Oral history interview with Beta Leibovna Pankina and Jon (Yuri) Isaakovich Kesel'brener

Oral history interview with Khaika Shaevna Sherb, Aleksei Il’ich Magdevich, and Viktor Trofimevich Kovalchuk

Oral History

Khaika Shaevna Sherb, born in 1921 in Tulchin, Ukraine, describes her parents, who were also from Tulchin; growing up the oldest of four children (she had two brothers and one sister); the one synagogue in Tulchin prior to the war and Jews practiced their customs and observed religious holidays; her memories of a woman who baked matzo; the good relations between Jews and non-Jews in the city; her father leaving for the war and never returning; Jews receiving orders to gather at Pechora camp; the death of many Jews from Tulchin at Pechora camp; being in Pechora camp until the liberation; her mother’s death in Pechora camp; the survival of her siblings in the Pechora camp; and how Ukrainians gave Jews food through the camp fence. Aleksei Il’ich Magdevich, born circa 1925 in a village located 10 kilometers from Tulchin, Ukraine (past station Zhuravlivka towards Kiev, Ukraine), describes moving to Tulchin at age 15-16 in 1936; working as a driver; how many Jews lived in Tulchin before the war, spoke Russian and Yiddish, and many worked as tradesmen; the good relations between Jews and non-Jews in the city; how Tulchin residents traveled to Kryzhopol, Ukraine for matzo flour; the one synagogue in Tulchin before the war and how after the war it was turned into a stocking factory; the Jewish school in Tulchin; the few old Jewish homes that still remain standing; the old Jewish cemetery, which is three kilometers away in Kapsonivka; and the numerous Jewish graves at Pechora. Viktor Trofimevich Kovalchuk, born near a distillery one mile from Shpikov, Ukraine, describes his father, who was sent to a labor camp in 1937 and never returned; his mother, who was fired from her job as a teacher and went to work milking cows at a kolkhoz; going to Tulchin in 1951; getting married to a Ukrainian woman and celebrating both Jewish and Ukrainian holidays; the numerous Jews who excelled in the trade business in Tulchin; the Jewish school in Tulchin; how religious Jews hung mezuzahs on door posts and observed Jewish holidays; the kosher butcher in the city; how Jews were not admitted by the authorities to study at the institute; the synagogue in the city before the war and how Jews were not able to reclaim it after the war; the old Jewish cemetery, which is on the hillock; how during the war all Jews from Shpikov were marched to Rugism (possibly Rohizna, Ukraine), where they spent half a year before being sent to Pechora; being in Pechora until 1944; and how the Ukrainian local police were extremely brutal at the Pechora camp.

Oral history interview with Galina Ivanovna, Klara Mikhailovna Kesel'brener, and Ester Abramovna Braverman

Oral History

Galina Ivanovna describes the shoemakers residing in the settlement called Kaptsonivka; the old Jewish cemetery not far north of Kaptsonivka; and the annihilation of Jews at Pechora. Klara Mikhailovna Kesselbrener, born in Bershadi (possibly Bershad’, Ukraine), discusses her mother, who was from Bershadi, and her father, who was from Golovalinsk; moving to Tulchin, Ukraine in 1974; the large Jewish population in Bershadi; the nearby village called Piliponovka, which was where the Russians lived; living in Tulchin for 30 years; working at a shoe factory for 26 years; the large number of Jews in Tulchin before the war; her grandmother, who did not eat pork and observed Shabbat; the old synagogue in Bershadi; her mother, who was married during the war by a rabbi in Bershadi; her memories of funerals in Bershadi; the good relations between Jews and non-Jews before the war; the exiling of the Jews to the village of Pechora at the beginning of the war; her mother-in-law Kira L’vovna Kesselbrener, who died in 1978 but used to tell her that Jews were herded toward Pechora and those who were old and could not walk fell down and were shot by the Germans; her mother-in-law losing a daughter in Pechora camp; her father-in law and mother-in-law returning to Tulchin after the war; the looting of Jewish homes in Tulchin during the war; the visits of Israeli Jews looking for old Torahs; and how in the fall the head of their community Rita Genikhovna conducts excursions to Pechora. Ester Abramovna Braverman, born in 1925 in Tulchin, Ukraine, describes her parents, who were also born in Tulchin; the many Jews living throughout Tulchin, in the village of Nestervarka, and in Kaptsonivka; being in the Pechora camp with her mother while her father fought in the war; returning from the Pechora camp after the war and having religious services conducted at her hut; baking matzo for Passover; how weddings were held at home with Jewish musicians and Jewish music; circumcisions, which were performed at home for those Jews who wanted them; and the funeral rites and burials.

Oral history interview with Galina Iosifovna Mogilevskaia

Oral History

Galina Iosifovna Mogilevskaia, born circa 1925 in Saratov, Russia, describes being five years old when her family moved to Vinnytsia, Ukraine; living in Dushanbe, Tajikistan when the war started; moving to Tulchin, Ukraine as an adult; her husband, who was a teacher for 38 years; her son and daughter, who both married Russians; living in Tulchin for 55 years; the Jewish tradesmen in Tulchin before the war; the Jewish ghetto in Tulchin during WWII; the forced labor imposed upon Jews and the deportation of Jews to camps like Pechora concentration camp; seeing a train at the train station with three wagons with Jews from Odessa and giving them food; bringing home one exhausted Jewish man, named Sania, who lived with them for the entire war; becoming aware of her Jewish nationality after the war; a priest during the first world war who saved many Jews from a pogrom in Tulchin; her collection of Jewish LP records; her grandfather, Moisei Davidovich, who was from Gayvoron, was very religious, worked as a kosher butcher, and his 12 children (nine of whom survived the Holocaust); her grandmother, who baked white bread challah for Shabbat and rye bread for week days; the arrest of her father; her mother, Anna Moiseyevna, who was born in 1908 and arrested in 1938; her grandmother, Elizaveta Samsonovna; her father’s family, who were from Vinnytsia; her parents, who were from the Gaysin district (her father was from the village named Vakhrovka); her husband, who was also from Gaysin district and fought in the war; details about her grandfather’s home; her father, who bought matzo in Kiev, Ukraine; the Jewish school, German school, and Polish school before the war; studying at a Ukrainian and a Russian school; life during Nikita Khushchev’s leadership; the role of the Jewish Committee (the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee) in the Soviet Union; a memorial at Pechora that was opened in the 1990s; her participation in the Jewish community; spending a month in Israel in 1995 and her thoughts on Israel; her husband’s death in 1988 and burial at a Russian cemetery; her career as a medical doctor; her son; a man named Bartik who organized the Jewish society in Tulchin and Rita Genikhovna (Genekhovna), who became the head of the Jewish society after Bartik left Tulchin; Sofia Iosifovna, who is a rabbi; and the Jewish cemetery in Tulchin.

