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00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,100
>> Well, thank you very much.

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00:00:02,100 --> 00:00:03,780
This is James Newberry,

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00:00:03,780 --> 00:00:08,080
and I'm here with Sheva
Vapne on Tuesday,

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00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:11,060
October 24th, 2017 at

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00:00:11,060 --> 00:00:14,360
the Sturgis Library at
Kennesaw State University.

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00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:16,125
And Ms. Vapne,

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do you agree to this interview?

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00:00:17,810 --> 00:00:18,735
>> Yes.

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00:00:18,735 --> 00:00:21,800
>> Thank you. So we'll
start at the beginning.

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00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:24,545
Could you tell me
your full name?

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00:00:24,545 --> 00:00:29,085
>> My full name is
Sheva Vapne, last name.

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And I born in three, five,
1928 in Latvia, Riga.

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>> And what was
your maiden name?

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00:00:39,900 --> 00:00:40,860
>> Lapvincki.

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>> So you were born in Riga.

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So can you tell me
your parents name?

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00:00:46,910 --> 00:00:50,870
>> Yes. My father
was Yakov Lapvincki.

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My mother was Dvoira Lapvincki.

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My two brothers
was killed in war

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00:00:56,775 --> 00:01:00,285
was Abraham Lapvincki
and Samuel Lapvincki.

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One brother died by

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Staraya Russa, and
the other by Moscow.

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>> So tell me, what did your
parents do for a living?

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>> Mostly the Jewish in Latvia,

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before they live in small towns,

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who was tailors who have
different profession.

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They was very religious or
they never make abortion.

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We were six children.

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My father died when I was six.

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If he would not died,
maybe it would be 10.

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For each child, what was born,

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it's from God, and each
time they tell children,

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if you wanted your life
to have better life,

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you need to study very well.

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If you would study well,

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you can't be doctors,

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you can't be engineers.

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Did what mostly they did.

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We go Friday to the temple
together with the parents,

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we change the clothes,

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and we have special clothes
to go to synagogue.

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My mother did like to
go to Riga. She have

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rich relatives there because
her grandfather was a rabbi.

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When his wife died,

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she was Bat Sheva,

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I got the name from her.

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Did what I promise,

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what I always do the best to
remember what did for the

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Jewish because my grandfather

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thought I go to Hebrew
school, speak Hebrew.

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Before the Russia came,

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it was [inaudible] the school,

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because I need to
speak only Hebrew.

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Well my grandfather
was surprised.

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For a short time, I start

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speak Hebrew like I
born with Hebrew.

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Before I speak Latvia,

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German, a lot other.

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Now, when he promised me you
granddaughter for the rabbi,

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you need to speak Hebrew.

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I listening, and I did my best.

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>> So your family was orthodox?

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>> No really Orthodox.

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They was real Jewish
would believe in God.

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For example, Friday,
my mother prepared for

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Shabbat all ready meals,

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because when she
came from synagogue,

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she have a lady what warm
up and wash the dishes.

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It was the one Friday
evening through Saturday,

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for all Riga to have
a little vacation.

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We in Latvia didn't have
like United States.

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We didn't have dishwashers.

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We did all by self.

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We put the food

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for three days, we
didn't have that.

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We cook everyday, fresh
meals on kosher meals.

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There were special kosher stores

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where we go buy kosher meals.

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We milk with meat,

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didn't eat, because
that not what we eat.

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With milk, only with milk.

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When we eat with
meat, only with meat.

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My mother have dishes

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specially for this and
specially for this.

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>> Did you have any friends
who were not Jewish?

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>> Yes, we have a
lot Latvian friends.

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For example, my father, to make
a living, he have a horse,

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and else they didn't
have buses in

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the small towns before we
came to Riga was Preili.

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On [inaudible], I leave
my grandfather or

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00:04:16,590 --> 00:04:20,485
my mother's old sisters and
brothers live around, not far.

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With the horse we can't go to

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visit them but it was holiday,

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it was Shabbat, we was

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every time and other
family together.

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We didn't have theaters
there or movies.

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We read a lot of books.

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When we came from
school right away,

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the mother give us to eat and
we need to make homework.

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And then we have
a little garden,

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we go help a little
in the garden.

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Or when my father
took in the horse,

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give him food or take care.

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We listened for
the parents still.

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When I came United
States and when I

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see what's going on,
it was surprise.

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For us the parents was
what they tell, we did it.

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We was raised what we
did to be good children,

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and eat good, take
care of the clothes.

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When we go to school,
they have uniforms.

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Men's go with blue,
white collars.

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I have pictures how my
children was going.

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The shoes need to be clean.

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The hair need to be cut.

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If you have long hair,

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you need to make with a band.

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You couldn't come with the eyes.

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When I go here the school,

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I was surprised they came
without sleeves in school.

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In the University,
I was surprised,

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they didn't have uniforms.
And with the long hair,

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[LAUGHTER] I didn't
tell them why

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you came like this dress
because in Europe,

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you should be dressed perfect.

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>> So tell me how
your father died.

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>> We didn't have too
many doctors there.

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And sometimes when you
need to go to doctor,

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you need to wait till he have

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time for you. He was coughing.

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My mother make a chicken soup.

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Or give him tea with honey,

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or milk and was thinking
it would go away.

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When you have six children,

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you don't have much
time to spend.

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He need to work, also.

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Finally, he got so sick.

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We have relatives
in the capital,

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doctors in hospital.
They was working.

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My mother tell you must go to

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your relatives to help
and he came in hospital,

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it was already tuberculosis
in the last stages.

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They didn't want to upset him,

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they tell, you don't
have long to live.

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Then he tell him he want
to come dying, back to us.

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When I was six years old when

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the doctor came late to tell
you need to [inaudible].

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She was a German lady.

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Half house was where she lived,

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the other half was
the drugstore.

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Why I was going?

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My father, my mother
all night didn't sleep.

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I take my little brothers.

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I was six, and they
were four and two.

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I take them to the park,
sit next to the drugstore.

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And she have a granddaughter,

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Gretchen was her name.

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And Gretchen asked me
always the same question,

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"Where are you
parents when you come

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with the little ones?"

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I tell, "My father
is very sick and

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my mother take care
of my father."

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And if I take them

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away, maybe they will fall
asleep, a little rest.

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And she tell her grandmother
this. Then, when I came

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late by the door crying
for the medication,

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I always got the medication.

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I was six years old,

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and I know for to do it,

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how to get the medication
for my father.

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I never come without medication.

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>> So how did it affect
your family when he died?

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What happened to your family?

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00:07:48,845 --> 00:07:50,280
>> No, I tell you,

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it doesn't affect much because
before my father died,

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a rich relative was
live already in

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the capital in Riga promised
him before he died,

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that they will take care of us.

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00:08:01,285 --> 00:08:05,380
My mother was not too happy
because the rich relatives,

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00:08:05,380 --> 00:08:07,480
they was finish in
German gymnasium,

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00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:09,920
German school,
mostly speak German.

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00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:11,820
My mother didn't speak German.

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00:08:11,820 --> 00:08:14,325
I was speaking a little,
but in kindergarten.

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When in school, you need to know

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00:08:16,380 --> 00:08:19,410
language what kind of
nationality is there.

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00:08:19,410 --> 00:08:23,260
I speak Latvian, when
I speak little German.

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00:08:23,260 --> 00:08:25,300
Later, I speak very well,

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but they kill all my relatives,

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I stopped to use the language.

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Latvian, I still speak
right now perfect.

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00:08:32,940 --> 00:08:36,900
When Russia came, I started
to learn Russian and speak

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00:08:36,900 --> 00:08:38,840
Russia because you need to

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00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:41,260
speak all the language
to communicate,

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00:08:41,260 --> 00:08:44,090
to speak with the
people that live there.

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00:08:44,090 --> 00:08:46,655
>> Where did you go to school?

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00:08:46,655 --> 00:08:48,900
>> When we came to Riga,

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00:08:48,900 --> 00:08:50,525
my mother wanted to find

197
00:08:50,525 --> 00:08:53,660
an apartment what was
close to the school.

198
00:08:53,660 --> 00:08:55,860
My uncle take my older brother

199
00:08:55,860 --> 00:08:57,665
to teach him to make shoes,

200
00:08:57,665 --> 00:08:59,360
and the other, gloves.

201
00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:01,340
Need to be not far to walk with.

202
00:09:01,340 --> 00:09:05,230
We didn't have cars
we needed to walk.

203
00:09:05,230 --> 00:09:09,010
Also for my younger brother
to go to the kindergarten.

204
00:09:09,010 --> 00:09:10,690
What was my job?

205
00:09:10,690 --> 00:09:13,975
To take my youngest brother
to the kindergarten,

206
00:09:13,975 --> 00:09:15,310
to go to school.

207
00:09:15,310 --> 00:09:16,825
When I go back from the school,

208
00:09:16,825 --> 00:09:19,990
my mother gave me a
list to buy for food.

209
00:09:19,990 --> 00:09:21,700
And when I came, she tells,

210
00:09:21,700 --> 00:09:25,180
I don't want my children go
in the evening school hungry.

211
00:09:25,180 --> 00:09:27,805
Take them before they
go to school because

212
00:09:27,805 --> 00:09:32,410
my uncle promised my father
but they keep education.

213
00:09:32,410 --> 00:09:34,810
They finish the high
school very well.

214
00:09:34,810 --> 00:09:37,960
They will learn for a
job to do, would also go

215
00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:40,885
in the evening school to
have higher education.

216
00:09:40,885 --> 00:09:45,340
They want also to be doctors,
lawyers, so architects.

217
00:09:45,340 --> 00:09:49,165
Did what maybe the
Russian or the German

218
00:09:49,165 --> 00:09:52,540
hate us too much because the
Jewish want to be smart.

219
00:09:52,540 --> 00:09:53,710
If there was doctors,

220
00:09:53,710 --> 00:09:54,865
it was the best.

221
00:09:54,865 --> 00:09:57,010
If there was tailors,
they was the best.

222
00:09:57,010 --> 00:09:59,155
For example, when I finish

223
00:09:59,155 --> 00:10:01,945
designing with
honor, I finish it.

224
00:10:01,945 --> 00:10:06,565
When I came already '45
but I go to Holocaust.

225
00:10:06,565 --> 00:10:07,915
No, I try my best,

226
00:10:07,915 --> 00:10:10,585
my mother was sick.

227
00:10:10,585 --> 00:10:13,360
My children, I was
going in the evening,

228
00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:14,860
in the day I was working at

229
00:10:14,860 --> 00:10:17,005
store with coupons
after the war.

230
00:10:17,005 --> 00:10:19,210
Everything you
need to go stay in

231
00:10:19,210 --> 00:10:22,300
the line that I start
to eat at store.

232
00:10:22,300 --> 00:10:24,550
When I came, I was 17 after

233
00:10:24,550 --> 00:10:26,740
the war and I was
looking like a child.

234
00:10:26,740 --> 00:10:28,495
They tell, "What
you want, child?"

235
00:10:28,495 --> 00:10:30,310
I tell, "I came for a job."

236
00:10:30,310 --> 00:10:32,620
"What you mean, for a
job? You're a child."

237
00:10:32,620 --> 00:10:35,035
I tell, "I'm 17 already.

238
00:10:35,035 --> 00:10:37,660
Maybe I don't look
because I go too hungry,

239
00:10:37,660 --> 00:10:40,525
I was in Russia, hungry
and sick with typhoid,

240
00:10:40,525 --> 00:10:42,265
with everything," I tell.

241
00:10:42,265 --> 00:10:45,055
"I have a sick mother
or two younger brother,

242
00:10:45,055 --> 00:10:47,350
I need to have money
to buy food for them."

243
00:10:47,350 --> 00:10:49,225
"Don't cry."

244
00:10:49,225 --> 00:10:51,700
I tell, "I was at
school, mathematic,

245
00:10:51,700 --> 00:10:54,460
the best. You will see
I'd be a good worker."

246
00:10:54,460 --> 00:10:56,695
And I was the best saleslady.

247
00:10:56,695 --> 00:10:59,410
You need to cut the
coupons to write down

248
00:10:59,410 --> 00:11:02,545
300 grams sugar, 200
grams salt, butter.

249
00:11:02,545 --> 00:11:05,650
These two days, I was writing.

250
00:11:05,650 --> 00:11:07,405
The third day, I remember.

251
00:11:07,405 --> 00:11:09,790
When I go call for
the big lines came to

252
00:11:09,790 --> 00:11:12,715
me because I was working
faster for the others.

253
00:11:12,715 --> 00:11:15,905
>> Well, let's go back. So
after your father died,

254
00:11:15,905 --> 00:11:18,675
your brothers had to
support the family?

255
00:11:18,675 --> 00:11:19,065
>> Yes.

256
00:11:19,065 --> 00:11:20,910
>> What jobs did they do
to support the family?

257
00:11:20,910 --> 00:11:24,160
>> One brother was
starting shoemaker,

258
00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:25,375
and the other, gloves.

259
00:11:25,375 --> 00:11:28,840
The older, he was still not 20

260
00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:32,605
before later he
started to make shoes.

261
00:11:32,605 --> 00:11:34,285
On the younger, gloves.

262
00:11:34,285 --> 00:11:37,300
Leather gloves and
winter gloves with

263
00:11:37,300 --> 00:11:40,900
lining, because there
we didn't go with us.

264
00:11:40,900 --> 00:11:45,800
Winter, we go dressed in
fur coats or fur collars.

265
00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:48,000
Only who didn't have
money for fur coats,

266
00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:51,100
we was not driving the cars,

267
00:11:51,100 --> 00:11:54,580
we walk a lot that we
need to be dressed.

268
00:11:54,580 --> 00:11:57,610
>> Did your family live in
an apartment or a house?

269
00:11:57,610 --> 00:12:00,475
>> My mother didn't
like to live where it's

270
00:12:00,475 --> 00:12:03,880
all the way high and she was
looking for a small house.

271
00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:07,240
But really a little too small
for us was one bedroom,

272
00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:09,325
one living room, and a kitchen.

273
00:12:09,325 --> 00:12:10,960
My uncle was not

274
00:12:10,960 --> 00:12:13,600
satisfied because he
promised my father,

275
00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:16,180
my father's dream was to
have a big house with

276
00:12:16,180 --> 00:12:19,825
a big garden with fruits,
apples, with everything.

277
00:12:19,825 --> 00:12:21,565
And it was his dream.

278
00:12:21,565 --> 00:12:25,060
My uncle tell, "My
new children already,

279
00:12:25,060 --> 00:12:26,678
I will start to pay
them because they

280
00:12:26,678 --> 00:12:28,345
maybe be all doctors.

281
00:12:28,345 --> 00:12:30,460
You need to look for a
bigger house with a garden."

282
00:12:30,460 --> 00:12:33,070
My mother tell, "Thank
you for your help.

283
00:12:33,070 --> 00:12:36,340
I got already used in
the little house."

284
00:12:36,340 --> 00:12:40,630
Me was with hand, hot water,

285
00:12:40,630 --> 00:12:43,460
we need to make to
wash the dishes,

286
00:12:43,470 --> 00:12:46,945
I want my brother go
to school very clean.

287
00:12:46,945 --> 00:12:50,380
I was every day almost in the
evening, the white blouses,

288
00:12:50,380 --> 00:12:52,540
where they need to go
with blue outfits or

289
00:12:52,540 --> 00:12:56,110
white blouses or we need
to have electric iron.

290
00:12:56,110 --> 00:12:59,245
I was a little girl, I felt,

291
00:12:59,245 --> 00:13:01,345
don't be upset, they look good.

292
00:13:01,345 --> 00:13:03,445
On iron shoes.

293
00:13:03,445 --> 00:13:05,350
When I cleaned up the house,

294
00:13:05,350 --> 00:13:06,595
my brother came and tell,

295
00:13:06,595 --> 00:13:07,870
oh, smells so good.

296
00:13:07,870 --> 00:13:09,295
Say, I clean so good.

297
00:13:09,295 --> 00:13:10,840
When I was a little girl,

298
00:13:10,840 --> 00:13:12,670
I was working very hard.

299
00:13:12,670 --> 00:13:15,070
Did what I came
to United States,

300
00:13:15,070 --> 00:13:18,280
I was working hard because
I was used to work hard.

301
00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:20,425
We was raised different.

302
00:13:20,425 --> 00:13:22,960
>> Well, tell me,
how much did you

303
00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:25,480
know about the Nazis in Germany?

304
00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:28,510
[LAUGHTER]

305
00:13:28,510 --> 00:13:31,015
>> In '39 came the Asher,

306
00:13:31,015 --> 00:13:32,710
they take away from my uncle,

307
00:13:32,710 --> 00:13:36,445
he have the shoe

308
00:13:36,445 --> 00:13:39,700
two stores or the factors

309
00:13:39,700 --> 00:13:43,420
on the bank right away close
or take away the money.

310
00:13:43,420 --> 00:13:45,520
Take away the big houses or

311
00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:49,075
put every three
families in one house.

312
00:13:49,075 --> 00:13:51,280
When it was something bad,

313
00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:52,810
the Latvian tell the Jewish,

314
00:13:52,810 --> 00:13:54,580
bloody Russians,
they didn't see what

315
00:13:54,580 --> 00:13:56,710
they do to the Jewish.

316
00:13:56,710 --> 00:13:59,695
To blame the Jewish
always they tried.

317
00:13:59,695 --> 00:14:02,020
We were surprised,
all the German go

318
00:14:02,020 --> 00:14:04,435
to Germany when
the Russian came.

319
00:14:04,435 --> 00:14:06,235
Very little didn't go.

320
00:14:06,235 --> 00:14:09,340
On the Latvia was very upset
where they don't have to

321
00:14:09,340 --> 00:14:13,460
go but they need to stay with
the Jewish till in Russia.

322
00:14:13,620 --> 00:14:16,125
When I go for the school,

323
00:14:16,125 --> 00:14:19,270
they tell me [FOREIGN].

324
00:14:19,270 --> 00:14:21,310
I tell, why you talk
to me like this?

325
00:14:21,310 --> 00:14:24,250
You bad people you brought
here in the Russian.

326
00:14:24,250 --> 00:14:26,035
I tell, I didn't bring them.

327
00:14:26,035 --> 00:14:29,050
They came [LAUGHTER].

328
00:14:29,050 --> 00:14:30,730
The other children,
don't talk too much,

329
00:14:30,730 --> 00:14:32,860
they can beat you also, go away.

330
00:14:32,860 --> 00:14:36,265
I tell need to explain
what it's not my fault,

331
00:14:36,265 --> 00:14:37,630
maybe they don't know.

332
00:14:37,630 --> 00:14:39,190
She tell, they know
better for you.

333
00:14:39,190 --> 00:14:42,770
They only blame always the
Jewish for everything.

334
00:14:46,050 --> 00:14:48,820
>> So the Russians came in.

335
00:14:48,820 --> 00:14:52,330
When did the Germans come
in to occupy Latvia?

336
00:14:52,330 --> 00:14:56,200
>> The Russian came
the first time in '29.

337
00:14:56,200 --> 00:15:00,235
And '41, came the German.

338
00:15:00,235 --> 00:15:02,950
>> And what did that
mean for your family?

339
00:15:02,950 --> 00:15:05,110
What did you have
to do? [LAUGHTER]

340
00:15:05,110 --> 00:15:07,870
>> What did it mean?
When the German came

341
00:15:07,870 --> 00:15:11,005
the [FOREIGN] planes to
[FOREIGN] right away.

342
00:15:11,005 --> 00:15:12,490
The Russians, they take

343
00:15:12,490 --> 00:15:15,100
a baby for the
houses with these,

344
00:15:15,100 --> 00:15:19,015
they did the go meet
planes like the German.

345
00:15:19,015 --> 00:15:22,195
The German know in the area
where the Jewish live,

346
00:15:22,195 --> 00:15:24,520
where the re-Jewish
live and this live,

347
00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:28,630
where they go in synagogue.

