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Recording Content:
This recording is a formal interview with Mortko (Mordkhe) Isaakovich Bukshpun, born 1926 in Caracusenii Vechi (Starye Karkushany).
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00:00:00
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Bukshpun provides personal information and talks about his family. He then briefly recalls the return to their home town after the war. His father owned a shop and farmed three hectare land with a tractor. They also owned a cow, a horse, and ducks. |
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00:03:35
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Bukshpun talks about life during the war, when the Romanians occupied Bălți during World War II. He recalls how his family was forced to leave and walked for three months through Mohyliv-Podilskyy, Soroca, and Vertiujeni. His family was imprisoned in the Vertiujeni concentration camp and forced to stay there for three months. |
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00:05:01
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Bukshpun discusses life before the war in Karkushany, where sixteen Jewish families lived. He also talks about his family. He attended a Moldovan school for five years. He has relatives in Israel. |
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00:08:00
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Bukshpun discusses prewar holiday celebrations, in particular Sabbath and Passover. He then talks about Jewish occupations. His uncle was a tailor and Bukshpun remembers how his uncle worked on sewing machines. |
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00:17:29
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Bukshpun addresses contemporary religious life. He then talks about his life during the war in near Petyulke* Obodovsker region, where he was hold with 750 prisoners in a pigsty. The pigsty was turned into a concentration camp. He returned with his brother and sister in 1944. |
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00:20:51
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Bukshpun briefly talks about his return to Starye Karkushany. He explains that Christians lived in their former home. Bukshpun returns to his life in the concentration camp, where he was imprisoned for four years. He was protected by partisans. |
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00:24:01
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Bukshpun talks about his life after the war. He worked the field. He then talks about surrounding towns with a Jewish population before the war. He addresses the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, before he describe his father’s general store. Bukshpun talks about synagogue services in his uncle’s town Briceni. |
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00:29:12
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Bukshpun discusses his childhood memories and talks about his parents. He then recalls folk remedies and talks about Hasidic life in Briceni. |
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00:35:00
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Bukshpun answers questions about cultural terminology. He then talks about his family and their life after the war, before he discusses life today. He lost ten family members. Bukshpun received a medal for his work as a veteran 38:15. After the war, Bukshpun worked odd jobs, such as foreman for four years, for a supplier, and chauffeur (38:30). Bukshpun raised four children. His son lives in Israel and his daughters, who married non-Jews, live in Ukraine. He met his wife in the concentration camp and got married in 1948. |
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00:42:18
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Bukshpun answers a number of dialectological questions from the AHEYM Yiddish questionnaire. He then talks about life before the war and food customs. They produced butter, cheese, and duck fat. Bukshpun discusses his brother’s bar mitzvah at his uncle’s home. |
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