such people (the transcript is unclear). She expresses thanks and good wishes to the team and speaks of her own health, her late husband and the hard years after the war. Katz and Kerler ask for another song, and the formal interview ends with talk of Yiddish books and her husband's prayer book.
22:35
From the machine transcript
Smelanskii tells of four years at the front, being wounded twice, and service that began in the infantry and continued as a machine-gunner and then in the artillery. He mentions the Donbas and the Caucasus, hospital after his second wound, and staying in the army until 1948. He says he has lived in Kyiv since 1984, and that his first wife died in 1983 and a second wife died after five years.
33:30
From the machine transcript
Smelanskii says he worked as an electrician. His father cast mines for the front during the war and before the war worked on the railroad clearing the tracks of snow, and after the war lived as a pious Jew on a pension. Katz then asks about close friends in Kyiv; Smelanskii lives alone but has friends at the synagogue. S2 begins a question about food in the town.
36:00
From the machine transcript
S2 asks what was eaten and cooked in the town, and Smelanskii describes Sabbath food and everyday dishes such as homemade noodles, kasha and potatoes. His father was a shoykhet who slaughtered only fowl. Smelanskii himself learned shehitah, kept his father's knife after his death, and slaughtered for those who came to him. Knife sharpness is discussed, and the transcript is partly garbled.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Informal talk over photographs. Shapiro identifies himself and his wife, who died not long ago, in a picture. There are exchanges about where people lived, one of them in English and Russian. Shapiro touches on his army service. Kerler then asks Shapiro to tell more about his childhood and earliest years and his kheyder teacher.
3:01
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Katz ask Shapiro about Jewish life in Vinnytsya before the revolution, including holidays, prayer and observance. Shapiro recalls a Jewish town with five rabbis and five synagogues, among them the Sandagerska (?) synagogue with a separate women's section and the Krochyk synagogue with a children's choir. He describes Yerusalimka, the neighbourhood where he was born, and his father's search for a larger apartment in the centre. He mentions his late wife's written memory of a Vinnytsya wedding, and explains that his father Yosele was a dayan, who settled disputes and was more popular than the rabbi.
12:55
From the machine transcript
Shapiro tells how he left kheyder at age seven because he could not bear the rabbi's beatings. The teacher was not clever and hit the boys, and Shapiro climbed out of a low window and refused to return. He recalls praying to God and his grandmother telling his parents, and his father then took him to a craftsman, apparently a jeweller, to learn a trade. Shapiro dislikes it and later works as a woodturner and shows some turned objects. Kerler asks him about two kheyder pupils who became religious judges and about the names of things.
0:00
From the machine transcript
At the start the team is received in the house. The hosts discuss some books they want to give away and Katz says Kerler can take them, and Shapiro's helper is from Vinnytsya and now lives in Kyiv. Shapiro mentions his work at an institute, a congratulatory address and a gift of money from a former institute director, and the talk ends with the start of an account of his family and his orphaned father.
14:21
From the machine transcript
Shapiro describes the synagogues of Vinnytsya, among them a workers' synagogue and one connected with a hasidic rebbe, and Katz asks which kind of hasidim the rabbis were. He remembers carrying a tallis as a child, the women's section, a choir and music at one prayer house. He also says his father knew little Hebrew, and that he himself later became an officer.
30:57
From the machine transcript
Braverman describes her Yiddish school, which she attended for four years, starting before she was six, and her early reading of Yiddish, Russian and Ukrainian books. She recalls books left by her uncle's gymnasium (physics, archaeology, geography) and the novel Stempenyu that she read at about ten. She says she learned Hebrew only later. She names her teacher Litinetsky (Israel Borisovich), who she says taught Perets Markish, and recalls a difficult arithmetic problem and what her mother taught her.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Braverman recalls her Hasidic grandfather's household: bringing the lulav and etrog, the prayers she learned as a child, and Passover customs. She discusses Sabbath breads (kuletsh versus challah) and a favorite baked treat (name uncertain). She remembers her mother's heavy baking work, her grandmother preparing the fish head on Fridays, and her father bringing a carp from the villages. The segment ends with Kerler's question about how the fish was made.
4:56
From the machine transcript
Braverman describes making gefilte fish, including the stuffed head and the sugar her mother added, and her own borscht with a little sugar. She mentions her first husband, a non-Jew, whose father was of gentry background and who had a Jewish-sounding name. She then answers Kerler's questions about non-Jews who spoke some Yiddish, including a villager called Kuzma, and about terms for gentiles. A story follows about an unbaptized Russian girl. Semyon adds that non-Jews in Zhmerynka spoke Yiddish at the market.
26:35
From the machine transcript
Melamed describes the language shift across generations: Jews arriving from Poland spoke Yiddish, the next generation was bilingual and his own generation spoke only Russian. His grandparents used Yiddish at home. His grandmother came from a shtetl and his grandfather from Korostyshiv. He recalls a childhood visit to the surviving synagogue and being punished at kindergarten for mentioning it, and the double life of religion in the Soviet period. Later, as a historian, he found official reports on religious holidays and pilgrimages to a tsadik's grave, which the authorities suppressed.
0:00
From the machine transcript
A man introduces a film about his family. He remembers his mother as a poor, pious widow with ten children and his brother Shmuel, who used the name Artur and was a Bund leader in Warsaw. Artur organized the underground, spoke against the ghetto, escaped through Belgium and France, and represented Polish Jews in the Polish government in London. He took his own life in protest in 1943 (?), and the film, in Polish with English subtitles, is about him. Part of the talk is translated into Russian by another speaker.
12:44
From the machine transcript
Kipnis shows Kerler her father's published books and volumes and explains family photographs. She identifies her older sister, her brother Leonid, her father's brother Herschel, a nephew and nieces. Kerler says that he comes from Podolia and talks about how Yiddish is spoken. Kipnis also mentions the 1996 Yiddish celebration in America. Some Russian is mixed in.
21:14
From the machine transcript
Kipnis recounts attending events marking her father's hundredth birthday in America, where she spoke and a woman recognised her as a childhood playmate from Sloveshne. She then mentions her father's friendship with the Yiddish poet Moyshe (?) Shapira, who died young, and whose son fell in the war.
31:40
From the machine transcript
Kipnis tells of seeing off her father's youngest sister's family to Israel at the Kyiv airport, where her relative danced and made merry. The year is given as 1971 (?).
26:48
From the machine transcript
Torchinsky continues with the story of his mother buying Passover geese from a peddler, and how his family was cheated with the geese. Kerler compares the story to a literary one. Torchinsky then turns back to the Yiddish school he started in 1926.
37:59
From the machine transcript
Torchinsky tells how his mother, after her trade was liquidated, joined a Jewish collective farm and worked as a cook and later in the fields. She suffered from Parkinson's disease. He describes the move to Kyiv in 1934, helped by friends, and working at a repair factory. His sister Freyde came too and worked as a planner at the factory after a technical course in Kharkiv. He then moves to his army service from 1938.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions, Torchinsky discusses the anti-religious school play about a spoiled Passover, staged for pupils at the Skvyra Yiddish school in the mid-1930s (year not clear). His family disliked it, and his grandfather wanted to take him out of school; he was a pioneer and did not ask the questions at the family seder. He describes Seder food his mother prepared (borscht, chicken soup, matzo-meal dishes) and answers questions on terms for gefilte fish and its pepper flavouring. Kerler tells an anecdote about his own father, and Torchinsky begins to announce a poem about Ukraine.
2:36
From the machine transcript
Kerler fills in the interview form: the town is Ozarinets, which administratively belonged to Kamianets-Podilskyi province before the Revolution and later changed district, and Khandros considers speaking some Russian as well as Yiddish. Kerler notes the date and that it is the second expedition. Khandros explains his Russian name Boris Naumovich Khandros, shared with his brother, whose Yiddish name was Berl while his own is Barukh. His father was Nakhman Moshe, and he says the family's own history is interesting but long.
17:09
From the machine transcript
Khandros sings parts of Yiddish songs his father knew, including one about a hammer and one about ringing bells. He says his father sang at family gatherings until about ninety-three and that he recorded his father's voice from 75 on, offering to let Kerler hear the recordings. He also mentions the school library and the many books his father loved.
19:46
From the machine transcript
Khandros recalls a Yiddish library at home: his grandfather's old cabinet held Talmud and other books. His father studied with his own father, knew Hebrew well, and was more devout than the grandfather, who had been a cantonist and came from Chernobyl. Kerler asks about the generations in Ozarinets.
43:44
From the machine transcript
Asked for memories of the Great Hunger, Khandros describes documents and a letter from Berdychiv in which a Jewish factory worker, who later died, begged for help, and he says it shows that Jews starved too, against claims that they did not. He discusses the Torgsin shops, where gold was exchanged for flour, and how his mother's gold was broken into three parts. He relates a butcher's story about gold and a hiding place, the mobility of Jews who could travel to Moscow and Leningrad, and relatives in Leningrad who sent rusks. He describes death registers from 1932–33, deaths from eating in summer 1933 and a dysentery epidemic which he survived because his uncle kept him at home instead of sending him to hospital. Kerler remarks that many informants deny Jews died, and Khandros reports letters in Russian that deny the famine.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Khandros talks about the poet Shloyme Roytman, secretary of the Yiddish section of the Soviet Writers' Union. Kerler asks about his role. Khandros says Roytman's brothers were shoemakers in Mohyliv, where Roytman survived hard months, and that Khandros organised an evening about him there. He then turns to his own army posting after the war, which brought him to Grabovets and Bialy Wody.
49:25
From the machine transcript
Khandros talks about his father's religiosity, from fanatical devotion to a turn toward freethinking. He recounts that his father was denounced for attending synagogue while a Soviet teacher. He describes the rabbi in Ozarintsy, Gedalye Roytberg, who was learned, and the church built in the 18th century by Polish magnates, which closed in 1931. He recalls the Poles, Ukrainians and Jews in Podolia. The Yiddish writers read at school are named.
2:27
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions, Khandros says Hasidim lived in Ozarintsy in the early 1900s, but the tzaddik died when he was a child and the community declined. He remembers praying with the tanner Hershl Koyfman and Koyfman's old mother Rachel, who told him and his cousin Lusia Bible stories. He wrote these down in his booklet. He recalls the mikveh near the mill, where his father's elder brother Itsik Khandros, who lived in Mohyliv, took him as a boy. He also describes the town's three prayer houses, among them the beys-medresh, whose walls still stand.
31:19
From the machine transcript
The speaker is now Derbaremdiker, who lived in Berdychiv and studied in Kyiv. He explains that his father, Levi Yitskhok, advised him to enter a technical institute rather than the humanities, given the times. He arrived in Kyiv in 1936. Kerler remarks that it is the second day of the expedition.
37:51
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker names his Yiddish school as School No. 13, in a former commercial-school building on the central street. The Russian school was on the second floor and a pedagogical institute on the third. After seven grades he moved to a model school. He went on to a technical school in Kyiv in 1936 and received his engineering diploma on 20 June 1941, two days before the war. He answers Kerler's questions on his cheder years: two synagogues in the Kachanivka district, a melamed of the Golyetski (?) family, and a younger brother now in New York.
44:26
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker describes his secret bar mitzvah, for which he was taught by a melamed, and explains why it had to be hidden: parents risked losing the bread ration and work. He then speaks of the famine of the early 1930s, which struck the Ukrainian population and the Jews of the small towns. Jews survived by relatives sending parcels from Moscow and Leningrad. He recalls his father working as a soap boiler, a friend's tailor father who had no work, and his school friend Avrom Goldenberg, killed in the war. Kerler asks the melamed's name and which Torah portion he learned.
51:18
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker says Passover was observed in his family despite pressure, and that groups from the school were sent to check homes, though the Jews kept silent. He describes matzo from flour, a hidden box of Passover dishes, strict kashrut kept by his mother, and his father's search for hametz. After the war the family baked matzo in Kyiv themselves, and later queued for it. He then recalls a favourite mathematics teacher whose surname was Lemberg.
46:29
From the machine transcript
At Kerler's request Derbaremdiker talks about his family and the origin of his surname, naming his paternal great-grandfather (?) and tracing the Berdychiv Derbaremdikers back to Levi Yitskhok. He tells the legend of an official asking the rabbi his family name while he was praying, which led to the name. He also mentions relatives in the United States and a poem by an ancestor.
55:34
From the machine transcript
Zak continues her wartime account: the family caught the last train out of Miropol' and ended up in evacuation, working in a kolkhoz with little to eat. Her father died of hunger there. They returned to Polonne in 1944, where she worked in an orphanage speaking Yiddish with the children, and in 1945 she was asked to organize a children's library, where she worked until her retirement in 1988.
10:34
From the machine transcript
Rusakovskaia talks about the family house with its garden and her mother, who ran the household. She names her two sisters and tells what became of them. The eldest, Polia, became a dentist in Kyiv and died in a hospital in 1975 (?). Beba worked as a bookkeeper and has been dead for some years. Rusakovskaia mentions her own illness and operation, and the family's cow Manke.
21:45
From the machine transcript
Rusakovskaia answers questions about what makes a 'good Jew'. She recalls her mother helping people in need and collecting money for them at the synagogue. She describes the separate Jewish and non-Jewish cemetery fields in Chornobyl', where her parents are buried. Only gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions remained after the war. Visitors from Kyiv came to the graves of their parents, and Jews gave money for memorial prayers. She describes women reading in the upstairs part of the synagogue and shows her father's handwritten copy of the prayer book.
52:11
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the word 'Litvak', and Rusakovskaia describes her father's speech, from Ivankovtsy, and her mother's, from Chornobyl'. She gives examples of their pronunciation, such as the word for feathers, and says they could understand each other, and that in school she was taught to say 'kumen'. Kerler begins to ask words for translation and moves on to relations with non-Jews.
5:59
From the machine transcript
Rusakovskaia shows Kerler her Yiddish books and her father's prayer book. Her father copied out by hand the pages that had gone missing from it. She says she sometimes feels like reading in Yiddish, and describes her father as an honest man who valued his Jewishness. Kerler offers to send her a Yiddish book and thanks her.
27:31
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker says he went to Berdychiv once, when his brother from New York visited and Rabbi Yaakov lent them a car. He knows the Berdychiv rabbi. He describes his life now: he cannot leave his sick daughter, only goes to the synagogue, and gets some help from the Hesed organization. The talk turns to the team's coming travels in Podolia, to a Yiddish folklore and proverbs course he once gave, to his brother's work for the Russian Forverts, and to the Yiddish forms of family names such as Yente and Yontl.
36:31
From the machine transcript
Derbaremdiker shows a copy of his birth certificate, written only in Yiddish and Hebrew by the Berdychiv Jewish community. He gives his parents' names, his father's patronymic and his mother Perl, and the street, Kachenovka, where the family lived near the town centre, and mentions the monastery torn down in 1934/35. He says he left Berdychiv at sixteen for Kyiv. He also mentions that the parents fled a day before the Germans came, and that someone has the original.
49:26
From the machine transcript
Vider answers Kerler's questions about the Yiddish books he read: Mendele's Fishke der krumer and other works, which his father also read aloud, Sholem Aleichem, Shmuel Gordon's booklets after the war, and Peretz. He says he took books to the mine, and that Sovetish Heymland came after the war. He adds that after the war he was afraid of the Communists and did not keep a siddur at home. Some details about his mother's eyes are contradicted by Kerler's question.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about prewar Kolomyya and its synagogues. Grayf says it was almost a Jewish town, though Christians lived there too. He names a local man, Boyko, who knows more of the town's history but speaks no Yiddish. Grayf says Boyko has a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, and objects to the rule that recognizes descent only through the mother; Kerler explains the rabbis' practical reasoning. They discuss the old synagogue, called the Jerusalem synagogue. Grayf says his parents kept the Sabbath, and answers Kerler's question about the taste of gefilte fish (sweetish).
33:39
From the machine transcript
Vider sings liturgical pieces, a holiday version of Adon Olam and then Lekhu Dodi, and Kerler asks whether he remembers Kol Nidre. Vider then describes the Friday-night Sabbath in his childhood home: coming back from synagogue with his father, greeting the angels at the door, and the mother's challahs for the family. He starts the Kiddush, which he then says he has forgotten.
20:57
From the machine transcript
Vider tells how he left the yeshiva in Iași to learn tailoring with a neighbour, against his father's wishes (his father was a shoykhet, his mother Nekhama), and went to the USSR at seventeen as a communist. He recalls the Botoshaner Rebbe, who lived in the neighbouring courtyard, selikhes, the rebbe's table, notes and wedding of his sister. He ends with a joke about a man tricked into paying yortsayt money three times.
50:52
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Vider discuss the earlier recording of Vider and the people who photographed and filmed him, who asked about his father. Vider says he has a portrait of his father and mother at home, and Kerler asks him to show it. The passage also includes a Purim-type ditty from the recording. The transcript is too garbled to confirm what was shown on the computer.
37:41
From the machine transcript
Krotsh recalls how hard it was as a boy to attend yeshiva and work as an apprentice at the same time. He told his father, and the father agreed he should drop one of the two. He remembers an older tailor in the town, Chaim Leib (?). He says that his trade later helped him to survive the war. Lemster asks about songs about tailoring.
39:49
From the machine transcript
Asked about songs on tailoring, Krotsh remembers only snippets of a tailor's song. He then sings a Yiddish song about an orphan girl at the wedding canopy and the three occasions of weeping in a person's life. He repeats it at Kerler's request, and Kerler asks about unclear words. He says his mother loved songs and the theater.
