The first part of this recording is a continuation of a formal interview with Iosif L’vovich Geller in Izyaslav. (Part 3 of 3. See Accession # 09-010.19-F MDV 455 and MDV 456) He sings a Yiddish song about the Revolution and explains the main character in the song. The team then goes outside and Geller shows his backyard with animals and plants. The team walks back inside the house and Geller explains family photographs. The conversation briefly turns to Kotovsky and holiday celebrations. The interview concludes with the camera showing Geller’s military uniform.

The second part of the recording was made in Slavuta and includes a formal interview with Maria Isaakovna Liberzon, born in Slavuta in 1929. (Part 1 of 4. See MDV 669, MDV 670, and MDV 671) The team enters her house in order set up the interview. She talks about her family, in particular about her father who was a grandson of the Ba’al Shem Tov; she then shows historical pictures of Slavuta. Her grandfather’s roots can be traced to five generations of rabbis. Then the formal interview begins and Liberzon talks about her family, particularly about the brothers Shapiro, who established the first Hebrew printing house in Russia. One episode involves the Russian bookbinder Yuri who hung himself unexpectedly. The authorities accused the owners of killing Yuri. They were sentenced to physical torture and then sent off to Siberia in 1835. When the older brother Reb Pinkhes returned, he founded the first Yiddish school in Moscow. She then talks about the religious history of Slavuta and Reb Pinkhas's “shtibl” (prayer house).

She briefly talks about religious life in Slavuta; then she remembers family anecdotes about her grandfather Reb Liber in Berdychiv. He encountered peasants on a carriage when praying by the river. They beat him up in the woods. Her grandfather promised to heal a peasant’s son, if they stop the violence against Jews. This incident has a connection with the founding of Berdychiv. The conversation turns to her family life during the 1930s and the struggle to obtain passports to be able to travel past the Polish border. Her grandfather could travel to Zhytomyr, then Poland, and decided to reside there. By 1936, when it was impossible to cross borders, her grandfather had already returned. The conversation turns to her Yiddish school education and the necessity to study at a Russian school in 1941.

She also remembers several incidents at school regarding anti-religious agitation. For instance, a teacher gave her sister, eleven years old, money to buy food, in order to encourage her not to eat at home during Passover. The conversation turns to life during and after the war. They were evacuated to Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. After the war, her father opened the only public synagogue existing in a smaller town in the Soviet Union at the end of 1947, according to Liberzon. The building was used for Soviet cultural activity right before the war. They then discuss her family and her distant family in America. It was important to her father to provide education for his children. Hence, she studied at the University of Odesa. Liberzon then shows a number of documents she received from Israel about her rabbinical lineage. She then returns to talking about the brothers Shapiro and her family connection to them. The tape concludes with an account of a family reunion and a discussion of cultural terminology.