Oral history interview with Frida Isaakovna Pecherskaia and Valentina Bentsionovna Popivker

Oral History

Frida Isaakovna Pecherskaia (born in 1927 in Bratslav) is joined by her daughter Sima (age 52-54 and has lived in Israel for nine years) and a neighbor Valentina Bentsionovna Popivker (born in 1933). Frida Isaakovna Pecherskaia describes being the eldest girl of five children; the war starting and her father being taken into the army; her brother volunteering for the army at age 17 (he worked in a tank and died during the war); being marched with her family from Bratslav on foot to Pechora camp; being the only survivor of all her siblings; meeting her husband in Bratslav in 1945; working at a beer factory; the sparse fair at her wedding; her parents, who were very poor; her mother dying at the age of 34 at Pechora camp; her father, who was a water carrier; carrying a stool for her grandfather to the synagogue on Friday-Saturday and waiting for him outside on the street; her mother never lighting the stove on Shabbat and how she made tsimmes and fish for Shabbat; her mother also making yuch (fish gravy) and lokshen (noodles); her grandmother praying with a siddur (prayerbook); beginning her studies at age seven in a Jewish school in Bratslav and the destruction of the Jewish school by fire six months later; transferring to a Ukrainian school; Passover, for which they bought an egg and baked matzo; having separate kosher dishes for Passover; Yom Kippur, for which they prepared gefilte fish, kugel, special compote, and tsimmes; her memories of her mother wearing a kerchief and lighting a candle holder holding two candles, while her father wore talles (tallit); participating in the fast on Yom Kippur beginning at age eight; the practice of “shlogen kapures” (transferring sins to a slaughtered chicken before Yom Kippur by moving it in a circle around one’s head); how a Ukrainian woman would heat up the food for them; Sukkot, which was a festive holiday during which they built a sukkah then danced and sang; children being given “Hannukah gelt” and candy; lighting candles on Shabbat and during Hanukkah; celebrating Purim and Shevuot; her mother baking umen-tashen (hamantash) for Purim and boimebilkes (sweet rolls); the kosher butcher Moishe-shoikhet, who also performed gemolet (circumcisions); how when someone died relatives sat shivah for seven days and ate on the floor; settling in Tulchin, Ukraine in 1945; Sima’s recollections of an episode when she baked a matzo cake and offered some to a Ukrainian woman who refused to eat it because “it was mixed with blood of children”; and Ms. Popivker’s memories of the traditions during Passover, child birth, and pregnancy.

Oral history interview with Frida Isaakovna Pecherskaia

Oral History

Frida Isaakovna Pecherskaia, born in 1927 in Bratslav, Ukraine, describes the practices during shiva, during which a woman mourner sat barefoot in black kerchief and cried (she also describes the shiva in Yiddish); how the deceased could not be left alone for the night; burying her husband in a tachrichim (Jewish burial shroud; the burning of the clothes of the deceased; being 13 years old when the war started; spending four years at the camp; being 17 when the war ended; her father returning from the front and the rest of her family perishing during the war (including her mother and four siblings); preparing Jewish dishes, including stuffed intestines and stuffed neck; her son Yuzik, who works as director of meat and dairy departments at the market, and her daughter Sima; how before the war everyone baked his or her own matzo and now it is delivered; the demographics of Tulchin before and after the war and the great loss to the Jewish community; Kaptsonivka, where the poor Jews lived; the large synagogue before the war; and how on Yom Kippur she and other Jews bring flowers and candles to Pechora camp, where many of her relatives are buried.

Oral history interview with Mariia Semenovna Bondarskaia and Anastasia Yakovlevna Grebenjuk

Oral History

Maria Semenovna Bondarskaia (born in 1913) is joined by her daughter Svetlana Vladimirovna Bondarskaia and her granddaughter Lana Vasil’evna. Maria Semenovna Bondarskaia describes being an Adventist in Tulchin; the demographics of Tulchin, including the large Jewish population; the rabbi who used to live in their house; how life was better in Tulchin when there were more Jews; and the Jewish customs and practices that she observed. Anastasia Yakovlevna Grebeniuk, born in 1926 in village Kapustiany, Ukraine, describes her family going to the market in Tulchin, Ukraine; the famine in 1933, during which they would visit Poland to barter with rushniks (embroidered cloth) and other goods for food; how during the famine there were people who stole children and ate them; the Jews and Ukrainians who used to live in Kapustiany and the absence of Jews now; her thoughts on Jews; and Jewish practices.

Oral history interview with Ransa Sergeevna Chernova

Oral History

Raisa Sergeevna Chernova, born in 1934 in Tulchin, Ukraine, describes living her entire life in Tulchin, except during the war when she was at Pechora concentration camp; her father Sergei Antipovich Chernov, who was Russian military serviceman and served in Tulchin in the 49th cavalry regiment; her mother Marian Pisakhovna Tsfasman, who worked as a supervisor at a sewing factory; her parents getting married in 1933 during the famine; her mother marrying her father to save her family from hunger; her mother’s siblings, who were also in Pechora camp; her cousin who was shot by police for taking people from the camp to the ghetto where life was easier; the police who were seen as worse than the Germans; some of the burial practices at that time; the death of her grandmother in the concentration camp in 1943; her mother celebrating Jewish holidays; her mother’s second marriage after the war to a Jewish man who had lost his wife and nine children at Pechora; the levels of Yiddish speaking in her family; the Jewish holidays they celebrate; her brother who was born after the war and was circumcised on the seventh day; how babies were named after deceased relatives after the war and the importance that at least the first letter of the name was the same; a rabbi in Tulchin who slaughtered kosher chickens; her family keeping kosher; how the whole center of town was Jewish until the rabbi died and Jews left the city; the bazaar that was in the center of the town, where all tradesmen were Jewish; her stepfather, who was a shoe repairman; the Jewish homes, which had verandahs and half-basements with an exit to the street where they practiced their trade; the immigration of many of the Jews to Israel; living before the war in Kaptsonivka, where the poor Jews lived; their house and furniture; weddings, which were celebrated under a chuppa and had a klezmer band with four musicians; how for the holidays her mother prepared a chicken, gefilte fish,“boyme beyklis” (butter buns), and homentashen; the songs her mother sang to her in Russian (“Papirosy”) and Yiddish, including “Sheyne meydele” (a pretty girl), “Varnochkis”, and “Papirone kinder”; the ways they celebrate the holidays now; various practices that were done during pregnancy and after childbirth; and going every year to Pechora and the cemetery on days of remembrance.