348
00:15:28,630 --> 00:15:31,090
All my relatives run to there,

349
00:15:31,090 --> 00:15:32,515
they go in a synagogue,

350
00:15:32,515 --> 00:15:34,045
they believe in God also,

351
00:15:34,045 --> 00:15:35,770
they make a fire,

352
00:15:35,770 --> 00:15:38,140
maybe killed them
and everything.

353
00:15:38,140 --> 00:15:41,515
When they came back, we
didn't find it done but

354
00:15:41,515 --> 00:15:43,960
when we ran to

355
00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,960
the Russian in the last moment
we find out what go trays.

356
00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:49,240
We was hiding but
we were ambushed.

357
00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:51,325
They closed, there
was the hang up.

358
00:15:51,325 --> 00:15:53,965
We was thinking that
they will not find it.

359
00:15:53,965 --> 00:15:56,200
The food, it's
finished, the bank,

360
00:15:56,200 --> 00:15:58,225
it's closed, the
stores is closed.

361
00:15:58,225 --> 00:16:00,640
My mother tell, the mice
will eat us children,

362
00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:03,310
let's go at least take
a shower or make a tea,

363
00:16:03,310 --> 00:16:04,420
if the German came,

364
00:16:04,420 --> 00:16:06,265
we'll be clean to dying.

365
00:16:06,265 --> 00:16:08,860
When we came with a relative,

366
00:16:08,860 --> 00:16:10,210
what she be the sister,

367
00:16:10,210 --> 00:16:14,050
depend sleep in a small town
of walking in Riga crying.

368
00:16:14,050 --> 00:16:16,915
My mother told, how you
come or you done dead.

369
00:16:16,915 --> 00:16:19,570
She tell, I go with
very small streets

370
00:16:19,570 --> 00:16:23,185
on the Capitol
Streets, full killing.

371
00:16:23,185 --> 00:16:25,165
My mother told her,
what you come here?

372
00:16:25,165 --> 00:16:27,070
She tell, my sister want to go

373
00:16:27,070 --> 00:16:29,785
to Russia and I want
to go to my parents.

374
00:16:29,785 --> 00:16:33,610
My mother know already for
the Germany over there also,

375
00:16:33,610 --> 00:16:35,170
maybe her parents
are dead already.

376
00:16:35,170 --> 00:16:37,765
She did upset. She tell,

377
00:16:37,765 --> 00:16:39,400
how your sister want to go?

378
00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:41,770
She have money? She
have somebody there?

379
00:16:41,770 --> 00:16:43,390
Don't ask me questions.

380
00:16:43,390 --> 00:16:45,400
I don't know nothing.
Well, start to cry.

381
00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:47,185
She want to go to her parents.

382
00:16:47,185 --> 00:16:48,955
In meantime, her sister know,

383
00:16:48,955 --> 00:16:50,600
but she don't tell anybody else.

384
00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:51,600
Only we was the one.

385
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:53,725
We was not very close.

386
00:16:53,725 --> 00:16:55,735
>> Is this your mother's sister?

387
00:16:55,735 --> 00:17:01,105
>> No, this was my mother's
relative's daughter.

388
00:17:01,105 --> 00:17:04,780
She had older sister
but also was working.

389
00:17:04,780 --> 00:17:07,495
Find out what go
trains to Russia.

390
00:17:07,495 --> 00:17:08,680
Oh, want to go? No,

391
00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:12,020
she didn't want, she want
to go to her parents.

392
00:17:12,660 --> 00:17:15,280
Now, finally, her sister, no,

393
00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:16,690
she don't have other place,

394
00:17:16,690 --> 00:17:18,010
she came to us.

395
00:17:18,010 --> 00:17:20,545
And she told, my crazy
sister right away.

396
00:17:20,545 --> 00:17:22,720
After 12 minutes,
the last train go

397
00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:25,435
away or we was killed
by the German.

398
00:17:25,435 --> 00:17:27,040
My mother tell, wait,

399
00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:28,330
we want to take a shower,

400
00:17:28,330 --> 00:17:29,410
maybe we go also.

401
00:17:29,410 --> 00:17:31,390
She tell, no, you
don't have time,

402
00:17:31,390 --> 00:17:33,160
or you can't take a suitcase.

403
00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:34,390
If you go with a suitcase,

404
00:17:34,390 --> 00:17:36,055
you'll be killed right away.

405
00:17:36,055 --> 00:17:37,930
The German, it's all over.

406
00:17:37,930 --> 00:17:40,180
Told my mother to how
we will go to train?

407
00:17:40,180 --> 00:17:41,920
She tell, we need to go with

408
00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:43,840
very small streets where

409
00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:46,345
there the job is
still not there.

410
00:17:46,345 --> 00:17:48,205
My mother was so tired.

411
00:17:48,205 --> 00:17:49,795
We was out food hiding

412
00:17:49,795 --> 00:17:53,695
there was swollen her
feet was sitting there.

413
00:17:53,695 --> 00:17:55,450
She told, maybe, you go.

414
00:17:55,450 --> 00:17:57,130
I will go home, take a shower,

415
00:17:57,130 --> 00:17:58,705
they kill me, they kill me.

416
00:17:58,705 --> 00:18:01,915
I don't know mother
we go all together.

417
00:18:01,915 --> 00:18:04,420
Finally, when we
came to the train,

418
00:18:04,420 --> 00:18:06,265
was so packed with people or

419
00:18:06,265 --> 00:18:09,250
older people that make up
the mind to stay here.

420
00:18:09,250 --> 00:18:13,810
They brought the pillows
with warm clothes.

421
00:18:13,810 --> 00:18:16,910
People go like, people,
we go with nothing.

422
00:18:16,910 --> 00:18:18,465
Maybe we go back.

423
00:18:18,465 --> 00:18:20,565
I told, oh, mum,
we don't go back.

424
00:18:20,565 --> 00:18:23,375
All in that to move,

425
00:18:23,375 --> 00:18:25,840
they start to bomb the train.

426
00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:27,100
On other good luck,

427
00:18:27,100 --> 00:18:28,530
but we were sitting in the back.

428
00:18:28,530 --> 00:18:31,530
We didn't have close to
the window then to sit.

429
00:18:31,530 --> 00:18:33,690
The windows was broken.

430
00:18:33,690 --> 00:18:38,740
All the people was dead cover
up us. We couldn't move.

431
00:18:38,740 --> 00:18:41,375
I was covered with dead people.

432
00:18:41,375 --> 00:18:43,050
My mother was crying,

433
00:18:43,050 --> 00:18:44,240
children, you still alive?

434
00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:47,350
She was thinking maybe
were also dead. Yes, mom.

435
00:18:47,350 --> 00:18:49,540
No, we cannot move,
we covered up.

436
00:18:49,540 --> 00:18:53,170
Came to Russia and
tell, stand up,

437
00:18:53,170 --> 00:18:56,170
we need to burry the people or

438
00:18:56,170 --> 00:18:59,185
if we can fix the train,
then you will come back.

439
00:18:59,185 --> 00:19:01,735
You go in the
wilderness right away.

440
00:19:01,735 --> 00:19:06,185
Thank God, but it was
wilderness not too far.

441
00:19:06,185 --> 00:19:08,385
We was all in blood.

442
00:19:08,385 --> 00:19:11,355
My mother tell, can we go
we the ladies to wash up?

443
00:19:11,355 --> 00:19:12,690
He tell, I don't have time.

444
00:19:12,690 --> 00:19:16,970
They start to be the
Russian. We don't have time.

445
00:19:16,970 --> 00:19:19,570
You need to go right away.

446
00:19:19,570 --> 00:19:21,910
My mother again started to cry,

447
00:19:21,910 --> 00:19:24,840
children, maybe we
shouldn't go at all,

448
00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:26,040
we will die anyway.

449
00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:27,720
She was going go say,

450
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:30,000
all over the German.

451
00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:32,465
We was there hungry.

452
00:19:32,465 --> 00:19:34,120
Well, they tell other, please,

453
00:19:34,120 --> 00:19:35,730
you need to cover up yourself

454
00:19:35,730 --> 00:19:38,645
because there's still
the planes all over.

455
00:19:38,645 --> 00:19:40,400
We heard only killing,
killing, killing, killing.

456
00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:46,350
And they tell, "Only the
night you can walk."

457
00:19:46,350 --> 00:19:51,560
My mother tell, "We don't know
Russia, where we can walk."

458
00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:54,650
No, we were sitting
under the trees or

459
00:19:54,650 --> 00:19:56,570
looking, maybe we find blueberry

460
00:19:56,570 --> 00:19:58,670
or something was
still not ready.

461
00:19:58,670 --> 00:20:01,880
We put in the mouth
dirty, we put something.

462
00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:03,965
My mother tell if
it would be a rain,

463
00:20:03,965 --> 00:20:06,395
we would have a little
to wash up maybe.

464
00:20:06,395 --> 00:20:08,840
That was not rain at all.

465
00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:12,875
Finally, we hear the Russian
language, the soldiers.

466
00:20:12,875 --> 00:20:17,180
Also when the planes was
running, they cover also.

467
00:20:17,180 --> 00:20:21,605
Once they start to talk my
mother go to one and told,

468
00:20:21,605 --> 00:20:23,825
do a favor, take my children.

469
00:20:23,825 --> 00:20:25,040
I will die here.

470
00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:26,360
He tell, what are you talking?

471
00:20:26,360 --> 00:20:28,415
I need to fight
the rest soldiers.

472
00:20:28,415 --> 00:20:30,785
They're somewhere hiding.

473
00:20:30,785 --> 00:20:34,430
Did you hear what all the
time the planes and killing?

474
00:20:34,430 --> 00:20:36,500
My mother told, it
what we got here.

475
00:20:36,500 --> 00:20:40,370
The train also killed
people full there.

476
00:20:40,370 --> 00:20:42,350
He told, I cannot help you.

477
00:20:42,350 --> 00:20:44,030
Finally, he changed the mind

478
00:20:44,030 --> 00:20:46,100
because right now they
need people would go

479
00:20:46,100 --> 00:20:50,270
to help the mens to take the
army with workers in Russia.

480
00:20:50,270 --> 00:20:52,460
He tell, a little
I can help you.

481
00:20:52,460 --> 00:20:56,600
I will make lines where you
need to go right or left.

482
00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:58,610
No, only the right you can't go.

483
00:20:58,610 --> 00:21:00,530
My mother tell, how we will see?

484
00:21:00,530 --> 00:21:03,440
He have a little lighter.

485
00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:05,300
He give mother and tell, no,

486
00:21:05,300 --> 00:21:06,530
don't like this,

487
00:21:06,530 --> 00:21:08,060
only here to see.

488
00:21:08,060 --> 00:21:11,060
When you walk only
late in the night.

489
00:21:11,060 --> 00:21:13,700
Little by little a rest,
you will come there.

490
00:21:13,700 --> 00:21:15,740
Maybe will be other
trains already.

491
00:21:15,740 --> 00:21:17,300
I cannot promise you.

492
00:21:17,300 --> 00:21:18,710
If it will be fixed,

493
00:21:18,710 --> 00:21:21,185
the trains, maybe they
will wait for you.

494
00:21:21,185 --> 00:21:23,210
I cannot tell you how long we

495
00:21:23,210 --> 00:21:25,325
was walking hungry like this.

496
00:21:25,325 --> 00:21:27,590
We mostly walk a
little and again,

497
00:21:27,590 --> 00:21:29,585
we fold under the tree.

498
00:21:29,585 --> 00:21:32,780
Finally when we go already like

499
00:21:32,780 --> 00:21:35,780
three days or so we look
trains waiting there.

500
00:21:35,780 --> 00:21:37,850
>> Where were you at this time?

501
00:21:37,850 --> 00:21:39,800
>> I was my brothers,

502
00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:41,360
with my mother, altogether.

503
00:21:41,360 --> 00:21:43,235
>> But you weren't
in Riga anymore?

504
00:21:43,235 --> 00:21:44,105
>> No.

505
00:21:44,105 --> 00:21:45,200
>> You were in?

506
00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:48,020
>> We was from Riga running to

507
00:21:48,020 --> 00:21:50,705
Russia because Riga
was the Germans.

508
00:21:50,705 --> 00:21:52,895
>> So you were making
your way into the East?

509
00:21:52,895 --> 00:21:55,535
>> We was waiting the
way to go to Russia.

510
00:21:55,535 --> 00:21:56,870
Where they will bring us,

511
00:21:56,870 --> 00:21:58,940
we don't know about
Russia, nothing.

512
00:21:58,940 --> 00:22:00,230
Afterwards they bring us,

513
00:22:00,230 --> 00:22:03,035
I will tell what we go
through there where we come.

514
00:22:03,035 --> 00:22:05,420
When it was the trains

515
00:22:05,420 --> 00:22:08,045
was locked in the people
what was the first train.

516
00:22:08,045 --> 00:22:10,295
Maybe they got it a nicer place.

517
00:22:10,295 --> 00:22:13,460
We came, they take
us Yaroslavl Oblast,

518
00:22:13,460 --> 00:22:15,515
you will never find on the map.

519
00:22:15,515 --> 00:22:17,210
There was maybe people what they

520
00:22:17,210 --> 00:22:18,920
bring before and killed them.

521
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:22,700
Broken windows with a
broken roof with straw.

522
00:22:22,700 --> 00:22:24,110
When we go in,

523
00:22:24,110 --> 00:22:26,480
was smelling terrible.

524
00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:28,310
Not furniture.

525
00:22:28,310 --> 00:22:31,550
A big oven in Russia is pechka.

526
00:22:31,550 --> 00:22:34,655
My mother tell,
you speak Russia.

527
00:22:34,655 --> 00:22:36,125
I will see what
men were brought,

528
00:22:36,125 --> 00:22:38,945
where we will eat or
where we will sleep.

529
00:22:38,945 --> 00:22:41,120
I ask he tell, if you

530
00:22:41,120 --> 00:22:43,400
have not to eat,
you will eat here.

531
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,805
You can go the
pechka, in the oven.

532
00:22:46,805 --> 00:22:48,860
My mother tell him, you see,

533
00:22:48,860 --> 00:22:49,910
we don't have nothing,

534
00:22:49,910 --> 00:22:51,140
not pillows, nothing.

535
00:22:51,140 --> 00:22:53,525
I tell mom, you didn't
hear what he tell.

536
00:22:53,525 --> 00:22:56,570
What they cannot help us
if you will have to eat.

537
00:22:56,570 --> 00:22:58,895
This means they
will not help us.

538
00:22:58,895 --> 00:23:02,450
I cannot tell you we
needed the night,

539
00:23:02,450 --> 00:23:03,905
we go in the oven.

540
00:23:03,905 --> 00:23:05,630
Black start to eat us.

541
00:23:05,630 --> 00:23:07,175
I don't know how this is.

542
00:23:07,175 --> 00:23:09,050
In Yiddish it's vants,

543
00:23:09,050 --> 00:23:10,850
in German also vants.

544
00:23:10,850 --> 00:23:13,175
How it's in English,
I don't know.

545
00:23:13,175 --> 00:23:15,560
These big black.

546
00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:16,910
They start to eat us,

547
00:23:16,910 --> 00:23:19,610
but we go off, follow the tree.

548
00:23:19,610 --> 00:23:20,660
>> Is it a bug?

549
00:23:20,660 --> 00:23:23,090
>> This is a big bugs.

550
00:23:23,090 --> 00:23:26,990
This came from dogs
that never was cleaned.

551
00:23:26,990 --> 00:23:28,175
This was in the house.

552
00:23:28,175 --> 00:23:31,145
I don't know how long
was there nobody live.

553
00:23:31,145 --> 00:23:32,500
Maybe the people before

554
00:23:32,500 --> 00:23:33,700
when the war [inaudible]
when they came

555
00:23:33,700 --> 00:23:35,540
in '29 to when they was killed.

556
00:23:35,540 --> 00:23:37,535
Who knows? Smelling terrible.

557
00:23:37,535 --> 00:23:39,110
>> Was it a barn?

558
00:23:39,110 --> 00:23:41,225
What sort of place were you?

559
00:23:41,225 --> 00:23:45,740
>> It was the name Yaroslavl
Oblast, a small place.

560
00:23:45,740 --> 00:23:48,515
Not streets, not buildings.

561
00:23:48,515 --> 00:23:50,780
Maybe there was some houses.

562
00:23:50,780 --> 00:23:53,795
They brought us in a
place was nothing was.

563
00:23:53,795 --> 00:23:56,375
>> What kind of
people were there?

564
00:23:56,375 --> 00:24:00,140
>> Russian. When we start
to complain, they tell,

565
00:24:00,140 --> 00:24:02,960
all the man is in
the war and here are

566
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:05,870
dying children with
hungry [inaudible].

567
00:24:05,870 --> 00:24:07,970
So you ask for food or you ask,

568
00:24:07,970 --> 00:24:10,565
we don't have
anything to give you.

569
00:24:10,565 --> 00:24:14,090
My mother asked them
why they bring us here?

570
00:24:14,090 --> 00:24:16,880
I told mom, what do
you want to ask them?

571
00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:18,980
They bring because
they was thinking we

572
00:24:18,980 --> 00:24:21,635
can work sometimes do something.

573
00:24:21,635 --> 00:24:24,920
Right now, it's cold,

574
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:26,840
and we don't have where to work.

575
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:29,495
They tell, when it will
be warm, we will work.

576
00:24:29,495 --> 00:24:32,495
Maybe potatoes spud
or pickup with them.

577
00:24:32,495 --> 00:24:35,345
Right now it was already
cold when we came.

578
00:24:35,345 --> 00:24:38,705
Almost winter.
Snow still wasn't.

579
00:24:38,705 --> 00:24:40,370
It was very windy or very

580
00:24:40,370 --> 00:24:42,275
cold and we didn't
have any clothes.

581
00:24:42,275 --> 00:24:43,490
>> But your mother
didn't want to

582
00:24:43,490 --> 00:24:45,335
stay there through the winter.

583
00:24:45,335 --> 00:24:48,080
>> My mother didn't want
but we didn't have where to

584
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:51,170
go after only there
start to be snow.

585
00:24:51,170 --> 00:24:52,790
She started to cry to him.

586
00:24:52,790 --> 00:24:56,150
Can you let us go where
it's a little warm?

587
00:24:56,150 --> 00:25:00,680
He tell, you have
money to buy tickets?

588
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,500
My mother tell, we don't
have money, nothing.

589
00:25:03,500 --> 00:25:05,270
Then finally, he was sick and

590
00:25:05,270 --> 00:25:07,580
tired of my mother
always crying.

591
00:25:07,580 --> 00:25:09,845
They need to give once a year,

592
00:25:09,845 --> 00:25:13,685
the last one, they don't have
more to eat for the army.

593
00:25:13,685 --> 00:25:16,040
He tell, we don't
have good horses.

594
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:17,750
You will stop the wagons,

595
00:25:17,750 --> 00:25:20,960
or you will go where
you can ask them

596
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:24,755
to go to Uzbekistan.
There it's warm.

597
00:25:24,755 --> 00:25:27,215
>> Why is Uzbekistan?

598
00:25:27,215 --> 00:25:29,450
>> Why is Uzbekistan?
Because all over

599
00:25:29,450 --> 00:25:31,580
was the war. All over.

600
00:25:31,580 --> 00:25:32,960
>> Well, how did
people know that

601
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:35,555
Uzbekistan was a
good place to go?

602
00:25:35,555 --> 00:25:37,910
>> It was far away.

603
00:25:37,910 --> 00:25:40,910
There still was not the German.

604
00:25:40,910 --> 00:25:45,110
There was warm at
least very hot.

605
00:25:45,110 --> 00:25:48,980
>> Were there people who
had already gone there?

606
00:25:48,980 --> 00:25:50,870
>> There was maybe a lot of

607
00:25:50,870 --> 00:25:53,675
immigration and
Uzbekistan was big.

608
00:25:53,675 --> 00:25:55,460
If it was come in beginning,

609
00:25:55,460 --> 00:25:57,110
maybe would be Tashkent,

610
00:25:57,110 --> 00:25:58,850
for example, in the capital.

611
00:25:58,850 --> 00:26:01,565
In the capital, they
have small houses,

612
00:26:01,565 --> 00:26:04,040
and there is more
educated Uzbeks.