6:21
From the machine transcript
Krotsh says he studied at the yeshiva in Ştefăneşti until 1940. Kerler asks about a word for studying, and Krotsh recalls being chosen to show off the students' learning to visitors. He talks about learning Romanian more poorly than Yiddish and remembers tractates of Talmud he studied. He says boys from nearby towns came to the yeshiva, then mentions an uncle's family who were killed.
19:23
From the machine transcript
Belous talks about his band, which plays at the yeshiva on holidays and for visitors. He tells a story about the Tsaddik of Volednik (Volenicker, name uncertain) and a childless couple. He says he visited the Tsaddik's grave so that his wife would become pregnant, and that he has raised his son from infancy in Yiddish.
28:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about anecdotes of a Jewish wit, and Belous recalls something about a man killed in the war who gave three lashes. They also discuss who still speaks Yiddish. Belous says his second wife speaks and understands Yiddish but cannot read or write it.
43:29
From the machine transcript
Sonia talks about her name, which was given after her mother's mother Sarah (?), and about her parents, who divorced. Her grandmother Dashke raised her. Her grandfather Benyamin Futerman was a furrier. Kerler questions her about where she lived before the war, in Korosten'.
1:55
From the machine transcript
Futerman sings a Yiddish song about marrying off children and the klezmer who play. Kerler identifies it as a Warshavsky song. She also sings a lullaby and recalls her father as a furrier. Kerler then asks whether her grandmother sang or blessed the candles.
11:46
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Futerman for another song; others in the room discuss a young musician and his father, who is in Israel. She then begins to tell about a cousin of her father, a furrier, and his daughter's wedding.
45:15
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the Voledniker rebbe. Katsman says the family went to his grave every year, his father and mother, and he himself in the last ten years after the war, and discusses the difference between the Soviet period and later.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Katsman talks about his parents' home: the grandfather, who is named, and Sabbath customs, including his mother's gefilte fish and challah. Kerler stops to ask how to say a term and what the dish tasted like, and Katsman answers. He describes the Passover seder and Shavuot dairy food. He recalls sleeping in the family sukkah and sending Purim gifts of food to ten houses as a child. At the end he starts a story about a sanatorium in Kislovodsk.
23:50
From the machine transcript
Ocheretianyi describes the family's evacuation when the Germans approached: they travelled by horse and wagon as far as Voronezh and then by train to Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan his father and brothers were taken into the army. They returned to Korsun in 1944, and his father built a forge and worked there. Later he himself was drafted.
MDV 544Mikhail Zakharovich Ocheretianyi; Samuil (Shmiel) Borisovich BelobrovKorsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyy, 2005
18:11
From the machine transcript
Belobrov describes the wartime evacuations, three in all: near Rostov, then near Stalingrad, then to Kemerovo. At fourteen he worked in a factory casting aerial bombs there until 1945. The family was kept mobilized afterwards. His father was drafted into the army in 1941.
50:19
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia says she was not taught prayers and that in the 1920s–30s the Yiddish school taught Yiddish and Soviet subjects, with no Jewish history. As a child she wrote letters in Yiddish to her mother's brothers in America and they answered. She recalls reciting poetry with a friend. She talks about Yiddish today: her daughter understands but does not speak it, and she can only speak it with the few Jews she meets.
57:56
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia talks about relations with non-Jewish neighbors and former colleagues, who still greet her warmly. Her non-Jewish son-in-law does not eat pork. She keeps goats and chickens, and she describes her daughter's work, her grandson, and the pension and rising prices today. Kerler then asks about relations with non-Jews before the war.
MDV 548Tsili Davidovna Kislinskaia; Tsadik (Tsolik) Naumovich GroysmanKorsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyy, 2005
10:36
From the machine transcript
Kislinskaia compares life before and after the war. She says things were better before the war. After the war she and her family returned to a house with no windows or beds and no work. Today she is content only because of her children and grandchildren. At 81 she prays to be able to help them and complains of poor health, hearing and sight. Kerler thanks her and asks for her initials.
52:04
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Groysman for childhood memories of Tarashcha and a song. Groysman recalls children's habits such as going barefoot in the rain and says he went to a Ukrainian school and learned Yiddish from his parents. His wife (probably) speaks of his devotion to his mother and to her, and the interview closes.
55:58
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Lemster ask Leiderman about her early memories of Pishchanka. She describes her mother baking matzo with neighbors and her father leading the seder, with four cups of wine and the four questions. Obodovskii adds his own memories of Passover, including the exodus story, matzo baked in the desert, and his naming after his grandfather Yisroel.
6:49
From the machine transcript
Gershtein talks about his postwar work, including as a director of an office, and his move to Kovel' in 1968. He says no Jews returned to Holoby and someone told him his parents had been shot. In 1970 he learned that his parents and siblings were in America. He holds a diploma in commodity studies.
5:18
From the machine transcript
Dorfman discusses his large library and the lack of anyone to give it to; he has two grandchildren, one a student. Kerler suggests a university or academy library, and Dorfman mentions a professor there who writes on Jewish history and the Holocaust, one of whose books was translated into German. Kerler then turns to Dorfman and recalls meeting him earlier in Oxford (?).
40:16
From the machine transcript
Nisman continues Yom Kippur: her father and brother spent the whole day in the synagogue, while at home the mother and sister prepared the table and the food kept warm in a sealed oven. She gives a recipe for a honey cake and describes the break-fast meal. Kerler asks about kreplach.
45:49
From the machine transcript
Nisman describes Sukkot: her father built the sukkah himself beside the house, with a roof open to the stars. On Hanukkah he made a menorah from half potatoes, with oil and wicks. She says her father kept Yiddishkayt at home even though the children were not very devout.
12:26
From the machine transcript
Nisman recalls amateur theater and singing at the Yiddish house in Chernivtsi, in a group called Kameleon. Kerler asks about a small-stage (Kleynkunst) form. She describes performing, and a photograph that was lost. She remembers Itzik Manger visiting Chernivtsi. She sang songs he wrote, which were set to music and which he taught to her, and she recalls his family. She also says she recited a poem at the Hesed. She explains that she wanted a family and children.
43:50
From the machine transcript
Leibel says he finished the Polish gymnasium (lyceum) in Rivne in 1939. He recalls the Polish poets and recites a Polish verse in answer to Kerler. He names his first cheder teacher, Rabbi Nisl, and describes the rabbi's discipline. He mentions that his youngest sister went to a Yiddish kindergarten led by someone named Erlikh.
27:45
From the machine transcript
Leibel says antisemitism grew before the war but Rivne was a Jewish city whose Jews held their heads high. He recalls the cantor Koussevitzky singing at the Great Synagogue on Shkilna Street, where his mother took him. He describes his family as observant but not fanatical, and himself as the most pious, putting on tefillin in the morning.
MDV 565Professor Iakov Samoilovich Khonigsman; Isaak (Itche, Itskhok-Avigdor) Moseevich MelerL'viv, 2003
39:33
From the machine transcript
Talk in the postwar Soviet period, about a museum of religion and atheism in L'viv with many Torah scrolls. Meler and Kerler then discuss shared acquaintances, including Tsilye and Grisha (the interviewer's own family connection) and Kerler's stay in Vorkuta as a child.
14:46
From the machine transcript
Dorfman points out graves and talks about people, including a teacher and school director from the Odessa region who was imprisoned in 1941 and whose brother edited a Kishinev Yiddish paper. He shows the grave of the cantor Baruch Shulman, father of the singer Zinovy Shulman, who was jailed for fifteen years. Kerler and Katz ask about dates and inscriptions, and the camera records the cemetery.
16:45
From the machine transcript
Brandler describes holiday and Sabbath food at home before the war. His mother made raisin wine and challah, and fish was a must, including fish dumplings; his mother's fish was not sweet, unlike his grandmother's. On Sabbath there was kugel and cholent, which he carried to and from the baker. He recalls an incident when the ritual slaughterer declared a fish treyf, and that the family ate plain food then.
38:39
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the taste of his mother's gefilte fish. Leibel then tells how the Red Army arrived in Rivne in 1939 just before Yom Kippur. After synagogue he met a young Jew from Poland who had not eaten for two days, and took him home and fed him. Kerler asks whether the grandparents stayed in Rivne, and the rest is chat about refreshments.
18:18
From the machine transcript
Speaking mostly in Russian, Diner says that in wartime he worked in a mine, then as a shoemaker in Poltava, and was called into the army in 1941 and served until 1945 as a private. He says his sister and brother did not survive; his brother's children were killed too.
28:22
From the machine transcript
Diner says he lost his Yiddish because he lived among Russians after being drafted and finds it hard to speak now. Kerler asks about his wife, and she answers in Russian that she is Jewish, from the Poltava region, and was raised in a children's home. She shows photographs of herself and relatives and trips, including one to Odessa. The end of the passage is a recogniser loop.
7:20
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's question about folk cures, Shvartzbroit describes the way an evil eye was spoken away. She says that her mother had no child for thirteen years and "sold" her to a poor widow with children so that she would grow up healthy. Kerler asks about the nickname that came from this and about the rivers and the bathing she was taken through.
10:09
From the machine transcript
Shvartzbroit talks about her work after the war. She was a foreman in a tailoring (?) workshop and then ran a matzah factory in Mohyliv, where many people worked in shifts. Her husband Yankl worked as a baker at a factory.
20:30
From the machine transcript
Asked by Kerler for memories, Shvartzbroit speaks about a rabbi's family and a soldier in Mohyliv. She tells how she came to Luts'k after her daughter left for Germany, and she recounts a story about money and a flat that she lost through a dishonest woman. Kerler then asks her to tell again about the war years. The passage is largely garbled.
28:07
From the machine transcript
She says a teacher, Fishl der Krimer, came to the house to teach her Yiddish and Hebrew for two or three years. She was also taught blessings and prayers, though she says she has forgotten most. She talks about her mother lighting the Sabbath candles, the Friday challah, and her father taking the children to the synagogue. Her mother and grandmothers could not read, and she says the teacher was later killed.
46:04
From the machine transcript
She tells of non-Jews, mostly Poles, who spoke Yiddish and Hebrew, including a postmaster's son, and says they lived on good terms. She recalls a Jewish–gentile intermarriage and a case of conversion, which the town condemned. She lists trades and professions: tailors, builders, shoemakers, teachers, pharmacists, a barber, and doctors in Luts'k. She says her father dealt in lumber and travelled to Luts'k by horse and wagon. She mentions folk healing by her grandmother and a midwife.
18:53
From the machine transcript
Talks about folk and other remedies: blessings for health, the question of children's games with several local names for an item, and her grandmother's cures. She recalls a Jewish doctor from Luts'k who treated her family, and a brother's facial growths treated on his advice, which included eating raw calf's lung. Kerler also asks about spoken charms against evil, and she mentions wiping off with the tongue and wiping the forehead.
29:54
From the machine transcript
Shvardovskaia, asked by Kerler to speak of the war, describes first the Polish period, then two years of Soviet rule with closed shops, and the arrival of the Germans in 1941. Jews were confined as in a ghetto, forced to hand over valuables, and the first skilled Jewish worker was killed at once. She describes Jews thrown into pits and shot, her escape and flight into the woods, and a Ukrainian acquaintance who hid her in an attic, where her father and a sister joined her for three months. Later they hid for a year in the forest, fed at night by Ukrainians, escaped a second shooting, moved between villages, and finally joined Russian partisans. She mentions that her father and brother were killed; the details are unclear in the transcript.
11:40
From the machine transcript
She says she studied in a Polish school and that her father wanted her to go to gymnasium, but the Soviets arrived and she learned some Russian. Lemster asks about friends, and she names a surviving friend in Israel. She says she has no one to speak Yiddish with, her husband was Russian and her children became Russian speakers, while her son and grandchildren are in Israel.
17:06
From the machine transcript
She briefly recalls Jabotinsky and dancing, then describes quiet prewar family life, poor but close. Her grandmother had two daughters and a son in America who sent money and clothes for holidays. Her grandmother prepared Sabbath dishes such as calves' feet jelly and kugel. She also discusses a second grandmother's family and the practice of having two Jewish names, her own and Kerler's included.
26:00
From the machine transcript
She describes how she escaped from the execution pit where the Jews of the town were shot and fled while being shot at. Her father had told her to go to a Ukrainian acquaintance, who took her into the forest, where she spent about two years in cold and hardship. He brought food and, when Germans were near, left it in a canal. A younger sister also came. Kerler asks about the shooting and the Ukrainian nationalists.
20:33
From the machine transcript
Shoikhetman talks about a young man of mixed Jewish and non-Jewish parentage who works with Yiddish and is described as a good fellow. Which parent was Jewish is unclear in the transcript. Kerler then asks about his own Yiddish from Derazhnya, and he begins to speak of his father's poor family.
32:27
From the machine transcript
Kaplan talks about his army service, including a Party document shown to the interviewers and a visit by an Israeli guest (Buchbinder) whom he guided around the area, followed by an Israeli television programme whose commentary angered him. He says he never met antisemitism in the army, attributes this to his dutifulness, and mentions Jewish commanders. He says antisemitism has existed and will exist everywhere, including Germany and Israel, and distinguishes good, bad and neutral people. Kerler then asks about expressions and terms (a good place for a cemetery, a good Jew, a good eye and envy, Lithuanian Jews and their speech). Kaplan describes his mother's gefilte fish, home-made horseradish, Passover and Hanukkah foods, mamaliga and malay, and home-made liquor, and says his father was a soap-maker and his mother a teacher. He recalls the ghetto in Mohyliv, the camp at Pechera and flight to Zhurin and Chernivtsi, and reports the recent murder of two Jews there by neighbours who robbed them. Kerler ends with further questions on words such as dybbuk, golem, a blessing for the dead, luck, house, group, skin, mouse and window glass.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Vaisburd tells how she escaped from Pechera at night with her mother and about twenty other people, running for two hours and bribing two policemen who threatened to return them to the camp. She lost her parents in the woods, was found by a local woman, and then by a cousin who had led them out. The family then stayed two or three weeks in Sharhorod with a woman named Khane, where her mother baked bread and pea pastries; Vaisburd explains how the pastries are made and baked. She then recalls the return to Mohyliv, where her father was drafted at Chernivtsi (Kleyn Tshernovits), and the Romanian police stopped them, where her mother passed as a Christian by crossing herself and praying, and the earlier roundup, ransom and deportation by train. Kerler and Lemster ask about local place names, the shoykhet and local Jewish figures, and her Russian studies. From about 13:00 the passage becomes mainly the dialectological questionnaire, partly in Russian, covering words for dawn, apostate, Christian and peasant, greetings and thanks, household and food terms, adverbs, body words, verbs, adjectives, and sentences to translate.
32:44
From the machine transcript
Fiksler speaks of her return, when neighbors gave back what she had left with them but the fields were later taken into the kolkhoz. She says they knew nothing of the deportations before 1944 and recalls an older brother's worried remark when Hungarians first arrived. She also describes the mixed Hungarian and Romanian population of Solotvyno and the Jews living there. She mentions that her family kept Passover.
36:54
From the machine transcript
Fiksler recalls prewar Purim, when people dressed up and performed a Purim play, and she recites a short rhymed Purim verse. Her granddaughter is mentioned as one who could recall more. The group then arranges follow-up contact by phone and discusses where the family is travelling. Katz and Kerler ask about Yiddish speakers today, and the family says few remain in Solotvyno or Munkács and that her eight-year-old granddaughter may be the only child in the Carpathians who speaks Yiddish. They also touch on Polish Jews' Yiddish and on visa rules for travelling to Sighet.
14:08
From the machine transcript
Endelshtein describes returning after the war and meeting a neighbor to whom the family had left the apartment key when they evacuated. He says she took the documents and later returned them, though the house was looted. He shows his mother's documents, including a diploma, and family photographs of his grandparents, parents, sister in New York, and a brother who was killed.
14:47
From the machine transcript
Kenin describes Sabbath in his grandparents' home: nobody worked, and the family gathered at his grandfather's. He lists the food, including broth, kugel, tsimes and fish. He recalls his grandfather making his own wine and saying a blessing, and he then tries to recite a blessing, though he says he remembers none of them well.
23:23
From the machine transcript
Trachtenberg describes serving in the Red Army from 1944 to 1952, including at the front in Japan, where Japanese soldiers shot themselves. He says his brother Berl served with him and that he kept his surname. He served as a technician in a mechanized battalion and left as a major. He then worked in a motor-repair plant at Maloyaroslavets near Moscow until 1955.
0:00
From the machine transcript
A brief opening exchange whose first words are unclear. Dubinskaia then begins to say that the Germans killed her parents, and that her sister brought a child to her at the start of the war.
6:11
From the machine transcript
Dubinskaia says she fled with her sister Sima, while her eldest sister Dvoyre was already older. Her brother Yasl served in the army throughout the war and died some years afterward. She speaks of evacuation in Uzbekistan, where local people were kind and one man gave her a piece of liver. As a child she carried post six kilometres between villages. She came back to Berdychiv in 1945 (?), since no one was left. She says she does not want to go to Germany or take money from Germans, after they killed her father, brothers and mother.
18:50
From the machine transcript
Bakmayev describes the arrival of the Germans in 1941 and the order for Jews to move and wear a star. His family hid in a cellar with other families. He went out to beg for food in villages, walking about twenty kilometres. They were freed by the Red Army in 1944. He also names the siblings he lived with there, and the passage includes a question on how many hid and survived.
