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Recording Content:
This recording is a formal interview with Beila Naftulevna Reizman, nee Gendelman, born 1920 in Tighina (Yiddish: Bender). (Part 1 of 2. See MDV 127)
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00:00:00
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Reizman provides personal information and talks about her family. Her father was born in Rascov and worked as a cobbler. Her parents died of starvation in Makhachkala, Russia, in evacuation. She grew up with four brothers and two sisters. Her sister’s three year-old son also died of starvation in Russia. |
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00:05:28
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Reizman talks about her life before the war. She worked in a sewing factory. Reizman then talks about games, she played as a child, before she addresses prewar Jewish life, in particular Sabbath celebrations. |
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00:09:36
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Reizman talks about her education. She studied at a Romanian school for two years. Her sister attended a religious school (cheder). Reizman recalls her sister praying during Sabbath and Sabbath celebrations, including food customs, at home. Reizman then talks about her family. Her son, who worked as a chauffeur, was killed in Bălți. |
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00:13:14
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Reizman talks about her life today and observing religious customs today and before the war. She then mentions food customs for holiday celebrations. Reizman then explains how her family was not able to support her and her sister’s religious education, whereas five of her siblings were able to enjoy religious education. Reizman recalls the custom of “bdikes khumets” (ritual removal of the last crumb of leavened bread before Passover). |
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00:21:30
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Reizman recalls Purim celebrations and music. She then discusses holiday celebrations, including food customs. |
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00:25:27
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Reizman remembers non-Jews who spoke Yiddish, before she discusses Jewish occupations and culture before the war. Reizman recalls a wedding and aspects of prewar religious life. She then answers a number of questions about cultural terminology. |
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00:35:35
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Reizman talks about her traditional wedding in Tighina before the war. She then discusses food customs, in particular for gefilte fish and stuffed stomach. |
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00:42:31
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Reizman discusses folk remedies and recalls an episode where she was healed from a dog bite. She then answers questions about cultural terminology, before she briefly talks about prewar burials and birth customs. |
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00:50:01
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Reizman talks about her life during World War II. She first evacuated to Tiraspol, Moldova, where she stayed with fellow Jews for a month. She then evacuated further to a town eighteen kilometers from Rostov, Russia, and stayed there for two months. Reizman continues that as the front drew closer and she reached Rostov, her family could not find transportation. They had to evacuate further on foot and walked eighteen kilometers to the next train station, where they got on a train to Makhachkala, Russia. Reizman describes her family’s journey. Her family stayed there for one month, until sent further to work on a kolkhoz. Reizman describes their home on the kolkhoz. They lived there during the winter. The following summer, her family evacuated further to Buynaksk, Russia. In Buynaksk, they worked in a canned food factory until the end of the war. She then returned to Tighina with her older sister. |
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