613
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,715
When we came, was woman go
with these closed faces.

614
00:26:07,715 --> 00:26:10,440
They never take off.

615
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:15,020
There is kibitka
there in that houses.

616
00:26:15,020 --> 00:26:17,930
I will tell you how we came.

617
00:26:17,930 --> 00:26:19,985
Before I go to talk to a man,

618
00:26:19,985 --> 00:26:22,280
that we want to
go to Uzbekistan.

619
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:23,705
He told, you have money?

620
00:26:23,705 --> 00:26:25,520
You have somebody wait for you?

621
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:27,920
I tell no, we are
immigration from Latvia.

622
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:29,330
He didn't know about Latvia,

623
00:26:29,330 --> 00:26:30,830
nothing. So why you come here?

624
00:26:30,830 --> 00:26:33,200
Go to Latvia, he tell me.

625
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,035
Not educated, Russia.

626
00:26:36,035 --> 00:26:38,495
As a good luck was one man

627
00:26:38,495 --> 00:26:40,955
was from Ukraine working there.

628
00:26:40,955 --> 00:26:43,235
When he hear me crying,

629
00:26:43,235 --> 00:26:44,870
my mother was, it's cold,

630
00:26:44,870 --> 00:26:46,115
the snow already come.

631
00:26:46,115 --> 00:26:48,200
We were dying. He came he tell,

632
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:50,645
I know the Latvian lige.

633
00:26:50,645 --> 00:26:52,610
I was visiting. In Latvia,

634
00:26:52,610 --> 00:26:53,900
it was a good life because

635
00:26:53,900 --> 00:26:55,670
the Russian with
the German come.

636
00:26:55,670 --> 00:26:57,755
Now a little I can help you.

637
00:26:57,755 --> 00:27:00,455
My mother tell, how
you can help you?

638
00:27:00,455 --> 00:27:04,475
He tell, tomorrow will be
a train where the Russian

639
00:27:04,475 --> 00:27:09,170
took the Jewish in camps before
because they came in '39.

640
00:27:09,170 --> 00:27:12,065
Right now is the
front very close.

641
00:27:12,065 --> 00:27:14,240
Does they put them
in trucks like the

642
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,840
German or they need
to go to Uzbekistan?

643
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:20,180
They will be there, sick people.

644
00:27:20,180 --> 00:27:22,115
This is not a regular train.

645
00:27:22,115 --> 00:27:24,830
This is a train like the
German put the people in

646
00:27:24,830 --> 00:27:26,420
trains to kill and this what

647
00:27:26,420 --> 00:27:29,120
the Russians have
trains like this.

648
00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:33,440
I can put you early morning
but not when they see.

649
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:36,380
They can put me
in jail for that.

650
00:27:36,380 --> 00:27:39,980
My mother tell him, tomorrow
will be dying on the snow.

651
00:27:39,980 --> 00:27:42,395
He tell, no, I will
not do this to you.

652
00:27:42,395 --> 00:27:44,585
I'm also Jewish, he tell.

653
00:27:44,585 --> 00:27:45,980
I live with a mother,

654
00:27:45,980 --> 00:27:47,405
with a wife and two children.

655
00:27:47,405 --> 00:27:50,045
I have one room with
a small kitchen.

656
00:27:50,045 --> 00:27:53,630
You will sleep two nights in
the kitchen on the floor.

657
00:27:53,630 --> 00:27:56,150
I can something do hot water.

658
00:27:56,150 --> 00:27:57,590
You will wash up a little.

659
00:27:57,590 --> 00:27:59,000
You will feel better.

660
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:00,860
My mother tell, God bless you.

661
00:28:00,860 --> 00:28:02,975
She have a ring on her finger.

662
00:28:02,975 --> 00:28:04,235
She wanted to give him.

663
00:28:04,235 --> 00:28:08,090
He told, this you will need
for a piece of bread, maybe.

664
00:28:08,090 --> 00:28:10,085
I don't need from you nothing.

665
00:28:10,085 --> 00:28:11,420
I know a lot of

666
00:28:11,420 --> 00:28:15,155
my relatives didn't go and
they may be dead in Ukraine.

667
00:28:15,155 --> 00:28:17,850
Ukraine is Russia.

668
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:20,960
Right now in the front all over.

669
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:23,450
It's in Moscow in Leningrad,

670
00:28:23,450 --> 00:28:25,175
in all over in Russia.

671
00:28:25,175 --> 00:28:27,425
When they take you,

672
00:28:27,425 --> 00:28:30,930
maybe they will take
two of your son.

673
00:28:30,930 --> 00:28:33,550
Yeah they took my brother,

674
00:28:33,550 --> 00:28:35,755
20 years right away in the army.

675
00:28:35,755 --> 00:28:37,000
And my youngest still,

676
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,010
I will die anyway.
I will go with you.

677
00:28:39,010 --> 00:28:41,995
He tell, no, you stay with
mother with the little ones.

678
00:28:41,995 --> 00:28:46,325
He was sitting, he never talk.

679
00:28:46,325 --> 00:28:48,290
He was so upset.

680
00:28:48,290 --> 00:28:53,705
He tell, better I would died
but to go through all this.

681
00:28:53,705 --> 00:28:56,090
My little brother was,

682
00:28:56,090 --> 00:28:58,085
sister don't have to eat.

683
00:28:58,085 --> 00:28:59,555
They don't have a bath.

684
00:28:59,555 --> 00:29:02,570
We didn't have where to
take a bath, nothing.

685
00:29:02,570 --> 00:29:06,090
>> So it was the three
of you with your mother?

686
00:29:06,820 --> 00:29:11,555
>> He go to the army
when he was 17.

687
00:29:11,555 --> 00:29:13,355
>> They went into
the Russian army.

688
00:29:13,355 --> 00:29:16,130
>> Yeah. He didn't
tell my mother.

689
00:29:16,130 --> 00:29:17,660
He tell he go look for food.

690
00:29:17,660 --> 00:29:19,055
>> And he just didn't come back?

691
00:29:19,055 --> 00:29:20,195
>> He didn't come back.

692
00:29:20,195 --> 00:29:21,320
Afterwards he was killed,

693
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:25,220
we find out what he was
killed in Staraya Russa.

694
00:29:25,220 --> 00:29:29,290
>> So you were with this
Jewish man who helped you?

695
00:29:29,290 --> 00:29:33,765
>> He put us early
morning in this train.

696
00:29:33,765 --> 00:29:38,405
My brother, the 17 years was
in the train and so were we.

697
00:29:38,405 --> 00:29:40,145
He tell he will go look for food

698
00:29:40,145 --> 00:29:41,960
or water and go to the army.

699
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:43,580
Then I was with my mother,

700
00:29:43,580 --> 00:29:44,975
with the little brothers.

701
00:29:44,975 --> 00:29:47,260
I was then 13,

702
00:29:47,260 --> 00:29:51,250
one brother was 11 and one
nine and my sick mother.

703
00:29:51,250 --> 00:29:54,790
>> So then your mother
went to for food?

704
00:29:54,790 --> 00:29:57,660
>> I will tell you how it was.

705
00:29:57,660 --> 00:29:59,225
Two nights, she was crying

706
00:29:59,225 --> 00:30:00,845
when my brother
didn't come back.

707
00:30:00,845 --> 00:30:02,480
She didn't know what
he go to the army.

708
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:05,895
She was thinking maybe
somebody killed him.

709
00:30:05,895 --> 00:30:08,360
Then she tell,

710
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:10,310
I need to go to look for water.

711
00:30:10,310 --> 00:30:13,115
I just want you at least
have a little water.

712
00:30:13,115 --> 00:30:16,100
On the train after
stops to come to

713
00:30:16,100 --> 00:30:19,835
Uzbekistan I meet my little
brother and out my mother.

714
00:30:19,835 --> 00:30:21,515
Came to Uzbekistan,

715
00:30:21,515 --> 00:30:23,000
take us somewhere, we cried.

716
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:24,140
No, we cannot go.

717
00:30:24,140 --> 00:30:26,360
We will wait go regular trains.

718
00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:28,280
Maybe we forgot my mother.

719
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:32,660
We were sleeping there at
cement floor on the street.

720
00:30:32,660 --> 00:30:34,280
We found maybe sleep.

721
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:35,525
Some train, we would say,

722
00:30:35,525 --> 00:30:37,985
mom, mom, nobody answer.

723
00:30:37,985 --> 00:30:40,100
We was three nights there till

724
00:30:40,100 --> 00:30:42,935
police tell them to
take us to the kolkhoz.

725
00:30:42,935 --> 00:30:44,660
>> To the where?

726
00:30:44,660 --> 00:30:47,210
>> To take away,
not to be there.

727
00:30:47,210 --> 00:30:48,345
>> The kolkhoz?

728
00:30:48,345 --> 00:30:52,240
>> This is kolkhoz
where they put us.

729
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:54,865
That house is Kibitsky.

730
00:30:54,865 --> 00:30:56,740
Maybe the army,

731
00:30:56,740 --> 00:30:59,155
the soldier in Tazbekistan.

732
00:30:59,155 --> 00:31:00,670
Uzbekistan is not far from

733
00:31:00,670 --> 00:31:04,220
Tajikistan where they
don't have regular houses.

734
00:31:04,220 --> 00:31:06,650
They have out windows,

735
00:31:06,650 --> 00:31:10,295
they make that bread, lipioshki,

736
00:31:10,295 --> 00:31:13,805
outside, though they
never give us any food.

737
00:31:13,805 --> 00:31:16,775
When I showed them
we're hungry, he told,

738
00:31:16,775 --> 00:31:18,915
"Go to Hitler, he
will feed you."

739
00:31:18,915 --> 00:31:21,680
He was laughing.

740
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:26,225
One only Uzbek speak
a little Russia.

741
00:31:26,225 --> 00:31:27,665
He told, "Don't cry,

742
00:31:27,665 --> 00:31:29,075
we'll find your mother."

743
00:31:29,075 --> 00:31:30,440
I tell, how you find?

744
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:34,865
I don't think you have the
newspaper. How you find?

745
00:31:34,865 --> 00:31:36,665
We will find your mother.

746
00:31:36,665 --> 00:31:38,090
I see him one time,

747
00:31:38,090 --> 00:31:40,430
only this man would
speak a little Russia.

748
00:31:40,430 --> 00:31:42,860
He didn't come.
When I was saying,

749
00:31:42,860 --> 00:31:44,480
I'm sorry, he don't come.

750
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:48,425
He promised to find my mother
and he didn't came back.

751
00:31:48,425 --> 00:31:51,125
Finally, when we're
drinking from the lake,

752
00:31:51,125 --> 00:31:53,060
the dirty water was

753
00:31:53,060 --> 00:31:56,090
smelling or washing
me the same water.

754
00:31:56,090 --> 00:31:58,100
We got typhus sick,

755
00:31:58,100 --> 00:31:59,855
I'm the first one,

756
00:31:59,855 --> 00:32:02,090
or they didn't
want to take us to

757
00:32:02,090 --> 00:32:04,760
hospital and they
died, the Jewish.

758
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:09,215
No, that was a teacher at
school where the Uzbeks go.

759
00:32:09,215 --> 00:32:11,990
He tell all the Uzbeks
can't go for them sick.

760
00:32:11,990 --> 00:32:14,630
You need to take them
to the hospital.

761
00:32:14,630 --> 00:32:17,735
I was the last one but
I did already nothing.

762
00:32:17,735 --> 00:32:20,630
My fever was so high
that they take me,

763
00:32:20,630 --> 00:32:23,030
the first one, in hospital.

764
00:32:23,030 --> 00:32:26,525
When I came, I was
there almost dead.

765
00:32:26,525 --> 00:32:28,070
The good luck with me.

766
00:32:28,070 --> 00:32:31,400
A Jewish doctor was
sitting and he see that,

767
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:34,115
but they came to visit me,
who's dying from fever.

768
00:32:34,115 --> 00:32:36,080
Mom, bring me chocolate.

769
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:37,430
Mom, bring me cookies,

770
00:32:37,430 --> 00:32:39,050
and I fell asleep again.

771
00:32:39,050 --> 00:32:41,045
He put me cold compress,

772
00:32:41,045 --> 00:32:43,550
something put in my mouth.

773
00:32:43,550 --> 00:32:47,120
After three weeks,
I opened the eyes.

774
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:49,025
He told, sweet child,

775
00:32:49,025 --> 00:32:50,435
he opened the eyes.

776
00:32:50,435 --> 00:32:52,400
You talked a little German and a

777
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:55,100
little Jewish so I
understand you're Jewish,

778
00:32:55,100 --> 00:32:58,145
but I don't see any
parents come to you visit.

779
00:32:58,145 --> 00:32:59,945
When I again fell asleep,

780
00:32:59,945 --> 00:33:01,670
my mother was here,
she brought me

781
00:33:01,670 --> 00:33:04,170
chocolate and I
fell asleep again.

782
00:33:04,170 --> 00:33:06,760
After I find out
when I was better,

783
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:09,610
he got typhus and
he was the doctor.

784
00:33:09,610 --> 00:33:12,655
An Uzbek doctor tell,

785
00:33:12,655 --> 00:33:14,365
you're very weak right now,

786
00:33:14,365 --> 00:33:19,245
you cannot work because
for that was high fever.

787
00:33:19,245 --> 00:33:23,430
I have with my feet, something.

788
00:33:23,430 --> 00:33:26,240
Tell me from what place
they brought you.

789
00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:28,565
I didn't remember nothing.

790
00:33:28,565 --> 00:33:30,200
Right now, I know it was

791
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:35,990
[inaudible] Then I
didn't remember nothing.

792
00:33:35,990 --> 00:33:38,225
I tell, I was a bit high fever,

793
00:33:38,225 --> 00:33:40,595
I don't know where
I need to go back.

794
00:33:40,595 --> 00:33:42,740
He told, if you
stay here longer,

795
00:33:42,740 --> 00:33:43,790
you will go again,

796
00:33:43,790 --> 00:33:45,485
and then you will not survive.

797
00:33:45,485 --> 00:33:47,270
>> Where were your brothers?

798
00:33:47,270 --> 00:33:48,410
>> In the army.

799
00:33:48,410 --> 00:33:49,595
>> Your younger brothers?

800
00:33:49,595 --> 00:33:51,770
>> The younger brother,
they take him after.

801
00:33:51,770 --> 00:33:54,290
I didn't know they
take him in hospital.

802
00:33:54,290 --> 00:33:56,360
>> So you were all
in the hospital?

803
00:33:56,360 --> 00:33:58,475
>> They was in the
other hospital

804
00:33:58,475 --> 00:34:00,800
because this hospital
was the closer.

805
00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:02,000
When I was the most sick,

806
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:03,335
they brought me the first.

807
00:34:03,335 --> 00:34:05,030
But then when I came back,

808
00:34:05,030 --> 00:34:06,830
I find out that they came

809
00:34:06,830 --> 00:34:09,800
a day before my brothers
for the hospital.

810
00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:12,950
>> So you recovered?

811
00:34:12,950 --> 00:34:16,565
>> I was long time very weak.

812
00:34:16,565 --> 00:34:18,690
I couldn't walk.

813
00:34:18,790 --> 00:34:24,230
After was a miracle
where before I got sick.

814
00:34:24,230 --> 00:34:26,990
I remember for my older brother,

815
00:34:26,990 --> 00:34:29,420
the number when he
was in the army,

816
00:34:29,420 --> 00:34:32,015
I was writing letters.

817
00:34:32,015 --> 00:34:34,940
The first time I tell
him not the true.

818
00:34:34,940 --> 00:34:37,475
I write a letter
because mother working.

819
00:34:37,475 --> 00:34:40,295
He eyed me down,
don't lie to me.

820
00:34:40,295 --> 00:34:42,470
My mother would
never go sleep not

821
00:34:42,470 --> 00:34:44,780
to write me a letter.
No, I was young.

822
00:34:44,780 --> 00:34:46,355
I remember the number,

823
00:34:46,355 --> 00:34:48,185
and then I think
I did a mistake.

824
00:34:48,185 --> 00:34:49,910
I need to tell him the truth.

825
00:34:49,910 --> 00:34:52,970
Then I tell him what
mother go to look for

826
00:34:52,970 --> 00:34:56,450
food or the training gun
or we came in Uzbekistan.

827
00:34:56,450 --> 00:34:58,280
We cannot speak the language.

828
00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:00,590
They don't help us
with a kibitka.

829
00:35:00,590 --> 00:35:02,870
When I was sick,

830
00:35:02,870 --> 00:35:04,790
I didn't write him long time.

831
00:35:04,790 --> 00:35:06,710
Nobody write him letters.

832
00:35:06,710 --> 00:35:09,395
Then he asked all the soldiers,

833
00:35:09,395 --> 00:35:12,725
maybe they find the
husband for my sister.

834
00:35:12,725 --> 00:35:17,720
He should be, or maybe my
sister is alive or maybe she

835
00:35:17,720 --> 00:35:20,420
lives better because
he tell the Russia to

836
00:35:20,420 --> 00:35:23,360
take him in the army or
come to my sister talk,

837
00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:26,640
or he put me to his
parents or my sister left,

838
00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:28,180
or maybe was thinking,
she's killed,

839
00:35:28,180 --> 00:35:29,590
she didn't come back.

840
00:35:29,590 --> 00:35:34,635
Now after, he find out that
she left with his parents.

841
00:35:34,635 --> 00:35:38,100
That day was the [FOREIGN].

842
00:35:38,100 --> 00:35:42,110
You can believe the [FOREIGN].

843
00:35:42,110 --> 00:35:43,295
If to go there,

844
00:35:43,295 --> 00:35:46,940
you need to go
change four trains.

845
00:35:46,940 --> 00:35:48,725
>> Well, I want to go back.

846
00:35:48,725 --> 00:35:51,420
This brother that
you're writing,

847
00:35:51,420 --> 00:35:54,445
he's not the brother
in the Russian army?

848
00:35:54,445 --> 00:35:57,535
>> Yeah. He was in the
army, he still was alive.

849
00:35:57,535 --> 00:35:58,855
The first, he was killed.

850
00:35:58,855 --> 00:36:02,900
>> But why did you
know where he was?

851
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,710
>> [FOREIGN] is in Russia, but

852
00:36:06,710 --> 00:36:08,975
he got me the first letter,

853
00:36:08,975 --> 00:36:11,180
was how to write him back.

854
00:36:11,180 --> 00:36:13,940
>> How did he know
where you were?

855
00:36:13,940 --> 00:36:17,255
>> It was before we
came with my mother.

856
00:36:17,255 --> 00:36:20,900
She the first time write
him a letter in the army.

857
00:36:20,900 --> 00:36:23,165
We was already where
they took him.

858
00:36:23,165 --> 00:36:25,745
He took him right
away in the army,

859
00:36:25,745 --> 00:36:28,250
the older brother, the
youngest go later.

860
00:36:28,250 --> 00:36:32,750
The older, they took for
Yaroslavl Oblast already.

861
00:36:32,750 --> 00:36:34,790
>> So the second
brother that left,

862
00:36:34,790 --> 00:36:36,335
that was off the train.

863
00:36:36,335 --> 00:36:37,985
You didn't have
communication with him?

864
00:36:37,985 --> 00:36:39,980
>> No. For the youngest,
we didn't have.

865
00:36:39,980 --> 00:36:42,890
The oldest got right away
where they brought us

866
00:36:42,890 --> 00:36:46,085
to Yaroslavl Oblast.
They have nothing,

867
00:36:46,085 --> 00:36:48,335
so they took him right
away in the army.

868
00:36:48,335 --> 00:36:50,750
>> So tell me about
communicating

869
00:36:50,750 --> 00:36:54,500
with your sister's husband.

870
00:36:54,500 --> 00:36:56,405
>> It was like this.

871
00:36:56,405 --> 00:36:57,740
My brother, the older,

872
00:36:57,740 --> 00:36:59,060
was in the army.

873
00:36:59,060 --> 00:37:02,420
He find out somewhere
that he was in

874
00:37:02,420 --> 00:37:04,220
the same place
where here because

875
00:37:04,220 --> 00:37:06,080
some soldiers was by Moscow,

876
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:10,400
some Leningrad, all
over in Russia.