19:57
From the machine transcript
Prompted by a question about Kaganovich, Listengurt describes him as a transport minister without formal education and mentions his Jewish daughter. She speaks of her mother as a Trotskyist and her father as a Stalinist. She then recalls the 1923(?) Crimea plan for a Jewish republic, a three-day pogrom, and Stalin's postwar deportations, and mentions the Karaites. She also touches on the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.
47:21
From the machine transcript
Lemster and Kerler ask Listengurt about Yiddish writers; she recalls Leib Kvitko and Itzik Katzenelson (Kerler says she means a Ukrainian-language poem) and recites lines in Ukrainian, which Kerler questions. She says she knows no Yiddish poems. She mentions Beyderman and Note Lurye, the latter known to her mother during his arrest, and her mother's limited schooling.
13:55
From the machine transcript
Tokar describes the destruction of Zheludok under the Germans: resistance, burning of the town, a ghetto with a Judenrat, and the mass shooting of more than a thousand Jews. He tells how he escaped by bicycle with his younger brother, how the brother turned back and he went on alone to an aunt in Kharkiv. His brother Gedalye was moved to the Lida ghetto, joined the partisans, tried to shoot himself, survived, and was flown through the front to a hospital in Russia. They met again in 1944–45, and Tokar says he himself was disabled at the front.
9:40
From the machine transcript
At the yeshiva premises the rabbi describes in Russian his Sunday class of adult beginners, aged from about 38 to about 70 and funded from his own money. They study Torah with commentary and the laws of Jewish life. He tells how he grew up in Kherson after his parents' evacuation, and his father's war wound. He recalls that he went to Avram Katsev with his poems at 37, which led him to learn about Jewishness and to study in a Jerusalem yeshiva and kollel. He and Kerler discuss Katsev's life as a Yiddish poet and teacher, and then the group moves toward the school.
32:54
From the machine transcript
After the interview with Dorfman, the team greets Feldman and sets up the recording in his home. He gives his name and birth year, and says he was born in the village of Yanova Rudnya, about 20 km from Ovruch. He talks about his father, who leased a mill and farm from a landowner and was killed in 1919, and about his mother, sisters and five brothers who went to America. He tells of his melamedim and the Velednik tsadik, whom his father followed. He recalls his father's Sabbath tunes, studying and teaching at cheder in Luhyny, and recites prayers (kabbalat shabbat, kaddish, kiddush); the transcript is garbled for most of this. He also remembers Christian farmers in his village and begins to speak about Rosh Hashanah.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Feldman talks about holiday food in his childhood home: Rosh Hashanah, the pre–Yom Kippur meal, Shavuot dairy dishes, and the Sabbath cholent with kugel. The interviewers ask what went into the cholent. He mentions walking to a river for tashlikh and his father bringing a shoykhet from Volednyk. Kerler also asks about Kol Nidre, and Feldman begins to describe the one Jewish family in his village.
6:20
From the machine transcript
Feldman recalls childhood summers bathing in the river and winters skating and sledding down the hill. He says he had little pleasure because his father was killed in 1919 and he went on studying. Katz asks the distance to Lyel'chytsy, and he describes the journey by a big river. At the end the interviewers arrange to meet the next day.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opening formalities: Kerler gives the date and Stotland states his name, address, telephone number and birth date (5 August 1926). He says he had no father or mother and lived in an orphanage in Ovruch; his parents came from Narodychi, and his father was a shoemaker and his mother a housewife. He completed five grades in a Yiddish school.
7:45
From the machine transcript
Stotland sings a school song about how to make a whistle. He mentions Yiddish translations of Pushkin and Shevchenko. He then describes the evacuation of the orphanage by horse cart, its bombing by German aircraft, and the few survivors. He names his brother and two sisters, one of whom emigrated to America and another to Israel.
10:53
From the machine transcript
Stotland says Jewish holidays were not marked in the orphanage. As a child he and others ran away to his maternal aunt and uncle in town for Passover. He recalls five synagogues in Ovruch, including a large wooden one near the orphanage, where the children went for treats. The aunt and uncle were poor, with five small children.
14:30
From the machine transcript
Stotland says he married Beyle, a native of Ovruch, and they were married 52 years until she died. He studied at two institutes in Kyiv and worked as a teacher, then as a school director in Ovruch for some twenty years. He has two sons, one also a teacher.
31:01
From the machine transcript
Stotland explains how as a child he ran from the orphanage to his poor aunt and uncle, a tailor with many children, for Sabbath and Passover. They gave him a piece of matzo. Katz moves on to the questions that follow.
40:56
From the machine transcript
Start of the formal interview with Turovskaia, who talks about her work and observing Sabbath and holidays. She says she was born in Veledniki near the holy tsadik's grave. She gives her Yiddish and Russian names, her parents' and grandparents' names, her married name Turovskaia and maiden name Feldman, her address and telephone number. She was born in 1924, three days before Passover, and explains a custom connected with her birth.
45:01
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia describes Veledniki as a very Jewish town where a holy tsadik is buried, giving his name (partly unclear) and that of his wife Ester Tsipe. She names her father after the tsadik and says he used to travel to pray at his grave. She also says she completed four grades of Yiddish school.
48:38
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia says 125 Jewish families lived in Veledniki, a town in a border zone that required a special permit to enter from Ovruch. She then begins on the start of the war: her father was taken into the army and her grandmother was very ill. Her mother had seven children, of whom four survived.
58:27
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia says she and her family came to Ovruch in 1944. When asked about her father, she gives his birth year as 1898 and says he died in 1991.
27:01
From the machine transcript
Asked about songs from her girlhood, Turovskaia instead describes her childhood: an uncle on her mother's side who died young just before his wedding, her mother's grief, and her own work as the eldest child. She played the fiddle and could play melodies she knew. She says her mother, father, brother and husband have since died.
52:31
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia remembers her mother's charity: sharing cherries from their tree, sending food and matzo, and going with other women to collect for the poor. She says her father visited the tzaddik every Elul and, when too old, still kept the practice. She tells how her grandmother's dream gave her mother's name Alte, and of a 'good Jew' (a tzaddik) who gave it. The passage ends with her account of Leybl of Khabne in Polesye, who could foresee events and was approached for advice.
21:46
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia continues the Civil War episode. Cossacks threaten her father with a sabre, and her mother steps between them. She says bandits of every colour plundered, and that 1937 was very hard.
22:43
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia recalls 1937, when her father was taken away. She names her sister Ester and brother Fayvl, who has since died, and says another sister lives in Israel. She stresses that as a child she had to study, do housework and work, and that life was hard.
39:59
From the machine transcript
Lemster asks whether she makes meat kosher today, and she says no, since her father, a shoykhet, died. She describes how the mother soaked meat and salted it. She then adds a remark about Roza's early death. Kerler asks about the Khapner Trefer.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia answers questions about Passover and Purim in her childhood home: her father asked the four questions and read and told stories, and she recalls the custom of banging with feet on Purim. She describes her mother's Passover preparations with geese and fat and sending food to a poor neighbor, and her mother's generosity to the needy.
18:40
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about the book her father wrote down; Turovskaia says he wrote the stories himself from memory and from what he heard, and used to read them to the children. She tells how he was falsely accused of a crime, and recalls his skill in judging cattle; he once wanted to become a shoykhet but his mother would not allow it.
23:59
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia talks about her return to Ovruch after the war: her mother died after she left on pension, her father was left alone and the family was scattered, and her husband stayed in Siberia for a time. She describes the destruction of the town and the house that was divided in two with several rooms, then the start of the war and what Polish Jewish refugees said about the fascists.
38:59
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia recounts the evacuation: her mother's fear for the girls, her grandmother's refusal to go and the wagon to the last train, kolkhoz work, being separated from her mother and searching for the family. She mentions a gypsy fortune-teller, a telegram, and finding them in Mordovka (?) and later a village in the Buryat ASSR where she worked as a brigadier. Her grandmother died in Siberia, and Lemster asks about the Feldman/Ferdman family name.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Turovskaia goes through family photographs with Kerler and Lemster. She identifies her parents with a grandchild, a sister who lives elsewhere and corresponds with her in Yiddish, and her grandmother Reyzl, who was known as a beauty. She also shows her husband, whom she met through work and who was older than she, her children and a daughter who lives in America. Much of the Russian background talk concerns the filming of the pictures.
10:27
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions about her early years, Zak says her father worked for a landowner (?) and then in a factory after the revolution. The family lived in an old, dilapidated house, which he rebuilt shortly before the war. He died young. Her mother returned with her to Polonne after the evacuation and lived until 1969.
12:47
From the machine transcript
Zak's account continues about the return to Polonne and her mother living with her.
13:10
From the machine transcript
Zak recalls her poor, hungry childhood, going to school barefoot and ragged, without bread for years, and the famine in the early 1930s. Her sisters and brother went to work, and her brother served in the army. She says that two sisters now live abroad, in Israel and America. She names a childhood friend, Rachel, and says that she spoke Yiddish with the Jewish neighbour. She tells how the town centre was Jewish and the non-Jews lived on the other streets.
24:11
From the machine transcript
Zak tells how the family left in evacuation: her brother and brother-in-law were sent to the front, and her father did not return. Two sisters died in Polonne, and others are in America and Israel. She mentions her postwar work as an official in an organisation and as a librarian, and that she and her husband now live alone with no family nearby, apart from a relative in Moscow.
26:02
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler's questions, Zak recalls her mother blessing the Sabbath candles and crying, and says Jewish holidays were kept in Yiddish in the home. She describes the Sabbath cholent cooked in the oven and the Passover seder, where her brother and father said the four questions. She says she knows many Yiddish songs but is shy about singing.
37:29
From the machine transcript
Zak says her brother worked in the town fire brigade. She describes the 1937 teacher Yosl Freylis, who taught Yiddish literature from the fifth to the tenth class and was taken away in the ninth. She recalls that Markish, Sholem Aleichem and Peretz were taught, and mentions meetings against religion at school.
44:23
From the machine transcript
Zak says her husband grew up in a village with Jews, and that Shepetivka is about thirty kilometres from Polonne. Kerler suggests they travel to Shepetivka, and there is a closing exchange of thanks.
46:16
From the machine transcript
At the Peretz Markish museum in Polonne, S2 (the catalogue's Bentsianov) guides the team and talks mostly in Russian about Markish's life, with Kerler putting in a few comments. He covers Markish's birth in Polonne, cheder, singing in the synagogue, early jobs, his move to Yekaterinoslav, the Polish and Paris period, Palestine in 1923 and his return to Kharkiv and Moscow. He also mentions Markish's family, with pictures of the parents and siblings, his children Olga and Shimon, and his wife Esther. He describes the museum's collection of photographs and books. Zak is hardly heard in this passage.
23:07
From the machine transcript
Fish continues the rhymed Yiddish–Hebrew word list, naming pairs such as dove, fire, water and meat, and ends with a toast. He says he learned it from his mother, who died in the war, and that Soviet life made people forget much of what they knew. He adds that he did not feel badly under the Soviets, being a chief bookkeeper.
2:35
From the machine transcript
Fish shows the visitors photographs of mass graves in villages of Rivne oblast, including Sosnovye/Sosenki (?), and explains where the Jews were shot and bones found. He says the memorials date from the 1990s and that all Jews, young and old, were killed because they were Jews, and that his whole family lies there. He remarks that half of the old community members have left or died.
10:14
From the machine transcript
Fish gives Kerler a small prayer booklet so that he can say the Kaddish at the mass grave of his mother's family. Kerler thanks him and names the relatives lying there.
29:01
From the machine transcript
Fish compares prewar Jewish weddings with Soviet-era and later ones. Before the war a big wedding had hired klezmorim and cooks, someone to greet the guests, and a proper chuppah, whereas after the war weddings were held in restaurants, often in Russian. He mentions his brother's and sisters' marriages but cannot recall the title of the greeter.
25:39
From the machine transcript
Kurliandchik tells of the war years. He was evacuated with his mother and his brother's family, first to the Voroshilovgrad region and then to Central Asia, where he worked on a kolkhoz and in a sugar factory. His mother died in evacuation. He was drafted in 1942, trained at an officer school near Tashkent and sent to the front in 1943. Wounded twice, he spent months in hospitals including Baku, and ended the war as a senior lieutenant in Austria.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kurliandchik recalls returning to Novohrad-Volynskyi after the war, when a few Jews had come back. His sister-in-law and her mother tell him that those who survived must fast on Yom Kippur. He also describes his school class, in which few of the eleven girls and nine boys survived, and says about half the town was Jewish before the war.
31:57
From the machine transcript
Litvak says she was about fourteen, in seventh grade, when the family secretly baked matzah. Kerler then asks about her grandfather Yerikhem's occupation.
44:32
From the machine transcript
Litvak says she worked as a kindergarten teacher and later in a textile knitwear factory, after living in Germany. She explains her husband's pension as an officer and her own small pension. She describes today's economic hardship, high rents and costly medicines, and says only the Hesed keeps her from hunger. She mentions her brother in Israel and her son, an ecological engineer. Kerler suggests returning to school.
34:51
From the machine transcript
Litvak says she was not taught prayers because her parents were afraid, and her mother covered the windows when she prayed and told the children to tell no one. Kerler links this to the Pavlik Morozov affair.
50:57
From the machine transcript
Kerler begins his dialectological questions with Litvak, on expressions for a cemetery (a good place, holy place), and the word for a non-Jewish cemetery. He asks what a Jew from Lithuania is called, and she says her father derived the Litvak family name from Lithuania and from expulsion from Spain.
2:58
From the machine transcript
Litvak recalls her mother, who died young in Stalinabad, and gives the sayings used for a dead person. She also gives a plea to God learned at home. She did not learn cures from her mother. Asked about folk remedies, she mentions cupping and recalls hearing an incantation against illness, and begins to recite a rhyme about three women.
23:43
From the machine transcript
Shteingart says he worked in a pharmacy warehouse from about age ten to twelve and attended a Talmud Torah for about six or seven years after cheder; he also recalls a state school next to the gymnasium. He talks about his sisters: one married, one left to study, and one stayed, and the family home was large.
45:42
From the machine transcript
Shteingart sings fragments of a lullaby and of Yidl mitn fidl, learned at home from his sister Liza. He lists the languages he and she knew: Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew and some Russian. Kerler also asks about debate evenings.
56:19
From the machine transcript
Shteingart recalls Sabbath in his parents' home: his mother baked challah and blessed the candles, and the Friday meal included carp, gefilte fish and cholent, kept in a stove. Kerler asks about zmires and kiddush and a siddur is fetched.
9:06
From the machine transcript
Khiterman recalls a German who lived near the family before the war. She then tells how she spent the war in evacuation: Samarkand, Katta-Kurgan, and later the Urals (Molotov), where she worked in construction and then in an office or factory. Her husband died there. Kerler asks about antisemitism on the return home.
16:50
From the machine transcript
Khiterman says she had a Jewish wedding at home with a canopy, officiated by the rabbi of Berezhov (Berezov?), with many Jewish guests, music and singing. Kerler asks about the town, which had many Jews who were later killed. Her father was a forest overseer. Kerler then thanks her and winds down the interview.
31:23
From the machine transcript
Shvartzbroit speaks about her grandfather the rabbi, kosher Passover dishes kept in the attic, and her giving money to the poor for Passover. She mentions her husband's trade and travel to Romania and Moldova. She says her father arranged weddings for poor orphans in their home. She gives her birth year as 1928, though her papers say 1930, and says she came from Pechora aged about fourteen. Much of the passage is garbled and the sequence is unclear.
33:40
From the machine transcript
Shvartzbroit describes her family's life before the war: her father's sewing workshop with two non-Jewish servants, and her mother's weekly Sabbath help for old people whose wealthy relatives had been deported to Siberia by the Soviets. She also recalls taking in homeless people and giving her house for poor couples' weddings, and she mentions grandchildren in Germany and America.
24:28
From the machine transcript
Fish recalls the engagement and wedding of his brother in the 1930s, with Jewish klezmer in a large house, singing and a master of ceremonies. Lemster asks about a badkhn. At his older sister's wedding a gramophone was used, and he does not remember his other sisters' weddings.
16:54
From the machine transcript
Fish says he spoke Yiddish with his wife while the children spoke Russian, and that there were no Yiddish books at home. He subscribed to Sovetish Heymland, which he recalls as being titled in Russian, and says he still has a few Yiddish journals. He says his eyesight makes reading difficult.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Vaisman says there was a ghetto in Sharhorod and recounts his sister's belief that Ukrainians helped the Jews. He names a Ukrainian woman, Ksenia Vasilovna Loyanich (spelling uncertain), who brought his family food and whom he wants recognised. He says he does not remember the war, and that the Romanians did not kill Jews in Sharhorod but brought their own Jews, thousands of whom starved and were buried in the local cemetery. He tells a Hershele Ostropolyer story about a poor guest at a Sabbath meal. He recalls the Passover seder, with his mother's matzo bagels and kugels and the bakery that needed official permission to bake matzo, and also Hanukkah, Purim and the Ninth of Av. Katz and Kerler ask many dialect questions on bird names (a dove, a small bird), the colour of the sky, words for ugly face, back, house, 'almost', Lithuanian Jews and converts to Christianity, the town as shtetl, and the word for life. Vaisman also recounts the case of a local Jewish man who converted. In the last part the daughter shows an album of Jewish childhood friends who spoke Yiddish and have mostly emigrated to Israel, America and Moscow. The talk turns to Yiddish and Jewish life in America and Israel, Vaisman's brother in Israel, and his father's relatives, who were killed during the war.
