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Arkady Shulman “From the record books”

WE NEED TO KEEP THE MEMORIES

This meeting took place in the middle of the 90s. One of the oldest members of Polotsk Jewish community, Sora-Riva Livshiz, had just turned 98. I decided to record at least a small interview with the veteran.

Sora-Riva Livshiz with a photo of her parents.
Photo taken in mid-90s.

“My father was a shoemaker. His name was Hona Moiseyevich. He was a religious man but he had to work on Saturdays as well. Mother Malka was a housewife. She had enough work because she had ten children: six girls and four boys. I was the elder one.

My parents used to attend a synagogue. In Polotsk there were many synagogues at that time. Not a single one is left today. Father used to take us with them as well. Naturally, we spoke Yiddish at home. My parents also knew Russian but they only used it when speaking to Russian people. In fact, many of our non-Jewish neighbors spoke Yiddish.

On Rosh-ha-shana and Yom Kippur a chazzan came to Polotsk. We bought tickets to listen to him in the synagogue.

I did not attend school. At that time the girls from poor families rarely attended schools, but the boys did.

My mother died in 1940.

Before the war I saw a weird dream. My dead mother came to me and said that there would be a horrible war. She told me we had to leave Polotsk. It was on Friday. The war began on Sunday.

Many of my relatives died in the ghetto in Polotsk. My husband was not mobilized due to bad health condition, so our family evacuated from Polotsk. My husband was run over by a car and died later, when we were in the evacuation. After the war we came back to Polotsk and settled down in our house.

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