877
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:13,685
So they didn't put all
soldiers into one place.

878
00:37:13,685 --> 00:37:16,130
Now, somebody tell him he heard

879
00:37:16,130 --> 00:37:19,835
this last name for
husband for my sister.

880
00:37:19,835 --> 00:37:22,280
Powell, was his name.

881
00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:24,470
He tell everybody,

882
00:37:24,470 --> 00:37:25,640
if you hear from him,

883
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:30,980
tell him to write to me or
he can come where I am.

884
00:37:30,980 --> 00:37:33,425
My brother didn't find him, no.

885
00:37:33,425 --> 00:37:35,765
A friend after find him,

886
00:37:35,765 --> 00:37:38,105
but promised my brother,

887
00:37:38,105 --> 00:37:40,055
if I'm dying,

888
00:37:40,055 --> 00:37:43,670
you help my parents if
you come back to Riga.

889
00:37:43,670 --> 00:37:45,530
If you will die,

890
00:37:45,530 --> 00:37:47,075
when I come, I'd be.

891
00:37:47,075 --> 00:37:49,310
So he was very close in army.

892
00:37:49,310 --> 00:37:51,620
They was also hungry and
they ask you to take

893
00:37:51,620 --> 00:37:54,905
their food for the soldiers
or buy them clothes.

894
00:37:54,905 --> 00:37:57,110
The place is freezing there.

895
00:37:57,110 --> 00:38:02,100
Some was dying from typhus or
all kind of other sickness.

896
00:38:02,500 --> 00:38:05,750
The little was a
miracle who survived.

897
00:38:05,750 --> 00:38:07,550
My brothers didn't survive.

898
00:38:07,550 --> 00:38:12,350
One by Moscow died
in 2017 by Russia.

899
00:38:12,350 --> 00:38:17,030
>> So did you find your sister?

900
00:38:17,030 --> 00:38:18,215
Did you meet up
with your sister?

901
00:38:18,215 --> 00:38:22,055
>> I will tell you.
When I was in hospital,

902
00:38:22,055 --> 00:38:28,880
somebody find her husband
or give her address.

903
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:31,595
When I came back
for the hospital,

904
00:38:31,595 --> 00:38:34,340
there was a letter from
the Polish people,

905
00:38:34,340 --> 00:38:36,470
was also with us in the train.

906
00:38:36,470 --> 00:38:37,970
They didn't read Russian.

907
00:38:37,970 --> 00:38:44,135
I little understand what
[FOREIGN] Her name is Leah.

908
00:38:44,135 --> 00:38:45,890
When I came back, they tell,

909
00:38:45,890 --> 00:38:48,275
you have a sister
Leah, she's alive.

910
00:38:48,275 --> 00:38:51,995
I told, no, she died right
away, the German killed her.

911
00:38:51,995 --> 00:38:53,870
No, she's alive.

912
00:38:53,870 --> 00:38:57,665
We understand [FOREIGN].
I understand.

913
00:38:57,665 --> 00:39:00,425
I start to read,

914
00:39:00,425 --> 00:39:04,010
my husband meet somebody

915
00:39:04,010 --> 00:39:06,305
for your brother or
give the address.

916
00:39:06,305 --> 00:39:08,900
And he tell promise
was right away,

917
00:39:08,900 --> 00:39:11,690
he will give the address

918
00:39:11,690 --> 00:39:13,670
for you or you
need to find them,

919
00:39:13,670 --> 00:39:15,965
but they long time didn't hear.

920
00:39:15,965 --> 00:39:18,050
Maybe they're dead,
maybe they're alive,

921
00:39:18,050 --> 00:39:20,030
or didn't know I
write you a letter.

922
00:39:20,030 --> 00:39:21,530
If you're still alive,

923
00:39:21,530 --> 00:39:23,415
right away, answer me.

924
00:39:23,415 --> 00:39:26,470
I cannot come to you right
away, it's far away.

925
00:39:26,470 --> 00:39:28,755
I need money for the tickets.

926
00:39:28,755 --> 00:39:31,220
I need, but I can't go there,

927
00:39:31,220 --> 00:39:32,825
maybe I find help.

928
00:39:32,825 --> 00:39:34,880
I live with the parents
for my husband.

929
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:38,270
He's a good tailor and did
what we have something to eat.

930
00:39:38,270 --> 00:39:39,620
We're not so hungry.

931
00:39:39,620 --> 00:39:41,195
If you come to me,

932
00:39:41,195 --> 00:39:43,730
I cannot promise you have a lot,

933
00:39:43,730 --> 00:39:47,225
at least potatoes with a piece
of bread, you will have.

934
00:39:47,225 --> 00:39:49,775
When I read this, I hear

935
00:39:49,775 --> 00:39:53,600
potatoes with a piece
of bread and has tea.

936
00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:57,020
I will say, God, she's
in a nice place.

937
00:39:57,020 --> 00:39:58,955
Then right away, I answer her.

938
00:39:58,955 --> 00:40:01,880
I tell, you come to
pick us up better,

939
00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:03,460
we have here nothing.

940
00:40:03,460 --> 00:40:05,905
Not clean water, we were sick.

941
00:40:05,905 --> 00:40:08,425
I come only a couple of
days for the hospital.

942
00:40:08,425 --> 00:40:11,980
My little brother got also
survive for the hospital.

943
00:40:11,980 --> 00:40:15,250
Now here, I don't know how
long we will be okay because

944
00:40:15,250 --> 00:40:18,945
we drink the dirty water or
we don't have food at all.

945
00:40:18,945 --> 00:40:21,905
Finally, she got the money.

946
00:40:21,905 --> 00:40:24,695
When I was a little
better, I start to work,

947
00:40:24,695 --> 00:40:27,890
was already, not apple.

948
00:40:27,890 --> 00:40:30,980
I don't know what I
go by the trees to

949
00:40:30,980 --> 00:40:33,830
find something to give
my brother to eat.

950
00:40:33,830 --> 00:40:36,755
I was putting in a little,

951
00:40:36,755 --> 00:40:42,365
was eating what we
got, what we got.

952
00:40:42,365 --> 00:40:43,835
I was afraid, again,

953
00:40:43,835 --> 00:40:46,745
we maybe we got sick but
we need something to eat.

954
00:40:46,745 --> 00:40:50,510
When I start something to

955
00:40:50,510 --> 00:40:54,515
pick up or I see my
sister go with a bag.

956
00:40:54,515 --> 00:40:56,120
When she saw me,

957
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:58,415
oh, my God, I was out hair.

958
00:40:58,415 --> 00:41:00,050
They take out the hair,

959
00:41:00,050 --> 00:41:02,360
I don’t know when
you have typhus. .

960
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:03,785
The clothes was terrible.

961
00:41:03,785 --> 00:41:07,085
My clothes was old terrible.

962
00:41:07,085 --> 00:41:10,025
Also, we didn't have
clear water to wash,

963
00:41:10,025 --> 00:41:12,965
not soap, nothing. Hi, Leah.

964
00:41:12,965 --> 00:41:14,285
Her name was Leah.

965
00:41:14,285 --> 00:41:16,835
Leah, I was here.

966
00:41:16,835 --> 00:41:18,830
She saw me how I look,

967
00:41:18,830 --> 00:41:20,495
she start to cry.

968
00:41:20,495 --> 00:41:21,830
I tell, don't cry.

969
00:41:21,830 --> 00:41:23,690
I'm right now already back.

970
00:41:23,690 --> 00:41:25,190
If you come to pick us up,

971
00:41:25,190 --> 00:41:28,865
maybe we'll be alive or maybe
we find the mother also.

972
00:41:28,865 --> 00:41:31,295
She was crying.

973
00:41:31,295 --> 00:41:33,200
Then I shall come. The brothers

974
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:34,925
need to see you also come.

975
00:41:34,925 --> 00:41:37,130
When we came, she brought

976
00:41:37,130 --> 00:41:40,805
the dry bread,
[FOREIGN] in Russia.

977
00:41:40,805 --> 00:41:43,865
She tell, how you will eat?

978
00:41:43,865 --> 00:41:45,560
We have to put hot water.

979
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:47,645
I tell, this water is
smelling for the lake.

980
00:41:47,645 --> 00:41:51,785
No, we couldn't eat the
hot bread, nothing.

981
00:41:51,785 --> 00:41:57,635
She go to the police and
ask so fast take us back,

982
00:41:57,635 --> 00:42:00,980
to make us for the
train we need,

983
00:42:00,980 --> 00:42:03,515
she didn't know how
to go back also.

984
00:42:03,515 --> 00:42:07,655
Finally, she gave the address
to those who help us.

985
00:42:07,655 --> 00:42:10,220
And she put money.

986
00:42:10,220 --> 00:42:13,145
They told, for two,
you need tickets.

987
00:42:13,145 --> 00:42:16,160
The little one can go
out without ticket.

988
00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:18,560
She was happy that
she don't need to

989
00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:21,275
spend the last
penny for tickets.

990
00:42:21,275 --> 00:42:28,835
Now, we need to change three
trains. So far was it.

991
00:42:28,835 --> 00:42:31,115
When we came in the first train

992
00:42:31,115 --> 00:42:33,785
was already keep your
talk, hot water.

993
00:42:33,785 --> 00:42:37,805
She tell, then you can put
the bread on it already.

994
00:42:37,805 --> 00:42:41,690
When I go to pick up
[inaudible], the hot water,

995
00:42:41,690 --> 00:42:43,325
I was out of hair,

996
00:42:43,325 --> 00:42:46,070
how husband a lady look on me.

997
00:42:46,070 --> 00:42:48,725
My sister was looking
also very young.

998
00:42:48,725 --> 00:42:50,330
She can pin at her hair.

999
00:42:50,330 --> 00:42:52,490
She was looking very young.

1000
00:42:52,490 --> 00:42:53,990
She look on the children.

1001
00:42:53,990 --> 00:42:57,650
Now my mother was
there where the woman.

1002
00:42:57,650 --> 00:42:59,840
When she go looking, a dog bite

1003
00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:02,495
her hand and she was
in the same hospital.

1004
00:43:02,495 --> 00:43:03,860
The lady asked me,

1005
00:43:03,860 --> 00:43:05,330
"Where are your parents?"

1006
00:43:05,330 --> 00:43:06,920
I tell, my parents,

1007
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:08,270
we lost my mother.

1008
00:43:08,270 --> 00:43:10,745
When we go here,
we lost my mother.

1009
00:43:10,745 --> 00:43:13,085
And right now, we
was in hospital.

1010
00:43:13,085 --> 00:43:14,855
See, we don't have hair.

1011
00:43:14,855 --> 00:43:16,340
We find a sister,

1012
00:43:16,340 --> 00:43:17,750
we go to my sister.

1013
00:43:17,750 --> 00:43:21,800
She tell, "Was your mother's
name Dvoira Lapvincki?"

1014
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:23,480
I told, "Yeah, how you know?"

1015
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:26,570
She told, "I go to Tashkent,
I need operation."

1016
00:43:26,570 --> 00:43:29,240
And she tell she
will pray for me,

1017
00:43:29,240 --> 00:43:32,690
maybe the children is the
place where my parents.

1018
00:43:32,690 --> 00:43:35,780
I forgot how she
tell that in Russia.

1019
00:43:35,780 --> 00:43:39,510
I forgot the name in Russia.

1020
00:43:40,180 --> 00:43:43,880
I will pray for you to
have good operation,

1021
00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:45,860
you find my children.

1022
00:43:45,860 --> 00:43:47,750
Then she give the address for

1023
00:43:47,750 --> 00:43:51,740
the hospital or my mother if
she out for the hospital.

1024
00:43:51,740 --> 00:43:53,345
I asked my sister,

1025
00:43:53,345 --> 00:43:54,800
this is not so far.

1026
00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:57,545
Maybe they go back
to the mother.

1027
00:43:57,545 --> 00:44:00,440
She told, no, my husband is in

1028
00:44:00,440 --> 00:44:03,470
Germany like a spy
because he speak German.

1029
00:44:03,470 --> 00:44:05,660
They tell, if he will make okay,

1030
00:44:05,660 --> 00:44:07,640
they will give him
two weeks vacation.

1031
00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:10,820
My sister, I think she

1032
00:44:10,820 --> 00:44:14,510
was hoping when he go to
Germany he came alive.

1033
00:44:14,510 --> 00:44:18,995
I tell, maybe we go to the
mother and then we go back.

1034
00:44:18,995 --> 00:44:21,680
She said, no, maybe he
waited for me already.

1035
00:44:21,680 --> 00:44:23,600
She was in a hurry to go.

1036
00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:27,500
When we came, her
husband was killed.

1037
00:44:27,500 --> 00:44:30,935
When we got, my brother
was killed because

1038
00:44:30,935 --> 00:44:34,700
she was also writing
for [FOREIGN].

1039
00:44:34,700 --> 00:44:36,995
We got already where
he was killed,

1040
00:44:36,995 --> 00:44:39,560
who by Moscow, who
by old Russia,

1041
00:44:39,560 --> 00:44:41,300
the younger by old Russia.

1042
00:44:41,300 --> 00:44:43,985
>> Why was her husband killed?

1043
00:44:43,985 --> 00:44:46,340
>> They send him to Germany.

1044
00:44:46,340 --> 00:44:49,655
Right away when he came to
Germany, he was killed.

1045
00:44:49,655 --> 00:44:51,260
He was like a spy.

1046
00:44:51,260 --> 00:44:52,970
They want to send him as spy

1047
00:44:52,970 --> 00:44:54,905
because he was speaking German.

1048
00:44:54,905 --> 00:44:55,685
>> Spy?

1049
00:44:55,685 --> 00:44:58,880
>> Yeah, to give the
information to the Russia.

1050
00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:01,475
>> He went to Germany
thinking that he could?

1051
00:45:01,475 --> 00:45:04,160
>> Do something.
They promised him,

1052
00:45:04,160 --> 00:45:05,870
if you'll do something,

1053
00:45:05,870 --> 00:45:07,895
they will give him
two weeks vacation.

1054
00:45:07,895 --> 00:45:12,080
My sister was thinking
he will come back.

1055
00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:15,155
I understand this, but
he will not come back.

1056
00:45:15,155 --> 00:45:17,930
I know especially if they send

1057
00:45:17,930 --> 00:45:21,125
him in Germany, right away kill.

1058
00:45:21,125 --> 00:45:23,990
>> So this woman who
had met your mother,

1059
00:45:23,990 --> 00:45:26,150
how did she meet your
mother? Where did they meet?

1060
00:45:26,150 --> 00:45:27,965
>> In hospital. My mother

1061
00:45:27,965 --> 00:45:31,160
go looking over when
the dog bite her,

1062
00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:34,265
she was in the same
hospital where this woman.

1063
00:45:34,265 --> 00:45:37,100
Now on this hospital,
they couldn't operate.

1064
00:45:37,100 --> 00:45:39,725
Only Tashkent was the big,

1065
00:45:39,725 --> 00:45:41,600
where the better doctors.

1066
00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:45,450
Then she go into Tashkent.

1067
00:45:49,240 --> 00:45:51,890
Before, we would go to Tashkent,

1068
00:45:51,890 --> 00:45:55,415
there was houses there
where you could get a job,

1069
00:45:55,415 --> 00:45:57,065
we could have what we eat.

1070
00:45:57,065 --> 00:45:59,900
No, my sister was
in a hurry to go to

1071
00:45:59,900 --> 00:46:01,730
[FOREIGN] She was hoping

1072
00:46:01,730 --> 00:46:03,710
her husband will
come on vacation.

1073
00:46:03,710 --> 00:46:06,020
When we come, her
parents was crying,

1074
00:46:06,020 --> 00:46:08,225
they got already
and he was dead.

1075
00:46:08,225 --> 00:46:10,130
When my mother came,

1076
00:46:10,130 --> 00:46:13,115
she was with Alzheimer's but
she lost all the children.

1077
00:46:13,115 --> 00:46:15,320
It was beginning of Alzheimer's,

1078
00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:16,985
she was crying a lot,

1079
00:46:16,985 --> 00:46:19,640
but we bring the
mother also with her.

1080
00:46:19,640 --> 00:46:21,875
>> So your mother had
been in Tashkent?

1081
00:46:21,875 --> 00:46:24,920
>> No, not in Tashkent.

1082
00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:27,155
She was where the
lady lived before.

1083
00:46:27,155 --> 00:46:29,150
If we would go right away to

1084
00:46:29,150 --> 00:46:31,370
my mother, there was better.

1085
00:46:31,370 --> 00:46:33,335
There was a lot people

1086
00:46:33,335 --> 00:46:36,725
immigration there my
mother was working.

1087
00:46:36,725 --> 00:46:38,570
We was very sorry,

1088
00:46:38,570 --> 00:46:41,780
but my sister didn't
listen so we didn't go.

1089
00:46:41,780 --> 00:46:47,450
There word, better for the
[FOREIGN] was again called.

1090
00:46:47,450 --> 00:46:50,930
We write my mother
a letter to come.

1091
00:46:50,930 --> 00:46:53,500
Then she asked, I
have a little money,

1092
00:46:53,500 --> 00:46:54,700
what I was working here,

1093
00:46:54,700 --> 00:46:55,945
but I can't bring.

1094
00:46:55,945 --> 00:47:00,500
I tell, maybe you come by
with something to bring.

1095
00:47:00,500 --> 00:47:02,180
My mother put all in

1096
00:47:02,180 --> 00:47:06,335
a big bag and she
had broken her hand.

1097
00:47:06,335 --> 00:47:07,955
I asked them to help her.

1098
00:47:07,955 --> 00:47:10,445
He's stolen everything,
what she had.

1099
00:47:10,445 --> 00:47:13,100
She looked for him,
she didn't find him.

1100
00:47:13,100 --> 00:47:16,940
He told, yes, I can't help
you, he stolen everything.

1101
00:47:16,940 --> 00:47:19,400
That little money she have,

1102
00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:22,100
she have her clothes,
everything is stolen.

1103
00:47:22,100 --> 00:47:25,760
In this time for the
war, that was terrible.

1104
00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:27,965
>> Do you remember
when this was?

1105
00:47:27,965 --> 00:47:30,485
Do you have a sense
of what year?

1106
00:47:30,485 --> 00:47:34,730
>> I can tell you what
year this can be.

1107
00:47:34,730 --> 00:47:39,730
The war start in '41.

1108
00:47:39,730 --> 00:47:43,990
Then we was in the
Yaroslavsky Oblast,

1109
00:47:43,990 --> 00:47:47,540
it was a year in
Yaroslavsky Oblast.

1110
00:47:47,540 --> 00:47:52,265
Then when we come to Uzbekistan,

1111
00:47:52,265 --> 00:47:57,900
we was there two years that
I got sick altogether.

1112
00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:02,645
Until we came to my sister,

1113
00:48:02,645 --> 00:48:05,690
was about five years
was going on the war.

1114
00:48:05,690 --> 00:48:10,160
>> So how long were you
separated from your mother?

1115
00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:11,720
>> Three years.

1116
00:48:11,720 --> 00:48:13,490
>> Three years.

1117
00:48:13,490 --> 00:48:18,215
And so you and your two little
brothers were on your own?

1118
00:48:18,215 --> 00:48:20,930
>> I was then 13, my brother 11.

1119
00:48:20,930 --> 00:48:22,670
The youngest was nine.

1120
00:48:22,670 --> 00:48:26,585
>> And you were in Uzbekistan
most of that time?

1121
00:48:26,585 --> 00:48:28,355
>> This was, I tell you,

1122
00:48:28,355 --> 00:48:32,180
Yaroslavsky was bad, there
was not better also.

1123
00:48:32,180 --> 00:48:34,490
>> What did you
do in Uzbekistan?

1124
00:48:34,490 --> 00:48:36,260
Did you work somewhere?

1125
00:48:36,260 --> 00:48:38,090
>> There was cotton.

1126
00:48:38,090 --> 00:48:40,235
We need to go pick up cotton.