Oral history interview with Isaak Il'ich Man'kovetskii, Nina Viktorovna Man'kovetskaia, Nikolai Dmitrievich Smal', Efim Hershkovich Shvartsman, and Feiga Naumovna Shvartsman

Oral History

Isaak Il’ich Mankovetskii, born in 1933 in village of Merventsy in Podolsk region, describes having lived in Tulchin since 1958; being able to speak Yiddish; being a teacher by profession, and having taught English, German, and Latin; his father, who worked at a mill; being the only Jewish family in the village of Merventsy (four kilometers from Yaruga, where there are no Jews left); life before the war, including speaking Yiddish at home and Klezmer bands playing at Jewish weddings; his niece being matched in marriage by a paid matchmaker (“shotkhente” in Yiddish) in Soroki (Soroca, Moldova); and how his niece and her husband now live in Israel. Nina Viktorovna Mankovetskaia, born in 1930 in Gaisin (Haĭsyn), Ukraine, discusses having been a teacher in a technical school; the numerous Jews living in Gaisin; how several streets where Jews lived became a ghetto during the war; her family living in the center of town among Jews and Ukrainians; being a non-Jewish Ukrainian and how Jews and Ukrainians were on friendly terms; Jewish school in town; and her thoughts on how Jews make good fish, cutlets, and strudel. Nikolai Dmitrievich Smal’, born in 1946 in Tulchin, Ukraine, describe being a driver by profession; serving for three years in Vladivostok, Russia; his mother, who was born in Odessa, Ukraine and evacuated to the Ural region and worked the entire war years as a master in a Chelyabinsk tractor factory; his mother meeting his father in Chelyabinsk and moving to Tulchin, where she has lived ever since; how before the 1950s a large part of the Tulchin population was Jewish; Jews living mostly in the eastern part of the city and Central street being almost all Jewish; how Jews strolled and socialized on the streets together and many were in trade; his mother’s work in a store; the synagogue; knowing some Yiddish; how many Jews have left for Israel and now there are only about 200 Jewish families in Tulchin; how Jewish weddings always had violin music; the numerous mixed marriages; and the burial of mixed-marriage couples at a common cemetery. Mikhail Hershkovich Shvartsman, born in 1930 in Tulchin, describes his parents and grandparents who were also from Tulchin; working at a factory; speaking very little Yiddish; his father, who was a “Stelmach” (he made and repaired wheels and wheel vehicles) and had his own state workshop at a kolkhoz Mazolovka; his father’s death at the front during the war; his mother , who was a homemaker; his brother and sister; being in the Pechora camp; his mother being killed by the Germans in 1943; beginning to work at age 14; how before the war there were 15,000 Jews in Tulchin, about 10,000 died at Pechora camp, and now there are around 250 left and mostly from mixed marriages; the large synagogue on “shilgos” (synagogue street) before the war and the destruction of the synagogue after the war; the metal factory built in its place; another synagogue that was replaced by a technical school; people praying in groups at home in secret, as it was forbidden; an apartment at Lukhovitsy, where they gathered to pray; There was a minyan of old people; how young people did not pray; and most of the Jews leaving the city. Feiga Naumovna Shvartsman, born in 1938 in Tulchin (and married for fifty years to Mikhail Hershkovich Shvartsman), discusses how all her relatives are also from Tulchin; working at a powder coating metal factory; speaking very little Yiddish; her father returning from the war an invalid and dying young; her mother, who was a homemaker with four children; her older sister’s death at the Pechora camp; being in the Pechora camp and leaving when she was six years old; her two daughters, one of whom lives in Tulchin and the other in Israel; their three grandchildren and one great-grand daughter; Kaptsonivka district in Tulchin, which extended to the Jewish cemetery and was home to the poor; the central street, which was called Lenin street, and was considered more prestigious; people dressing up and strolling on its streets, mostly on Sundays; a park with a fountain; the matchmaker (“shothhente”), who would make a match (“knosemul”) for a fee; the bride and groom, who were seated side by side and a plate was broken usually by the fathers to mark the engagement; how after the engagement she went to work at a candy factory; breaking the engagement later on; and how there were people who cooked and made biscuits (“lekah”) for weddings.

Oral history interview with Anna Mikheevna Pristaichuk and Stepan Grigor'evich Vovchok

Oral History

Stepan Grigor’evich Vovchok (born in 1918) describes moving to Tulchin, Ukraine after the war; the numerous Jews in Tulchin after the war and how they gradually died or left; the Jews’ prayer house in Tulchin that no longer exists; and his belief that the Jews were killed by the Germans because they did not recognize Christ. Anna Mikheevna Pristaichuk (born in 1920) describes her thoughts on Jews; the killing of Jews in Pechora camp during the war; the police in Tulchin also torturing and killing Jews; those who helped Jews; her knowledge of one person in Tulchin who hid a Jew throughout the whole war and how this Jew refused to help the person who saved him during the war; and more of her thoughts on Jews as well as the death of Christ.

