Note: Although the translation is being made more
than
nine years after the interview, I seem to remember Mrs. Neiman
very
well.
She was a tall, somewhat heavy set, healthy looking peasant women,
typical
of the Russian south. From her looks one could possibly give her
up to
thirty or thirty-five years of age, at least by American standards
of
appearance.
That does not mean to say that she looked prematurely aged. Her
Russian
is perfect at average vocabulary level and so fluent that for
translation
purposes special devices had to be made to slow down somewhat her
speech.
What is more surprising is that her Yiddish, too, which we changed
to
at
the end of the interview, is very beautiful and fluent.—DPB.
Boder In English: France, September the 12th, 1946, at
Henonville,
about fifty kilometers from Paris. A Kibbutz in a wonderful
countryside,
in an old castle, for displaced Jews. The interviews is Mrs.
Clara
Neiman,
a woman who was converted, I understand, to Judaism. And so,
Mrs.
Neiman,/in
Russian:/ tell us again what is your full name and..
Neiman: Nei-.
Boder: /Laughingly:/ Tell
us
also
how old you are.
Neiman: Neiman.
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: Neiman, Clara.
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: Twenty five years.
Boder: Twenty-five years.
Neiman:Yes.
Boder: And where were you born Mrs. Neiman?
Neiman: In the city of Saratov.
[Click on
city
to see map.]
Boder: So what are you being called by your father's
name
/the polite Russian form of addressing people/?
Neiman: Adamovna /meaning her
father's
name was Adam/.
Boder: Clara Adamova?
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: Clara Adamova, you were born in Saratov?
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: And you were a large family.
Neiman: A large.
Boder: A large family, yes. And how many people? The
father,
mother...
Neiman: Seven we were. No, no, ten, together with father
and
mother.
Boder: So.
Neiman: Seven children.
Boder: Seven children and...
Neiman: And father and mother.
Boder: Then that makes it nine.
Neiman: Nine, yes. There was one more who died, and
so...
Boder: Oh well, altogether your mother had eight
children.
Neiman: Eight /few words not
clear/.
Boder: Now tell me where...well, what was the religion
of
your
parents?
Neiman: They were Russian /as it
often
happens, she identifies the Greek Orthodox religion with the
Russian
nationality/.
And then they went over to Judaism.
Boder: /With lasting tone of
surprise:/ Your
parents, too?
Neiman: The parents. Afterwards we became Jews.
Boder: I understand. But your parents, too, had become
Jews?
Neiman: Had become Jews.
Boder: How did that happen?
Neiman: /Words not clear./
Very
simple, they adopted /changed to/
the
Jewish
religion.
Boder: Your parents?
Neiman: Yes, my parents. They have left already for
Palestine.
Boder: Your parents are already in Palestine?
Neiman: In Palestine. Yes.
Boder: Now tell me. How many years ago did your parents
go
over
to Judaism?
Neiman: Approximately already twenty years.
Boder: And they lived all that time in Russia?
Neiman: No, not in Russia. They lived in Baku, in
Gruziya
/Baku is not in the province of Gruziya, but is located not
far from
it,
/a minor error/.
Boder: Oh.
Neiman: In Gruziya, in the Caucasus.
Boder: In the Caucasus.
Neiman: Yes, in the Caucsus.
Boder: Now then, your father and mother both were born
Russians?
Neiman: Born Russians, who went over /to
Judaism/, but we...I still was not...but the other
already
/were born in Jewish faith/. I and my older brother,
already
deceased,
were not born /as Jews/. A year of
two
before
or later.
Boder: And your mother.
Neiman: Mother was just like a Jewess of course.
Boder: So.
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: When you were born?
Neiman: When I was born /she
apparently
is somewhat confused/. Maybe a year or two earlier
/she had become a Jewess/.
Boder: So, afterwards. Then you already were not
christened?
Neiman: No, no, us not. We were already like Jews.
Boder: And...could you possibly explain why your parents
decided
to adopt Judaism?
Neiman: How come? Well, they...they were not Russian.
They
were
not Russians /meaning not Greek Orthodox/.
They
were Sectarians /dissenders from the
official
Russian Church/.
Boder: Oh. They were Sectarians.
Neiman: Of a different sect.
Boder: To which sect did they belong?
Neiman: To another sect.
Boder: Yes, of course.
Neiman: They were Molokans /see
note
at
end
of
chapter/. [More likely they were Jumpers, Spiritual.]
Boder: Then you come from the Molokans!
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: So. And then?
