This recording is a formal interview with Boris Naumovich Khandros, born in Ozarintsy (Yiddish: Ozarinets) in 1923. (Part 1 of 3. See MDV 506 and MDV 507) Khandros briefly talks about genealogical research. His parents, both teachers, were born in Ozarinets and met when his father worked as a religious teacher (melamed).

The conversation then turns to his life during the war, when he was imprisoned in the Pechera camp, which he escaped. Khandros published an autobiography. He then discusses education and work before the war. He finished Ukrainian school in 1941 and remembers the beginning of the war. He worked as a librarian in his school library. The school library was a cultural center. The school, where his father worked, closed down in 1945 and was the last remaining Yiddish school in Ukraine. He remembers how his father sang Yiddish songs. Khandros recorded his father’s voice from the age of 75 until well over 90 years.

The discussion then turns to his family and how his grandfather ended up living in Ozarinets. When his grandfather was seven years old, he was friends with a tzadik’s son Dversky and he decided to become very religious and a tzadik in Ozarinets as well. He then explains the origins of the name Ozarinets, before he talks about the weekly peasant market in Ozarinets, which existed until the late 1920s. He then shows his newspaper articles about a well-known Ukrainian writer and discusses his father’s well-established status as a teacher in Ozarinets.

The conversation then moves to the Great Hunger in 1932. He wrote an article in Russian about a widow from a Ukrainian village whose husband led a kolkhoz (collective farm) during the hunger. According to Khandros, this village is the only one in all of Ukraine where you could find documents about the hunger. He conducted research in 1988 of both major hungers in Ukraine, 1933 and 1947. He shares information about his research. In particular, a letter written by a Jewish woman in Berdychiv requesting help; adding to the perspective that Jews equally suffered starvation. Khandros then discusses themes of the Hunger, such as Jews possessing gold unlike non-Jews, and interspersed them with experiences of his family, as well as with stories from Ozarinets. When Khandros suffered from dysentery his uncle brought him to the hospital, which saved his life.