Oral history interview with Ester Abramovna Braverman and Frida Isaakovna Pecherskaia

Oral History

Ester Abramovna Braverman, born in 1921 in Tulchin, Ukraine, describes spending her entire life in Tulchin; her parents, who were also from Tulchin; her entire family being sent to Pechora camp during the war; living at the camp for three and a half years; surviving along with her sister, while all of her other family members perished; working at a sewing factory; her father, who was a glassmaker; having a civil marriage ceremony without a huppah; being illiterate and completing two grades at school; growing up in a poor family that had no money to celebrate Jewish holidays; how 10-15 Jews would come to her house occasionally on Saturdays to pray (they had prayer books and wore tallit and kippahs); having a mezuzah on the door; the performing of circumcisions by a shoykhet (kosher slaughterer), who would suck the blood; being old and sick now; and receiving a pension from Germany that is spent on medications. Frida Isaakovna Pecherskaia, born in 1927 in Bratslav, Ukraine, describes her parents, who were also from Bratslav and very poor; being one of five children; studying at age seven for half a year at a Jewish school in Bratslav before the school was burned down and not rebuilt; attending a Ukrainian school; her parents’ wedding ceremony which included a huppah at the cemetery to prevent illness; her grandfather, who was also very poor and worked as a water carrier; the one synagogue; carrying a stool for her grandfather to sit at the synagogue; baking bread for Shabbat and also making tsimmes and fish; baking their own matzo; her grandfather, who would make a Seder; eating kosher chicken; how for Yom Kippur they made fish and tsimmes; celebrating Sukkot; children being given money, candy, or cookies on Hanukkah; lighting candles on Shabbat; her father, who was taken into the army when the war started; her 17-year-old brother volunteering and dying as a tank crewman; being taken with her family on foot to Pechora camp; her mother being killed at Pechora at age 34; getting married in civil ceremony and settling in Tulchin in 1945; working at a beer brewery; and her husband returning from the war an invalid.

Oral history interview with Aleksandra Fominichna Fareniuk

Oral History

Aleksandra Fominichna Fareniuk, born in 1925, discusses living in Tulchin, Ukraine for approximately 50 years; identifying as Ukrainian; her profession as a nurse; being nearly blind; how life was much better when there were Jews in Tulchin; helping a Jewish woman by taking her place at work on Yom Kippur; her memories of Jews baking matzah; and how Jews did not work on Saturday.

Oral history interview with Galina

Oral History

Galina, born in 1948, describes living in the area of Tulchin, Ukraine where many of the Jews lived before the war; identifying as Ukrainian; how many of her neighbors were Jewish; her memories of Jews working as tailors, shoemakers, and hat makers; the very few Jews who are left in Tulchin because they died or left after the war; the numerous Jews who perished at Pechora camp; Kapsonivka neighborhood, which is where the Jewish cemetery is located; her comparison of Tulchin to little Odessa; how sweets were given out after a Jewish wedding, including cream pastries and cherry strudel; working at a shoe factory as a cutter; her work trading goods at the market; and how now even educated young people are forced to trade goods at the market.

Oral history interview with Faina Vladimirovna Oleinikova

Oral History

Faina Vladimirovna Oleinikova (Feiga Vol’kovna in Yiddish) born in 1919 (birth name Dvorkis), describes her deceased husband, who was Russian; meeting her husband in the army and being married for 50 years; working as a doctor’s assistant and nurse; growing up in a small old house in Tulchin, Ukraine; her very religious family; speaking Yiddish at home; going to the synagogue with her father; her parents’ religious practices; their celebrations of Passover, Roshashona, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Purim, and Hanukkah; being very poor; her mother, who worked as a seamstress and sang Yiddish songs when she was sewing; her brother, who attended “cheder” (Jewish religious school) and could write in Yiddish; the neighborhood in Tulchin called Kaptsonivka where poor Jews lived; being in a labor camp with her mother during the war and singing Yiddish songs at the camp; the famine in 1933; attending a Ukrainian school for seven grades and then a medical technical school for three years before the war started; the two synagogues in Tulchin before the war; her father, who was from a village called Mikhailovka; being at five death camps during the war, including one in Romania and four in the Vinnytsia region of Ukraine; the killing of her mother and her relatives from Bratslav at one of the camps; joining the army; the birth of her son in 1949; and her hope to be buried as a Jew.

Oral history interview with Rita Genekhovna Shveibish and Isaak Peisakhovich Shveibish

Oral History

Rita Genekhovna Shveibish (born in 1936 in Tulchin, Ukraine) and Isaak Peisakhovich Shveibish (born in 1931 in Gorishkovka, Tomashpolsky district, Ukraine) describe their childhoods; Mr. Shveibish's experiences in Gorishkovka (also spelled Horyshkivka), which was a small Romanian Jewish village with 181 families and how now no one is left; the synagogue and Jewish school in Gorishkovka; the cemetery in Tomashpol, where visits the graves of his parents; the ghetto in Gorishkovka during the war and how the Jews were not taken to concentration camps; his father, who was a purveyor, and his mother, who worked at a kolkhoz (collective farm); his work at a shoe factory; moving to Tulchin in 1956; Mrs. Rita Shveibish's work as a nurse and her diploma in midwifery; their visits to the cemetery and how clothing was torn or cut at funerals; the 10 synagogues in Tulchin before the war; being married to each other for 37 years; the large population of Jews in Tulchin before the war; Mrs. Shveibish's Jewish name, which is Reyze; Jewish wedding traditions; Jewish traditions performed after the death of a family member; the importance of not refusing the wishes of a pregnant woman; the two midwives in Tulchin; people with an evil eye and practices used to prevent babies form being affected by the evil eye; how in Gorishkovka the houses were placed very close together and in the center of town there was a market square; the one small store in Gorishkovka as well as some shoemakers and tailors; how Jewish houses were different from Ukrainian houses; baking bread, made of wheat and rye, on Thursdays; the challah, which was made from wheat; the various foods that were prepared for Jewish holidays; and his father's participation in Jewish theater.

Oral history interview with Fira Izrailevna Bekman

Oral History

Fira Izrailevna Bekman (Melamud), born in 1926, describes moving from Kharkiv to Tulchin, Ukraine when she was young; living in Odessa as a little girl; attending the first grade at a Jewish school in Kharkiv, and then attending a Ukrainian school when she moved to Tulchin; living in Uzbekistan during the war and learning to speak Yiddish; her father's death at the front; the deaths of many Jews who fought in the war; how her family celebrated Passover before the war, including the kosher dishes they prepared; her father, who was the editor of the local Ukrainian newspaper; her work for 42 years as a medic in local hospital; how Jews were not allowed to perform circumcision before the war, but an old Jew performed circumcisions in the synagogue in secret; how Jews buried their dead very quickly; how there was no synagogue in Tulchin after the war; traditions during Hanukkah; the poor neighborhood in Tulchin called Kapsonivka; Jewish life in Tulchin before the war, including the women who worked as matchmakers, the Jewish theater and klezmer music, and Jewish journals; how she cries when she hears Jewish music; the village called Gorishkovka (also spelled Horyshkivka), where many Jews lived before the war; and how many Jews were tradespeople.