11:23
From the machine transcript
Kleiner explains that an aunt, who had no children, took her in at age two, and that this happened to other children in town. Her uncle was a tailor. She describes Shepetivka as a Jewish town with many trades, the closing of the cheder in the early 1930s and of the Jewish school later, the six synagogues, and Rabbi Shapiro, who was sent to Novosibirsk after the war; his son Shlomo lives in Baltimore. She also discusses a charitable society for the poor on October Street, the surviving synagogue, a Russian shoemaker's sons who attended the Jewish school, and children's games (forfeits, tag, hide-and-seek, sledding), with Kerler asking about terms.
27:26
From the machine transcript
Kleiner says she married in 1945, after the war, with a cantor writing the betrothal contract and a wedding canopy. She mentions that her son is a painter and her husband a military man, and recalls that she has no wedding photographs. She remembers prewar Jewish weddings, with betrothal contracts (tnoim), klezmer music and the breaking of a plate. She then answers questions about folk remedies such as milk with butter or honey, potato compresses, rubbing with turpentine, kerosene for worms, and cupping.
14:46
From the machine transcript
Asked about his friends, Kleiner says they were both Jewish and non-Jewish. He recalls growing up poor in a family of nine children, and his eldest brother who worked in the fields. He was the only one of the family to survive and served in the army. He kept the Sabbath, worked with horses, and says he was a Jew. A second voice adds that he worked in the post office and was drafted in 1939.
46:29
From the machine transcript
The second voice says that they have a son in Chernivtsi and a daughter in Shepetivka. They discuss Jewish life today in Shepetivka and Khmel'nyts'kyi. There is a Hesed, but few Jews and few speak Yiddish. People are emigrating, factories are closed and pensions are small. After the war Yiddish was not taught. Kleiner has no one to speak Yiddish with; his daughter understands but does not speak it.
11:10
From the machine transcript
Lighthearted talk about drinking brandy, with a reference to a rebbe, and a toast. Krasner mentions her brother's wedding in 1948, with a chuppah (?).
35:12
From the machine transcript
Krasner explains the history of the house. After the war, Christians lived there during the war and left when the family came back, and before the war her uncle and aunt lived there, whose daughter lives in Brooklyn. Someone then wants to show an album.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Krasner shows family photographs: her mother Khaike, an aunt Mindl who lived with the family, and cousins. She points out a picture at Pechera, saying the window there was theirs, and tells in Yiddish and Russian of Germans loading people onto a truck, with prayers and cries in the camp. Kerler asks whether her written memoirs are in Yiddish (they are in Russian), and she comments on Romanians who were good to people. She ends with a story of a girl needing a match, a childhood photograph, and a brief exchange about Rosh Hashanah.
17:46
From the machine transcript
Krasner speaks about the local tzaddik Rebbe Shlomo (as the name appears), also known by other names, and his daughter Feygele. The daughter married beneath her status, the son of a shoemaker or tailor, and the couple emigrated to Romania in the early 1920s. A boy of the rebbe's household drowned bathing in the river. Kerler asks how old the rebbe was and whether her mother remembered him.
14:09
From the machine transcript
The team arrives at the cemetery in the dusk and walks over a bad path. Krasner shows the graves of her mother and aunt. Katz reads the inscriptions with her and says kaddish for her mother and aunt, whose names are only partly clear. Krasner says the aunt was cremated and buried elsewhere. The speech is partly garbled.
9:05
From the machine transcript
Back inside, Geller shows something that was bought and made to be sturdy. Kerler points to the pictures on the wall, and Geller names his mother (Leah, Leike) and his first wife, Faige. Kerler again asks for a Kotovsky story.
24:03
From the machine transcript
Liberzon describes how after the war her father had a small wood or square planted over the old cemetery, whose stones were used for pavements. Kerler asks whether the shtibl of Reb Pinkhas Koretz was a shtibl or an oyel. She lists the many synagogues of prewar Slavuta, such as the Pritsker and Rabinovitsh kloyzn, and the family's wealth, naming her grandfather Reb Khayim Shapira.
28:43
From the machine transcript
Liberzon talks about the 1930s, when the campaign against religion began and her rabbi grandfather was sent away. She mentions the Polish border near Slavuta and the passports needed to reach it. He was sent to Zhytomyr, returned after the 1936 constitution, and stayed until the war.
44:57
From the machine transcript
Liberzon shows Kerler documents from Israel and America about her rabbinic lineage, including a journal on rabbis. Kerler reads aloud the Hebrew text, naming Liberzon, Reb Liber of Berdychiv, Rabbi Khayim Shapira the Slavuta rabbi, Reb Pinkhas of Koretz, and the Chernobyl and Belz rebbes. He also notes the yeshivas, including Zvill (Novohrad-Volynskyi). Names and relations are uncertain in the transcript.
6:36
From the machine transcript
Liberzon goes through documents and school books that survived. Some date from after the war, and she mentions a younger sister who died three years earlier. Kerler discusses getting a portable copier for the papers.
12:58
From the machine transcript
Liberzon says she read Soviet Yiddish magazines and spoke Yiddish at home. Kerler steers her toward memories of the Soviet school. She then speaks of her father's love of music and singing, and of a gift she bought him while he was ill.
15:41
From the machine transcript
Liberzon describes how worshippers from nearby towns came to pray after the war, with talk of cantors and music. A relative named Margolis (?) used to stay and the rabbis sat up talking all night, which she as a child could not follow. She also mentions her father's brother, a great scholar.
28:10
From the machine transcript
Kerler explains that the interview goes into a video archive for researchers and students of Yiddish history and culture. Liberzon then begins to speak about her father, one of the last rabbis, whose age she gives when the war began, and whom she places at the front after the war. A phone call and lunch are mentioned.
30:02
From the machine transcript
Mostly chat about practical matters, the equipment and travel to Rivne, with Russian speech. Liberzon tells about her father, who used to travel to a tsadik's grave, and a neighbour who advised him. A tale of two strangers buried near the grave of a holy man is told, and a Hasidic site was fenced in. A recorder is brought in, and the transcript shows no clear chanting.
58:41
From the machine transcript
Liberzon describes Sabbath at home, with her grandmother putting the cholent into the oven and the household eating when it was ready. She says the grandparents lived with them.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Liberzon talks about Sabbath at home: heating the oven and keeping food warm in the town, and how Kiddush was not allowed in her father's synagogue, so people came to his house to make it, with a cold kugel prepared on Friday. Kerler asks whether her mother read on the Sabbath; Liberzon describes her mother's education, her knowledge of Russian and Yiddish, and that no letters survived the deportation.
12:34
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Liberzon discuss Shemini Atseres and early morning prayers, and Liberzon recalls the sukkah in the corridor of her father's house, where neighbors sat at a table. She recalls carrying shalakhmones to her grandfather and calls the holidays happy ones. The passage is partly garbled by Russian asides; Kerler then asks about brandy in Slavuta.
19:08
From the machine transcript
Asked about Chanukah latkes, Liberzon says they were made on the oven. She remembers the Great Hunger, when her father traveled to Moscow to buy bread and bread was later baked at home. She also describes the American rebbe Rokeach, who brings bread from America, and her sister in Chernivtsi who keeps a Jewish home.
27:34
From the machine transcript
Liberzon recalls Passover before the war: going with her father by sleigh to the mill for shmire flour, and the family's strict customs about matzo and about foods not used at Passover. Kerler asks about stringent customs concerning matzo.
49:55
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about misnagdim versus Hasidim, the Vilna Gaon and the Annopol rabbi. Liberzon looks for and shows a note about the grave of a rebbe, and a family lineage of rebbes is read out. They also discuss Lubavitch, Breslov, and the debate about the messiah, and she mentions a Jewish school where children learn only to pray.
0:57
From the machine transcript
She speaks about school discipline and the Sabbath, and recalls a non-Jewish woman who did work for the family on the Sabbath. She says her mother wrote letters in Yiddish to a brother and sister in America. The interviewers then ask about the words dybbuk, golem, kisl and others, and about words for a dove or pigeon.
6:08
From the machine transcript
Vainshelboim speaks about his schooling: eight classes in a Polish school and about two and a half years at the Ostroh yeshiva. He mentions five teachers and Polish and mathematics, and that he studied Gemara tractates such as Bava Kama and Bava Metzia. He no longer prays regularly. His father's name is Mendl, and he was born in Ostroh.
8:43
From the machine transcript
Bivson says she studied six grades in a Yiddish school and could write Yiddish. She does not remember a Purim song. She speaks of the good prewar life of her whole family, of which she is now the only survivor. She mentions Hanukkah gifts and latkes, then explains how her mother made gefilte fish and how she still prepares it herself.
15:00
From the machine transcript
Bivson begins to tell about the war years, when she was evacuated to Birobidzhan. She describes the hard journey on an open platform in the rain and says she survived on hardship. She traveled with her sister Khaike and her parents to her older sister Mindl, who lived in Birobidzhan.
24:02
From the machine transcript
Bivson regrets that so many people were killed and speaks of the son she lost, a physics and mathematics teacher who had finished an institute. She mentions a holy place and a monument, which she says are worth visiting. Lemster then turns to weddings.
29:16
From the machine transcript
Bivson says she wanted to go to Israel and longs for her friends from Donetsk and Starokostyantyniv. She answers questions about dybbuk, golem and geshmad, and says she knows no Christians who speak Yiddish, though some elderly people understand it. She says she knows a Hebrew prayer and recites or speaks a Yiddish prayer for the cemetery. She also talks about her grandchild, her son who spoke Yiddish, and her Jewish wedding.
26:38
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks various items about customs and terms: the occupation of a maker of rolled cookies, how gefilte fish was made, going to the rebbe for a blessing, and quenching coals against the evil eye. Bivson knows little of charms, and the passage ends with her mentioning her son, a teacher and physicist, who has died.
55:50
From the machine transcript
Bivson and Kerler discuss her late son's presence on the Internet, with a portrait by an artist, Vilen Abramovich Kurman. Kerler notes visitors come from various countries, and Bivson closes with wishes for peace, health and not being forgotten. Kerler thanks her, in Yiddish and Russian.
8:42
From the machine transcript
Klein recalls that she was still a schoolgirl when the war began and that many relatives were lost. She says she finished the Yiddish school and then a Russian school for the tenth grade, with the war breaking out a day after graduation. She describes her religious mother, who baked matzo, and her grandfather, who managed an estate for a landowner and knew several languages. The name Sakhnovytsi comes up again.
16:03
From the machine transcript
Klein says her family was evacuated to Central Asia for about three years, while her father was mobilized as a specialist to the Donbass. They returned in 1948, to a town with far fewer Jews. She says the town was known prewar and that few Jews remained afterward.
20:37
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about reading Sovetish Heymland in the 1960s, and Klein says she subscribed for a time. She says she worked as an accountant and head of a group, and describes siblings and relatives who studied at technical schools and held senior positions in Moscow. The talk is mixed with remarks by another voice.
43:34
From the machine transcript
Klein says her father led the seder, and that after the war Passover was kept less fully. Kerler asks who asked the four questions (the boys), then whether the school taught religion. She says math, algebra and physics were taught in Yiddish until the shift to Russian, and names several teachers and professors.
50:01
From the machine transcript
Klein says her school taught many subjects and produced professors, and that many relatives were killed. Kerler and Klein discuss sending copies of photos and material through a Hesed. They talk about the great synagogue and about Gotlober, whose name she checked, and Kerler says he left memoirs and works in Yiddish, Hebrew and Polish.
4:54
From the machine transcript
Burshtein answers Kerler's questions about prewar entertainment in Sobolivka: songs, weddings with klezmer musicians brought from Bershad'. He says Bershad' was a ghetto in the war, and that Jews who escaped the killing went there. He also recalls a local violinist named Siame (?), his family, and a house connected to him.
9:03
From the machine transcript
Yakuta talks about her Yiddish school in Teplyk, its director, and her seven years there. Kerler asks whether she remembers Yiddish writers studied in literature, and she does not. She recalls her father, who was self-taught, reading the Yiddish newspaper Der Shtern aloud to the people of the town who came to listen.
13:38
From the machine transcript
Yakuta lists the subjects taught in Yiddish at her school, including dictation and letter writing, and mentions Russian as a subject. She describes her father's secret Sabbath and religious practice during Soviet times and his trips to Uman and Bratslav with a pooled cart, as a Bratslaver hasid. Kerler asks her about the terms "good Jew" and "honest Jew", and the tsadik. She then begins to tell how the Germans selected craftsmen from among the Jews, including her father.
18:41
From the machine transcript
Yakuta describes prewar Sabbath at home, with her mother blessing the candles and her father requiring the children to sit and listen to his Sabbath order. He told stories about Teplyk people who went to America, and about Uman. Her mother prayed from a Yiddish prayer book, which Kerler discusses with her, and retold biblical tales such as the binding of Isaac. A side discussion with Kerler concerns Yiddish words and a blessing phrase.
30:05
From the machine transcript
Yakuta talks about the local wise woman and folk healing, including the cure for the evil eye by spoken charm. She tells how her mother, when her husband had malaria, cooked porridge with bread and salt and threw the pot into the river with an incantation to the seven spirits. Kerler and S2 discuss the Ukrainian and Yiddish words for the "grain of salt". Kerler then asks about the time when religious practice had to be hidden.
13:54
From the machine transcript
Yakuta explains how buckwheat dumplings were made and eaten with boiled milk. Kerler asks about the details. She recalls childhood poverty: oranges and bananas were unknown, her mother split an apple among the children, and a glass of milk was a holiday. Kerler and the second woman ask about the Yiddish word for orange.
20:21
From the machine transcript
Yakuta says her parents' house was taken apart after the war. Kerler asks her mother's gefilte fish recipe, and Yakuta describes boning, chopping, onion, pepper and matzo meal. They discuss sweet versus peppery fish, and the horseradish served with it. She then talks about borscht cooked in clay pots, meat cutlets, and kinds of kasha. The second woman asks about beans in soup.
32:32
From the machine transcript
The team greets another woman, perhaps Marinina, who joins the conversation with Veliye. Veliye's group says goodbye with promises to meet in Israel. The people present talk about who speaks Yiddish in their families and in Israel and Canada. Kerler explains that he speaks only Yiddish and tells where he is from, and the scene ends with further farewells in Yiddish and Russian.
15:45
From the machine transcript
Marinina describes the kolkhoz where children lived like siblings, with livestock, sheep, horses, orchards, melon fields and vineyards. Her father and aunt worked there, and she remembers her mother as a good housewife. She completed three grades in the Yiddish school there, then went to a Russian-language 'Jewish' school in Simferopol' and later to Feodosiya, living away from home.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Marinina lists the holidays kept on the kolkhoz (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur fasting, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Passover, Purim). She describes the family seder, with her father's friends as guests, and the dishes her mother made, including matzo-meal dumplings (keyzlekh) and potato dishes. Kerler asks what keyzlekh are. She also mentions latkes at Hanukkah and Hanukkah money from her father.
31:14
From the machine transcript
Marinina says she has no one to talk Yiddish with, mentions reading a Yiddish booklet, and notes that her granddaughter married a non-Jew, a militia officer. Kerler continues the questionnaire with words for book, pigeon, tooth, ten, a shed, to build, thousand, near, face, blue, green, yellow, and the Sabbath loaf (khale). She also recalls her father giving Hanukkah money and the size of her family.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks the interviewee about Tisha b'Av and the children's custom of throwing burs at the beards of adults, which she does not recall. He then asks a few vocabulary items, such as words for face and for "a lot". She describes her life today: illness, a heart operation in Vinnytsia that she could hardly pay for, her pension compared with German payments, and her great-grandson and grandson. She also mentions having been in a camp as a child and sharing a camp background with another woman. Short exchanges with other visitors follow, with Russian speech and some Hebrew.
24:43
From the machine transcript
Kerler meets Reznik at her home and explains the interview. She says she was born in a village near Tomashpol' (name unclear) and gives her maiden name, Kordonskaya, and her husband's family. She went to a Ukrainian school, took courses in Kyiv and worked as an economist and bookkeeper. She was evacuated in 1941 to the Urals and then to a kolkhoz, and returned in 1944, married and bought the house. She names her parents and where they came from.
36:32
From the machine transcript
Liza Petrunenko joins and gives her name and Yiddish name. The talk covers her parents and grandfather, and the family's work in the kolkhoz. Reznik and Petrunenko recall prayer in private houses, the many prayer houses of the town, and Sabbath and Passover customs. Reznik names her siblings and recalls childhood games. They discuss non-Jews who spoke Yiddish before the war and today, and Reznik shows the old mezuzahs on doors and windows and her old house.
20:01
From the machine transcript
Kerler is led to the home of the Zhivokritskiis and interviews them. Alexandra, born in Tomashpol' and named Sure, says she was in the ghetto at Zgivka with her uncle, a tailor, while her father was in the army. She recalls her marriage in 1950, buying the house, her two sons (one now in Israel), her parents Grisha and Libe, and Passover at Uncle Yankl's. Her husband grew up as the only Jew in a village. They describe Sabbath fish, the difference between gefilte and chopped fish, grated-potato dishes, and life today. The rest is a long word-list questionnaire: household words, adverbs, kinship, the evil eye, Hasidic terms and sentences to translate.
