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Mikhail Rivkin, Arkady Shulman
RELATED BY WAR

Memories of Larisa Kaim

Memories of Yelena Zibert

Memories of Inessa Ivanova

Memories of Igor Baranov

Arkady Shulman
I HAVE GONE THROUGH HELL…

Ludmila Khmelnitskaya
FROM THE HISTORY OF VITEBSK SYNAGOGUES

Vera Shufel
ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED…

Irina Levikova
IT SEEMED THAT THIS KIND OF LIFE IS FOREVER

Eduard Menakhin
THE MENAKHINS

Pavel Mogilevsky
MY GREAT GRANDMOTHER

Arkady Shulman
THE KEEPER OF FAMILY MEMORIES

Arkady Shulman
THE LIOZNIANSKYS

Mikhail Matlin
THE MATLINS

Lev Polykovsky
STORY OF A FAMILY FROM VITEBSK

Vladimir Kostukevich
GIRL FROM GHETTO

Polina Falikova
STORY OF A FAMILY

Memories of Raisa Yalova

Vera Knorring
FOLKLORE RESEARCHER FROM VITEBSK

Arkady Shulman
UNUSUAL BIOGRAPHY

Arkady Shulman
MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD IN THE WAR

MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD IN THE WAR

Tamara Konstantinovna Sheibel has for decades been living in Volgograd. However, she frequently visits Vitebsk. This is not only the city of her birth but also the city where her son lives with his family.

During one of her visits Tamara came to the Jewish center, where I met her. I requested her to share her childhood memories, memories about her parents and the war.

- I was born in December 1933. My father, Konstantin Anufrievich Lebedev, worked at the post office. When the war began he wasn't mobilized. As Germans were approaching Vitebsk he came home and said: "I've locked the post office".

Mother, Sofia Isaakovna Biser, originated from Vitebsk. I do not know who my grandparents were. Mother was brought up in an orphanage. At the beginning of the war she was working as a nurse in a hospital.

I had sister Ludmila, who was two years older than me,

Our family decided to evacuate. For some reason they stayed in Vitebsk.

Father tried to take the family to Vorony, near Vitebsk, where his parents lived. We stayed there for a while but soon neighbors started spreading rumors that we were Jewish. Thus we returned to Vitebsk. Father was with us all the time.

Mother had sister Pasha, who began living with us. She had a baby, who died soon.

I don't remember exactly when it happened, in August or September, but my father decided it was time to leave and hide somewhere. However, Nazi policemen came to our house before we managed to leave. Mother, aunt Pasha and father were arrested. My sister and I were left alone.

In the morning sister ran to the ghetto and saw mother in a truck which took people to the execution. The truck began moving and sister ran after it as much as she could. We never saw mother and aunt Pasha again.

Father returned home two weeks later. He had been kept in prison. When he came home he was covered with bruises and blood. But they let him go.

Father took us to the village. We returned to Vitebsk from time to time.

Later father got married again to Olga Karlovna, who was Polish. Her husband had been shot by Germans. She did not have children of her own and treated us very well.

In 1947 we moved to Chashniki where father became a head of a local factory. Once people came to our house at night and arrested him. I never knew what the reason was. He was under arrest until 1953. In 1954 he was sent home but died soon.

Later I got married and moved to Volgograd. Once my son decided to visit Vitebsk and in the end made up his mind to stay there for good. He has a family of his own.

Recorded by Arkady Shulman


Jewish settlements in Vitebsk region

Vitebsk Albrehtovo Babinovichi Baran Bayevo Begoml Beshenkovichi Bocheikovo Bogushevsk Borkovichi Braslav Bychiha Chashniki Disna Dobromysli Dokshitsy Druya Dubrovno Glubokoye Gorodok Kamen Kohanovo Kolyshki Kopys Krasnopolie Kublichi Lepel Liady Liozno Lukoml Luzhki Lyntupy Miory Obol Oboltsy Orsha Osintorf Ostrovno Parafianovo Plissa Polotsk Prozorki Senno Sharkovshina Shumilino Sirotino Slaveni Smolyany Surazh Tolochin Ulla Verhnedvinsk Vidzy Volyntsy Yanovichi Yezerishe Zhary Ziabki

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