Oral history interview with Boris Timofeevich Knizhnik and Valentina Prokof'evna Knizhnik

Oral History

Boris Timofeevich Knizhnik (born in 1936), Valentina Prokof'evna Knizhnik, and Liudmila Fedorovna Sennik (born in 1953 in Tulchin, Ukraine), describe the Jewish cemetery in Tulchin; Mr. Knizhnik's experiences as a non-Jew growing up among Jews and learning some Yiddish (he says a few words in Yiddish and sings a song in Yiddish); how the Jewish deceased were buried on the same day before sunset, wrapped in a blanket; how poor Jews were hired to say prayers at the cemetery; Baba Ania, who oversaw the cemetery; how it is said that in the corner of cemetery are buried many Jews who were shot during the war; the many Jews in Tulchin before the war and the few Jews who are left in Tulchin; how the Jews lived in houses, had goats and horses, were blacksmiths, bakers, carters, tailors, and barbers; the celebration of Jewish holidays, including Passover, Yom Kippur, and the New Year; their memories of the Jews always having chicken for dinner, no matter how hard the times; the synagogue in Tulchin that was bombed during the war; the numerous Jews who were taken to Pechora camp; and how some Jews were able to buy their way out of the camp from the Romanians with gold.

Oral history interview with Iona Isaakievich Kesel'brener and Klara Mikhailovna Kesel'brener

Oral History

Iona Isakievich Kesel’brener (born in 1947 in Tulchin, Ukraine) and Klara Mikhailovna Kesel’brener (born in 1957 in Tulchin, Ukraine) describe Jewish traditions surrounding the births of boys, after which cakes were baked and given to children; the celebration of Hanukkah in December and how money was given to children and latkes were made from buckwheat flour; the lighting of candles on Saturday; the importance of having faith in God; her parents who were religious and spoke both Russian and Yiddish; and the cooking done for Purim, for which they baked cakes with poppy seeds.

Oral history interview with Glina Prokof'evna Solov'eva

Oral History

Galina Prokof’evna Solov’eva, born in 1937 in Tulchin, Ukraine, describes her Russian father and Ukrainian mother, who both understood Yiddish; the good relations between the Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews in Tulchin before the war; how many Jews were teachers; many Jews leaving for Israel; Jewish traditions, including the baking of matzo for Passover; being offered some of the matzo; Jews burying their dead quickly and wrapped in a blanket; and some Ukrainians helping the Jews during the war by hiding them in cellars and feeding them.

Oral history interview with Tetya Dusya, Iona Isaakievich Kesel'brener, and Klara Mikhailovna Kesel'brener

Oral History

Tetya (aunt) Dusya, born in 1919 in the village Krasnyi Soldat, located in the Stavropol region, describes having lived in Tulchin, Ukraine for sixty years; identifying as Russian; her late husband, who was Ukrainian; working at one time in a butter factory and then at a metal factory; her belief that Jews were more cunning than Russians or Ukrainians; how she was not interested in Jewish customs; her belief that some Jews are good people and each nationality has good and bad people; the very few Jews who are left in Tulchin as many left for Israel; and her belief that some Jews are good doctors. Iona Isakievich Kesel’brener (born in 1947 in Tulchin, Ukraine) and Klara Mikhailovna Kesel’brener (born in 1957 in Tulchin, Ukraine) describe being unable to immigrate to Israel because of their sick parents; their numerous relatives in Israel; the good relations between the Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews in Tulchin before the war; non-Jews helping Jews during the war; Klara’s grandmother who baked her own matzo, using flour and water, and kugel; Jews working as glassmakers, tinmen, hatmakers, tailors, doctors, and lawyers; how it is said that Jews made the atomic bomb; Jewish burial traditions, including the importance of burying the body right after death; Jews bringing small rocks to the cemetery; how many Jews lived in the Kaptsonivka district of Tulchin; Jews having special butchers who also performed circumcisions; Iona’s grandmother attending synagogue on Yom Kippur before the war; the two synagogues in Tulchin before the war; and his mother and grandmother being in Pechora camp during the war.

Oral history interview with Aleksandra Mukhailovna Tarasenko and Taisa

Oral History

Aleksandra Mikhailovna Tarasenko (born in 1935), Taisa (born in 1935), and Larisa, describe their knowing each other because they live in the same building and their military husbands brought them to Tulchin in 1975; Mrs. Tarasenko’s experiences working at a construction office; Taisa’s assertion that Jews and Ukrainians got on well together and were on friendly terms; Jews making thin matzo from flour and water; believing that many wealthy Jews left for Israel and asked the locals in Tulchin to look after their cemeteries; the Jews who immigrated to Germany; Larisa’s former boss, who was Jewish and worked on Saturdays as did everyone else; Larisa being on friendly terms with all Jews whom she knew before the war; their assertions that Jews were in prominent positions before the war as doctors, dentists, and teachers; how Jews were helpful and gave loans to others; and the negative changes in Tulchin since many of the Jews are gone.

Oral history interview with Arkadii Gershkovich Krupnik

Oral History

Arkadii Gershkovich Krupnik, born in 1933 in Yampol (Yampil), Ukraine, describes living in a Jewish village called Zubovka (12 kilometers from Yampol); leaving Yampol for Tulchin, Ukraine in 1956; the Jewish school in Yampol, where he completed the first grade; his father, who was a tinsmith and was elected head of the Jewish artel (a cooperative of craftsmen); his mother, who was a seamstress; the immigration of all of his mother’s family to Argentina in 1918; his sister Zhenia, who was three years younger than him; his family communicating only in Yiddish; observing Jewish holidays in secret; the two kosher butchers in the town; the performance of circumcisions; his memories of dreidels at Hanukkah made from clay or wood; the traditions for Jewish funerals, including the placing of stones on the eyes of the deceased and the covering of mirrors after the funeral; the synagogue in Yampol that everyone attended; traditions on Yom Kippur, including the shofar; people ceasing to attend synagogue because of persecution; people speaking Russian instead of Yiddish after the war; moving to Tulchin in 1956 and working as the head of a factory metal department; the secret fund to assist Jews in need during Soviet rule; many Jews working in management positions during the Soviet rule; how they used to make their own matzo and now it is shipped from Dnepropetrovsk; traveling to Riga, Latvia to buy matzo; a Jewish grandmother from Romania who used to tell tales; Yiddish songs (one of which he sings during the interview); traditions for Jewish weddings; two traditional sweet dishes (“flund” and “leikeh”) served at weddings (he gives the recipe); and Rabbi Nachman, who is buried in Uman and his student Rabbi Natan Nosan, who is buried in Tulchin.