3:24
From the machine transcript
Tkach, born in 1935 in the small town of Chernivtsi ("Kleyn Tshernovits"), talks about her parents, grandparents and the traditional Jewish house with its mezuzah. She recalls her uncle the gabbai, the synagogue with its women's gallery, her aunt reading tkhines, and the killing of another aunt's family. She describes the war years, refugees and the ghetto, the postwar schools and her brother's studies, and her forty years as a journalist in Yampil'. She then covers food customs for Sabbath, Passover, Purim and Hanukkah, children's games, Yiddish-speaking neighbors and friends, and weddings with their dances and musicians. She also talks about non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, the postwar fear of speaking Yiddish and the antisemitism of the Doctors' Plot, and Ukrainian literature. The last part is a dialectological questionnaire: she is asked how various Russian words, phrases and sentences would be said in Yiddish (greetings, house and window words, colors, comparatives).
0:00
From the machine transcript
Questionnaire session with Tkach. She is asked for Yiddish equivalents of Russian and Ukrainian words and sentences: verbs, adjectives, synonyms for 'sick', words for honest and religious people, a convert, a midwife, family terms, house and household words, the dreidel, and sentences to translate. She says she has not spoken Yiddish for some fifty years. Katz and Kerler then ask about earlier songs, pious Jews and a poor 'tsadik' in Kleyn Chernevits (Mala Chernivtsi?), tsadikim's graves, the abandoned houses there and Yiddish writers she has read.
40:27
From the machine transcript
Interview with Preger outside her home. Preger says she was born in Tomashpol' and that her parents were from there too. She calls Yiddish a jargon and says she prefers to speak Ukrainian. She describes the seven-class Yiddish school and the pedagogical technical college in Vinnytsia, where she studied for three years. She describes wartime in Tomashpol' and her work as a teacher of large classes of 45 pupils until retirement. She also covers present-day hardship, prices, health and the Joint help. She says her father was a worker, her mother a housewife who baked on Friday, and mentions the prewar synagogue.
16:12
From the machine transcript
Formal interview with Sapozhnik, who says she is a native of Tomashpol' and speaks Yiddish with her brother in Israel. She talks about her parents Nusn and Rukhl and the kolkhoz, her siblings, the old synagogue and how women prayed, her father's siddur and her poor childhood. She recalls the war, with her brothers drafted and the killings and ghettos under Germans and Romanians. She also mentions the town's remaining Yiddish speakers, and answers Kerler's questions on Yiddish words and on fish, melay and Passover food. Katz adds a general question about the best years.
51:19
From the machine transcript
Interview with Dora Guzman, who is welcomed into her flat. Katz states the date as 28 June 2005 and asks about her earliest memories. She was born in Tomashpol', attended the Yiddish school up to the fourth class and then Ukrainian school in Pishchanka, where she stayed with her mother's brother. She names her father Benyamin/Bentsion Abramovich, who worked in the clothing trade, was pious and prayed in one of the three synagogues, and her mother Sara, from the Odessa region. Katz also asks about Yiddish songs, the rabbi, Passover seder, Purim pastries, Hanukkah, the Sabbath and fish dishes.
8:41
From the machine transcript
Interview with Sapozhnik in her yard. She describes how hard her life is now, living alone, not eating well and missing her teeth. She gives her name, birth in Tomashpol' in 1924, her parents Nusn and Rekhl and the family surname, and lists her brothers and sisters, with their birth years and where they ended up (Israel, Moscow, the Far East). She recalls the kolkhoz where her parents worked, the old house with mezuzahs, the Romanian occupation and the ghetto with refugees and killings, and her marriages and the deaths of her husband and son. She also describes Sabbath, Hanukkah and Passover food and fish dishes, the old synagogues and the Yiddish school she did not attend, Yiddish-speaking non-Jews, and a rabbi killed in the war. She tells of her garden and sea-buckthorn oil, and of her mother's folk healing and cupping.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Sapozhnik shows Kerler and Lemster old photographs. They include the kolkhoz, which she says was Jewish, and her husband, son, brother Leib, her father, and a granddaughter in Moldova whose mother was non-Jewish. They ask when the kolkhoz photo was taken, and about window frames and a cellar. She also speaks about the ghetto and forced labor, a sister-in-law who emigrated, and her complaints about the repair of her house, the toilet and the local official. The team thanks her and leaves for the next interview.
15:08
From the machine transcript
Gingold is greeted at her door, and Kerler explains the university project. She says she is alone, her parents and brother having died, with two cousins in Israel. She gives her names, birth year, and her father's and mother's names and occupations. She also names her grandparents. She attended three years of Yiddish school before moving to a Russian one, and says she never worked and has a small pension. She recalls Sabbath, Passover, Shavuot and Purim customs, and the Tomashpol' ghetto. The interviewers then put questionnaire items: greetings, kosher salting, foods, and Russian words rendered into Yiddish such as 'spasibo', 'mouse' and 'poceluj'.
36:11
From the machine transcript
Miaskovskij is interviewed after a move to another room. He gives his name and his father's name, and gives dates of death for both parents and for a sister. He tells an anecdote about a Soviet delegation and a KGB minder who understood no Yiddish. He says he finished ten classes in Tomashpol' in 1941 and then served at the front, with orders and medals. His father was a factory worker and his mother a seamstress; the family was once rich but lost everything after the revolution. He names childhood friends and other townspeople. He mentions that he wrote a poem and sets it to music, sings Tum balalaika and other Yiddish songs, and says his father's books are still in the attic. He studied at the Moscow institute and says he cannot read Yiddish.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Miaskovskij mentions a sister in Israel and answers Lemster's and Kerler's questions about prewar Jewish weddings in Tomashpol' and his father's house. The house is about a hundred years old and has a mezuzah on the door but not on the window frame; he explains what a mezuzah is for. He recalls his pious grandmother and speaks about the languages he used and his Ukrainian school. He says his mother died before the war and that his father hid during the occupation, with a ghetto mentioned. Kerler asks to see the father's books in the attic, but Miaskovskij says he cannot climb up.
0:00
From the machine transcript
After opening chat among those present, Shusterman gives her father Toyva's name and says he was born in Tomashpol' in 1901 and died in 1995 aged 94. He worked in several jobs, including at a bank, and wrote well in Yiddish and Russian. She describes him as an honest and pious man who prayed daily and led the Passover seder. After the war he acted as a kind of rebbe, saying kaddish for the dead, and the militia broke up prayer gatherings. She says she cannot tell about Jewish life before the war and then talks about his singing and her own love of music. She talks about her own accounting career, leaving work at 53 to care for her blind father, and then knitting and selling at the market. She also covers her own illness and depression. The few Jews left in Tomashpol' (eight) gather for holidays and yortsaytn, and she explains why she will not emigrate and a relative in Germany. She says antisemitism was present earlier, and she describes her wartime evacuation to Mordovia and the postwar housing and compensation. She also talks about her husband, a non-Jew, and a lost love from Odesa. The passage ends with Kerler's thanks, a promise to send Yiddish songs, and fragmentary talk.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Futiran gives his Yiddish name and age, and says he was born in Tomashpol' and comes from a long line of local people. He names his father, a coachman (balegole), and his mother, an orphan from Tomashpol', and says there were six children. Two brothers were killed at the front in 1944, and other brothers are named. Futiran says he later learned the hatmaker's trade from Jewish masters, and he worked for decades as a hatmaker. He mentions two marriages, the second to a non-Jewish woman, and two sons in Moscow and Israel. He recalls a poor childhood, four years in a Yiddish school before a Ukrainian one opened, and a Jewish library. He also recalls Yiddish songs, klezmer music, Jewish weddings with a huppah, and visiting Yiddish artists. He speaks of hunger in 1933, evacuation and work during the war, and eight synagogues in the town. Kerler and Lemster ask about coachmen's stories and songs, and the father's song is mentioned. The passage ends in his workshop with a Singer sewing machine and hats the visitors try on.
9:23
From the machine transcript
The interview with Guzman begins with her name, birth in Tomashpol' and her family: her father Bentsion, a shop worker beaten by the gendarmerie, her mother, and her brother. She recalls Yiddish and Ukrainian schooling, prewar holidays (Purim, Passover, Sukkot), food, the synagogues and the shoykhet, weddings and the library. She describes the ghetto, where non-Jewish villagers brought food, and forced labour in the fields. She mentions the famine and her stay with an aunt and uncle, as well as work after the war, photographs, relatives in Odessa, America and Israel, and Tul'chyn. Roughly the last quarter is word elicitation: greetings, colours, adverbs, 'pigeon', 'ear' and other items, which Guzman answers with difficulty.
14:01
From the machine transcript
Shveibish describes conditions in the Pechera camp until spring 1944: killings, rape, no food or water, lice and typhus, and the dead dragged away. Her father was the first of the family killed, in 1941, and her mother died a month later, leaving her with her older brother. She recalls begging, and old non-Jewish women who gave food or took rings for bread, and the Romanian guards. Germans on the far bank of the Bug fired at those who went to the water. Prisoners came from other towns, from Bukovina and from Bessarabia, and the Judenrat is criticised.
27:12
From the machine transcript
Shveibish speaks about her life after the war, in hospitals in several cities, and about repression. She recalls the outbreak of the war, when the Jews were put into a former Jewish school and then sent to Pechera. She tells how her father was killed and her mother died a month later, leaving her with her brother, and recalls herself as a five-year-old girl and her doll. She describes how hard the years after the war were.
30:48
From the machine transcript
Asked about Jewish holidays she remembers, Shveibish recalls that her grandfather Yekhiel was a trader and that there were ten synagogues in Tul'chyn, none of which remains. Candles were blessed, Sabbath and Passover were kept, and food was kosher; today there is no shoykhet. She speaks of the community's modest help for the sick and poor, and of paying for burials of lonely people. Kerler asks what is meant by erecting a memorial, and he also asks about her father, whom people called Nyune.
34:19
From the machine transcript
Shveibish talks about gefilte fish: her grandmothers loved it, and she now makes it for holidays for the community, together with Passover noodles and matzo meal. She insists on matzo and no bread during the eight days. She tells in outline how she makes it, with minced fish and ingredients such as onions and egg, matzo meal or a substitute, and sweetening and salt. Kerler then begins the dialectological questions.
21:44
From the machine transcript
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.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Shveibish tells about her husband Itsik's family from Horyshkivka. His father came from Tul'chyn after the pogroms, he was a craftsman, and there were six children. She describes the Romanian-era ghetto in the village club, a sister who was shot at and traumatised, the siblings who emigrated or have died, and the parents' graves in Tomashpil. She talks about Horyshkivka as the model for Sholem Aleichem's Kasrilevke, the Yiddish theatre troupe in which her husband's father acted, and pogroms in Tul'chyn and Khmelnytskyi's time. She then describes Jewish life in Tul'chyn today (the community's difficulties, no shoykhet, no minyan, a memorial, aged pensioners), and Jewish food and holiday customs, with a recipe for gefilte fish. The passage includes dialectological questions on words such as store, courtyard, well, potato dishes, thanks and please, and idioms.
19:31
From the machine transcript
Golfeld mentions his army service of four years after the war in Kamchatka, where he was the only Jew, and his return to Tul'chyn to work. He recalls prewar holidays at his mother's home, including Passover, Yom Kippur and Shavuot, a holiday with red apples (Simchat Torah, with a flag), and potato pancakes.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Presler gives her parents' and grandparents' families: both parents were born in Tul'chyn, and her mother had six sisters and two brothers. Her maternal grandfather was a glazier, and her father's family were musicians who played in a klezmer band for weddings, Purim and holidays. She describes growing up in the Kapsynivka quarter by the little river with crowded houses, and the family gatherings there with food, dancing and Yiddish songs. She recalls the 1933 famine, in which a relative died, and the dollars her sisters sent from America. She describes prewar hunger and poverty, and discusses her sisters' wartime and postwar lives, one of them marrying a non-Jewish officer. She answers Kerler's questions about plural forms, Yiddish words and dance names, and recalls Purim and weddings. She also talks about her grandson's singing and her prewar religious life, a synagogue building taken over, and her father's prayer. The passage ends with photographs of Pechera camp survivors, including one from 1990, the year her husband died.
52:49
From the machine transcript
Presler and Kerler walk through her house, yard and shower, and Kerler asks Yiddish words for house and porch. They talk about neighbors and the poverty of living conditions, and she mentions her father playing at weddings. They say goodbye and Kerler thanks her.
43:56
From the machine transcript
Kogan recalls Bershad' as a Jewish town with Yiddish songs in the Yiddish school, and that Bukovinian and Bessarabian Jews were brought in. Rumors of killings in Zhabokrych had reached them. His mother hid him in a chimney. At fourteen he was taken to forced labor by Romanian gendarmes and marched on foot to Pishchanka, hungry and with sore feet. There he worked in the camp kitchen. A Bershad' man named Abrashe planned an escape with him through the woods.
52:48
From the machine transcript
Kogan describes the escape from Pishchanka through the woods, with injured feet, back to Bershad'. He hid in his mother's chimney, then in a loft at a neighbor's house in straw. His brother brought him food. He recalls the deportation of Jews to Mykolayiv, including a neighbor taken away. Kerler thanks him and the interview ends.
12:40
From the machine transcript
Vainer-Shpak gives personal information (born in Vinnytsya in 1921; the address of her prewar home) and names her family: her father Froyke, a Bratslav Hasid, her mother Dobtse from Pryluky, brothers, sisters and grandparents. She tells of her Jewish model school in Vinnytsya, her studies as a dental specialist and the assignment to a sugar factory village in 1940, then her journey toward Odessa on foot at the start of the war and her return, hiding and survival in Vinnytsya, with her husband. She also talks about her parents' religious life, Sabbath, Purim and Hanukkah food and customs, the synagogues of Vinnytsya, and a story about Haman and Esther.
20:43
From the machine transcript
Yurkovetskij tells of being taken in by a Polish priest and then of the village, before going to a Ukrainian school (not a Yiddish one). In 1936 he was sent to driving courses at a machine and tractor station in Bratslav. One brother was killed in the war and the other went to America. He remembers a poor childhood: playing football in worn shoes and getting help from Jews at Passover.
32:01
From the machine transcript
Yurkovetskij says his wife evacuated with the children to Frunze in Kyrgyzstan. He recalls a day in 1941 when he was called up and sent to the Odessa naval school (?). He was wounded in the right leg on 23 August 1941, was released and came back to Tul'chyn. Lemster asks why he did not follow his family.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Katsman gives personal information: her name in Yiddish and Russian, her maiden name Chechelniker, her birth date and the fact that she has always lived in Tul'chyn. She talks about her family, which includes her father, a brush maker, her mother Perl, and a brother who froze to death in the camp. Her father was taken into the army and died after the war, and the family spoke Yiddish at home. She says the family's house was lost when they were driven into the ghetto. She recounts being driven to the Pechera camp, with disinfection in a bath, a night on the floor among about fifty people, beatings by police and help from some local non-Jews. She also mentions the return home after the war and attempts to claim compensation. Her half-brother in New York, her son in Israel and her second husband come up, along with her work as a tailor for 39 years. She answers Kerler's questions on relations with non-Jews before and after the war, on non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, on the shoykhet Moshe, on Sabbath, Passover, Purim and Hanukkah food and recipes (gefilte fish, cholent, latkes, varenikes, cakes), on children's games at school and by the river, and on hardship in the postwar years. She also describes annual trips to the Pechera memorial, some arranged by an organizing group; the discussion then shifts to a neighbor Pesia, Kerler's explanation of the archive, and a closing exchange about the mezuzah.
MDV 728Lev Shayevich Kolodenker; Aleksandr Shayevich Kolodenker; Pesia Kolodenker and 1 moreTul'chyn, 2009
19:09
From the machine transcript
Pesia recounts falling ill with high fever in the camp, her mother, and a neighbour Ayzik who helped them. She describes begging in nearby villages for bread, the cruelty of Ukrainian policemen, and a Jew shot over something he bought from a villager. Kerler asks about a Yiddish word for icicles.
29:22
From the machine transcript
Pesia tells how she nearly drowned in the river while a policeman watched, and how young Romanians from Bukovina made a chain of hands to rescue her. She describes daily deaths in the camp, among them a woman with six children, the burial and the pits. Kerler asks how many lie there, and a figure of fifteen thousand is mentioned (?).
MDV 729Lev Shayevich Kolodenker; Aleksandr Shayevich Kolodenker; Pesia Kolodenker and 1 moreTul'chyn, 2009
18:31
From the machine transcript
Pesia and others describe a Jewish wedding in prewar Tul'chyn: the music, dancing until morning and the sharing of cake among relatives, and a dance with the in-laws (the transcript is unclear). They go on to talk about mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law and about living alone, and an anecdote about a man from Moscow who bought a house in Israel.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Yurkovetskij answers questions about his life, mostly in a loosely ordered conversation. He says he trained as a driver in Bratslav in 1937 and drove for decades. During the war he drove in Poland and Finland and served in Odessa; he was wounded in the leg, sent home, and later spent a year in the Pechera camp. He drove a general through Budapest, Prague, Vienna and Berlin, and describes the hunger in Budapest and a general's profiteering. He describes the 1919 pogrom in Tul'chyn, in which his father (a hatmaker), mother and grandfather were killed by a bandit band, and how his grandmother raised him and his brothers in poverty, with a Polish priest involved in his rescue. A brother died in the war, and his sons now live in America. He also names the Jewish streets of Tul'chyn and gives the Jewish population as over ten thousand. He talks about Stalin, Trotsky and Lenin, his school, an old synagogue, Poland and Finland in 1939–40, being wounded in Odessa when the war began, the ghetto in Bershad', and the visitors' own homes.
