(Wywiady dostępne są w językach angielskim i ukraińskim. Prosimy o wyrozumiałość.)
Mogilyov-Podolskiy, Ukraine
Interview conducted in 2004 by Ella Levitskaya
This is my father Itzyk Weisenberg. This photo was taken in Mogilyov-Podolskiy in 1915. My father Itzyk Weisenberg was born in 1899 in Mogilyov-Podolskiy, Vinnytsa province of the Russian Empire.
Upper row from left to right: my mother’s older brother, a tailor, living in Luchinets, my mother Genia Gempeld, my mother’s younger brother Mikhail Gempeld. I don’t know these two women in the foreground. My mother might have mentioned them, but I can’t remember. This photo was taken in Ozarintsy in 1919.
This is my mother Genia Gempeld (standing on the right) with her mother Fania Gempeld (in center) and older sister Riva (standing on the left). This photo was taken in Ozarintsy in 1921.
This is my first class. We were photographed after we finished our first academic year at school. I am sitting in the second row, the 3rd from the left. Our teacher is standing on the right. This photo was taken in Mogilyov-Podolskiy in 1939.
This photograph was taken at the celebration of 1 May in our school canteen. I am sitting at the first table on the left, looking at the photographer. This photo was taken in Mogilyov-Podolskiy in 1940.
From left to right: my mother Genia Gempeld, I and my father Itzyk Weisenberg. We were photographed on my 15th birthday. This photo was taken in Mogilyov-Podolskiy in 1947.
This photograph was taken during the first and the only vacation in my life, which I spent away from home. My employer awarded me a trip to the Kuyalnik recreation center in Odessa. I am standing on the right with other holiday makers. This photo was taken in Odessa in 1969.
I am sitting at the table and my daughter Maya. is standing. She and I were photographed in our kitchen by my husband. This photo was taken in Mogilyov-Podolskiy in 1972.
I am on the right, this is at my working place in the fish kiosk at the market in Mogilyov-Podolskiy. This photo was taken in 1978.
My husband photographed me at my 50th birthday. This photo was taken during celebration my birthday, in the my flat in Mogilyov-Podolskiy in 1982.
My husband Semyon Leiderman photographed on his 14th birthday, in July 1940. This photo was taken in Luchinets village Vinnitsa region.
My son-in-law, my daughter’s husband Igor Kotliar (2nd on the left) and my daughter Maya Kotliar (3rd on the left) were photographed with their colleagues during a lunch break. This photo was taken in Mogilyov-Podolskiy in 1985.
My son-in-law, my daughter’s husband Igor Kotliar (2nd on the left) and my daughter Maya Kotliar (3rd on the left) were photographed with their colleagues during a lunch break. This photo was taken in Mogilyov-Podolskiy in 1985.
This is me at present. I was photographed for the album „Prisoners of the Mogilyov-Podolskiy ghetto”, issued by our Jewish community to the 60th anniversary of liberation of the town from fascists (19 March 1944). This photo was taken in 2004 in Mogilyov-Podolskiy.
Growing up in a religious family in Mogilyov-Podolskiy, Mrs. Leiderman draws a colorful picture of the town in which she has lived almost all her life. Although they were poor, her mother always tried to cook something special for Sabbath. On 22nd June 1941, the latter promised to take the interviewee and her siblings to the cinema, but the war thwarted their plans. They left for Chernovtsy, while her father was summoned to the recruitment office and went to the front. When the Germans started raids and mass shootings there, they returned to Mogilyov-Podolskiy, where a ghetto had already been established. The interviewee managed to sneak out of the ghetto and did cleaning for local housewives in exchange for food that she gave to her mother and siblings. Once she was captured during a raid and about to be taken to Pechora camp, but managed to escape thanks to an old Jew, who bribed a Romanian guard. Aged 14 after the war, she went to work to support her family: she first sold milk and then was a fish vendor at the central market. In 1952 she got married and founded her own family. In spite of all horrors and hardships, she has never lost her optimism. 14 pictures retrace her touching account.