Oral history interview with Nisson Ovshievich Iurkovskii

Oral History

Nisson Ovshievich Iurkovskii (also spelled Iurkovetskii), born in 1917 or 1919 in Tulchin, Ukraine, describes living his entire life in Tulchin; the existence of Jewish schools early on during Soviet rule; the good relations at one time between the Jews and Russians; the kosher butcher named Moishe Shekhet, who later moved to Vinnitsa, Ukraine; celebrating Jewish holidays; the different foods made for Passover; Jews not working on Saturdays; going mikvah; the mezuzas on doorways; Jews sitting shivah for seven days after funerals and covering mirrors with a white cloth; families strolling on the street in the evening from 7 to 11pm; the naming of children after deceased relatives; two of his sons who both live in the United States; his grandfather, who was a tailor, and his father, who was a barber; the killing of his father, mother, and aunt in a pogrom conducted by the Liakhovich gang; being wounded during the pogrom; being taken in for about five years by a Polish clergyman named Paskevich; his two older brothers (also barbers) and grandmother surviving the pogrom; being taken to a Tulchin orphanage age six; living with his grandmother later on; being educated at a Ukrainian school; working as a bus driver for 20 years and as a taxi driver for 15 years; speaking Yiddish with other Jews; the number of Jews who once lived in Tulchin and the poor Jews who lived in Kapsonivka district; a place called “birzha” where people exchanged currency; the 10 synagogues in Tulchin and the oldest synagogue; one of the synagogues being torn down when the military needed bricks; his estimate that there are 200 Jews left in Tulchin; a Jewish doctor’s assistant named Pinia Staroselskii; two doctors who assisted in the removal of Jews to Pechora camp (Dr. Morzhetskii and Dr. Beletskii); Stoyanov, who became chief of police when the Romanians occupied the area; a monument in Tulchin to those who perished in the war; being sent to Pechora camp; working at the Shpola camp loading rocks and escaping; being in Bershad, Ukraine later and returning to Tulchin after the war; being mobilized into the army in 1939; crossing into Poland with his army unit; the synagogue in Peremichi, Ukraine; seeing Germans force around 50 Jews into the town church, set it on fire, and burn it to the ground; seeing combat in Finland; attending the Odessa military school in 1941; and being all over Europe during the war, including Berlin, Prague, Dresden, Warsaw, Sofia, Bucharest, and Vienna.

Oral history interview with Sof'ia, Grigorii Sviridov, Svetlana Chern'ish, and Shimon Solomonovich Lysenkov

Oral History

Sof’ia (born in 1928 in Tulchin, Ukraine) describes life before the war; her memories of the Jewish school that existed before the war and how it only had a few grades; her memories of the Romanians treating the Jews better than the Germans did during the war; the arrests of the underground resistors in 1943; her belief that the Jews lived better than Ukrainians like herself before the war; the good relations between Jews and Ukrainians before the war; many of the Jews leaving after the war; a well-respected Jewish school director named Mikhail Efimovich Mogilevskii; some Ukrainians helping Jews while others betrayed the Jews during the war; and the Pechora camp and ghetto. Grigorii Sviridov (born in 1950) describes how Jews used to live in the Ukrainian towns of Shargorod, Tomashpol’, and Bershad; Jews being treated better by the Romanians than the Germans during the war; how forty-five percent of the population in Tulchin was Jewish before the war; the numerous interfaith marriages after the war; the Jewish cemetery on the hill; and the occupations of the Jews before the war. Svetlana Chernysh (born in 1945 in Birobidzhan, Russia) describes moving to Tulchin after the war; her Jewish mother and Russian father; her Ukrainian husband; understanding a little Yiddish; the numerous Jews who once lived in Tulchin; some of her family leaving for Israel; and her intentions to remain in Tulchin. Shimon Solomonovich Lysenkov (born in 1936 in Zhmerinka) describes how he does not consider himself well-educated; suffering from mental distress during and since the war; living in Bukhara, Uzbekistan during the war; his mother Raisa, who worked at a military factory making clothing for the front; the deaths of his father and sister in Bukhara; arriving in Tulchin in 1948 at the age of 12; being Jewish; his Ukrainian wife who used to be a librarian; his brother who lives in Tel Aviv, Israel; and hearing from his brother that Russian Jews are disliked and mistreated in Israel.

Oral history interview with Abram Moiseevich Nikolaevskii

Oral History

Abram Moiseevich Nikolaevskii, born in 1932, describes his career as a photographer; his feelings about the terms used to describe Jews; his grandfather, who was a teacher of Jewish students; the many Hebrew books in his family; his father, who could read and write in Yiddish; never learning the Hebrew alphabet; understanding and speaking some Yiddish; the naming of Jewish children after deceased relatives; naming his daughter Nisa after his deceased sister; his parents who said that Jews were buried in white sheets, and those who were especially religious were buried in a sitting position without a casket; how burials were conducted quickly, often the day after death; other funeral rites including covering mirrors with a cloth and the family sitting in a room for a week; his sister’s Jewish wedding, which included a chuppah, a klezmer band, and a musician by name of Mashevskii who played the violin; baking matzo in secret for Passover; the main baker named Makar; the traditions during Hanukkah; attending a Ukrainian school even though there was also a Jewish school; his family’s homemade cherry wine; the Kaptsonivka neighborhood near the Jewish cemetery, which had a large and poor Jewish population; how during the war there were cases of Ukrainians saving Jews, including his friend’s family who escaped from Pechora camp and were hidden by Ukrainians (the friend later visited from Israel to see the Ukrainians who saved his family and provide testimony so that the woman who saved him was declared righteous); his father, who was sent to the front during the war while the family was evacuated; life under the Soviet system and Jews changing their names to Russian names; and his daughter and her husband who live in Israel.