0:59
From the machine transcript
Pecherskaia and the team try the dishes she has prepared. She speaks about her son, who lives in a new district of Tul'chyn, and about relatives in Israel and America, including half-sisters whose city she does not know. She describes going to Pechera every year at Rosh Hashanah, where her family lies, and being photographed and interviewed there. She names her family and gives her name, maiden name and birth year; her father Yosif worked as a coachman or carter. She had four siblings, including her brother Hershl, killed in the army at seventeen, and her sisters Shele and Rivele, who died in Pechera. She gives a long account of Pechera: her mother killed with shovels, her sisters' deaths, her escape and recapture, the German camp in Bratslav with its killings in the forest, and hiding in a pit and with a Polish woman until the partisans came. After the war she worked at a brewery in Bratslav and married in 1945. She talks about her husband Shune, her stepfather, her children and grandchildren, and a daughter in Israel. She recalls prewar Bratslav, a field wedding, her grandfather and prayer, Passover, the Bratslav tsadik's grave, and the hunger of 1933. She also talks about Tul'chyn after the war, her fasting, Passover matzo and gefilte fish.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Street encounter with an elderly woman and others in Bershad'; local people name streets and the Soviet names of the town's quarters. The woman gives her name, says her father's family were Oystrakh, and mentions a relative who lived in Moscow and one in America. Kerler asks whether she can sing; she says she knows a song from the camp, and mentions that she survived the killings at the pit.
3:11
From the machine transcript
The woman tells of surviving the killings in the Bershad' ghetto, lying wounded and escaping from the pit, and wandering from town to town. She says she lived in the synagogue building, tells of a sister who fell at the front, and says her mother left the house. She now lives with her husband, a Jewish shoemaker, while her daughter lives nearby; Kerler and others discuss compensation payments from Germany.
17:10
From the machine transcript
Gvinter's husband (Yuzl, per the catalogue) joins in. She says she has two daughters and four grandchildren in Israel. She speaks of living among mixed nationalities there, with Arabs and others, and of an Israeli's remark about preserving Jewish identity.
32:55
From the machine transcript
Kerler takes down contact details and names: Matvei Vladimirovich and Efim Isaakovich. Both were born in Uman' and moved with their parents to the town of Buki, fifty kilometres away. Matvei was born in 1928 and Efim a little earlier. He says many Jews were killed in the area and the family fled to a smaller town; in 1940 he was at a military school in Odessa.
1:20
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Efim to write some Yiddish words, such as the word for Sabbath and the word for friend. Efim says his handwriting is poor now. He then recalls that his mother was a pious woman who prayed and read Hebrew, and gives her birth year.
21:32
From the machine transcript
Asked about liberation, Teplitskaia says the family returned to Ternovka and got a small house there. Her parents later died and are buried in the Jewish cemetery. She mentions her children's ages when her husband abandoned her with them.
31:04
From the machine transcript
Teplitskaia recalls her parents' daily prayer with tallis and tefillin, and says her father kept faith in God during the German occupation. She says she wanted to leave Ukraine with her children, but could not leave her three children behind when her sisters offered to take her. She says her children treat her well.
33:09
From the machine transcript
Answers Kerler's questions about Passover before the war: baking matzah together with neighbours, and her mother's matzah dishes, latkes and kokelekh (?). She describes how her mother prepared fish with onions, and Kerler then asks about Hanukkah foods. She breaks off to ask the team not to be hurried or revealed, because she is wary of being denounced for her talk.
40:41
From the machine transcript
Teplitskaia recommends a poor Yiddish-speaking woman in Uman' as a possible interviewee. Her name is given as Manya, but the family name and address are unclear. Kerler and others ask about her family, saying they will go to her the next day. She also reflects on honouring parents and old people.
7:03
From the machine transcript
Teplitskaia says she was ten years old during the war. Asked by Kerler and Katz about prewar songs and people, she says that as children they worked at home after school, feeding pigs and cows, and that her father was a poor worker. There was no time for singing, and she says she began to sing Yiddish songs only after the Germans. A cousin who had been in Romania sang songs from there.
18:10
From the machine transcript
Teplitskaia says she has lost hope in the present, and prays to God for peace and for the good of her children and grandchildren. She describes loneliness alone at home, her depression and tears. Her daughter and son visit and bring medicines and food. Kerler urges her to be optimistic. At the end he asks whether she has a message for the Jews in America.
1:34
From the machine transcript
Rubin tells of a friend's funeral in Buki, apparently before the war (the transcript gives 1938 or 1939), at which the man woke up and walked home. He asks Kerler to greet Matl, a relative from Buki whose wife has died and whose son lives in Ashkelon, and says that a few Jews still pray in Uman' and that their rabbi is Rabbi Fish from America. He and Kerler recall an earlier visit about three years before and discuss an illness that doctors could not cure.
8:22
From the machine transcript
Rubin says that great numbers of people come to Uman' for Rosh Hashanah, Purim, Hanukkah and Passover, and that he has been going for fifteen years. He gets kosher matzo at Passover, reads Yiddish letters only a little, and says there are no prayer books in translation. He and Kerler talk about a Yiddish story book and a siddur with a Yiddish translation. Rubin also speaks about Matl's ill sister, a son who lives in Jerusalem and works at a dairy firm (?), and his own visits to his mother's grave in Israel.
18:55
From the machine transcript
Rubin recites or sings short Yiddish songs, including one about a tailor and one about a girl sewing, together with a saying attributed to Reb Nahman about dancing in hard times. Kerler asks him to repeat them for the microphone and asks about their source. Rubin recalls his grandfather, who died before the war and who took him to the beys-medresh and sang Sabbath songs. Rubin says he studied in Odessa before the war.
29:46
From the machine transcript
Asked about school, Rubin says there were several Jewish schools and workers' schools (for tailors, shoemakers and others) where reading, writing and singing were taught. He recalls a gramophone and songs, including a wedding song about seating the bride. He describes his family of klezmers who played clarinet, flute and fiddle, and Hershl Bonder (?), the leader of the klezmer group, whose four daughters also played.
33:28
From the machine transcript
Rubin describes prewar religious life in Buki: Jews gathered in small groups in a house away from the centre to form a minyan, and quietly so as not to be seen. He recalls that his uncle Velvl, a butcher, brought kosher meat, and notes the word the Jews used for meat.
15:29
From the machine transcript
Katz and Kerler try to draw Krasheny out about his childhood before the war, and Zoya answers for him. She says his father was killed (apparently shot in the Petliura period), that his mother raised many children, and that he was born in 1912 (apparently). She says his mother and sisters were shot and that he was at Babi Yar and got out of it, and that he served in the army and was taken prisoner. She also gives his name and surname, a telephone number, and says she is named after his mother Zisel.
43:02
From the machine transcript
Waldman talks about the poverty of Uman's Jews and about her family, many of whom were communists. Her father Avrom, an orphan from Zhytomyr, worked in a factory. She says they lived near the market and she has no photograph of him. The passage ends as she turns to the first of August, when the Germans came.
44:59
From the machine transcript
Waldman talks about the start of the war, when her mother left and her father stayed. He was called up and taken for work or service in the first days of the war. She also describes Uman' before the war, with Jews living in the center and non-Jews in the outer districts.
46:12
From the machine transcript
Waldman talks about the hard years of wartime evacuation, when many died of hunger and her mother worked hard for little. After the war she studied, finishing school, a pedagogical college and universities in Kyiv and Cherkasy. She also mentions a brother living in Germany.
MDV 741Nukhim Moiseevich (Moshkovich) Gvinter; unidentified informant (Bershad'); Efim VigodnerUman', Bershad', 2008
9:29
From the machine transcript
At the closed Bershad' synagogue, the local guide explains that it is the only surviving mud-brick (clay) synagogue in the world, that it was called the grandmother's synagogue, and that Soviet authorities never closed it. He recalls a rabbi in the 1950s, perhaps named Lipman. He also describes the Jewish gymnasium building (begun 1916) and the later schools in it. He estimates that only about 30–40 real Jews remain and discusses possible Yiddish speakers. He explains his family link to the Oystrakh family and to a Gvinter woman who died in Israel. He recalls childhood Sabbath visits to the synagogue and the Jewish population in the 1979 census. Kerler asks about his birthplace.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Halpert explains how little Jews under Hungarian rule knew of the fate of Polish Jews or of Auschwitz, which they took for a labor camp. He describes being taken as a young man from the Mukacheve ghetto to a labor camp, then to Austria at the end of 1944, and receiving a letter from his wife. The passage opens with a brief exchange about Hungarian and Tubi's father in the Budapest ghetto.
30:37
From the machine transcript
Halpert describes a typical day as a boy: cheder in the early morning, Czech school until noon, lunch at home, then cheder again till evening. He recalls the strict melamed's Thursday examination, with beating for failures, and his fear of it, and studying with his father and grandfather on Sabbath.
34:22
From the machine transcript
Halpert describes the Czech school, where Jewish children spoke Yiddish among themselves and Czech with the teachers, who were not antisemitic. He talks about his reading in Yiddish, Czech, Hebrew and Hungarian, including Sholem Aleichem, Mendele and Wells, and a satirical Yiddish book on Jewish life by his uncle Shloyme Moshkovich of Mukacheve, whose family went to Haifa. Jewish bookshops in the Jewish street sold Yiddish and Hebrew books.
14:36
From the machine transcript
Naybauer describes returning home and his mother's remarriage, then goes back to the ghetto under the Hungarian occupation. He hauled munitions for the Germans and prepared a hospital for wounded soldiers. He recalls Auschwitz-Monowitz, the starvation transport to Gleiwitz and then Dora, and the deaths of his brothers, naming David and Mordechai.
25:48
From the machine transcript
Zinger describes the years before the war. He served in the Czech army for three years and came home in 1939, when the Hungarians took over the region. At fourteen his father apprenticed him to a tailor. As a small boy he attended cheder in Velykyi Bereznyi. He briefly contrasts the Jews of earlier days with those today and mentions being called up by the Hungarians in 1940 (?).
52:06
From the machine transcript
Zinger recalls the family's modest life in Velykyi Bereznyi: his father carved gravestones in summer and made picture frames and mended windows in winter. He describes the Sabbath meals, kugel and meat, and the braided challah. At Passover he helped his father bake matzo for neighbours, with women making the dough. He mentions a friend from the Soviet camp who died the day before. He says relations with non-Jewish neighbours were good, with some antisemitism blaming Jews for everything.
25:28
From the machine transcript
Questions turn to drinking and wine, which Jews did not make themselves. Grigorii and Liudmila then describe the town: the poverty, the inn yard owned by their grandfather Hershl with its shops, and the smiths, tailors, shoemakers and leather workers. Several Jews were repressed in 1928, others fled, and those who remained lost their voting rights. Kerler and the couple also discuss occupational terms such as tailor, patch-tailor and leather cutter.
37:08
From the machine transcript
Liudmila says that today they speak mostly Russian with each other, because her husband served in the army after the war and the children do not speak Yiddish. She says their two children live in Israel and Germany, and Kerler wishes them good health.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Shor recalls that her mother taught her the morning prayer and that she remembers little beyond it. At Kerler's request she sings Yiddish songs learned from her parents, including a song about a wagon driver and his horses on the road to a tavern, a lullaby-like song about life passing, and others. Kerler asks her to repeat a song so the words can be written down, and she says she wants her parents' songs passed on only to her own children.
11:00
From the machine transcript
A new interview begins with Poberevskii. She looks at family photographs and identifies her father Shloyme, her mother, a brother who is the youngest and a doctor, and her husband. The names of her mother and brother are unclear in the transcript. She says she lived in Stanislavchyk and is 88 years old. Kerler wishes her good health and explains to the others that the interview is for the archive's camera.
15:32
From the machine transcript
Poberevskii gives her birthplace as Stanislavchyk, a small town eight kilometers from a nearby town whose name is garbled in the transcript. Her parents came from there. Her father was the rabbi, and her mother, called the rebbetsin, did not work and had eleven children. She names several siblings, among them Bentse, Nokhum, Note and Rusya, and says some died young.
18:47
From the machine transcript
Asked about her earliest memories of Stanislavchyk, Poberevskii says there were many children in the family. The family left in 1921 for Zhuryn and then moved on to Zhmerynka. She also mentions studying in Russia at an institute, and Kerler explains in Russian why such interviews are done.
19:40
From the machine transcript
Poberevskii gives her birth date in July 1914 and says that Yiddish birthday greetings were brought to her by acquaintances. She finished the Jewish school in 1930 at sixteen and then worked as a typist in the court and procuracy. Her father, known as the Stanislavchyk rabbi, preached in Zhmerynka. She names an uncle Elye who was a ritual slaughterer in Moldova and later worked in a kolkhoz. She remembers Stanislavchyk as a Jewish shtetl with Jewish craftsmen and a market, where Christians worked the fields and her mother made ovens. Her father travelled to Proskurov and came back with accounts of a terrible pogrom there. She says there was no pogrom in their own town and relations with neighbours were good. The family left because her father wanted to go to Romania and sold the house cheaply, but they ended up buying a small house in Zhmerynka.
36:07
From the machine transcript
Poberevskii describes Sabbath before the war. Her mother lit the candles and went to synagogue, and on holidays and fasts as well. She says there were four or five synagogues in town, including the butchers' synagogue, the main synagogue and the beys-medresh, where women prayed upstairs. Her father died in 1937 and had given sermons in the beys-medresh. Kerler then says he will ask a few words.
MDV 753Bella Simkhovna Chirkova; Vinnytsya Yiddish women's choir; Nesya Shulimovna KatzVinnytsya, 2002
0:00
From the machine transcript
The choir women discuss what Yiddish songs to sing, partly in Russian, while the team waits and waits for the director. Chirkova comes up to the interviewers and says she can talk Yiddish. Her father was a rabbi and her grandfather a cantor, and she complains that she is not allowed to speak Yiddish or keep the holidays freely. She lingers over her religious upbringing, her parents' deaths and her old age. Kerler arranges to visit her at home. The choir women then sing together, and a second woman, probably Nesye Katz, says she was an orphan raised by an aunt and describes how the group meets and sings Yiddish songs.
31:20
From the machine transcript
Chirkova talks about her family, including a grandchild named after her brother, and complains about neighbours and her treatment. She mentions the deaths of her parents and grandparents, a relative in America and her own operations. Kerler asks whether the team can come to her home.
39:48
From the machine transcript
Chirkova explains photographs on the wall, including one sent from America. She says her brother fought at the front and was captured. She also mentions a sister who has died. Another voice asks what Yiddish books she has, and she offers a book.
33:25
From the machine transcript
Chirkova describes the folk custom against the evil eye of buying seven needles from seven shops, in which they were stuck into a leather strap or cord. The strap was hung round her neck, apparently to be worn until better times. Kerler asks how the needles were set, and she says it was the mother who bought a house for the Russian woman.
0:00
From the machine transcript
A woman speaks about Jewish observance before the war, saying each person kept it as he wished. She recalls the Passover seder, the four questions asked by the boys, and her father's teaching of religious duties. She closes with an exhortation to remain faithful Jews.
25:43
From the machine transcript
Furer talks about life before the war. His father died at 43, and his mother was left with three sons. They went to work at a kolkhoz outside town for food, the father working as a tailor there.
33:22
From the machine transcript
Furer speaks about life today: living alone, health, medicine costs and the help from the Hesed. He remembers his late wife Roza, from Kryzhopil', and their life together.
7:45
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Sabbath and holidays at home. Furer remembers the Passover seder at his grandfather's, with the grandfather's six sons and the children asking the questions, and children running home after the shofar on Yom Kippur to eat. About Sukkot he recalls his grandfather's small attic that opened up as a sukkah. Kerler then asks about Hanukkah food.
32:36
From the machine transcript
Furer talks about life today and about the political situation in Israel and the war there. He explains that after 1948 a sister of an acquaintance sent him invitations to emigrate from Romania, but he did not want to go, since he had been a communist and life had not been bad. He talks about a grandson who studied at a polytechnic and is not yet married.
1:33
From the machine transcript
She says she confronted the neighbor who had taken over her house, and the neighbors soon moved out. She describes her happy childhood and her isolation during the war, with no parents or siblings left. A man named Itsik helped save her from death. She mentions her hearing loss.
2:37
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn gives personal information: her Yiddish name, her birth in Sharhorod in April 1928, and her residence there before and during the German occupation. Her parents are buried in Sharhorod; she mentions two sisters, one of whom lived in Israel, and says she herself has been to Israel twice.
9:50
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn recalls her childhood in Sharhorod: a small one-room home, three daughters, and a father who worked alone. The family was not rich but never went hungry. She briefly mentions her late husband and offers to show a photograph later, and Kerler asks about her mother's housekeeping.
11:37
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn describes how her mother baked challah and bread in an oven at home and kept the Sabbath as required. A stretch of apparent laughter and joking follows.
18:28
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn continues about the tsadikim's graves and visits to them, including Jews who went to Israel and came back. She says she travels once a year to her parents' graves, and gives the dates of her father's and mother's deaths.