1127
00:48:40,235 --> 00:48:42,185
And I didn't have shoes,

1128
00:48:42,185 --> 00:48:47,270
my feet was always
infected for the hot,

1129
00:48:47,270 --> 00:48:48,860
but I go out shoes

1130
00:48:48,860 --> 00:48:51,560
because my foot bigger

1131
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:53,590
or swollen the
feet, must we work.

1132
00:48:53,590 --> 00:48:57,290
When we don't have food
to eat, go swollen also.

1133
00:48:57,290 --> 00:49:01,400
I tell you the truth, I
was crying the night.

1134
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:04,310
At least I would have
water to put my feet to

1135
00:49:04,310 --> 00:49:08,060
wash. We didn't have any soaps.

1136
00:49:08,060 --> 00:49:10,775
With this dirty
water from the lake,

1137
00:49:10,775 --> 00:49:12,185
I go behind,

1138
00:49:12,185 --> 00:49:13,895
I was a little myself.

1139
00:49:13,895 --> 00:49:17,525
Not toilets, you cannot believe.

1140
00:49:17,525 --> 00:49:20,195
I tell you the truth,

1141
00:49:20,195 --> 00:49:22,550
if I would not be in this place,

1142
00:49:22,550 --> 00:49:24,155
somebody would tell me,

1143
00:49:24,155 --> 00:49:25,955
I could not believe that you can

1144
00:49:25,955 --> 00:49:28,085
go through this will survive.

1145
00:49:28,085 --> 00:49:33,845
By right now, I lost my vision,

1146
00:49:33,845 --> 00:49:35,900
I lost my teeth,

1147
00:49:35,900 --> 00:49:38,780
I lost 50 pounds.

1148
00:49:38,780 --> 00:49:41,880
When I came back in '45,

1149
00:49:42,550 --> 00:49:46,400
my stomach was hungry
for everything.

1150
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:49,955
When I start to eat, I have
so much pain in my stomach.

1151
00:49:49,955 --> 00:49:51,770
When I go in hospital,

1152
00:49:51,770 --> 00:49:53,720
they start to give
me medication.

1153
00:49:53,720 --> 00:49:54,995
I got a rash,

1154
00:49:54,995 --> 00:49:56,885
or my kidney doesn't work,

1155
00:49:56,885 --> 00:50:00,320
nothing, hungry so many years.

1156
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:03,935
Here in America, the people
cannot believe this.

1157
00:50:03,935 --> 00:50:06,200
Thank God, they have
food all the time.

1158
00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:08,210
>> Yes. So in Uzbekistan,

1159
00:50:08,210 --> 00:50:11,945
were there other Jews
there that had come there?

1160
00:50:11,945 --> 00:50:15,575
>> This was also the people
that was in the train.

1161
00:50:15,575 --> 00:50:18,110
But these men put us
in the train with

1162
00:50:18,110 --> 00:50:21,140
the sick people
before was in Russia,

1163
00:50:21,140 --> 00:50:23,315
or the road was closed.

1164
00:50:23,315 --> 00:50:26,060
They put them in
the train then they

1165
00:50:26,060 --> 00:50:29,030
already killed. They
could kill them.

1166
00:50:29,030 --> 00:50:32,750
No. They did right now to
help the Jewish to fight

1167
00:50:32,750 --> 00:50:34,280
also the little Jewish

1168
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:36,710
with the better shape
all in the army.

1169
00:50:36,710 --> 00:50:38,120
>> And you were picking cotton.

1170
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:39,590
So where did you live?

1171
00:50:39,590 --> 00:50:41,240
Did you have a house?

1172
00:50:41,240 --> 00:50:44,270
>> I told you that it was
kibitka, stones the floor.

1173
00:50:44,270 --> 00:50:46,325
We sleep on dirty stones.

1174
00:50:46,325 --> 00:50:47,060
>> Kibitka?

1175
00:50:47,060 --> 00:50:50,630
>> Kibitka, not
windows, nothing.

1176
00:50:50,630 --> 00:50:54,960
>> Who did it belong
to? Who owned it?

1177
00:50:55,450 --> 00:50:57,980
>> It was the Uzbeks
have that or the

1178
00:50:57,980 --> 00:51:00,320
better places, they
live by itself.

1179
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:03,515
When we came, somebody
lived there already.

1180
00:51:03,515 --> 00:51:06,410
>> Was there a family or a
person that was helping you?

1181
00:51:06,410 --> 00:51:10,310
[OVERLAPPING]

1182
00:51:10,310 --> 00:51:13,535
>> I go to [inaudible] and
I showed them I'm hungry.

1183
00:51:13,535 --> 00:51:15,260
And he was saying,

1184
00:51:15,260 --> 00:51:17,690
go to Hitler, he will feed you.

1185
00:51:17,690 --> 00:51:20,090
>> And you were
there for two years?

1186
00:51:20,090 --> 00:51:22,355
>> It was more over two years.

1187
00:51:22,355 --> 00:51:24,870
I was in hospital.

1188
00:51:24,870 --> 00:51:26,930
It was

1189
00:51:36,910 --> 00:51:39,200
close to three years.

1190
00:51:39,200 --> 00:51:43,010
>> So you were reunited
with your mother, finally?

1191
00:51:43,010 --> 00:51:45,380
>> We was united with my mother.

1192
00:51:45,380 --> 00:51:47,480
And when my mother came with us,

1193
00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:49,520
they got the letters with

1194
00:51:49,520 --> 00:51:53,540
my sister's husband dead
or they were crying.

1195
00:51:53,540 --> 00:51:55,100
They tell, for so many people,

1196
00:51:55,100 --> 00:51:56,795
they didn't have place for us.

1197
00:51:56,795 --> 00:51:59,105
You need to look
for other place.

1198
00:51:59,105 --> 00:52:09,550
This was Chuvashskaya Respublika,
Tatarskaya Respublika.

1199
00:52:09,550 --> 00:52:12,220
How we got in
Tatarskaya Respublika?

1200
00:52:12,220 --> 00:52:13,885
>> Can you say it more slowly?

1201
00:52:13,885 --> 00:52:15,865
>> Tatarskaya Respublika.

1202
00:52:15,865 --> 00:52:17,170
>> And where was that?

1203
00:52:17,170 --> 00:52:19,450
>> I will tell you
how we come there.

1204
00:52:19,450 --> 00:52:21,025
This is also miracle.

1205
00:52:21,025 --> 00:52:21,630
>> Sure.

1206
00:52:21,630 --> 00:52:26,710
>> When we were still by
my sister in Chuvashskaya,

1207
00:52:26,710 --> 00:52:31,135
my cousin from Preili,
where we was born,

1208
00:52:31,135 --> 00:52:34,135
he was in the army.

1209
00:52:34,135 --> 00:52:37,630
His wife was in
Tatarskaya Respublika

1210
00:52:37,630 --> 00:52:39,520
where she bore a child.

1211
00:52:39,520 --> 00:52:42,685
On here when he was in the army,

1212
00:52:42,685 --> 00:52:46,180
I don't know how
he got the address

1213
00:52:46,180 --> 00:52:49,535
when we was in
Chuvashskaya Republika.

1214
00:52:49,535 --> 00:52:51,620
He got a letter for her,

1215
00:52:51,620 --> 00:52:53,825
but she bore a child.

1216
00:52:53,825 --> 00:52:58,775
When she got a letter for
her husband was in the army,

1217
00:52:58,775 --> 00:53:01,610
but maybe she bring
us so we will help

1218
00:53:01,610 --> 00:53:04,445
her to raise the child
because she need to work.

1219
00:53:04,445 --> 00:53:06,710
There was a good kolkhoz,

1220
00:53:06,710 --> 00:53:10,980
if you're working, you
have bread with potatoes.

1221
00:53:12,070 --> 00:53:14,450
We asked for her right away,

1222
00:53:14,450 --> 00:53:15,905
we was lucky to come.

1223
00:53:15,905 --> 00:53:17,270
We don't know how to come,

1224
00:53:17,270 --> 00:53:19,010
we don't have money for tickets.

1225
00:53:19,010 --> 00:53:21,170
She tell, we'll take
her a little time.

1226
00:53:21,170 --> 00:53:22,400
She will get money,

1227
00:53:22,400 --> 00:53:26,360
she will mail us tickets
or explain how we come.

1228
00:53:26,360 --> 00:53:31,340
I tell you the true,
it's life miracles.

1229
00:53:31,340 --> 00:53:34,655
When we came there, we was
all working at a kolkhoz,

1230
00:53:34,655 --> 00:53:36,440
it was a good kolkhoz.

1231
00:53:36,440 --> 00:53:38,960
We go pick up potatoes,

1232
00:53:38,960 --> 00:53:41,630
or the bread need,

1233
00:53:41,630 --> 00:53:44,460
how is it in English, the word?

1234
00:53:51,430 --> 00:53:53,645
>> Is it a seed?

1235
00:53:53,645 --> 00:54:00,620
>> I was seed where you
go to make for mill.

1236
00:54:00,620 --> 00:54:02,060
How is it English debut?

1237
00:54:02,060 --> 00:54:03,740
I don't know, I was before.

1238
00:54:03,740 --> 00:54:07,265
Though the take guard people,

1239
00:54:07,265 --> 00:54:10,415
all family walking
in the coal horse.

1240
00:54:10,415 --> 00:54:16,205
My youngest brother or we got
sometimes honey a little,

1241
00:54:16,205 --> 00:54:18,290
they give us for good work.

1242
00:54:18,290 --> 00:54:21,950
Thanks to her when she brought
us there, we survived.

1243
00:54:21,950 --> 00:54:24,785
Because in Chuvashskaya
Respublika also,

1244
00:54:24,785 --> 00:54:26,480
we didn't have much to eat.

1245
00:54:26,480 --> 00:54:27,890
Over start to be cold,

1246
00:54:27,890 --> 00:54:29,285
they could go work.

1247
00:54:29,285 --> 00:54:31,670
On there, finally, they give us

1248
00:54:31,670 --> 00:54:37,010
subsequent boot subsie to go
to work or we was working.

1249
00:54:37,010 --> 00:54:39,050
We was working very good.

1250
00:54:39,050 --> 00:54:44,645
We pick up potatoes
so we go over there,

1251
00:54:44,645 --> 00:54:49,325
we need to take or
digress to better clean

1252
00:54:49,325 --> 00:54:53,870
up but is something
growing in the gardens.

1253
00:54:53,870 --> 00:54:55,100
>> Weeding?

1254
00:54:55,100 --> 00:54:57,350
>> No. We was working

1255
00:54:57,350 --> 00:55:00,575
clean up the gardens
to be vegetables.

1256
00:55:00,575 --> 00:55:04,010
There they have already
vegetables also in this kolkhoz.

1257
00:55:04,010 --> 00:55:06,540
There was a good kolkhoz.

1258
00:55:06,730 --> 00:55:09,740
Some other words they lucky

1259
00:55:09,740 --> 00:55:12,350
they know how to do better life.

1260
00:55:12,350 --> 00:55:14,420
There was Tatarstan.

1261
00:55:14,420 --> 00:55:17,150
This was Tatarskaya Respublika.

1262
00:55:17,150 --> 00:55:20,540
It was at least
they have to eat.

1263
00:55:20,540 --> 00:55:25,230
>> So you were part of a group
of farmers, a collective?

1264
00:55:26,020 --> 00:55:31,205
>> He was with a lady
also sleeping on floor.

1265
00:55:31,205 --> 00:55:33,725
She had been taught to
make half the oven,

1266
00:55:33,725 --> 00:55:36,965
also they have hot water
to wash themselves.

1267
00:55:36,965 --> 00:55:40,625
Already we have people,

1268
00:55:40,625 --> 00:55:44,585
was a toilet that
far where she live.

1269
00:55:44,585 --> 00:55:46,190
>> Did your mother work?

1270
00:55:46,190 --> 00:55:48,635
>> Yeah, my mother
was working also.

1271
00:55:48,635 --> 00:55:51,185
>> So do you remember
the end of the war?

1272
00:55:51,185 --> 00:55:55,400
>> The end of the
war was the '45.

1273
00:55:55,400 --> 00:55:57,575
>> How did you get
the news of it?

1274
00:55:57,575 --> 00:56:00,110
>> They have already radios

1275
00:56:00,110 --> 00:56:03,110
also in this place for the war.

1276
00:56:03,110 --> 00:56:05,135
On the first one,

1277
00:56:05,135 --> 00:56:08,045
they let me go because they need

1278
00:56:08,045 --> 00:56:13,430
young woman first came in
Riga or what they want me,

1279
00:56:13,430 --> 00:56:16,370
but I speak so many languages.

1280
00:56:16,370 --> 00:56:18,995
I speak Russia and
I speak Latin.

1281
00:56:18,995 --> 00:56:23,165
They want me to come to
go to the families of

1282
00:56:23,165 --> 00:56:25,850
big apartments to tell

1283
00:56:25,850 --> 00:56:29,180
they put two families
in one apartment.

1284
00:56:29,180 --> 00:56:32,885
No, I was afraid to
go, they can kill me.

1285
00:56:32,885 --> 00:56:34,910
Then I go the street,

1286
00:56:34,910 --> 00:56:38,105
I see in a store they
need a sales lady.

1287
00:56:38,105 --> 00:56:41,480
I go in and I tell I came back,

1288
00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:43,880
we didn't find nothing
for other belongings.

1289
00:56:43,880 --> 00:56:45,260
There is a Latvian man,

1290
00:56:45,260 --> 00:56:47,105
he told he boarded the house.

1291
00:56:47,105 --> 00:56:51,545
We sleep temporarily but
people let us sleep.

1292
00:56:51,545 --> 00:56:53,270
Or they tell, you are a child,

1293
00:56:53,270 --> 00:56:55,805
we cannot give you a
job. I start to cry.

1294
00:56:55,805 --> 00:56:58,340
I tell I'm 17 and
I was in school,

1295
00:56:58,340 --> 00:57:01,910
very good in mathematic or I
was a good sales lady also.

1296
00:57:01,910 --> 00:57:03,935
Then when I was crying,

1297
00:57:03,935 --> 00:57:06,200
the other day who
brought me a pillow,

1298
00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:08,840
I tell when I worked the
first day, what I need,

1299
00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:11,915
go in flea market and buy
a bed for my sick mother.

1300
00:57:11,915 --> 00:57:13,640
My mother is very sick.

1301
00:57:13,640 --> 00:57:15,710
And then I came the second day,

1302
00:57:15,710 --> 00:57:17,360
wow, bought me a pillow.

1303
00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:19,490
One man tell me,

1304
00:57:19,490 --> 00:57:21,680
if you go to the flay market,

1305
00:57:21,680 --> 00:57:23,690
you tell you got big apartment,

1306
00:57:23,690 --> 00:57:25,685
not all of weight or nothing.

1307
00:57:25,685 --> 00:57:27,155
Who will sleep?

1308
00:57:27,155 --> 00:57:30,380
I told my brothers we
was working in cohort,

1309
00:57:30,380 --> 00:57:32,375
we slept a lot of heavy stuff.

1310
00:57:32,375 --> 00:57:35,495
We will break. He told
I will go help you.

1311
00:57:35,495 --> 00:57:40,310
On the first time when
he bought a bed for me,

1312
00:57:40,310 --> 00:57:41,840
he would tell, you
got the cellar,

1313
00:57:41,840 --> 00:57:43,745
keep it, you need for yourself.

1314
00:57:43,745 --> 00:57:46,925
So he started to help us
when I came back to Riga.

1315
00:57:46,925 --> 00:57:50,705
>> So where had you
gone to get help?

1316
00:57:50,705 --> 00:57:53,090
Where did you go? You were

1317
00:57:53,090 --> 00:57:55,940
on this farm and then you went
somewhere. Was that Riga?

1318
00:57:55,940 --> 00:57:58,175
>> No, but we came to the farm,

1319
00:57:58,175 --> 00:58:01,085
after the war we
came to Riga in '45.

1320
00:58:01,085 --> 00:58:02,450
Was Russia again.

1321
00:58:02,450 --> 00:58:05,480
>> How did you get news
that the war had ended?

1322
00:58:05,480 --> 00:58:09,260
>> They have a radio already.

1323
00:58:09,260 --> 00:58:11,585
We didn't have right
away tickets for

1324
00:58:11,585 --> 00:58:14,915
everybody that I go
the first one to Riga.

1325
00:58:14,915 --> 00:58:15,215
>> I see.

1326
00:58:15,215 --> 00:58:17,045
>> Or when I find a job,

1327
00:58:17,045 --> 00:58:19,190
I mail it to the rest of

1328
00:58:19,190 --> 00:58:21,845
my brother and my
mother tickets to buy.

1329
00:58:21,845 --> 00:58:23,825
I came the first one into Riga.

1330
00:58:23,825 --> 00:58:27,035
>> Did you see your
home back in Riga?

1331
00:58:27,035 --> 00:58:28,880
>> I came, there was a letter,

1332
00:58:28,880 --> 00:58:30,050
he didn't let us in.

1333
00:58:30,050 --> 00:58:32,105
He tell he bought it,
this belonged to him.

1334
00:58:32,105 --> 00:58:35,545
>> Who was it? Was it a Latvian.

1335
00:58:35,545 --> 00:58:36,910
>> A Latvian, yeah.

1336
00:58:36,910 --> 00:58:38,725
There was a full Latvian.

1337
00:58:38,725 --> 00:58:40,840
And he didn't let me in.

1338
00:58:40,840 --> 00:58:44,745
Now, my mother, she lost
two sons in the army.

1339
00:58:44,745 --> 00:58:46,610
We were saying in the line,

1340
00:58:46,610 --> 00:58:49,025
they should give us apartment.

1341
00:58:49,025 --> 00:58:52,310
These people, the parents

1342
00:58:52,310 --> 00:58:55,445
have children who are
dying in the Russian Army.

1343
00:58:55,445 --> 00:58:57,560
They should give apartments.

1344
00:58:57,560 --> 00:58:59,570
Then they give us apartment on

1345
00:58:59,570 --> 00:59:02,915
the fourth floor
with that elevator.

1346
00:59:02,915 --> 00:59:05,525
I started crying.

1347
00:59:05,525 --> 00:59:07,475
My mother is a sick woman.

1348
00:59:07,475 --> 00:59:10,130
You want it, take it,
you don't want, go.

1349
00:59:10,130 --> 00:59:12,320
Next. They don't
talk to you much.

1350
00:59:12,320 --> 00:59:13,460
We didn't have a choice,

1351
00:59:13,460 --> 00:59:15,860
we take the apartment
on the fourth floor.

1352
00:59:15,860 --> 00:59:18,185
>> So these are the Soviets
who were in charge.

1353
00:59:18,185 --> 00:59:19,340
>> Yeah. These already,

1354
00:59:19,340 --> 00:59:20,570
we came back to Riga,

1355
00:59:20,570 --> 00:59:22,880
was it in '45 again in Russia?

1356
00:59:22,880 --> 00:59:24,740
No, they was not so bad,

1357
00:59:24,740 --> 00:59:26,090
they was the beginning

1358
00:59:26,090 --> 00:59:28,250
because a lot of
Jewish helped them to

1359
00:59:28,250 --> 00:59:30,560
fight against the Dutches

1360
00:59:30,560 --> 00:59:34,415
so they have the
names for these,

1361
00:59:34,415 --> 00:59:37,445
the names where they
died and everything.

1362
00:59:37,445 --> 00:59:40,670
To these people were the
children dying in the army,

1363
00:59:40,670 --> 00:59:42,620
like my mother lost two sons,

1364
00:59:42,620 --> 00:59:44,390
they must give apartments.

1365
00:59:44,390 --> 00:59:46,250
These one they did
was in the army,

1366
00:59:46,250 --> 00:59:48,680
it was as hurried to
give them apartments.

1367
00:59:48,680 --> 00:59:50,420
>> So did you live
there with your mother?

1368
00:59:50,420 --> 00:59:52,925
>> With my mother, with
my little brothers, yeah.

1369
00:59:52,925 --> 00:59:54,335
>> Did you go to work?

1370
00:59:54,335 --> 00:59:57,680
>> Sure. First job was in
a store, I was working.