Oral history interview with Polina Anatol'evna Driuchata, Leonid Mioseevich Neiman, Valentina Vasil'evna, Sasha, and Martin

Oral History

Polina Antonovna Driuchata, born in 1922, describes moving to Tulchin in 1954; her husband, who served in Hungary for four years; returning to Tulchin with their two children in 1960, at which time there were still many Jews in Tulchin; and how many Jews left to live in Germany. Leonid Moiseevich Neiman, born in 1931, describes moving to Tulchin in 1961; being a widower; living at one time in the village Gorodkovka (Horodkivka) in the Kryzhopol’sky region, where many Jews lived; Jews working as shoemakers, tailors, and tinmen; how after the war there was an artel (corporative association) called “Chervona Zirka”; his father, who was a tradesman; the two synagogues in Gorodkovka, which were later destroyed by the communists; a woman who baked matzo in Gorodkovka; attending a Ukrainian school; speaking Yiddish, but not knowing Hebrew; Jewish wedding traditions; circumcisions; Jewish burial traditions; Jewish holidays; the baker named Makar; a woman named Esther was a shadhan (matchmaker); Isaak the barber, who was with Mr. Neiman in a labor camp; living in Odessa and attending a synagogue on holidays, even under Soviet rule; not being particularly religious, but attending synagogue for the drinks and food; how only very poor Jews lived in Kaptsonivka neighborhood in Tulchin; being at P'iatykhatka camp when he was 11 years old; escaping from the camp and living in the Gorodovka ghetto; his memories of the Ukrainian police; and his two sons. Valentina Vasili’evna, born in 1941 in Yalta, Ukraine, describes having lived in Tulchin since 1959; being Ukrainian; not knowing anything about Jewish holidays; and her belief that all the Jews have left because of radiation. Sasha (approximately age 10) describes his grandfather, who was Jewish and in a labor camp when the Germans knocked out his teeth; and his general thoughts about Jews.

Oral history interview with Sof'ia Iosifovna Gol'fel'

Oral History

Sof’ia (Sura) Iosifovna Gol’fel’, born in 1936, describes how in her current life she accompanies her friend Rita to Pechora camp to conduct tours for tourists from other countries; how Rita at age five lost her parents at Pechora camp; growing up in Balka, Ukraine in a large family house with her grandfather and all his children; her grandfather, who was a woodworker; being the youngest of the grandchildren; her grandmother, who cooked for the whole family; how they heated the house with wood shavings; her maternal grandfather, who was a tailor; how during the occupation the Romanians looted their house of all its contents and nothing was left after the war; being evacuated with her pregnant mother in 1940; the death of her baby brother later in Kazakhstan; her father’s death while fighting in Sevastopol; returning to Bender, Moldova in 1944 and living there until 1958; her mother’s work after the war at a canning factory; completing 10 grade levels in Bendery as well as medical school; getting married; and moving to Tulchin in 1958.

Oral history interview with Pinia Osipovich and Sof'ia Iosifovna Gol'fel'

Oral History

Pinia Osipovich, born in 1932, discusses the demographics in Tulchin, Ukraine; his parents, who were very religious and celebrated Passover and other holidays; living in his mother’s two-story stone house which also served as a synagogue where men prayed on the first floor, women on the second floor; speaking Yiddish at home; events under the occupation of the Germans; the poor people who lived in Kaptsonivka neighborhood near the Jewish cemetery; his son who lives in Sverdlovsk and understands Yiddish but cannot speak it; his grandson Edik who does not know any Yiddish; and his work at a shoe factory for 49 years. Sof’ia Iosifovna Gol’fel’, born in 1936, discusses the lack of Jews in Tulchin, Ukraine; the matchmaker Esther; the Klezmer musicians who used to play a wedding march at weddings; traditions during Jewish weddings; traditions at Jewish funerals; her mother’s second husband who was a Jewish mailman; and the occupations of the Jews who used to live in Tulchin.

Oral history interview with Efim Menashevich Karetnik

Oral History

Efim Menashevich Karetnik, born in 1939 in Tulchin, Ukraine, discusses his family’s migration from Siberia, where Jews were exiled under the tsar; the deaths of many children in 1933; traditions at Jewish funerals; the role of the rabbi in Tulchin; how Jews used to bake their own matzo for Passover; celebrating Rosh ha-Shanah; Jewish traditions during and after childbirth; Jewish superstitions; speaking Yiddish; his mother who was from a poor family with many children; his father who had 14 brothers; Kosher butchers; the Jewish matchmaker in Tulchin; living for a time in an old house in Tulchin with five Jewish families; the layout of Jewish homes; his mother and younger brother hiding in the attic from attackers; other places Jews hid from persecution; hearing from his mother about a priest named Berdichansky who defended the Jews from attackers; some Tulchin Jews converting to Christianity; his Ukrainian wife who celebrates all Jewish holidays with him; the Jewish society in Tulchin; and his son, speaks and writes Hebrew and is a jurist in Israel.

Oral history interview with Liliia Isaakovna Presler and Mikhail Srul'evich Presler

Oral History

Lilia Isaakovna Presler (born in 1950 in Shpikov, Ukraine) and Mikhail Srulevich Presler (born in 1953 in Tulchin, Ukraine) discuss their son, who participated at a Purim play at a Jewish children’s camp in Poland; attending Shabbat with the old people in Tulchin; speaking Yiddish; Lilia learning to speak Yiddish from her grandmother; her mother and grandmother baking matzo; the synagogues in Tulchin; the lack of Jewish schools in Tulchin; the heroes of Ukraine; their feelings on Jewish identity; and their son’s Jewish friends.

Oral history interview with Anna Timofeevna Belen'kaia

Oral History

Anna Timofeevna Belenkaia, born in 1926 in Orlovka, Vinnyts’ka Oblast’, Ukraine, discusses living in Tulchin for 35 years; her work as a biology teacher; the two Jews in her second-grade class; the occupations of Jews and Christians when she was growing up; her father’s cousin who married a Jewish woman who had converted to Christianity; and the Jews having their own prayer house.

