Wednesday, March 31, 2010
A map
The beginning...
Going to Babashka's for a Sunday lunch is always nutty. People screaming, arguing, talking about inappropriate subjects is the norm. However, I am happy to say we finally began asking Babashka about her life, and she began from the beginning. Here is the transcript thus far (translated into English as best as i can). Also, it gets confusing at times and I tried my best to edit a bit in order to make it more clear. There was a lot of chatter, interrupting, and the usual.
Babashka: My mother's last name was Katashiner and her three brothers moved to America when they were young boys, 1912 or 1914, before the first world war. They came to America and all the boys went to America so they didn't have to go away to the army. And they came to America, last name Katashiner, it's a long last name. They became Kushner in America, an American name. (Then family goes on to discuss all of their friends whose names were changed once they came to America)
Mom: tell us about the war
Jessica: from the beginning, day 1
Babashka: let me finish my Borsht!
Jessica: how old were you..
Babashka: let me eat
[First day].... I wasn't home. We were on vacation in Ribnetsu. There is Rezina and Ribnetsu. One side there is Romania (Rezina) and another side was Russia (Ribnetsa). Ribnetsa was Russia and the border was closed because they freed us (Ribnetsa) 1940 before the war. The Russians came and freed us, our part of Romania from the Romanian bad guys. You were not allowed to go from Rezina to Ribnetsu, but you were allowed to go to Ribnetsu to Rezina.
We lived in a house and had our own store with a toilet in the backyard. We went to banya to shower and get clean. I don't know what our parents did. Eating there was better than what we had in America, all organic food. So when there was vacation after school, our relative came and he lived in Ribnitsa. He (my great uncle) came and took me and my brother, my brothers grandfather. So we went there on vacation and were in Ribnitsa relaxing, playing. There were lots of kids like us there.
And then all of a sudden I heard, I was 10 years old, they were saying "war, war" and I didn't understand what that meant. There was no radio then. People were just saying that they announced a war. So then planes were flying and there were bomb, and shooting happened and everyone was crying and screaming and I went....there were boats and right when they announced the war, they closed the border and didn't allow people from Ribnitsu to Rezina. We lived closer to Germany and there was a bridge that went from Ribnitsa to Rezina, we wanted someone to take us and bring us to the other side, but no one let us, no one would help us. I remembered how hard I was crying and thought I would never see my mother again, and now I understood that a war was really bad. And lots of people were crying and screaming and I just wanted to go home but I couldn't go home. I remember going to people walking around and saying in Yiddish, "I want to go home" and crying and asking and no one would take us.
And after, my cousin who lives in Philadelphia now, she lived in Rezina with my parents and her boyfriend worked in Rezina, and was able to go to Ribnitsa. So he was able to come take us and bring us home. So he took us home, Fima, and we didn't sleep at home anymore. This happened like two days after they announced a war. When we came home, over the bridge, our whole village was on fire. Like in a movie. And we had grapes that we were growing, and our parents took us and we slept and hid in the grape vines. The next day we came home, everything is on fire, bombs flying, mother took some shamta and threw it in a bag. And we went to the border and an evacuation began and they opened the border and we were allowed to go through Ribnitsa to go to Russia (from Romania).
And we moved there, and my sister's father lived there (aunt Miriam). She lived there all her life and my dad never saw her for 22 years and he didn't see her because he lived in Romania and she lived in Russia. He lived in Russia because he was a soldier when there was the czar's army. [She talks about Russian history in relation to the Czar time and leningrad and how Romania was part of Russia at one point, etc.] My relatives lived in Russia and when the war started we went there, she lived in a village-Kolhoz (and she was killed by the Germans later on).
We went on a horse and got there at night, bombs flying, rain pouring, thunder. We didn't know if it was thunder or bombs, it was all together happening at once. We thought after two or three days ....everyone ran away with anyone they could run away with. One of our friends went on a soldier's tank and got out that way. Some people walked, on trains, people just ran away from the Germans anyway they could. And we thought we would only stay two to three days and the war would be over, we had no idea it would be 5 years. And we got there at night and my aunt was crying, "My favorite brother..i have not seen you in 22 years". So many tears, they didn't know if one another was alive all that time. We were there for 3-4 days and ran further away.
They (my aunt) didn't run because they didn't understand, they thought the Germans would not touch them. They were older and were in a ghetto, and their son and them survived, they didn't really kill Romanians then. The Russian army helped them escape, my aunt said Ukrainians saved them, they helped them hide. Her son, Alosha, was sick with Teef (tifus). Many people were dying from this. They wanted to kill him since he was basically dead and were taking out all the dead people. The Ukrainians put him with the dead and were able to get him out to escape that way, and he survived.
The older son was on the army front, and he was able to become a general, and he got through the entire war and when they finally freed Odessa he found out his sister, Gita, they had a lot of kids... there the Germans killed Gita and tortured her. When the general returned to Odessa he wanted to know who killed his sister. After the war, he was a General and they told him that there were such evil Ukrainian guys and they were the ones who killed her, and he just took out his gun and shot a bunch of Ukrainians. They sued him, but he never went to prison because he was a general. He would come to us to Lviv. Many generals were Jews during the war. They didn't say so, but after in America you found out how many generals were actually Jews in the war.