1371
00:59:57,680 --> 00:59:59,810
Everything was
food with coupons.

1372
00:59:59,810 --> 01:00:01,100
>> What store was it?

1373
01:00:01,100 --> 01:00:05,525
>> This was a store for
offices, for post offices.

1374
01:00:05,525 --> 01:00:09,380
In Russia was [FOREIGN].

1375
01:00:09,380 --> 01:00:12,380
This was for all offices
where they go or buy

1376
01:00:12,380 --> 01:00:15,545
food or meat coupons with cards.

1377
01:00:15,545 --> 01:00:18,620
>> And how did you
obtain the job?

1378
01:00:18,620 --> 01:00:21,500
>> Very easy. I attend the jobs.

1379
01:00:21,500 --> 01:00:25,175
Then you need to cut the
coupons where have children was

1380
01:00:25,175 --> 01:00:30,365
200 grams maybe for the
children and butter.

1381
01:00:30,365 --> 01:00:32,795
There was something,
better food.

1382
01:00:32,795 --> 01:00:34,430
For these one,
don't have children

1383
01:00:34,430 --> 01:00:38,105
was bread half kilogram,

1384
01:00:38,105 --> 01:00:40,445
is 400 gram bread.

1385
01:00:40,445 --> 01:00:45,290
Then I cut or I write
down or I was working.

1386
01:00:45,290 --> 01:00:47,000
>> Was it because
of rationing or

1387
01:00:47,000 --> 01:00:49,430
was it because the
communist system?

1388
01:00:49,430 --> 01:00:52,310
>> That was still
communist as there was not

1389
01:00:52,310 --> 01:00:55,190
already so bad but they
came in for a five.

1390
01:00:55,190 --> 01:00:56,840
>> So they were?

1391
01:00:56,840 --> 01:00:59,060
>> They was the best apartments

1392
01:00:59,060 --> 01:01:01,190
or the best food was for them.

1393
01:01:01,190 --> 01:01:03,800
>> So how did you work
as a salesperson?

1394
01:01:03,800 --> 01:01:05,960
>> I was working
three years or in

1395
01:01:05,960 --> 01:01:09,720
the evening I go starting
to finish head designer.

1396
01:01:10,240 --> 01:01:13,475
In Europe, what was
good in Latvia.

1397
01:01:13,475 --> 01:01:18,860
In Europe. You can go in the
evening study mechanical.

1398
01:01:18,860 --> 01:01:22,475
In Germany is
[FOREIGN], in German.

1399
01:01:22,475 --> 01:01:24,440
This mean [FOREIGN],

1400
01:01:24,440 --> 01:01:27,605
you can study, you want
to be a mechanical,

1401
01:01:27,605 --> 01:01:29,840
you want to make shoes,

1402
01:01:29,840 --> 01:01:32,735
you want to dressmaker,

1403
01:01:32,735 --> 01:01:34,760
that I was designer,

1404
01:01:34,760 --> 01:01:36,380
heads go in the
evening starting.

1405
01:01:36,380 --> 01:01:38,390
>> So the school for hat maker.

1406
01:01:38,390 --> 01:01:41,000
>> That was different schools.

1407
01:01:41,000 --> 01:01:42,335
I make up my mind,

1408
01:01:42,335 --> 01:01:43,895
I was go to heads,

1409
01:01:43,895 --> 01:01:47,330
next was a dressmaker
was studying.

1410
01:01:47,330 --> 01:01:50,285
You could learn what you want.

1411
01:01:50,285 --> 01:01:52,670
>> Why did you
choose hat making?

1412
01:01:52,670 --> 01:01:55,220
>> Oh, [LAUGHTER]
this is a story.

1413
01:01:55,220 --> 01:01:58,130
The Jewish always when
they go to the synagogues,

1414
01:01:58,130 --> 01:02:01,475
the like always for
holiday buy new hats.

1415
01:02:01,475 --> 01:02:02,840
When I was like, mom,

1416
01:02:02,840 --> 01:02:04,070
I want to go with you.

1417
01:02:04,070 --> 01:02:06,485
I was there five a half.

1418
01:02:06,485 --> 01:02:11,825
Then I came, I picked up from
my mother or from my aunt,

1419
01:02:11,825 --> 01:02:14,270
the older tell, how
old is the child?

1420
01:02:14,270 --> 01:02:15,830
My mother told five and a half.

1421
01:02:15,830 --> 01:02:17,885
She be something special.

1422
01:02:17,885 --> 01:02:19,955
Look, she picked
up the right one.

1423
01:02:19,955 --> 01:02:21,440
Oh, there she's older let she

1424
01:02:21,440 --> 01:02:23,225
come be for the first lady.

1425
01:02:23,225 --> 01:02:27,880
If I would fight, maybe
I would go there.

1426
01:02:27,880 --> 01:02:29,920
No, I was working.

1427
01:02:29,920 --> 01:02:32,620
Three years, I was
studying. Need to study.

1428
01:02:32,620 --> 01:02:35,800
The second year, you
can't go the second year.

1429
01:02:35,800 --> 01:02:37,705
The first year, you're
too good already.

1430
01:02:37,705 --> 01:02:39,790
I'm very fast with learning.

1431
01:02:39,790 --> 01:02:43,000
>> So when you
finished this course?

1432
01:02:43,000 --> 01:02:45,055
>> When I start to
be hat designer,

1433
01:02:45,055 --> 01:02:48,840
I stopped working in the
store and I was hat designer.

1434
01:02:48,840 --> 01:02:49,920
>> And did you design them at

1435
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:51,840
home or did you have a store?

1436
01:02:51,840 --> 01:02:55,030
>> No. We was working.

1437
01:02:56,240 --> 01:03:00,700
It was already hat
designer stores or

1438
01:03:00,700 --> 01:03:04,540
there was a fabric where
they make hats also.

1439
01:03:04,540 --> 01:03:07,240
They want me before
to go in the fabric.

1440
01:03:07,240 --> 01:03:09,895
I tell, no, I cannot
go in the fabric.

1441
01:03:09,895 --> 01:03:12,010
I have a sick mother and
two younger brother.

1442
01:03:12,010 --> 01:03:14,095
I need clothes or we will leave.

1443
01:03:14,095 --> 01:03:17,050
This was a store and
there we make the hats.

1444
01:03:17,050 --> 01:03:20,335
So that they came and buy
the hats, they're special.

1445
01:03:20,335 --> 01:03:23,725
Then I was already better.

1446
01:03:23,725 --> 01:03:27,475
They say that I make new
borders on everything.

1447
01:03:27,475 --> 01:03:30,115
That was where it's clothes,

1448
01:03:30,115 --> 01:03:39,285
so you make dresses all
kind of, not only hats.

1449
01:03:39,285 --> 01:03:44,105
It was a big office where
you make everything.

1450
01:03:44,105 --> 01:03:49,330
>> And so can you tell me
about meeting your husband?

1451
01:03:49,330 --> 01:03:51,970
>> My husband, I met him when I

1452
01:03:51,970 --> 01:03:54,685
already still was
working in the store.

1453
01:03:54,685 --> 01:03:56,515
He came from the Army,

1454
01:03:56,515 --> 01:03:58,285
and his parents was all killed.

1455
01:03:58,285 --> 01:04:01,240
They was living in a small
town, they was all killed.

1456
01:04:01,240 --> 01:04:04,045
He was one son and four sisters,

1457
01:04:04,045 --> 01:04:06,580
none of them was alive.

1458
01:04:06,580 --> 01:04:09,295
Before the war starts,

1459
01:04:09,295 --> 01:04:10,990
the parents, he was one boy,

1460
01:04:10,990 --> 01:04:14,680
sent him to relatives to Riga
to go studying something.

1461
01:04:14,680 --> 01:04:15,940
On start of the war,

1462
01:04:15,940 --> 01:04:17,560
they take him with them.

1463
01:04:17,560 --> 01:04:19,525
He was also in Russia,

1464
01:04:19,525 --> 01:04:20,935
they took him in the army.

1465
01:04:20,935 --> 01:04:23,605
He was wounded and
he have a good luck.

1466
01:04:23,605 --> 01:04:26,110
I have in my book,
Latvian Jewish

1467
01:04:26,110 --> 01:04:27,925
fighting Nazi, his pictures.

1468
01:04:27,925 --> 01:04:30,760
When the cousin was find
him when he was wounded,

1469
01:04:30,760 --> 01:04:33,430
put him on the shoulder and
brought him in hospital,

1470
01:04:33,430 --> 01:04:35,065
that's how he survived.

1471
01:04:35,065 --> 01:04:36,940
When he would pick him up,

1472
01:04:36,940 --> 01:04:38,875
he was maybe dead.

1473
01:04:38,875 --> 01:04:40,645
Though he was a very strong man,

1474
01:04:40,645 --> 01:04:44,230
I have the two cousins who was
with him in the same Army.

1475
01:04:44,230 --> 01:04:48,385
Vapne was the name, but I
have his name right now.

1476
01:04:48,385 --> 01:04:50,650
My name was Lapvincki before.

1477
01:04:50,650 --> 01:04:53,060
>> What was his first name?

1478
01:04:53,060 --> 01:04:55,305
>> My husband?

1479
01:04:55,305 --> 01:04:56,055
>> Your husband.

1480
01:04:56,055 --> 01:04:57,330
>> My husband's name,

1481
01:04:57,330 --> 01:05:02,600
I will tell you
right away, Khona.

1482
01:05:02,600 --> 01:05:04,100
>> Khona?

1483
01:05:04,100 --> 01:05:07,310
>> Khona. It was
my son have Khona.

1484
01:05:07,310 --> 01:05:09,565
>> Okay. So when did
you get married?

1485
01:05:09,565 --> 01:05:16,555
>> I got married after
divorce, I was 17.

1486
01:05:16,555 --> 01:05:19,765
When I was 22 years
old, I got married.

1487
01:05:19,765 --> 01:05:21,985
>> So that was about 1950?

1488
01:05:21,985 --> 01:05:23,125
>> Yeah.

1489
01:05:23,125 --> 01:05:25,810
>> And you continue to

1490
01:05:25,810 --> 01:05:28,390
work as a hat maker
for quite some time.

1491
01:05:28,390 --> 01:05:30,550
>> I was all the time
working with hats.

1492
01:05:30,550 --> 01:05:33,010
I make more money
for my husband.

1493
01:05:33,010 --> 01:05:34,060
>> Oh, really?

1494
01:05:34,060 --> 01:05:39,490
>> Yeah. When he came back,

1495
01:05:39,490 --> 01:05:41,200
my brother was 15,

1496
01:05:41,200 --> 01:05:45,190
he met a man that was in
the Army with my brother.

1497
01:05:45,190 --> 01:05:47,890
They were talking,
who survived if they

1498
01:05:47,890 --> 01:05:51,025
find somebody for the
families, they will help.

1499
01:05:51,025 --> 01:05:52,645
When I was working in store,

1500
01:05:52,645 --> 01:05:55,465
my 15 year brother
came with good news.

1501
01:05:55,465 --> 01:05:57,670
He met a friend for
my brother that was

1502
01:05:57,670 --> 01:06:00,145
killed and he promised
he will help.

1503
01:06:00,145 --> 01:06:03,205
I will go, he will teach
me mechanical job.

1504
01:06:03,205 --> 01:06:08,425
He made bicycles, he fix,

1505
01:06:08,425 --> 01:06:11,710
you need to lock
your home lockers,

1506
01:06:11,710 --> 01:06:13,435
a lot of things detail,

1507
01:06:13,435 --> 01:06:14,950
he will teach me give me

1508
01:06:14,950 --> 01:06:17,815
a little money to
go buy clothes,

1509
01:06:17,815 --> 01:06:20,110
to help us with furniture.

1510
01:06:20,110 --> 01:06:21,160
We didn't have nothing.

1511
01:06:21,160 --> 01:06:25,810
We need to privately
never was living there.

1512
01:06:25,810 --> 01:06:29,840
Everything was taken away.

1513
01:06:30,090 --> 01:06:32,380
It was not taken away.

1514
01:06:32,380 --> 01:06:34,795
The German maybe they throw out.

1515
01:06:34,795 --> 01:06:37,390
These Germans would
kill the Jewish.

1516
01:06:37,390 --> 01:06:38,920
When the Russian come back,

1517
01:06:38,920 --> 01:06:41,410
they ran away because

1518
01:06:41,410 --> 01:06:44,095
the Russians want to
put them in the jail.

1519
01:06:44,095 --> 01:06:45,715
>> To punish them.

1520
01:06:45,715 --> 01:06:47,905
>> To punish them, yes.

1521
01:06:47,905 --> 01:06:50,155
That's why they ran away.

1522
01:06:50,155 --> 01:06:53,305
For the family, what still was,

1523
01:06:53,305 --> 01:06:56,290
they have all the stuff
they couldn't take with

1524
01:06:56,290 --> 01:06:57,520
them or they put in

1525
01:06:57,520 --> 01:06:59,800
the flea market to
give very cheap away.

1526
01:06:59,800 --> 01:07:03,445
It was all the take away
for the Jewish good stuff.

1527
01:07:03,445 --> 01:07:05,710
There was good stuff
in the flea market.

1528
01:07:05,710 --> 01:07:07,855
Little by little, we
bought everything,

1529
01:07:07,855 --> 01:07:11,890
beds or table where
I was working.

1530
01:07:11,890 --> 01:07:13,255
We came with nothing.

1531
01:07:13,255 --> 01:07:14,935
When we came back in '45,

1532
01:07:14,935 --> 01:07:18,265
we had nothing we leave
nothing as I belong.

1533
01:07:18,265 --> 01:07:19,855
>> So you were living
with your mother.

1534
01:07:19,855 --> 01:07:21,700
After you married
and had children,

1535
01:07:21,700 --> 01:07:23,680
did you continue to
live with your mother?

1536
01:07:23,680 --> 01:07:27,535
>> My mother was
living all the time.

1537
01:07:27,535 --> 01:07:29,890
Now, after I leave high

1538
01:07:29,890 --> 01:07:33,010
my mother could go to
my youngest brother,

1539
01:07:33,010 --> 01:07:34,900
he was starting a school.

1540
01:07:34,900 --> 01:07:36,985
Then in the academy we got

1541
01:07:36,985 --> 01:07:40,585
a one bedroom apartment on
the first floor for her.

1542
01:07:40,585 --> 01:07:42,460
So still my brother was with

1543
01:07:42,460 --> 01:07:45,220
her until she was not very sick.

1544
01:07:45,220 --> 01:07:48,160
After she got the Alzheimer's.

1545
01:07:48,160 --> 01:07:51,310
In the beginning I
did wanted Russia,

1546
01:07:51,310 --> 01:07:54,190
was not what you can
choose a better place.

1547
01:07:54,190 --> 01:07:56,170
Because one place,
she was beginning

1548
01:07:56,170 --> 01:07:58,345
out she was crying a lot.

1549
01:07:58,345 --> 01:08:00,010
She lost where she put away.

1550
01:08:00,010 --> 01:08:01,375
She didn't remember.

1551
01:08:01,375 --> 01:08:03,040
She was not so bad.

1552
01:08:03,040 --> 01:08:04,960
Then she was a little with me,

1553
01:08:04,960 --> 01:08:06,445
a little with my sister.

1554
01:08:06,445 --> 01:08:09,025
Now one time, my
neighbor called me,

1555
01:08:09,025 --> 01:08:10,540
she lost her vision.

1556
01:08:10,540 --> 01:08:12,820
She operate her left eyes.

1557
01:08:12,820 --> 01:08:14,530
She had cancer in her eyes.

1558
01:08:14,530 --> 01:08:16,120
She removed her left.

1559
01:08:16,120 --> 01:08:18,715
I'm afraid, maybe I
have already cancer.

1560
01:08:18,715 --> 01:08:22,075
Do they operate her
eyes so she get to see,

1561
01:08:22,075 --> 01:08:24,115
she couldn't hear also.

1562
01:08:24,115 --> 01:08:26,605
My brother would
go there academy,

1563
01:08:26,605 --> 01:08:30,925
when somebody saw there to be
light a little in her room.

1564
01:08:30,925 --> 01:08:34,720
Now after she was
so bad by herself,

1565
01:08:34,720 --> 01:08:37,690
with her Alzheimer she
couldn't be by herself.

1566
01:08:37,690 --> 01:08:39,490
Then finally, one time

1567
01:08:39,490 --> 01:08:40,840
called me the
neighbor, who tell,

1568
01:08:40,840 --> 01:08:43,720
"Sheva, you need mother put in

1569
01:08:43,720 --> 01:08:47,140
a hospital because she
almost make a fire.

1570
01:08:47,140 --> 01:08:50,215
She wanted to put a
candle, fall to the floor,

1571
01:08:50,215 --> 01:08:53,920
good that we was in the home
or hear what the smelling.

1572
01:08:53,920 --> 01:08:55,495
And she was on the floor,

1573
01:08:55,495 --> 01:08:58,930
she wanted to pick up or she
couldn't see to pick up."

1574
01:08:58,930 --> 01:09:01,885
Then I put her in the hospital.

1575
01:09:01,885 --> 01:09:04,480
>> So you were living
in a different place?

1576
01:09:04,480 --> 01:09:08,360
>> I have already
living with my husband.

1577
01:09:08,670 --> 01:09:11,560
>> Where were you
living with him?

1578
01:09:11,560 --> 01:09:12,530
>> Also in Riga.

1579
01:09:12,530 --> 01:09:14,440
>> Okay, but in
another part of town?

1580
01:09:14,440 --> 01:09:16,810
>> No, we was in the Riga.

1581
01:09:16,810 --> 01:09:19,240
My mother was in Marijasstrasse,

1582
01:09:19,240 --> 01:09:23,425
I was in Blumenstrasse,
different streets only.

1583
01:09:23,425 --> 01:09:25,540
No, I go after work always to

1584
01:09:25,540 --> 01:09:28,000
her where she lives
with my brother.

1585
01:09:28,000 --> 01:09:31,285
I go to bring the
food, help anyway.

1586
01:09:31,285 --> 01:09:33,100
Only when my mother got sick,

1587
01:09:33,100 --> 01:09:34,495
did I by lunchtime,

1588
01:09:34,495 --> 01:09:36,280
go to the hospital to make her

1589
01:09:36,280 --> 01:09:38,845
a bath, to go a little
with her outside.

1590
01:09:38,845 --> 01:09:40,240
I was crying what I did

1591
01:09:40,240 --> 01:09:43,960
by poor mother to hold
in a place like this?

1592
01:09:43,960 --> 01:09:48,100
If I would find it somebody
could pay like here,

1593
01:09:48,100 --> 01:09:49,555
you pay to somebody,

1594
01:09:49,555 --> 01:09:52,960
we would put together or we
would not let her go there.

1595
01:09:52,960 --> 01:09:56,650
Not there, you couldn't find
somebody would take her.

1596
01:09:56,650 --> 01:09:59,515
Only it was one place with

1597
01:09:59,515 --> 01:10:03,520
Alzheimer but here you
can a better place,

1598
01:10:03,520 --> 01:10:05,215
find something, you pay.

1599
01:10:05,215 --> 01:10:06,640
There was one place.

1600
01:10:06,640 --> 01:10:10,010
So why couldn't you
pay for that there?

1601
01:10:10,470 --> 01:10:13,135
>> To take care of a person?

1602
01:10:13,135 --> 01:10:13,735
>> Yes.

1603
01:10:13,735 --> 01:10:15,400
>> Nobody want to take care of

1604
01:10:15,400 --> 01:10:17,770
older people with outsiders.

1605
01:10:17,770 --> 01:10:20,335
You couldn't find that person.

1606
01:10:20,335 --> 01:10:22,855
>> Okay. And they
wouldn't have had a home

1607
01:10:22,855 --> 01:10:26,170
or a retirement place,
that sort of thing?

1608
01:10:26,170 --> 01:10:30,490
>> There was no homes
like United States.

1609
01:10:30,490 --> 01:10:33,175
>> Describe the system for me.