Oral history interview with Pesia Shaeva Kisel'man and Mikhail Mikhailovich

Oral History

Pesia Shaevna Kiselman and Mikhail Mikhailovich discuss the numerous Jews in Tulchin, Ukraine before the war; Jewish children studying both Yiddish and Ukrainian; the large two-floor Jewish synagogue; Jewish traditions during Yom Kippur, Passover seder, Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, and Hanukkah; Jewish traditions during weddings; the Kosher butchers; Jews naming their children after deceased close relatives; and some customs against the evil eye.

Oral history interview with Sania Shaevich and Pesia Shaeva Kisel'man

Oral History

Sania Shaevich and Pesia Shaevna Keselman discusses the numerous Jews in Tulchin, Ukraine before the war; the Jewish cemetery; how streets had Jewish names; the two-floor Jewish synagogue; the Kosher butcher; Jewish traditions for circumcisions; Jewish holidays, for which her father would buy her a new dress as a child; the foods made for Passover; the Ukrainians who lived on their street and were able to speak Yiddish and prepare Jewish food; supernatural events recounted by their parents; and having a mezuzah in their house.

Oral history interview with Viktor Andreevich Sviatek and Nikolai Naumovich Tiraspol'skaia

Oral History

Viktor Andreevich Svetelik (or Sviatelik), born in 1947 in Tulchin, Ukraine, discusses his Russian mother and Ukrainian father; writing five books on the history of Tulchin; Kaptsonovka (Kaptsonivka) district in Tulchin where the poor Jews lived; the area in Tulchin where the very rich Jews lived; the numerous underground tunnels in Tulchin; his childhood when he lived near Jews in the market district in Tulchin and heard a lot of Yiddish spoken by Jews; Jews baking their own matzo for Passover; Jewish burial practices; many Jews working at a shoe factory or as tailors, seamstresses, barbers, and butchers; taking lessons in Yiddish and having many books in Yiddish; the Jewish kolkhoz (collective farm) in the area in the 1930s; the Jewish population before and after the war; the concentration camp Pechora; the prevalence of antisemitism; a local Jewish woman resident in Tulchin, Galina Iosifovna Mogilevskaia, who knows a lot about the history of Jews in Tulchin; Viktor Andreevich Svetelik (or Sviatelik), born in 1947 in Tulchin, Ukraine, discusses his Russian mother and Ukrainian father; writing five books on the history of Tulchin; Kaptsonovka (Kaptsonivka) district in Tulchin where the poor Jews lived; the area in Tulchin where the very rich Jews lived; the numerous underground tunnels in Tulchin; his childhood when he lived near Jews in the market district in Tulchin and heard a lot of Yiddish spoken by Jews; Jews baking their own matzo for Passover; Jewish burial practices; many Jews working at a shoe factory or as tailors, seamstresses, barbers, and butchers; taking lessons in Yiddish and having many books in Yiddish; the Jewish kolkhoz (collective farm) in the area in the 1930s; the Jewish population before and after the war; the concentration camp Pechora; the prevalence of antisemitism; a local Jewish woman resident in Tulchin, Galina Iosifovna Mogilevskaia, who knows a lot about the history of Jews in Tulchin; Nikolai Naumovich Tiraspol'skaia discusses how before the revolution there were Jewish gangs; the numerous “balagulas” (persons of low standing); and his grandfather who was a “balagula” and went with his wife (Tiraspol'skaia’s grandmother) to the United States during the pogroms but returned to Tulchin in 1933.

Oral history interview with Feiha Naumovna Shvartsman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Svetlana Vladimirovna Dovgosheia

Oral History

Oral history interview with Nisson Ovshievich Iurkovetskii and Dora Khaimovna Spektor

Oral History

Oral history interview with Polina Iakovlevna Murakhovskaia

Oral History

Oral history interview with Viktor Andreevich Sviatelik

Oral History

Oral history interview with Moisei Naumovich Gekker, Lena Naumovna Lekhovitser, and Annonymous

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lev Shaevich and Ienta Osherovna Kolodenker

Oral History

Oral history interview with Leonid Moiseevich Neiman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Kseniia Mikhailovna Drozdovskaia

Oral History

Oral history interview with Abram Klëmovich Iarmolinskii and Donia Itskovna Iarmolinksaia

Oral History

Oral history interview with Fania Samoilovna Gofshivich and Aleksandr Iakovlevich Gofshievich

Oral History

Oral history interview with NNikolai Nakhmanovich Tiraspol'skii

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rita Genekhovna Shveibish

Oral History

Oral history interview with Letun

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ienta Osherovna Kolodenker and Lev Shaevich Kolodenko

Oral History

Oral history interview with Serdjukova

Oral History

Oral history interview with Zemmelstern

Oral History

Oral history interview with Plotitskiy

Oral History

Oral history interview with Vovk

Oral History

Oral history interview with Kogan

Oral History

Oral history interview with Katsman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Anna Mikheevna Pristaichuk

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ienta Osherovna Kolodenker, Pesia Shaeva Kisel'man, and Gvinter

Oral History

Oral history interview with Anya Baba

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gribanova

Oral History

Oral history interview with Shela Abramovna Plotitskaya

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ienta Osherovna Kolodenker and Gvinter

Oral History

Oral history interview with Bolotin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Galina Iosifovna Mogilevskaia and Viktor Andreevich Sviatek

Oral History

Oral history interview with Pomagrin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Shwets

Oral History

Oral history interview with Evgenija Vasil'evna

Oral History

Evgenija Vasil'evna, born in 1930, describes her life growing up; how Jews would often live in the center of the city, while Ukrainians would live on the outside; some Russians discriminating against Jews and Ukrainians with racial epithets; her family; knowing about many of the Jewish holidays and traditions; Jewish funeral practices; and how Jews and Russians would often trade traditional food dishes with one another.

Oral history interview with Bryznjuk

Oral History

Oral history interview with Pysko and an unidentified woman

Oral History

Pysko describes her childhood living in Ukraine; not speaking Yiddish; attending an Ukrainian school; the various nationalities in the city and the lack of segregation; the small amount of antisemitism at the social level and the presence of antisemitism at the governmental level; the numerous marriages between Jews and non-Jews, particularly male Jews marrying non-Jewish women; the Jewish and Ukrainian traditions that were celebrated [note that there are two speakers during this segment]; and the jobs held by Jews. An unidentified woman talks about her family and what happened to them. [Note that the recording begins in the middle of the interview.]

Oral history interview with Gaisin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rita Genekhovna Shveibish and Liliia Isaakovna Presler

Oral History