38:10
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn recounts working twenty years as a telephone operator at the post office, then retiring and moving to Vinnytsya with her widowed father, after her mother's death, to be near her son. She speaks of visiting her parents' graves at Sharhorod, where there is no one to say Kaddish, since her son knows Yiddish but does not speak it. She describes the gravestones she had put up for her mother and father.
2:25
From the machine transcript
Vaisman recalls being drafted into the army in 1943 and serving until 1946, then returning to Berdychiv. Asked about life before the war, he says it was very hard, with hardly any bread. His mother worked at a factory washing, and Lemster presses him on her job. He names his sister Sonya (Yiddish Sara), who is still alive.
10:00
From the machine transcript
Vaisman says there was no singing at home, since the mother could not sing and the family lacked bread. He says his unmarried sister lives with him and his wife. Katz and Kerler ask about the pension, and he and Kerler discuss how much money a person or a family needs, in hryvnias, as prices rise. Kerler thanks him at the end.
30:36
From the machine transcript
At Abrashe's closed house the team greets him. Kerler and Katz remind him of an earlier visit, mention photographs and visitors from America, and ask about his family, saying his grandmother has died. A short Russian exchange follows.
33:24
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn describes the war years in Sharhorod. The Germans were there for two weeks and took what they wanted. Romanian authorities followed, and Jews deported from Romania came into the shtetl. She says Jews could not speak Yiddish freely in public but did at home. She was twelve (?), her sister eight and there was a baby, and her mother was left alone without work. Lemster asks whether her mother sang; she says she sang only at home, in the ghetto.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Barshteyn answers Lemster's questions about Sabbath in her parents' home. She describes her mother lighting candles on Friday evening and praying for the health of her children and grandchildren. She lists Sabbath foods such as soup with noodles, meat and kugel, and discusses whether cholent was made, recalling that her grandmother in Sharhorod made it in the oven. Lemster ends by asking about Yom Kippur kapores.
7:50
From the machine transcript
The team meets a Ukrainian man, Matsey (also called Volodya, surname Pidpaliuk (?)), who is about seventy and speaks Yiddish. He says he lived all his life on a Jewish street and worked with Jews. Asked by Kerler and Lemster, he points out the old shoykhet's house, recalls Jews hiding in a cellar during the war, and mentions playing with Jewish children. He talks about his five children, Soviet life and politicians, the Jews he worked with, and whether life was better with Jews.
50:21
From the machine transcript
At the old cemetery, Barshteyn explains that part of it was cleared for a road in Soviet times. Her mother helped gather the bones, and the gravestones of two tsadikim were left standing. She tells of the tsadikim's legendary powers and of Jews who emigrated to Israel having the graves repaired. Katz and Kerler try to read the Hebrew inscription (Naftali Hertz) and work out dates. She then takes them to her mother Brayne's grave and says a few words there.
5:03
From the machine transcript
Sobol recalls the great famine of 1932–33, when she was a teenager: people swelled up from hunger and there was no food, and everything cost money. Her family survived because her father worked with a horse for the militia, and they ate potatoes.
6:57
From the machine transcript
Sobol talks about her childhood while her mother was alive, a poor but quiet home, and being orphaned at fourteen. She describes Passover poverty, her father leading the seder, and a relative who asked the Four Questions. She also covers kashering the house and storing the Passover dishes in the attic. The questions turn to holiday food: Passover dumplings, Hanukkah latkes, Purim treats and the Sabbath cholent. A remedy against the evil eye (a red ribbon) is also touched on.
14:43
From the machine transcript
Sobol says that in Soviet times people were not allowed to pray freely, while her husband came from a Bukovinian Jewish life. She talks about cooking for her husband and about ritual slaughter: there was a shoykhet even under the Soviets, but later none, and she or her husband slaughtered chickens themselves. Lemster then asks whether she has children.
18:40
From the machine transcript
Sobol answers questions about the river and the bathhouse, and recalls the big synagogue on Stavyshche (?) Street that her parents attended. She says that today there is no minyan and the Kaddish is paid for or read in Russian letters. Asked whether Christians spoke Yiddish, she says yes. She says her husband knew Yiddish, Romanian, German and some Hebrew but no Russian when they married. She also tells how her husband had lost his parents and how they lived in her father's house with her stepmother.
17:31
From the machine transcript
Katz recalls her childhood. At three she lost both parents to typhus; she describes in detail her mother's last days and the neighbors finding her dead. A relative of her mother's, apparently an uncle, took her in, and she describes her chores in his household and his work as a tinsmith. She goes on to her few years of schooling, starting work as a child, and finishing school in 1939.
39:49
From the machine transcript
Katz recalls the first night of the war in Vinnytsya: a plane overhead, the first bomb falling on the old town, and paratroopers. She describes her work in the sanitary service with the wounded, and tells of the Banderites and her marriage while her husband was at the front.
43:42
From the machine transcript
Answering Kerler, Katz says many Jews were among the soldiers, especially doctors, and names several Jewish doctors and colleagues. She then mentions her husband's death.
50:52
From the machine transcript
Katz says she appeared on television and received many medals. When Kerler remarks that she earned them honestly, she explains what that means to her as an orphan, recalling her uncle's advice before she went to the war. Kerler then asks where the uncle came from; he was a tinsmith and a native of Vinnytsya.
15:31
From the machine transcript
Fishman says he was an only child. During the war the family lived at a station near Tashkent, where his mother worked in a kindergarten and he finished several grades of a Russian school. His father served at the front as a junior lieutenant and came back. Lemster asks how people said 'came back' in Yiddish.
17:00
From the machine transcript
Fishman recalls two prewar visits to Medzhibozh, the second at age eight in 1939, and four visits in the last ten years. He mentions the large synagogue built by American Jews by the grave of the Baal Shem Tov, where only two Jews remain. He remembers a river near his grandfather's house and the geese and feathers, and retells a story his mother told about Hershele Ostropolyer as a poor guest who pours soup on his fine coat.
21:05
From the machine transcript
Fishman talks about his mother's varnishkes with buckwheat kasha, which he can make himself and also stuff. He recalls holiday foods from her kitchen, such as matzo and lekach, but says he does not remember the holidays at his grandfather's.
14:00
From the machine transcript
Tsodikovich says he left Kopayhorod around 1950, and that as a child he came to his grandparents for the school holidays. His grandmother was like a mother to him and his grandfather like a father. He kept visiting them after technical school and army service.
36:33
From the machine transcript
Kerler and Lemster thank Tsodikovich and close the interview. Tsodikovich says Yiddish was spoken at home with his grandparents and mother, and recounts a long-lived woman. Kerler explains that the recordings will go into an archive for future generations and online. Tsodikovich is pessimistic about the future of Yiddish, and Kerler says he is optimistic. Tsodikovich also mentions children in Israel, and both wish each other good health.
39:40
From the machine transcript
Yatskova tries to recall the Israeli city where her brother Hershl (Tsvi) Kremer lives, perhaps Netanya (?), and when he left, and says he has not written for a long time. Lemster tells her about a 103-year-old woman he met in Vinnytsia. Yatskova mentions Arkadii Isaakovich, a local man who speaks good Yiddish. She describes the Jewish cemetery, where people from Bar and Vinnytsia were also brought for burial.
44:00
From the machine transcript
Yatskova talks about her grandfather the pharmacist in Murafa, later a dock porter in Odessa, whom local non-Jews remembered, and about a non-Jewish woman who spoke Yiddish better than she did. She explains that she read Sholem Aleichem in Russian and that her family spoke Russian with the children. Asked about Kopayhorod, she says she knows nothing of its history or of Malkele at the cemetery, and she complains that visitors from Israel throw away her flowers. She says neighbours treat her well, that her father was respected and taught many locals, and that she regrets not leaving after the war. She recalls friends the Grinmans, Misha playing the accordion while she directed stage shows, and her visits to the Odessa Jewish theater and its actors. She finishes by thanking the visitors, and Lemster offers her Yiddish books. The transcript ends before the catalogued passage ends.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Opens briefly on holiday customs, with Kerler asking about Tisha b'Av. Poberevskii then talks about poor but gifted classmates, many of whom were killed in the war, and about her own studies in Kalinin. She says her father the rabbi did not take her or her mother to shul, and describes her brothers, one of whom studied Talmud and became a lawyer. She also answers questions about the meaning of 'a good Jew' and about her mother's brother. The rest is largely a dialectological questionnaire put by Kerler, with Katz commenting. Items include words for the cross and for converting or baptising (the difference between 'geshmad' and baptising a child), candle-blessing and Friday preparations, 'evening' and 'ear', and 'attic' and 'potatoes'. Further items cover latkes, foods for Shavuot and Hanukkah, Hanukkah games such as the dreidel, and household words. She also answers on kinship terms such as 'mekhutn', on rabbi/rebbe/rov terms and on 'almost' and 'exactly'. She says she hardly speaks Yiddish any more and describes seven years of Yiddish schooling. She speaks of severe poverty in her childhood home: her mother had eleven children and sold yeast at the market, with no pension even though three sons were in the army, and the house was cold in winter. She also says there is no rabbi or functioning synagogue in Zhmerynka now and that about 300 Jews live there.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Poberevskii answers Kerler's dialectological questions on a few words and phrases for a naive person, falling into a pit or cellar, and a woman's name. She then speaks warmly of her life today: a good flat, a pension, and help from the Jewish community in Vinnytsya, with holiday celebrations, food, medicine and doctors. She mentions her brothers, one in Israel and one deceased, and that she is the only one left of her family. The segment ends with the team in her garden, where she describes her exercise routine and morning and evening habits, partly in Russian.
14:21
From the machine transcript
Kerler interviews Goikhman, who gives his name and birth in Pervomaysk on 1 January 1927. He tells of the 1933 hunger, his father's move to Birobidzhan, Russian schooling, factory work and mobilisation to Blagoveshchensk, and his mother's death in 1947. He came to Zhmerynka in October 1947 to his father's brother. He then recalls Pervomaysk as a large town with many Jews, synagogues drawing visiting cantors, and Yiddish-speaking Jewish and non-Jewish friends. He also recalls Sabbath, his mother's gefilte fish with sugar and pepper, Hanukkah gifts, latkes and Purim foods, and the Zhmerynka shul on Sovetskaya Street, later a children's library.
11:14
From the machine transcript
Shpitz recalls kheyder, whose teacher was the local shoykhet and who also fed the children, and says he learned to read Yiddish. He describes his father, a poor religious cobbler, attending the cook-shul and prayer on Passover, Purim and other holidays. He tells of carrying gifts to the shul and Simchat Torah, and says he no longer remembers the morning prayers; he also talks about observance today.
31:12
From the machine transcript
Shpitz recalls the street where he lived as a child, a street inhabited only by Jews, among them several doctors, and says his father was a cobbler. Kerler adds a couple of questionnaire items, including the word for an honest person.
36:40
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Shpitz to describe the house where he grew up with his parents and eight children. He mentions that his older brothers went to kheyder and that he studied only two or three years and writes letters to America. He is asked how he says some phrases such as 'good people' and something written in the Torah. The passage closes as someone invites the team to eat.
14:13
From the machine transcript
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.
17:50
From the machine transcript
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.
21:24
From the machine transcript
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.
15:45
From the machine transcript
The team arranges a time to meet and speaks about copying, then Kerler opens the interview with Burshtein and asks his name and date of birth. Burshtein gives his Yiddish name Lozer or Leyzer and his father's name, Yoyel, and the Russian and Polish forms. He says he was born in 1929 in Govrove and lived there until the war began in 1939. He describes his childhood: kheyder, Polish school and a father who was a tailor.
19:43
From the machine transcript
Burshtein talks about his father's trade as a men's tailor and about Jewish life in Govrove, which was safe under Piłsudski and became worse after his death under Rydz-Śmigły. He recalls antisemitic boycotts, signs telling people not to buy from Jews, and a Polish baker's window caricature of a Jew in a prayer shawl.
27:19
From the machine transcript
Burshtein recalls that a Polish teacher pulled him by his sidelocks out of the classroom, and that the Jewish children were helpless. Kerler asks about the school, which was the Polish state school. He says the Poles were not friends, that leaflets called for killing Jews, and that Poles told Jewish parents they were spared only out of pity for the children. He mentions an uncle in Łomża and the family's life up to the outbreak of war in 1939.
29:23
From the machine transcript
Burshtein tells of the start of the war in 1939: Poles shooting from the roofs, the family's week of praying in the prayer house under bombing, and his father's decision to leave by night for an aunt's town about thirty kilometres away. He describes the flight past Polish cavalry, being taken in by Jewish families, then German roundups of Jews onto the square, when he was ten and escaped a soldier. His father and brothers were taken, his older brother was missing for days, and Germans threw bread to Polish prisoners while another photographed them. In the aunt's town a Jewish shoemaker negotiated with German officers for the family's safety.
21:49
From the machine transcript
Burshtein recalls the German attack on Babruysk in June 1941, with days in a cellar and bombing, and the family's flight over the Berezina and by train through Belarus toward the Tambov region. He describes the village Strel'tsy near Tambov and then the district of Yelan', where he worked as a shepherd and food was plentiful, and the recruitment of his brother Peysekh into the army. The family went on to the Urals, where winters were harsh and food scarce, and where his parents died. He was sent to a metallurgical training school and beaten by Russian classmates until a Jewish man helped him. The surviving relatives left with Zhytomyr Jews in 1944 and arrived in June, without a place to stay.
21:45
From the machine transcript
A long run of questionnaire items: flowers, potato and the Belarusian word for it, 'everyone', at/by the table, 'on the street' versus other forms, a rich man, a fence, the face and its descriptive words, 'back', 'suddenly' and others. Kerler and Katz also probe prepositions and phrases such as 'on the road', and the informant remarks on which words are not pure Yiddish. From about 38:16 the informant says that he was born in a small town near Warsaw and that he was evacuated to the Urals, working on a kolkhoz in the Yelansky district. His brother was killed at the front, and he came to Zhytomyr in June 1944.
6:34
From the machine transcript
Katz and Kerler interview Goluvinskaia, who is said to have turned a hundred, with a helper explaining a Hesed video. She was born in Zhytomyr. Her father worked at a factory and died when she was a child, leaving five children, and she names her mother and some siblings. She worked in a cinema before the war and was evacuated in 1941, the place being unclear. She recalls praying, going to cheder alone, Sabbath candles and holidays, which she mostly no longer remembers. She says her grandfather was a rebbe who held gatherings at his table, and she mentions a Russian school. She then answers Russian-prompted questionnaire items (breathe, ear, attic, sky colour, mouse, deaf, pigeon), with some of her answers uncertain.
36:07
From the machine transcript
Antsis recalls that her childhood was very hard. After finishing technical school she was sent to the Donbas to work for several years before the war. She returned to Zhytomyr, married, and the war began. Her husband was a lieutenant, and her child was six years old.
37:12
From the machine transcript
Antsis describes the war years. Her husband, a lieutenant, was killed in 1943, and her six-year-old child died of malaria in Uzbekistan. She stayed there with her mother, who did whatever work she could find, and Antsis herself worked on a kolkhoz. Kerler asks about the return after the war.
4:40
From the machine transcript
Antsis answers questions about her schooling: the Yiddish School No. 3 and the name of its director (unclear in the transcript). She studied for seven years, and then at a technical school in Zhytomyr. She recalls how her mother, after the move to Zhytomyr, sold cigarettes (papirosn) at a stall on Malovinska (?) street.
13:38
From the machine transcript
Antsis recalls the three synagogues of Lyubar, and a bathhouse with a mikveh. Her mother learned to pray from her own father, and Antsis recalls her reading aloud at Yom Kippur while the women wept around her. She remembers learning the Modeh ani prayer, her mother blessing the Sabbath candles, and being taken to kheyder for a few months at about three or four years old, led by a helper (a belfer). She also remembers her father working and Sabbath observance.
30:50
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
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.
2:04
From the machine transcript
A man asks Antsis whether she has relatives in Kyiv. She says she has none: her relatives are all in Israel or America. He explains he only knew a man in Kyiv with the same surname, and the interview is closed with thanks.
35:12
From the machine transcript
Geller says he left Pyatka in 1936 and that his father worked in the fields. He recalls the Yiddish heard in Vinnytsia region and Zhytomyr, then tells a folk tale about a matchmaker, three daughters and a suitor made to chop wood, which he performs in a rhyming refrain. He did not attend cheder. The Yiddish school became a Ukrainian one with the same director, Frenkl, and he learned a little from his older brother. He also mentions grandfathers killed in earlier violence (details unclear).
22:55
From the machine transcript
Introductions and conversation with Chane Gitl and Zhenia Koyfman. Koyfman was born in Chernyakhiv, a shtetl about 30 km from Zhytomyr; her father was from Zhytomyr and her parents were bookkeepers. She says her parents told of a large synagogue that later became a theater and cinema. She recalls holiday gatherings in homes, matzo baked secretly behind closed doors, a Yiddish school in Chernyakhiv, and her family, in which two of six siblings survived (?).
35:02
From the machine transcript
Interview with Tsipe Partnaya (née Kamenir), who has lived in Zhytomyr since 1962. She recalls her grandmother's religious household, a small synagogue and a shoykhet, and her grandfather the shoemaker, who sang songs. She also says her daughter knows Yiddish and that the area was called the 'Jewish district'.