Neiman: And then they decided to change to Judaism, that
this
was already the real /right/
religion.
The
first changed to Sabbatarianism
and
afterwards
became
real
Jews.
Boder: So they changed first to Sabbatarianism?
Neiman: No /?/. They first
just
observed the Sabbath and then adopted all the Jewish laws.
Boder: So were there many such people in that locality?
Neiman: Seventy people took it on at that time,
seventy...seventy
families.
Boder: Seventy families adopted Judaism.
Neiman: Seventy families adopted Judaism when our mother
was
already converted/?/.
Boder: Already twenty years ago?
Neiman: Already twenty years ago. And many of our gers
/strangers, Christians converted to Judaism/ are
already there,
in Palestine. They lived in Tel-Aviv. They left in the year ‘24.
Boder: They left in the year ‘24?
Neiman: Left in the year ‘24. Tel-Aviv was not yet
completed.
Boder: And how did they get out at that time from Russia
to
Palestine?
Neiman: They...they crossed the black border
/crossed illegally/.
Boder: The black border.
Neiman: The black border.
Boder: Now tell me Clara Adamorna, where were you when
the
war
started?
Neiman: We were in Gruziya [Georgia] in the city of Kutais. [Click to see
map.]
Boder: But you /your folks/
are
not Caucasians /not born in the Caucasus
region/.
Neiman: No, no. We moved from the city of Saratov
where we were born.
Boder: You were born in Saratov.
Neiman: We moved. The children were born already in the
Ukraine.
We lived also in the Ukraine.
Boder: Then how did you get to Gruziya [Gerogia]?
Neiman: To Gruziya [Georgia] we got still before the
war.
We arrived
there
about five /?/ years before the
war.
Boder: So.
Neiman: Before the war. And then we were all the time in
Gruziya.
Already twenty five years that we got there. Still before the
war. /Her
time data are somewhat confused./
Boder: And how did you decide...Why did you decide to
move
to
Gruziya?
Neiman: It was very difficult to live in Russia.
Boder: For whom?
Neiman: In general for us it was very hard to live.
Boder: And in Gruziya?
Neiman: We were unable to observe properly Judaism. It
was
impossible
to observe one's religion, and mother had established by
correspondence /?/ that
we had acquaintances there who had gone over /to
Judaism/. So we moved to Gruziya
Boder: Aha. And the Soviets? Did they permit you to move
to
Gruziya?
Neiman: Nothing. They had nothing against that.
Boder: Now tell me. But Gruziya, too, belongs to the
Soviets.
Neiman: Gruziya belongs to the Soviets, but there was
more
freedom,
life was more comfortable. There was /no/ shortage.
Boder: So.
Neiman: Clothes were very cheap. It was better...better
to
live.
Boder: At any rate it was better to live.
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: And you, what were you there? Peasants?
Neiman: I worked in a knitting shop /Jersey/.
Father
also
worked
in
a
factory.
The
brothers
also
worked in factories /few
words
not
clear/.
Boder: All of you worked.
Neiman: My sister is now here, too. Her family is here,
too.
My husband...
Boder: Your sister is here, too?
Neiman: We were unable to leave together illegally,
because
of
the children. They had a child and I a little boy.
Boder: So. So you...
Neiman: And we haven't left yet.
Boder: Oh, you mean you couldn't go illegally to
Palestine?
Neiman: We couldn't. Because mother went illegally with
father,
a brother and already a grown up sister.
Boder: They are in Tel-Aviv?
Neiman: Yes. They live already in Tel-Aviv. Already a
month
that
they live in Tel-Aviv, liberated, in freedom.
Boder: Why do you say that they were liberated? Were
they
held...
Neiman: They were in a lager.
Boder: Aha. And afterwards. they were not free.
Neiman: They had a very hard time. They were even
without
water
for three days.
Boder: Hm. Now tell me. Speak a bit in this direction /of
the microphone/.
Neiman: Yes, yes, yes. So...
Boder: So. Now tell me, when the war started you were in
Kutais.
Neiman: Yes. In the city of Kutais.
Boder: Now tell me...
Neiman: A big Jewish city.
Boder: /Astonished:/ A big
Jewish
city.
Neiman: A Jewish city. There were altogether seventy
/?/ synagogues. That's how big a city it was.
Boder: In Kutais?
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: How come?
Neiman: It was very big...of course, a very big city.
It's
a
Jewish city.[Footnote: This is of course
incorrect.
But having had a more liberal government and considering the
advanced
of
the Germans, the Caucasus in general may have had a large
influx of
Jewish
refugees, especially in the cities located near the Turkish
border.]
