My mother’s older sister Esther (born in 1887) married a very nice and talented Jewish man – Jacob Ekhlis, in 1911.
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Displaying 50311 - 50340 of 50826 results
Tobiash Starozum
His son Shlome, born in 1917, was a composer. He managed to escape to the Soviet Union. I know that he reached Kovel and got together with my aunt Esther. We met with him in Moscow. He was a very cheerful and talented man. Shlome was in evacuation in Siberia during the war. He worked at a club and had very little food.
My grandparents were old people when Germans occupied Poland in 1939. They shared the fate of all Jews in their town. They perished, but I don’t know any details.
My grandmother spoke Yiddish, but with her Polish customers she spoke Polish.
My grandmother was selling things in the store and my grandfather watched the process sitting at a desk.
My grandparents were not rich, but very respectable people in the town.
My grandmother listened with respect to my grandfather saying a prayer. My grandmother also tended to customers on Saturday, because the law is not so strict to women and she could work, if necessary.
She was religious and observed everything our God required from us. On Friday evening she lit candles. Dinner for Saturday was cooked a day before.
I know that my grandmother didn’t have any education and couldn’t write, but she handled her customers well.
We had a very cozy and well-kept apartment.
Natalia worked as a nurse assistant in hospital. She was wounded but returned to her duties after she recovered. After the war she worked as an accountant at first and then she went to work in commerce. When it was impossible to buy anything in stores because they were empty, she could get goods that they received in their store to exchange them for different ones with her acquaintances working in other stores. We lived 30 years together. My wife was a very good housewife.
,
After WW2
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When we met she was the only survivor in her family – all others perished during Holocaust.
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During WW2
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I got married in Zhygulyovsk in 1955. Her name was Natalia Markevich, a Jewish woman from Ukraine. She was born in 1922. I was 40 and my wife was 33.
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After WW2
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I became logistics manager at that camp, too. Never I heard any curse words addressed to me. People didn’t even tease me for my accent. I have always been nice to people. I never refused to help them.
,
After WW2
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Benyum grew up and served in the army and then became a worker. He is married.
,
After WW2
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My sister still lives in this apartment. She lived with our parents. She and our father had some knitwear business.
Members of my family worked at a kibbutz in Israel. They didn’t get any payment for their work, but they got accommodation and meals at the kibbutz. They learned Hebrew there. My father did some farming and made clothes. My mother and sister worked at the canteen. When their situation improved they rented an apartment in Bat-Yam.
At the end of 1946 my parents and sister moved to Palestine.
But after they arrived, they didn’t feel welcome in Poland. Nobody wanted them there. There were no apartments available and no jobs and no future. There was anti-Semitism similar to German anti-Semitism. There were very few Jews left in Poland. It was a rough situation and they didn’t stay there long.
Poland
In summer 1945 there was a Decree issued allowing Polish citizens to go back to Poland. My family began to pack to go back to Poland. I couldn’t go with them. My job had sensitive restrictions, as our institution was within the structure of the Ministry of Foreign affairs. My colleagues respected me. We decided that my family would leave without me and then – come what may. I helped my family to obtain all necessary documents and pack. But what happened was that somebody stole their documents at the railway station. They were forced to get off the train on the border and go to Moscow. I had to put together another package of documentation for them and take it to Moscow. When employees of the Polish Embassy in Moscow got to know that my father was such a good tailor they wanted to convince him to take up a job at the Embassy. They even promised him an apartment in Moscow. My father refused. He looked forward to going back home in Lodz. They went home to Lodz.
9 May 1945 was a big holiday. People came out into streets hugging each other, crying for their lost ones, but feeling happy that the war was over.
He was a metalworker.
Shyfra got married in Samarkand in 1944. Her husband Laibl Rozenblum was a nice Jewish man from Poland.
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During WW2
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I was well respected and valued and in 1944 I got a job offer to take a positions at work camps for children. I accepted this offer and worked at such institution as logistics manager until 1975.
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During WW2
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In Samarkand I got a job as stage worker at the Opera Theater. I met a Jewish man at the Theater. His name was Isaac Sirota. He was a political officer at the trade school. He helped me to get a gob at the agricultural trade school. He recommended me to the director and this director gave me a probation task to make mattresses. I had this task completed in no time and got the position of logistics manager. I also received a room at this trade school.
, Uzbekistan
There was a synagogue in Samarkand, but their Jewish community was very different. They spoke Uzbek and made different shape of matzah. Jews from Poland and other regions also formed separate groups. But what was common was our attitude to holidays. I believe we are born with an urge to celebrate holidays according to all rules. My mother stayed at home and was a housewife. She didn’t know Russian or Uzbek, but she communicated all right. At home we spoke Yiddish.
In 1942 Maria got cancer. Her parents moved her to Moscow for medical treatment. Se died of cancer in 1944. She was buried at the Jewish corner of a cemetery in Moscow. I went to her grave when I was in Moscow.
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During WW2
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I helped him move, but then it turned out that they didn’t need me in Kazan. I didn’t have a right to reside in Kazan, but I was hoping that my family life would help me to acquire a legal status. However, I had to make some arrangements, because at that time anybody with problems with his documents could arise suspicion and be charged of espionage.
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During WW2
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I stayed in Moscow until my coat was stolen and I turned to militia. They checked my documents and I had to sign the paper that I would leave the city within 24 hours. I went to Vladimir.
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During WW2
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She had just finished the Library College.
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During WW2
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