1610
01:10:33,175 --> 01:10:36,175
You said you were making
money by hat making;

1611
01:10:36,175 --> 01:10:37,600
more money than your husband.

1612
01:10:37,600 --> 01:10:40,120
But did you keep that money?

1613
01:10:40,120 --> 01:10:42,565
How much did you get to keep

1614
01:10:42,565 --> 01:10:44,770
because of the economic
system? Remind me this.

1615
01:10:44,770 --> 01:10:45,925
>> I tell you the truth.

1616
01:10:45,925 --> 01:10:47,305
I make money.

1617
01:10:47,305 --> 01:10:52,615
For example, I paid for food.

1618
01:10:52,615 --> 01:10:55,060
I go in the market, I paid.

1619
01:10:55,060 --> 01:10:58,150
I was happy that I find
because the stores

1620
01:10:58,150 --> 01:11:01,270
was poor people that don't work.

1621
01:11:01,270 --> 01:11:03,220
In the daytime, they
bring a little in

1622
01:11:03,220 --> 01:11:05,485
the stores with lines.

1623
01:11:05,485 --> 01:11:07,120
Sometimes they'd say, "It's

1624
01:11:07,120 --> 01:11:08,920
finished, you don't have more."

1625
01:11:08,920 --> 01:11:11,050
My sick mother couldn't stay in

1626
01:11:11,050 --> 01:11:12,970
the lines during the daytime.

1627
01:11:12,970 --> 01:11:14,890
While my brother
also was working,

1628
01:11:14,890 --> 01:11:16,495
the younger go to school.

1629
01:11:16,495 --> 01:11:18,130
Only I after work,

1630
01:11:18,130 --> 01:11:20,410
I go, it's empty;
there's nothing.

1631
01:11:20,410 --> 01:11:24,265
It takes gut. You have flour,

1632
01:11:24,265 --> 01:11:26,890
make pancakes;
something like this.

1633
01:11:26,890 --> 01:11:30,715
Why do you think I was
happy to give away?

1634
01:11:30,715 --> 01:11:32,740
To the end, I have
a good apartment.

1635
01:11:32,740 --> 01:11:34,960
I three times changed
my apartment.

1636
01:11:34,960 --> 01:11:36,955
I paid or I changed.

1637
01:11:36,955 --> 01:11:38,950
Before I have apartment,

1638
01:11:38,950 --> 01:11:43,180
I changed to have my
mother on the first floor.

1639
01:11:43,180 --> 01:11:46,750
Then, was not windows
enough for son.

1640
01:11:46,750 --> 01:11:49,450
When he was born, he got asthma.

1641
01:11:49,450 --> 01:11:50,725
The doctors tell,

1642
01:11:50,725 --> 01:11:53,470
"You need to have a
lot windows to open;

1643
01:11:53,470 --> 01:11:56,095
sun or fresh air."

1644
01:11:56,095 --> 01:11:58,480
That I go in summer and I

1645
01:11:58,480 --> 01:12:00,340
rented by the ocean
for fresh air.

1646
01:12:00,340 --> 01:12:02,260
It cost a lot of money.

1647
01:12:02,260 --> 01:12:04,750
When I take my sick
mother outside,

1648
01:12:04,750 --> 01:12:05,950
I didn't put her there.

1649
01:12:05,950 --> 01:12:09,020
I take my mother with me also.

1650
01:12:11,460 --> 01:12:14,050
Also when I go

1651
01:12:14,050 --> 01:12:16,765
sometimes there or when
she was not too bad,

1652
01:12:16,765 --> 01:12:18,580
I tell my son, "I need to go

1653
01:12:18,580 --> 01:12:20,710
to look for food to
bring by the ocean.

1654
01:12:20,710 --> 01:12:23,605
You pick up your grandmother
or bring also there.

1655
01:12:23,605 --> 01:12:25,405
I don't her to stay by herself."

1656
01:12:25,405 --> 01:12:27,865
>> I see. So you had
a son and daughter?

1657
01:12:27,865 --> 01:12:28,450
>> Yeah.

1658
01:12:28,450 --> 01:12:31,090
>> Okay. And you worked as

1659
01:12:31,090 --> 01:12:33,730
a hat maker for about 32 years?

1660
01:12:33,730 --> 01:12:36,880
>> Or I tell my children,

1661
01:12:36,880 --> 01:12:38,365
"You need to study good.

1662
01:12:38,365 --> 01:12:40,075
I want you finish something.

1663
01:12:40,075 --> 01:12:43,090
I don't have education
because my father died.

1664
01:12:43,090 --> 01:12:45,310
I was a little girl on the war."

1665
01:12:45,310 --> 01:12:50,695
I was happy but I could study
professional after the war.

1666
01:12:50,695 --> 01:12:53,170
Before I was a child,

1667
01:12:53,170 --> 01:12:56,200
I was washing the
dishes with my mother,

1668
01:12:56,200 --> 01:12:57,685
I was washing the floor.

1669
01:12:57,685 --> 01:13:01,315
I did everything when I
was a young girl at home.

1670
01:13:01,315 --> 01:13:04,900
>> So then your
mother passed away in

1671
01:13:04,900 --> 01:13:07,960
the 1970s and how

1672
01:13:07,960 --> 01:13:10,660
did you make the decision
to leave Latvia?

1673
01:13:10,660 --> 01:13:12,550
>> Before my mother was sick,

1674
01:13:12,550 --> 01:13:14,440
I didn't want to go away.

1675
01:13:14,440 --> 01:13:16,375
I go to visit her there.

1676
01:13:16,375 --> 01:13:19,390
But when my mother died,

1677
01:13:19,390 --> 01:13:23,155
then I was thinking I
want a better life.

1678
01:13:23,155 --> 01:13:25,075
This was so bad.

1679
01:13:25,075 --> 01:13:27,460
When you go, the store is empty

1680
01:13:27,460 --> 01:13:30,475
when you have money
or you don't.

1681
01:13:30,475 --> 01:13:33,250
If you go very early
in the market,

1682
01:13:33,250 --> 01:13:37,420
then then the
president was drunk.

1683
01:13:37,420 --> 01:13:39,520
He take away the farms to make

1684
01:13:39,520 --> 01:13:45,370
Kolkhoz but they don't have
nothing in the Kolkhoz.

1685
01:13:45,370 --> 01:13:47,050
>> Who was the president?

1686
01:13:47,050 --> 01:13:48,610
>> Brezhnev.

1687
01:13:48,610 --> 01:13:51,580
>> Okay. So it was

1688
01:13:51,580 --> 01:13:53,335
not a good place to live

1689
01:13:53,335 --> 01:13:55,420
because you didn't
get enough food?

1690
01:13:55,420 --> 01:13:57,085
>> I tell you the
truth, you need

1691
01:13:57,085 --> 01:13:59,020
everything connection to have.

1692
01:13:59,020 --> 01:14:01,150
For example, to
get a nice dress,

1693
01:14:01,150 --> 01:14:02,740
nice shoes, you need connection

1694
01:14:02,740 --> 01:14:04,675
to have in the
store. It takes gut.

1695
01:14:04,675 --> 01:14:07,540
I make hats for them then
I tell, I need shoes.

1696
01:14:07,540 --> 01:14:09,190
Tell me where
there's good shoes.

1697
01:14:09,190 --> 01:14:11,200
You have money but

1698
01:14:11,200 --> 01:14:13,645
your money cannot get
you what you want.

1699
01:14:13,645 --> 01:14:15,910
Everything was for
the companies.

1700
01:14:15,910 --> 01:14:17,950
>> So did you have
any connections?

1701
01:14:17,950 --> 01:14:19,870
>> I have connection.
I make hats;

1702
01:14:19,870 --> 01:14:21,865
I have in store connection. Yes.

1703
01:14:21,865 --> 01:14:26,750
>> Did people seek you
out to buy your hats?

1704
01:14:29,610 --> 01:14:34,300
>> To get cover to
medication or hospital,

1705
01:14:34,300 --> 01:14:37,360
you need to make
100 hats a month.

1706
01:14:37,360 --> 01:14:39,310
Not only to make,

1707
01:14:39,310 --> 01:14:40,840
you need to have patience.

1708
01:14:40,840 --> 01:14:43,285
Came a young woman
with nice hair,

1709
01:14:43,285 --> 01:14:44,620
with a nice face,

1710
01:14:44,620 --> 01:14:46,670
what she put on is good on hair.

1711
01:14:46,670 --> 01:14:49,275
Came a lady that
go through a lot,

1712
01:14:49,275 --> 01:14:50,955
maybe holocaust also,

1713
01:14:50,955 --> 01:14:54,360
met everything, she
came with no hair,

1714
01:14:54,360 --> 01:14:56,580
she put on, doesn't look good.

1715
01:14:56,580 --> 01:14:59,680
You cannot tell her you
don't have patience.

1716
01:14:59,680 --> 01:15:02,245
You need to be nice to her.

1717
01:15:02,245 --> 01:15:05,590
I tell, "Maybe next week I
will make you something new.

1718
01:15:05,590 --> 01:15:07,360
I will make something special

1719
01:15:07,360 --> 01:15:09,550
for you." "Thank you, Sheva."

1720
01:15:09,550 --> 01:15:11,650
I have so many customers

1721
01:15:11,650 --> 01:15:13,945
because I have
patience with them.

1722
01:15:13,945 --> 01:15:15,925
I go through a lot.

1723
01:15:15,925 --> 01:15:18,520
It's not her fault but
she don't have hair.

1724
01:15:18,520 --> 01:15:22,225
She lost in the wartime
or through the holocaust.

1725
01:15:22,225 --> 01:15:24,565
She go through
what I go through.

1726
01:15:24,565 --> 01:15:29,035
For me, curl up my
hair if it was good.

1727
01:15:29,035 --> 01:15:31,105
I had nice hair at least.

1728
01:15:31,105 --> 01:15:35,575
Curl up my nice hair and I
start to look better without.

1729
01:15:35,575 --> 01:15:38,080
When I was working in the store,

1730
01:15:38,080 --> 01:15:42,235
I eat hard bread but it was
not good for my stomach.

1731
01:15:42,235 --> 01:15:45,610
But because I was working,
got put something.

1732
01:15:45,610 --> 01:15:47,455
I got sick also afterwards.

1733
01:15:47,455 --> 01:15:49,390
So many years hungry,

1734
01:15:49,390 --> 01:15:52,510
you start to eat if
it was not good.

1735
01:15:52,510 --> 01:15:55,855
No, I didn't have time
to make good soup.

1736
01:15:55,855 --> 01:15:57,655
I came from work.

1737
01:15:57,655 --> 01:16:03,715
I needed to clean the house
or I need to give my mother;

1738
01:16:03,715 --> 01:16:05,485
before we lived together

1739
01:16:05,485 --> 01:16:07,690
of my mother was
in the hospital,

1740
01:16:07,690 --> 01:16:10,285
I ran to her to the hospital.

1741
01:16:10,285 --> 01:16:11,650
My brother was waiting.

1742
01:16:11,650 --> 01:16:15,115
I came, I make at least
potatoes or something fast.

1743
01:16:15,115 --> 01:16:17,320
We didn't have time or didn't

1744
01:16:17,320 --> 01:16:20,260
have good food; what we need.

1745
01:16:20,260 --> 01:16:21,880
We eat what we have.

1746
01:16:21,880 --> 01:16:24,745
The Russian take the best away.

1747
01:16:24,745 --> 01:16:27,910
I had a good apartment

1748
01:16:27,910 --> 01:16:30,970
three times and put
already furniture.

1749
01:16:30,970 --> 01:16:33,700
With connection you could

1750
01:16:33,700 --> 01:16:35,980
get new furniture,
but I have the money.

1751
01:16:35,980 --> 01:16:37,900
I make hats and I make money.

1752
01:16:37,900 --> 01:16:41,560
No, you need connection
to buy this all.

1753
01:16:41,560 --> 01:16:42,430
>> Right.

1754
01:16:42,430 --> 01:16:46,615
>> I have a good profession

1755
01:16:46,615 --> 01:16:49,315
or have connection or
pay them a little more.

1756
01:16:49,315 --> 01:16:50,860
You got to find the money.

1757
01:16:50,860 --> 01:16:51,880
What is the price?

1758
01:16:51,880 --> 01:16:53,635
You make them because if

1759
01:16:53,635 --> 01:16:56,590
the Russians will find
out what they sell it,

1760
01:16:56,590 --> 01:16:58,225
they can put them in jail.

1761
01:16:58,225 --> 01:17:01,480
They bring me by
furniture in the evening.

1762
01:17:01,480 --> 01:17:03,940
>> Well, let's talk
about your immigration

1763
01:17:03,940 --> 01:17:05,395
to the United States.

1764
01:17:05,395 --> 01:17:08,905
So you came in '77?

1765
01:17:08,905 --> 01:17:11,275
>> In '79.

1766
01:17:11,275 --> 01:17:14,395
>> And you came to Florida?

1767
01:17:14,395 --> 01:17:17,755
>> No, we didn't go for Florida.

1768
01:17:17,755 --> 01:17:19,210
>> Where did you go?

1769
01:17:19,210 --> 01:17:21,880
>> To Atlanta.

1770
01:17:21,880 --> 01:17:23,980
Before we came to Atlanta,

1771
01:17:23,980 --> 01:17:26,110
three weeks I was in Vienna.

1772
01:17:26,110 --> 01:17:28,015
On five months, it was in

1773
01:17:28,015 --> 01:17:31,060
Italy until America accepted us.

1774
01:17:31,060 --> 01:17:31,690
>> Okay.

1775
01:17:31,690 --> 01:17:34,270
>> You think right away
you could come to America?

1776
01:17:34,270 --> 01:17:34,675
>> No.

1777
01:17:34,675 --> 01:17:36,445
>> No, I tell you the truth.

1778
01:17:36,445 --> 01:17:38,965
We have education my children.

1779
01:17:38,965 --> 01:17:41,425
I also was speaking
five languages,

1780
01:17:41,425 --> 01:17:43,120
I was in Italy.

1781
01:17:43,120 --> 01:17:45,865
My son or my daughter
was working.

1782
01:17:45,865 --> 01:17:48,175
My son take people.

1783
01:17:48,175 --> 01:17:52,270
They came in apartment there
in Italy when it's cold.

1784
01:17:52,270 --> 01:17:56,140
They need to go explain
what they need to prepare.

1785
01:17:56,140 --> 01:18:00,250
If for example they got sick,

1786
01:18:00,250 --> 01:18:03,100
they didn't know how to
tell one they're sick.

1787
01:18:03,100 --> 01:18:06,700
My son already know a little
or my daughter very well.

1788
01:18:06,700 --> 01:18:08,620
They make a little
money in Italy;

1789
01:18:08,620 --> 01:18:10,510
my son and my daughter.

1790
01:18:10,510 --> 01:18:14,470
When I find a lady and
she find out I make,

1791
01:18:14,470 --> 01:18:16,000
"Make me a scarf."

1792
01:18:16,000 --> 01:18:18,280
I go by her house
and make a scarf and

1793
01:18:18,280 --> 01:18:20,830
make a little money in Italy.

1794
01:18:20,830 --> 01:18:22,840
>> So you stayed in
Italy for five months?

1795
01:18:22,840 --> 01:18:23,650
>> Five months.

1796
01:18:23,650 --> 01:18:25,540
>> And then you came to Atlanta?

1797
01:18:25,540 --> 01:18:28,165
>> I tell you, I
did a big mistake.

1798
01:18:28,165 --> 01:18:31,735
Immigration, they know
Toronto is better.

1799
01:18:31,735 --> 01:18:33,010
They told, "Sheva, you'll meet

1800
01:18:33,010 --> 01:18:34,825
your profession.
Come to Toronto.

1801
01:18:34,825 --> 01:18:37,195
It's cold, you will
make good money."

1802
01:18:37,195 --> 01:18:40,225
People who have come
before came to Atlanta.

1803
01:18:40,225 --> 01:18:42,700
They tell, they have
a swimming pool,

1804
01:18:42,700 --> 01:18:46,435
what is good, that I think
is good, I will go there.

1805
01:18:46,435 --> 01:18:50,335
I was a big mistake
when I came to Atlanta.

1806
01:18:50,335 --> 01:18:52,165
>> So you should have
gone to Toronto?

1807
01:18:52,165 --> 01:18:54,565
>> In Toronto I could
open for myself

1808
01:18:54,565 --> 01:18:58,060
a store or make hats
or make good money.

1809
01:18:58,060 --> 01:19:01,075
>> So people weren't wearing
hats in Atlanta as much?

1810
01:19:01,075 --> 01:19:04,225
>> In Atlanta,
everybody go in cars.

1811
01:19:04,225 --> 01:19:07,525
They would not hire me for hats.

1812
01:19:07,525 --> 01:19:09,760
They would hire me
for the fur coats.

1813
01:19:09,760 --> 01:19:12,895
On fur coats at the time,

1814
01:19:12,895 --> 01:19:14,965
but in New York the fur coats

1815
01:19:14,965 --> 01:19:16,465
there was not too much work.

1816
01:19:16,465 --> 01:19:18,190
Why do you think they let me

1817
01:19:18,190 --> 01:19:20,080
go when I was two
years to retire?

1818
01:19:20,080 --> 01:19:22,120
There was not so
much work already.

1819
01:19:22,120 --> 01:19:22,600
>> That's it.

1820
01:19:22,600 --> 01:19:24,400
>> When I tell the new manager

1821
01:19:24,400 --> 01:19:26,920
the German what he bought
for Neiman Marcus.

1822
01:19:26,920 --> 01:19:30,775
I tell, "I can go with the
hats, make clothes also."

1823
01:19:30,775 --> 01:19:33,445
I was working from weekend
tailor shop before.

1824
01:19:33,445 --> 01:19:35,200
But it was minimum, $3.50.

1825
01:19:35,200 --> 01:19:37,690
She paid me $2.50
and she gave me

1826
01:19:37,690 --> 01:19:40,555
the most expensive suits
but I need my hands,

1827
01:19:40,555 --> 01:19:44,470
small stitches to make
the very expensive suits.

1828
01:19:44,470 --> 01:19:45,910
When I was happy;

1829
01:19:45,910 --> 01:19:48,100
I did speak very well English

1830
01:19:48,100 --> 01:19:51,355
or I tell I got a
job let's be $2.50.

1831
01:19:51,355 --> 01:19:54,100
>> So you were at Neiman Marcus?

1832
01:19:54,100 --> 01:19:57,970
>> In the end, I tell you
how I got to Neiman Marcus.

1833
01:19:57,970 --> 01:20:00,925
There was a man
working for Ricky.

1834
01:20:00,925 --> 01:20:02,650
Sometimes part-time for him,

1835
01:20:02,650 --> 01:20:04,630
part-time in Neiman Marcus.

1836
01:20:04,630 --> 01:20:06,490
It was before Christmas,

1837
01:20:06,490 --> 01:20:08,830
they have a lot of
work in Neiman Marcus,

1838
01:20:08,830 --> 01:20:14,864
but was not too many
workers. Then he tell me,

1839
01:20:14,864 --> 01:20:16,975
"Sheva, I saw you
make for Vicki,

1840
01:20:16,975 --> 01:20:19,180
came a lady with her
friend's jacket,

1841
01:20:19,180 --> 01:20:21,745
or you make she didn't
know how to do.

1842
01:20:21,745 --> 01:20:23,320
Come, I buy you a coffee.

1843
01:20:23,320 --> 01:20:25,555
Come with me to cafeteria."

1844
01:20:25,555 --> 01:20:27,850
Vicki didn't know
what he will tell me,

1845
01:20:27,850 --> 01:20:30,730
"Go to Neiman Marcus." He
tell, "He's a gentleman.

1846
01:20:30,730 --> 01:20:32,095
Go drink a coffee, Sheva."

1847
01:20:32,095 --> 01:20:34,585
I bring always from home my tea.

1848
01:20:34,585 --> 01:20:38,530
When I have a very
expensive suits

1849
01:20:38,530 --> 01:20:40,540
to work and I was working.

1850
01:20:40,540 --> 01:20:44,230
I didn't have time to go to
drink coffee or something.

