(Wywiady dostępne są w językach angielskim i ukraińskim. Prosimy o wyrozumiałość.)
Bershad, Ukraine
Interview conducted in May 2004 by Zhanna Litinskaya
This is my mother’s family photo. In the center is grandmother Roiter wearing a kerchief, beside her is grandfather Iosif Roiter. The first from the right is my mother’s brother, whose name I do not remember, beside him is her younger brother Ehil Roiter, sitting is my mother older brother’s wife. In the center is my mother Elka Roiter.
On the left is my father Moisey Muchnik, with him are his brothers Motl and Folyk Muchnik. This photo was taken in Bershad in a photo shop before WWI, in 1916; the brothers are wearing papaha overcoats made by my father.
My father Moisey Muchnik is on the right, in the center is his brother Folyk, on the left is his brother Motl, This photo was taken in 1917 in Bershad, before my father brothers’ departure abroad.
In this photograph is my brother Ehil Muchnik (on the left) with his friends. This photo was taken during their pre-diploma practical training in Donetsk. He sent it home to Bershad for the memory, 1940.
My older brother Velvl Muchnik, sent this photo home to Bershad during his service in the army in Leningrad, late 1930s.
This is my brother Ehil Muchnik. This photo was taken in 1940 after he obtained a diploma in his technical school.
This is me. This photo was taken in a photo shop in 1956, Bershad.
This is me sitting first from the right, with my school friends. The girl from the left wearing a colorful dress is Zina Fihrer, she lives in Israel. She one in the center, she has a white collar, is Klara, she also lives in Israel, standing on the right is my friend Polia, she lives in America.
This is my cousin, whose name I can’t remember, with my brother Velvl, photographed in 1940, when she was on vacation in Odessa and stayed with Velvl.
This is me. This photo was taken in a photo shop in Bershad in 1956. I was photographed for the memory for the family album.
This is me. This photo was taken in a photo shop in Bershad in 1962. I was photographed for the memory for the family album.
This is me, Frida Muchnik, in Bershad in 1972. I worked in a cooperative that had a photo shop. They photographed me for free.
This is me on vacation in Vinnitsa, 1967.
This is me. This photo was taken in the Podolie hotel in Bershad in 2004 during the interview.
Mrs. Muchnik’s family came from Bershad, a Jewish town with a minor Ukrainian population, where she still lives today. She recalls how during the period of forced famine, “a horse-drawn wagon full of dead bodies rode along the streets” and that the family survived only thanks to her mother’s energy and hard work. When the Germans started to bomb Bershad in July 1941, they wanted to evacuate, but the roads were already blocked. It is difficult for the interviewee to recall the period of occupation, when they stayed in the ghetto and her mother made every effort to hide her or bribe policemen in order to save her from abuse. In the meantime, her two brothers were recruited at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and they never saw them again. After the liberation of Bershad in March 1944, she finished school, went to work to support her parents and had no opportunity to found her own family. Her touching story comes with 15 photos.