Babashka: My mother's last name was Katashiner and her three brothers moved to America when they were young boys, 1912 or 1914, before the first world war. They came to America and all the boys went to America so they didn't have to go away to the army. And they came to America, last name Katashiner, it's a long last name. They became Kushner in America, an American name. (Then family goes on to discuss all of their friends whose names were changed once they came to America)
Mom: tell us about the war
Jessica: from the beginning, day 1
Babashka: let me finish my Borsht!
Jessica: how old were you..
Babashka: let me eat
[Babashka finishes her Borsht and I ask many questions. Much interrupting ensues]
[First day].... I wasn't home. We were on vacation in Ribnetsu. There is Rezina and Ribnetsu. One side there is Romania (Rezina) and another side was Russia (Ribnetsa). Ribnetsa was Russia and the border was closed because they freed us (Ribnetsa) 1940 before the war. The Russians came and freed us, our part of Romania from the Romanian bad guys. You were not allowed to go from Rezina to Ribnetsu, but you were allowed to go to Ribnetsu to Rezina.
We lived in a house and had our own store with a toilet in the backyard. We went to banya to shower and get clean. I don't know what our parents did. Eating there was better than what we had in America, all organic food. So when there was vacation after school, our relative came and he lived in Ribnitsa. He (my great uncle) came and took me and my brother, my brothers grandfather. So we went there on vacation and were in Ribnitsa relaxing, playing. There were lots of kids like us there.
And then all of a sudden I heard, I was 10 years old, they were saying "war, war" and I didn't understand what that meant. There was no radio then. People were just saying that they announced a war. So then planes were flying and there were bomb, and shooting happened and everyone was crying and screaming and I went....there were boats and right when they announced the war, they closed the border and didn't allow people from Ribnitsu to Rezina. We lived closer to Germany and there was a bridge that went from Ribnitsa to Rezina, we wanted someone to take us and bring us to the other side, but no one let us, no one would help us. I remembered how hard I was crying and thought I would never see my mother again, and now I understood that a war was really bad. And lots of people were crying and screaming and I just wanted to go home but I couldn't go home. I remember going to people walking around and saying in Yiddish, "I want to go home" and crying and asking and no one would take us.
And after, my cousin who lives in Philadelphia now, she lived in Rezina with my parents and her boyfriend worked in Rezina, and was able to go to Ribnitsa. So he was able to come take us and bring us home. So he took us home, Fima, and we didn't sleep at home anymore. This happened like two days after they announced a war. When we came home, over the bridge, our whole village was on fire. Like in a movie. And we had grapes that we were growing, and our parents took us and we slept and hid in the grape vines. The next day we came home, everything is on fire, bombs flying, mother took some shamta and threw it in a bag. And we went to the border and an evacuation began and they opened the border and we were allowed to go through Ribnitsa to go to Russia (from Romania).
And we moved there, and my sister's father lived there (aunt Miriam). She lived there all her life and my dad never saw her for 22 years and he didn't see her because he lived in Romania and she lived in Russia. He lived in Russia because he was a soldier when there was the czar's army. [She talks about Russian history in relation to the Czar time and leningrad and how Romania was part of Russia at one point, etc.] My relatives lived in Russia and when the war started we went there, she lived in a village-Kolhoz (and she was killed by the Germans later on).
We went on a horse and got there at night, bombs flying, rain pouring, thunder. We didn't know if it was thunder or bombs, it was all together happening at once. We thought after two or three days ....everyone ran away with anyone they could run away with. One of our friends went on a soldier's tank and got out that way. Some people walked, on trains, people just ran away from the Germans anyway they could. And we thought we would only stay two to three days and the war would be over, we had no idea it would be 5 years. And we got there at night and my aunt was crying, "My favorite brother..i have not seen you in 22 years". So many tears, they didn't know if one another was alive all that time. We were there for 3-4 days and ran further away.
They (my aunt) didn't run because they didn't understand, they thought the Germans would not touch them. They were older and were in a ghetto, and their son and them survived, they didn't really kill Romanians then. The Russian army helped them escape, my aunt said Ukrainians saved them, they helped them hide. Her son, Alosha, was sick with Teef (tifus). Many people were dying from this. They wanted to kill him since he was basically dead and were taking out all the dead people. The Ukrainians put him with the dead and were able to get him out to escape that way, and he survived.
The older son was on the army front, and he was able to become a general, and he got through the entire war and when they finally freed Odessa he found out his sister, Gita, they had a lot of kids... there the Germans killed Gita and tortured her. When the general returned to Odessa he wanted to know who killed his sister. After the war, he was a General and they told him that there were such evil Ukrainian guys and they were the ones who killed her, and he just took out his gun and shot a bunch of Ukrainians. They sued him, but he never went to prison because he was a general. He would come to us to Lviv. Many generals were Jews during the war. They didn't say so, but after in America you found out how many generals were actually Jews in the war.
[And then Dedashka goes on to discuss Purim and what it is about]
So we left off at Babashka, escaping from her aunt and uncle. There is a lot more of the story to be heard...
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