39:09
From the machine transcript
Partnaya recalls the content of a song her grandfather used to sing. It is about a boy who has a non-Jewish wife, and her grandmother would not allow a marriage to a non-Jew. She does not sing it, and she is asked about its melody.
43:19
From the machine transcript
The woman from Zvil recalls a large family, her grandparents and her father baking matzo, and her grandmother Faige. She says she is two years younger than Chane Gitl. She mentions Yiddish singers and actors visiting Zvil, and recalls her grandmother's Yiddish songs and fragments of a wedding song.
2:44
From the machine transcript
Shraibman, born in 1930, was due to start school in 1937. There was a Yiddish school in the town, but it was closed, so he attended a state (Russian) school. His father, a gymnasium graduate, began to teach him, but the war ended his studies.
11:50
From the machine transcript
Shraibman describes the war: they fled in the summer, were taken to Tambov and then to Uzbekistan, where hunger killed six of twelve family members. One grandmother stayed behind and was killed by the Germans together with the remaining Jews. Kerler asks for the grandmothers' names (Beyle, Gitl).
14:22
From the machine transcript
Shraibman recalls his father, who was sent to collect wheat in the 1930s, received damp grain that spoiled, and was imprisoned for three years. After his release the father worked as a bookkeeper. His mother was a housewife and a sister died in infancy; he was an only child, and he describes growing up in the household of his two grandparents.
19:20
From the machine transcript
Shraibman is asked about songs. He mentions his grandfather, who played the violin and sang, and sings a tear song and a tailor's song. He also mentions Paul Robeson and a recording of Sholem Aleichem's Motl, and a second man joins in a lullaby. The talk then turns to antisemitism in the army.
23:14
From the machine transcript
Shraibman describes antisemitism in the army, with 1953 hard and the Doctors' Plot mentioned. He served at Yakutsk in the 1960s among many nationalities who lived on good terms in severe cold. He left the army in 1975 and settled in Zhytomyr with his mother's sister, and he explains that the relatives who had been planning to leave went to America and Israel.
37:21
From the machine transcript
Shraibman recalls two very pious Jews, Moshe Yosl and Zelik, killed by the Germans; at eleven this was a tragedy for him. He describes holidays in his childhood and the grandmothers' Sabbath. Kerler asks about holiday food: foods for Yom Kippur eve, the sukkah of Moshe Yosl, dairy foods and blintzes for Shavuot, latkes for Hanukkah and hamantashn for Purim. He mentions his grandfather, the tailor, who walked on foot to Chernyakhiv, 25 km away, and shows photographs of his family.
41:27
From the machine transcript
Burshtein tells anecdotes about his family in Poland. His father was waiting for a sister in the woods near a town, where he was followed by two silent figures. Another anecdote tells of a man in the woods in 1938 who predicted the war. His father and grandfather, both tailors, were fooled on the way to a fair by a sack of salt that proved to be a demon's trick. He mentions the religiosity of the family, where men slept in yarmulkes, and an incident in which his brothers entered a Polish sausage shop and the rabbi was told. He then begins to recall the start of the war, apparently in September 1939.
45:59
From the machine transcript
Burshtein recalls the start of the war and the bombing of his town. His family took refuge in the prayer-house, where the Torah scroll was opened and psalms said. After Polish soldiers announced the Germans' approach, the family fled by night with his father, mother, two sisters and two brothers. They ran into German motorcyclists and reached Ostrów Mazowiecka, where Jews were driven out of their homes and assembled and some were held for days. He describes hunger, bread thrown over the fence, shooting and a curfew, a German officer's cruel jokes, and the Germans' searches. His father and a brother were held, and the family searched for them. They crossed a bridge to the Russians' side, where the rabbi's wife told how Goworowo's synagogue was burned with people inside.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Burshtein recalls the family's flight in 1939. He saw his Polish teacher in the street while German troops marched past, so he could not reach her. He tells of a Bolshevik saved by Jews who dressed him in tallis and tefillin in the beit midrash, and then of the walk with his father through burnt villages and forest to the Russian side. The journey takes them via a town named Zembrów(?) to Białystok, where Jewish families host them for Sabbath, and then on to Babruysk and a kolkhoz commune where his father got work at a factory.
34:09
From the machine transcript
Groisburg speaks about her sister, who studied at a technical school, and about the family's move from Berdychiv to Zhytomyr, whose date she cannot recall.
41:30
From the machine transcript
Groisburg recalls the Passover seder, with her brother asking the four questions to their learned father, who knew five languages. She then remembers Hanukkah and sings a Hanukkah song from childhood twice, mentioning dreidels and doughnuts. Kerler and Katz also talk with S4 about Russian.
5:57
From the machine transcript
Geller names his maternal grandmother Etl and grandfather Mordechai, who was a ritual slaughterer. He tells of the Civil War attack on Pyatka around the eve of Rosh Hashanah, when the grandmother was shot, the family fled to Berdychiv, and the soldiers plundered the town. His father came from Khazhin near Berdychiv. The grandparents were from Pyatka.
10:59
From the machine transcript
Geller recalls prewar holidays, above all Passover. The family gathered at his grandfather's brother's home to bake matzo, and they cleaned the house beforehand. He describes the communal oven, his mother baking bread on Thursday for the Sabbath, and her blessing and burning of a piece of dough when she made challah. The passage ends as he begins on the 1928–29 kidnapping for the army.
30:37
From the machine transcript
Burshtein sings Yiddish songs he composed himself, about his childhood home, about the town of Goworowo and the war, about hope, and about his mother. Kerler asks him about songs, including a coachman's song, and when and how he composed them. He says he composed the last song years ago, remembers lyrics from 1939, and has not written all of them down. A woman at the Jewish Agency office in Zhytomyr has transcribed twenty-two songs.
4:59
From the machine transcript
Shpitz describes the poor Jewish life of a shoemaker with eight children. Lemster asks about Purim, Purim plays and masking, and Shpitz says little about them. He recalls Passover preparations with new dishes brought down from the attic. He says Jewish life passed quickly and thanks God for his years.
8:56
From the machine transcript
Shpitz says he left school to work in a felt-boot factory, whose director, Bukhshteyn, was Jewish. He had no chance to study because his father could not support it. He was drafted for the war in Poland in 1939. He recalls his mother coming with a letter, in a passage that is garbled and includes a Russian phrase.
24:45
From the machine transcript
Burshtein says he worked in a printing house in Zhytomyr after the war, after arriving in June 1944 from the Urals. He tells how the war began in Gorovo, with bombing and the family sheltering in the beis-medresh. They fled toward Ostrów Mazowiecka, where an aunt lived. There the Germans entered, rounded up the Jewish men, and drove his father and brothers away. Only one brother died, in Bobruisk, and the others survived.
46:10
From the machine transcript
Burshtein tells stories from before the war: a naked man in the woods who predicted the war, his father the tailor traveling to fairs, and a sack of salt on the road. He tells how his father was followed by silent figures, and a madman dug up his father's body before a holiday. He recalls fear of demons as a child and how he wore tzitzit to go out. He explains how people were buried in Poland.
9:10
From the machine transcript
Sandler begins speaking of the outbreak of the war. His father had his own horse and wagon and worked with his brother. People around them said the Germans would not harm ordinary working people, and the family hesitated over whether to leave. The passage is garbled, and Kerler urges him to tell it in Yiddish.
16:12
From the machine transcript
Sandler says that at home the family spoke Yiddish: parents, grandmother and grandfather, a shoemaker. He began speaking Russian at the Russian school. He describes evacuation to Uzbekistan, to a place near Bukhara, where cholera broke out and his father died. His mother returned with the family to Starokostyantyniv and died at about eighty. He lived there briefly after the war and then moved to Zhytomyr, where he had no one to speak Yiddish with.
0:00
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy tells how the Makarover rebbe, a guest in his grandfather's house, taught a stingy local man a lesson through a circumcision-related incident, after which the man became generous with charity. He also tells how his grandmother Gitl took his sickly father Yankl to the rebbe, who rubbed the boy's cheeks with his beard. The father lived to a great age and put on tallis and tefillin on weekdays.
11:49
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy gives the town's name as Chervonoarmiys'k since 1936 and describes the Czech and German colonies around it, where Jews traded. His grandfather, a tailor with four Singer machines, sewed for rich non-Jews. He begins to tell of an uncle who emigrated to Canada in the early 1920s (the year not fully clear).
16:01
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy describes the mass grave at the Jewish cemetery, with men on one side and women on the other, and says he visits to light a candle and recite a prayer. He recalls the killing of his grandfather by bandits, who cut off his beard and beat him. He mentions his brother who fell in the war and his parents, and that he himself did heavy construction work throughout the war.
33:32
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy recites the protective oath formula taught by his father Yankl, adjuring all creatures not to harm a named person, while Kerler asks him to repeat it for transcription. They discuss the wording and its Hebrew parts and the use of the mother's name. Kerler asks where he knows it from, and he says it came from his father and grandfather, a tailor.
12:21
From the machine transcript
Kerler thanks Nibulskiy and ends the interview. The two briefly discuss how words are pronounced and written in Yiddish and in the local speech, including a form heard in a nearby town. Nibulskiy mentions a relative who visited his grandfather and a grandchild living in a kibbutz in Israel. Kerler takes a portrait photograph.
13:09
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia describes the kolkhoz near Novozlatopil': two rows of eighteen houses, with her father working as a kabl (?) and her mother as a cook. Her younger sister attended a two-class school in the nearby settlement and studied at home, while she herself struggled with school. A Yiddish theater company used to visit them.
23:43
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia says she completed two courses before the war and the institute after it, and worked at a Russian school with an extremely heavy load, taking on extra duties as class leader and reading to children in a hospital. Her father worked in a cooperative and her mother stayed at home. Lemster then asks about the Yiddish library.
29:09
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia recalls the war years in the Chelyabinsk region, where she and the schoolchildren worked in the coal mines on their days off, enduring hunger and hard labor. Children had few books and wrote between the lines of old ones. Her father worked at a smithy and her mother did not work.
41:42
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia talks about Jewish life in Zhytomyr. Her father went to synagogue every day until his death in the 1950s (?), and baked his own matzo at home before it began to be baked at the synagogue. She says he was a strongly observant man while she and her siblings were nonbelievers.
16:08
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks what was done for Purim in Pyotke. The speaker and others mention baked goods, dreidels, masks, and the custom of drinking l'chaim and acting crazy on Purim. Talk then turns to the speaker's father and mother, though their fates are unclear.
26:58
From the machine transcript
The speaker describes serving in the cavalry at the front. He lost part of a finger in 1943, was wounded again in October 1944, and spent half a year in hospital before being discharged in May. He then went to join his grandfather, whom Kerler asks about; the name sounds like Usher Libelman (?). Other voices comment on the grandfather.
35:13
From the machine transcript
A second man joins; his grandparents came from Stanislav, he learned Yiddish from them, and he attended cheder in Belz. He talks about an American man of Pyotke origin (Averbukh (?)) whom he has visited, who travelled to Pyotke to see his family's house. The passage is partly garbled.
2:27
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy shows family photographs and identifies the people in them. They include his father, who lived to about ninety-seven, his mother, and two aunts. He also shows his wife Yide, a daughter, a son-in-law, and a granddaughter who is a magazine editor. Photographs of a restored monument are also discussed, and some of the talk is in Russian.
15:20
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy recalls going to his grandmother for Hanukkah money, carried through the mud on a youth's shoulders. He speaks of the three small synagogues, attended daily only by the rabbi and the old believers, and of carrying his grandfather's prayer shawl to the Sabbath service. His father wanted him to learn some Yiddish, but there was no cheder in the Soviet period, and he recalls the older cheder.
18:32
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy recalls songs of the cheder and a song his mother sang, about farewell to the sweet flowers and vanished years. Kerler asks where he knows it from and has him repeat the words. He then begins to speak of his grandfather's Sabbath hospitality.
19:47
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy describes his grandfather Avrom's Sabbath hospitality for poor visitors from nearby small towns: a large table, challah, a samovar, and kiddush with brandy. Stories about the Besht and the Veledniki and Makarov rebbes were told. He begins the story of a girl who lay ill and a father who rushed to the rebbe.
21:56
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy tells anecdotes about the Makarov rebbe and his family. A fire burned down the house after the rebbe's advice, but the sick daughter, his grandmother, recovered. His great-grandfather Shimonke was a trader, and the rebbe stayed at his grandfather's house. Other stories are about a lessee at Burakuvka troubled by a German neighbour, the rebbe's way of answering by burning a written note, and a non-Jewish woman who asked the rebbe for a child. He also recalls a pogrom threat at Sukkot and a tailor's mishap.
59:52
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy recalls that he was fifteen when the war began. His father worked in a hospital and could not leave. At his request, the military commissariat took Nibulskiy and his brother with a group of young people for evacuation. He went to Saratov and studied there.
17:51
From the machine transcript
Shraibman states that he finished school in 1949, entered an army college and became an officer in 1952, serving until 1975. He tells that in 1954 he was at a testing ground where an atomic bomb was tested on living people and he survived. Kerler presses for details of the test site. In 1975 he left the army and came to Zhytomyr, where a widowed aunt on his father's side lived.
24:08
From the machine transcript
Shraibman describes leaving the Communist Party in the 1980s by claiming to have lost his party card, and the pressure put on him. He says he was neither a real Communist nor an anti-Communist. He answers Kerler's questions about the campaign against cosmopolitanism and the Doctors' Plot in 1952 and about Jewish cadets. He recalls growing up in a Soviet family where his grandmother Gitl kept kosher and his grandfather was not deeply religious. He mentions his daughter in Haifa and a granddaughter in the Israeli army.
39:41
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks Shraibman about the military academy years, and Shraibman replies that the army was simply the army. He says there were other Jewish cadets. He is glad he knows Yiddish, unlike many older Jews, and recounts telling someone he learned it in the Russian army. He says Yiddish was spoken at home and in the family, and that relatives born after the war and living in America still know it.
2:08
From the machine transcript
Shraibman says his aunt, cousins, daughter and granddaughter live in Israel and that he once wanted to move there. He would only visit as a tourist. His granddaughter visits him every year, and he sends money through Shlomo. He also mentions cousins' children in America who are not religious and keep inviting him to visit.
4:30
From the machine transcript
Sandler sings the song about Itsik who got married. Kerler then asks which pronunciation of Yiddish sounds nicer to him, and whether he spoke Yiddish after the war, which he says he did less. Asked about his father, who died in Bukhara (?), Kerler turns to what the father worked at.
14:53
From the machine transcript
Sandler talks about food and home life. His mother was a capable housewife with eight children, and meat was affordable only once a week, for the Sabbath. He lists breakfast foods such as kasha, rice, tea and rolls. Kerler asks whether he spoke Yiddish after the war.
32:42
From the machine transcript
Margolis talks about his work and present circumstances: he once earned a living but now has no work, lives on a small disability pension, and has little to live on. Kerler asks about his grandfather, who attended synagogue, prayed and kept kosher.
47:22
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy sings a begging song about a poor man's hard life. He says it came from a blind old Jew who sat begging in Korosten, and he is asked to write the lyrics out. After a short exchange with Kerler about a word for abandoning one's family, Ida recites a poem about the coming of electricity. Nibulskiy adds a Russian verse about poles and wires, and recalls the first radio, the first silent films and the first power station in the shtetl. He also mentions a brother who was killed at the front.
59:22
From the machine transcript
Kerler asks about Yiddish poets and prose, including a work 'By the Dnieper' whose author is unclear in the transcript. Nibulskiy says he reads Yiddish periodicals every day at 83 and keeps tefillin. He recalls carrying his tailor grandfather's prayer shawl to the tailors' synagogue every Sabbath, and the few kopecks and sweets he earned. He remembers poverty, carrying Hanukkah gifts, and a childish prank in his grandfather's workshop that frightened the tailors. Kerler then asks which stories he still wants to tell.
1:07:13
From the machine transcript
Nibulskiy sings a Yiddish song about lost childhood years, home and family. Kerler asks whether the word for the chimney is the Pulen form, and Nibulskiy says he reconstructed the song from memory. He says it was sung by a man named Khanine Shlepak (?) from Pulen, who was evacuated to Kazakhstan and became a dentist. Kerler asks whether anyone in Korosten still speaks Yiddish. The talk turns to a relative in Israel who is writing a book about Korosten's Jews and was a military commandant after the war.
20:57
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia recalls going as a child to an uncle on Hanukkah to collect Hanukkah money. Kerler asks about the uncle's son, who speaks Yiddish at home but cannot write it, and then asks for a name.
31:30
From the machine transcript
Nibulskaia recalls the 1933 famine, when her blacksmith father had nothing to eat and the family moved to a kolkhoz near Novozlatopil (the kolkhoz's name is unclear in the transcript) with twenty-eight Jewish houses. The school there had only the lower grades, so she walked eight kilometers each way, stealing produce from the fields. In winter she lived in a cold dugout dormitory with plank beds, and she went on to a Russian school in Korosten after seventh grade. Her mother worked as a cook and kept a garden.
21:48
From the machine transcript
Mester describes preparations for Passover at home: washing the dishes, the large chest in the attic where Passover dishes were kept, her mother's daily baking, potato dishes and matzo-meal baking. She remembers the seder, which her father led until midnight reclining on cushions, and how she, as the youngest girl with no brother, asked the Four Questions. She also describes the charoset and recites the Four Questions in Yiddish, and then answers that no non-Jews spoke Yiddish in the village.