1851
01:20:44,230 --> 01:20:48,130
After me was a black man,
with his ironing. God forbid.

1852
01:20:48,130 --> 01:20:49,765
If he stayed 10 minutes,

1853
01:20:49,765 --> 01:20:50,965
don't have what to do,

1854
01:20:50,965 --> 01:20:53,680
Vicki tell, Sheva,
you sick again.

1855
01:20:53,680 --> 01:20:56,935
I tell Vicki, what you're
talking, I'm sick again.

1856
01:20:56,935 --> 01:20:59,725
I feel not good working.

1857
01:20:59,725 --> 01:21:01,690
He can iron fast.

1858
01:21:01,690 --> 01:21:03,895
I can't make so fast the suit.

1859
01:21:03,895 --> 01:21:06,295
When you short the sleeve,

1860
01:21:06,295 --> 01:21:07,360
you need to take out

1861
01:21:07,360 --> 01:21:12,100
all the buttons and
shorten the lining.

1862
01:21:12,100 --> 01:21:14,935
Then you put back the
lining or you need

1863
01:21:14,935 --> 01:21:18,280
to measure to put the
buttons in the right place.

1864
01:21:18,280 --> 01:21:22,525
If you need to shorten
here something,

1865
01:21:22,525 --> 01:21:23,935
you need also the lining,

1866
01:21:23,935 --> 01:21:29,215
shorten small stitches, not
to see very expensive suits.

1867
01:21:29,215 --> 01:21:30,730
It is very difficult to work.

1868
01:21:30,730 --> 01:21:32,035
Not everybody.

1869
01:21:32,035 --> 01:21:35,860
It was was working by machine
one, two, three was fast.

1870
01:21:35,860 --> 01:21:40,585
Now me, she put because I
finish the designing in Europe,

1871
01:21:40,585 --> 01:21:42,310
I make very nice stitches.

1872
01:21:42,310 --> 01:21:44,080
She gave me the most expensive.

1873
01:21:44,080 --> 01:21:49,030
And she paid me only 250
or 350, I didn't complain.

1874
01:21:49,030 --> 01:21:51,010
Now, when I need
to go to doctor,

1875
01:21:51,010 --> 01:21:53,500
I need to ask the
Jewish Federation maybe

1876
01:21:53,500 --> 01:21:56,695
give me to a doctor or I
need to pay from my pocket.

1877
01:21:56,695 --> 01:21:58,675
I didn't have Medicare with her.

1878
01:21:58,675 --> 01:22:01,030
It was I was very upset.

1879
01:22:01,030 --> 01:22:03,070
Now when this man tell me,

1880
01:22:03,070 --> 01:22:05,095
"Sheva, what you doing here?

1881
01:22:05,095 --> 01:22:07,075
You tell your daughter
speak English.

1882
01:22:07,075 --> 01:22:09,010
Why you don't go
in Neiman Marcus?"

1883
01:22:09,010 --> 01:22:10,660
I said, "Where is
Neiman Marcus?"

1884
01:22:10,660 --> 01:22:11,710
He said, "Come outside.

1885
01:22:11,710 --> 01:22:14,590
See where the black
sign? Right here.

1886
01:22:14,590 --> 01:22:17,575
Let your daughter fill out
the application right now,

1887
01:22:17,575 --> 01:22:19,270
before Christmas they very busy.

1888
01:22:19,270 --> 01:22:20,875
You will got a job."

1889
01:22:20,875 --> 01:22:23,440
I came home, I told my daughter.

1890
01:22:23,440 --> 01:22:25,570
She told, "Mom, I
will go with you."

1891
01:22:25,570 --> 01:22:27,565
She fill out two applications.

1892
01:22:27,565 --> 01:22:31,645
When I came, I was smart enough
not to go to the manager.

1893
01:22:31,645 --> 01:22:33,115
I go in the work room.

1894
01:22:33,115 --> 01:22:37,600
There was the supervisor in
the work room for London.

1895
01:22:37,600 --> 01:22:39,190
She know about Latvi.

1896
01:22:39,190 --> 01:22:41,395
When I came, my
daughter write me down

1897
01:22:41,395 --> 01:22:43,480
how to tell I came from Latvia.

1898
01:22:43,480 --> 01:22:45,445
I was 32 years as designer.

1899
01:22:45,445 --> 01:22:46,510
I worked with Fares,

1900
01:22:46,510 --> 01:22:47,680
with Silver Fox,

1901
01:22:47,680 --> 01:22:50,860
with Mink, we made
fabrics with everything.

1902
01:22:50,860 --> 01:22:54,320
She told, can you finish
the lining. Yes, I told.

1903
01:22:54,320 --> 01:22:57,450
Oh, you make beautiful
stitches. Really you're good.

1904
01:22:57,450 --> 01:23:00,165
Can you sell by the fair
machine because fair,

1905
01:23:00,165 --> 01:23:03,345
you can't sell machine,

1906
01:23:03,345 --> 01:23:06,230
unique overlock like this, go.

1907
01:23:06,230 --> 01:23:09,310
Oh, you do so much. Good job.

1908
01:23:09,310 --> 01:23:11,545
Sheva, come to the manager.

1909
01:23:11,545 --> 01:23:16,610
His name was, what was his name?

1910
01:23:19,410 --> 01:23:22,090
Later maybe I remember.

1911
01:23:22,090 --> 01:23:25,750
He asked me, "What
about if you need to

1912
01:23:25,750 --> 01:23:29,725
go, Mrs. Vapne, for fitting?"

1913
01:23:29,725 --> 01:23:33,445
Then she tell,
"What you talking?"

1914
01:23:33,445 --> 01:23:37,240
"She may need help work, you
see what kind of good work."

1915
01:23:37,240 --> 01:23:39,460
"I will bring a
radio, 1 o'clock."

1916
01:23:39,460 --> 01:23:41,530
Oh, Craig Garrison
was his name.

1917
01:23:41,530 --> 01:23:46,240
Craig Garrison tell, "Mrs.
Vapne what about fitting?"

1918
01:23:46,240 --> 01:23:50,035
I tell, "I will try my best.
I will learn English."

1919
01:23:50,035 --> 01:23:54,520
And she tell to him. She came

1920
01:23:54,520 --> 01:23:56,500
on her daughter, write her down.

1921
01:23:56,500 --> 01:23:59,350
She tell me she came from
Latvia, she was designer.

1922
01:23:59,350 --> 01:24:00,745
I understand very well,

1923
01:24:00,745 --> 01:24:03,310
and I will bring
1 o'clock lessons

1924
01:24:03,310 --> 01:24:06,310
for newcomer. I will help her.

1925
01:24:06,310 --> 01:24:08,890
After a month, I
will speak English.

1926
01:24:08,890 --> 01:24:11,740
Maybe a bit I accent,
maybe right now.

1927
01:24:11,740 --> 01:24:15,380
It's also my English not
so good like American.

1928
01:24:15,420 --> 01:24:17,815
When I go for fitting,

1929
01:24:17,815 --> 01:24:20,455
I know the best need to be done.

1930
01:24:20,455 --> 01:24:22,330
And they ask, "Oh
yeah, nice lady

1931
01:24:22,330 --> 01:24:24,460
with a nice accent
from where you come."

1932
01:24:24,460 --> 01:24:25,930
[LAUGHTER] I tell,
"From Latvia."

1933
01:24:25,930 --> 01:24:26,890
"Where is Latvia?"

1934
01:24:26,890 --> 01:24:28,300
I tell, "The Baltic
Republic [inaudible] ."

1935
01:24:28,300 --> 01:24:32,230
They tell, "Forget it.
You do a good job.

1936
01:24:32,230 --> 01:24:33,655
This is important."

1937
01:24:33,655 --> 01:24:37,210
I tell you I learned
it very fast.

1938
01:24:37,210 --> 01:24:38,980
Well, I'm going to ask you

1939
01:24:38,980 --> 01:24:41,695
one more question.. And
then we'll finish up.

1940
01:24:41,695 --> 01:24:46,085
So you currently live
at the Zaven Tower?

1941
01:24:46,085 --> 01:24:49,285
I live in Zaven Tower.

1942
01:24:49,285 --> 01:24:50,860
I was not living before.

1943
01:24:50,860 --> 01:24:55,810
When we came we got apartment
for the Jewish Federation.

1944
01:24:55,810 --> 01:24:57,610
Until we got a job,

1945
01:24:57,610 --> 01:24:59,125
they help us to pay.

1946
01:24:59,125 --> 01:25:01,750
Now after when we
already start to work,

1947
01:25:01,750 --> 01:25:03,910
my son never made bridges.

1948
01:25:03,910 --> 01:25:08,665
He made schools, restaurants,
hotels, buildings.

1949
01:25:08,665 --> 01:25:12,540
And the Jewish Federation tell,

1950
01:25:12,540 --> 01:25:14,295
maybe you will learn.

1951
01:25:14,295 --> 01:25:16,680
He started for $4 with bridges.

1952
01:25:16,680 --> 01:25:19,125
It was a big mistake.

1953
01:25:19,125 --> 01:25:21,975
He was sitting with books

1954
01:25:21,975 --> 01:25:24,370
at 3 o'clock and I
tell my daughter,

1955
01:25:24,370 --> 01:25:25,570
you speak English, help him.

1956
01:25:25,570 --> 01:25:27,295
She says, momma,
I'm not architect.

1957
01:25:27,295 --> 01:25:29,860
What can I understand
in the books?

1958
01:25:29,860 --> 01:25:32,920
Then they have $4,
they hired him.

1959
01:25:32,920 --> 01:25:34,990
No with small companies.

1960
01:25:34,990 --> 01:25:37,900
So let him go in the
morning studying English,

1961
01:25:37,900 --> 01:25:41,050
late in the evening to work
with Saturday to Sundays.

1962
01:25:41,050 --> 01:25:43,090
I give him lunch,
he brought back.

1963
01:25:43,090 --> 01:25:44,200
Mom, I didn't have time.

1964
01:25:44,200 --> 01:25:46,765
They sent me inspection
to make also.

1965
01:25:46,765 --> 01:25:48,655
They take advantage of him.

1966
01:25:48,655 --> 01:25:51,325
And he came in the evening,
I tell, sweetheart,

1967
01:25:51,325 --> 01:25:54,145
eat and rest and start to learn.

1968
01:25:54,145 --> 01:25:56,290
I work already
Neiman Marcus and I

1969
01:25:56,290 --> 01:25:58,810
don't like what you work
for small companies.

1970
01:25:58,810 --> 01:26:02,425
He told, Mom, I have a
job, doesn't matter.

1971
01:26:02,425 --> 01:26:06,640
He was not in a hurry to
pass the pre examination.

1972
01:26:06,640 --> 01:26:10,840
And then he got married
with a wife, with a child.

1973
01:26:10,840 --> 01:26:12,955
When I left to
Florida, I got mad,

1974
01:26:12,955 --> 01:26:14,020
she wanted to make me for

1975
01:26:14,020 --> 01:26:16,015
a maid to take
care of her child,

1976
01:26:16,015 --> 01:26:17,485
or she never cleaned,

1977
01:26:17,485 --> 01:26:18,790
then I got mad.

1978
01:26:18,790 --> 01:26:22,690
I moved to Florida and I lost
my job in Neiman Marcus.

1979
01:26:22,690 --> 01:26:25,150
>> And when did you
return to Atlanta?

1980
01:26:25,150 --> 01:26:29,455
>> When I got very
sick. I couldn't.

1981
01:26:29,455 --> 01:26:31,570
When you're sick,
all the companies

1982
01:26:31,570 --> 01:26:33,520
take advantage of you.

1983
01:26:33,520 --> 01:26:35,500
I didn't know.

1984
01:26:35,500 --> 01:26:38,320
Before my son brought
me on the ground floor,

1985
01:26:38,320 --> 01:26:41,695
it was not central air
condition, I couldn't breathe.

1986
01:26:41,695 --> 01:26:42,910
But I go during

1987
01:26:42,910 --> 01:26:46,030
the war time with the
pneumonia and with everything,

1988
01:26:46,030 --> 01:26:48,010
then I started to
work for a lady with

1989
01:26:48,010 --> 01:26:51,220
Alzheimer's every penny
I hold it to change.

1990
01:26:51,220 --> 01:26:54,220
When after I changed in the
third floor it was too hot

1991
01:26:54,220 --> 01:26:57,790
because there was a lot windows.

1992
01:26:57,790 --> 01:26:59,350
I was looking for a lot of

1993
01:26:59,350 --> 01:27:02,020
windows because I want
to make alteration.

1994
01:27:02,020 --> 01:27:03,580
It was too hot already,

1995
01:27:03,580 --> 01:27:05,770
that I was working
day and night,

1996
01:27:05,770 --> 01:27:09,055
my air condition a lot
for electricity to pay.

1997
01:27:09,055 --> 01:27:12,520
Or you need companies
to insure all this.

1998
01:27:12,520 --> 01:27:15,595
And if they see what you
are old lady, they say,

1999
01:27:15,595 --> 01:27:17,890
"Doesn't work, you need
a new air condition."

2000
01:27:17,890 --> 01:27:22,540
For example, I want

2001
01:27:22,540 --> 01:27:25,045
to call in Israel
that was still alive,

2002
01:27:25,045 --> 01:27:26,935
my sister or my brother.

2003
01:27:26,935 --> 01:27:30,025
I need special to
pay more for Israel,

2004
01:27:30,025 --> 01:27:33,700
it was expensive when
I was working already

2005
01:27:33,700 --> 01:27:37,795
made alteration of me I owe
me the all time for $4.

2006
01:27:37,795 --> 01:27:40,310
I didn't make a lot of money.

2007
01:27:40,710 --> 01:27:44,485
To work either or make
alteration, everything.

2008
01:27:44,485 --> 01:27:47,515
What you go to to
Holocaust was not easy.

2009
01:27:47,515 --> 01:27:49,970
Then I got sick.

2010
01:27:50,550 --> 01:27:53,050
The doctors didn't accept me.

2011
01:27:53,050 --> 01:27:55,930
One doctor give me medication.

2012
01:27:55,930 --> 01:27:58,300
Tells, "You don't have
a car, Mrs. Vapne."

2013
01:27:58,300 --> 01:27:59,965
I will give you for four months,

2014
01:27:59,965 --> 01:28:01,390
30 pills a month.

2015
01:28:01,390 --> 01:28:06,175
I started to lose weight or
I couldn't move my hands.

2016
01:28:06,175 --> 01:28:08,110
I have the insurance was

2017
01:28:08,110 --> 01:28:12,610
Pop insurance or I
go to the doctor.

2018
01:28:12,610 --> 01:28:14,665
He told, go next building,

2019
01:28:14,665 --> 01:28:17,305
they will make a good
massage or an ultrasound.

2020
01:28:17,305 --> 01:28:18,715
You will feel better.

2021
01:28:18,715 --> 01:28:21,910
I go there, they don't
accepted my insurance.

2022
01:28:21,910 --> 01:28:23,770
They don't pay enough.

2023
01:28:23,770 --> 01:28:27,010
Good for the Jewish Federation
that helped me a lot.

2024
01:28:27,010 --> 01:28:29,035
She come or she
look in the books,

2025
01:28:29,035 --> 01:28:30,730
all companies when
they want you to

2026
01:28:30,730 --> 01:28:32,785
take the companies,
they give you books.

2027
01:28:32,785 --> 01:28:35,020
I couldn't understand all

2028
01:28:35,020 --> 01:28:36,760
in the books, what is, you know.

2029
01:28:36,760 --> 01:28:38,575
She finds, Sheva,

2030
01:28:38,575 --> 01:28:41,905
that far you have who will
accept where it's rehab.

2031
01:28:41,905 --> 01:28:47,290
Rehab, they will pay
how much they wanted.

2032
01:28:47,290 --> 01:28:50,770
The rehab need to make the
secretary for the doctor.

2033
01:28:50,770 --> 01:28:54,460
She didn't make any time,
the rehab. And when I go,

2034
01:28:54,460 --> 01:28:56,395
they don't accepted
my insurance.

2035
01:28:56,395 --> 01:28:58,165
I couldn't have in the time

2036
01:28:58,165 --> 01:29:00,535
not massage, not ultrasounds.

2037
01:29:00,535 --> 01:29:02,320
I got so sick.

2038
01:29:02,320 --> 01:29:05,350
Then on the Jewish Federation,

2039
01:29:05,350 --> 01:29:07,150
tell me Sheva, you
did a mistake.

2040
01:29:07,150 --> 01:29:10,690
You make all your bills go
for your Social Security.

2041
01:29:10,690 --> 01:29:12,835
Go to the bank,

2042
01:29:12,835 --> 01:29:14,935
would help you a little more.

2043
01:29:14,935 --> 01:29:17,830
When I got sick, my
son tell me mom,

2044
01:29:17,830 --> 01:29:19,765
make to go directly

2045
01:29:19,765 --> 01:29:22,750
for the bank but I
see it's not enough.

2046
01:29:22,750 --> 01:29:24,805
I also the same bank,

2047
01:29:24,805 --> 01:29:26,140
I will put a little.

2048
01:29:26,140 --> 01:29:27,985
That was also a mistake.

2049
01:29:27,985 --> 01:29:32,240
The Jewish Federation
did help me so much.

2050
01:29:32,460 --> 01:29:36,565
They stop to fix
my air condition.

2051
01:29:36,565 --> 01:29:40,450
I need a new one in Florida.

2052
01:29:40,450 --> 01:29:43,090
My glasses, I was broken.

2053
01:29:43,090 --> 01:29:45,955
They brought me before I
left new glasses also.

2054
01:29:45,955 --> 01:29:50,635
After my operations is not
good anymore my glasses.

2055
01:29:50,635 --> 01:29:53,260
I don't have what to do.

2056
01:29:53,260 --> 01:29:56,530
My son tell, mom it was
in the best hospital,

2057
01:29:56,530 --> 01:29:59,005
Emery, they couldn't help you.

2058
01:29:59,005 --> 01:30:00,430
What will help you as a doctor.

2059
01:30:00,430 --> 01:30:01,675
He will take for your body.

2060
01:30:01,675 --> 01:30:04,195
He didn't go to
me to the doctor.

2061
01:30:04,195 --> 01:30:05,905
What he did is,

2062
01:30:05,905 --> 01:30:07,045
son is a student,

2063
01:30:07,045 --> 01:30:10,825
need to pay for him or he
don't have a standard job.

2064
01:30:10,825 --> 01:30:13,765
Also, he saw there
was my son or when

2065
01:30:13,765 --> 01:30:17,095
I was going in Emery
to find a parking.

2066
01:30:17,095 --> 01:30:21,550
My God, we spend hours
till find a parkment

2067
01:30:21,550 --> 01:30:23,890
where you come late
to side it for

2068
01:30:23,890 --> 01:30:26,335
you them or you did
last one by the doctor.

2069
01:30:26,335 --> 01:30:28,100
We spent days.

2070
01:30:28,100 --> 01:30:30,165
When you paid for your parking,

2071
01:30:30,165 --> 01:30:32,730
what is all day there
for everything.

2072
01:30:32,730 --> 01:30:34,830
I have the Etna insurance,

2073
01:30:34,830 --> 01:30:38,555
my son made me when I
came back to Atlanta.

2074
01:30:38,555 --> 01:30:41,650
Then I paid $103 for

2075
01:30:41,650 --> 01:30:43,810
my Social Security for Medicare

2076
01:30:43,810 --> 01:30:46,390
was not enough, very little.

2077
01:30:46,390 --> 01:30:50,095
That would be
finished was so much.

2078
01:30:50,095 --> 01:30:53,020
For every visit first month

2079
01:30:53,020 --> 01:30:58,510
$355 for the visits
we need to pay.

2080
01:30:58,510 --> 01:31:00,520
That takes got to
Jewish Federation

2081
01:31:00,520 --> 01:31:02,980
a little help me
to pay the bills.

2082
01:31:02,980 --> 01:31:05,720
>> Well, we're
going to end there.

2083
01:31:05,720 --> 01:31:07,260
And I want to thank you for

2084
01:31:07,260 --> 01:31:09,460
sitting down for this interview.