Boder: Now tell me, the Jews there were Russian Jews?
Neiman: /Word not clear; sound
like
Proskiri/
Gruziyan Jews. There were various Jewish nations /adjective
not
clear/, very pious Jews. All the synagogues were full.
Boder: In Kutais?
Neiman: In Kutais.
Afterwards
we left for Russia.
Boder: Aha.
Neiman: In Russia it was very difficult to observe
religion.
Boder: In Russia with religion...
Neiman: /Sounds like: For Jews/
it was very difficult./ A wisper, not
clear./ Everything
was
prohibited.
Later
one
it /religious
observance/ became
already open, since it /the four freedoms/
was reported in the newpapers from England, from America, that
they
demand
it. /Her rapid speech begins to telescope
the
sentences./ And
so before the war...one may say after the war...Before the war
it was
harder...At
any rate we did not adjust/?/ there any more. People
travelled...
Boder: Good. When the war started you were in Kutais.
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: Now, tell me in detail where and how all these
things
happened. Where were you during the war, and did you finally get
to
Paris?
Don't hurry. We have time.
Neiman: /With a chuckle:/
Aha, good.
It was like this. When we were in Kutais,
I
married
a
Pole.
Boder: A Pole?
Neiman: A Pole, a Jew. My husband is a collect Jew /possibly
one who belongs to a collective farm. I am not sure of the
meaning of
this
apparently makeshift word./
Boder: So.
Neiman: And afterwards we decided to travel to Poland.
Boder: Aha.
Neiman: I left for Poland, while mother and sister
remained
there.
Boder: In what city?
Neiman: In the city of Kutais.
The
sister
lived
there.
Boder: So.
Neiman: The sister lived there. The sister, too, got
married
in Kutais.
Boder: And how did the Polish Jews get to Gruziya?
Neiman: They were in Gruziya. Very many /of
them/ were in Gruziya.
Boder: Polish Jews.
Neiman: Polish Jews, very many. they fled from the war.
Boder: Oh, this was already...
Neiman: This was already at the time of the slaughter /massacres/.
Boder: So. They evacuated themselves...
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: ...and went to Gruziya?
Neiman: The third year since my marriage.
Boder: So. So.
Neiman: Three years had passed.
Boder: So. So. And he was an evacuee.
Neiman: He was an evacusee, yes. There were many such...
Boder: So.
Neiman: So we put up the Khupe /Hebrew:
canape
under
which
bride
and
groom
stand
during
the
Judaic
marriage
ceremony/ there
in the city of Kutais.
Boder: You put up what?
Neiman: Khupe. We made a wedding like Jews.
Boder: So. Nu.
Neiman: Afterwards we decided to leave for Poland,
afterwards
already upon the termination of the war.
Boder: So.
Neiman: During the first year after termination of the
war
we
decided to depart for Poland.
Boder: So.
Neiman: And we departed, with my husband, for Poland. We
spent
there, let us say, five months. Afterwards mother arrived. I
sent word
for her to come. I wrote to her, between lines, because it was
not
possible
to write /openly/...
Boder: So.
Neiman: ...that mother should come, that possibly there
will
be a chance to get to Palestine.
Boder: So.
Neiman: Only I wrote to her in a manner that the letter
should
reach her. You of course understand.
Boder: So that the letter should pass /Soviet/
censorship.
Neiman: Yes. And so finally mother arrived among us in
Russia
/?/
Boder: So.
Neiman: Mother arrived...
Boder: Where to? Where did you live, in Poland?
Neiman: In Poland, in the city of Lodz. [Click to see
map.]
Boder: /With surprise:/ In
Lodz?
Neiman: Petrokovska /street/
23.
Boder: To the city of Lodz.
Neiman: Yes. On the main street, Petrokovska 23...
Boder: So.
Neiman: ...we lived.
Boder: So.
Neiman: Well, we lived — nothing to complain about. My
husband
is a tailor. We started to earn well. But still there was great
anti-Semitism,
and they started to kill a lot of Jews. In our time there
were...there
took place a great number of /word not
clear/
assaults.
Boder: Pogroms?
Neiman: Pogroms.
Boder: So.
Neiman: So I wrote my mother a letter, so she
came...Come
winter,
they decided to leave. My sister, my mother, the whole family
left.
Boder: They came to /word not
clear/.
Neiman: No, to us.
Boder: From Kutais?
Neiman: A city in Gruziya. They arrived in Poland, and
afterwards
they lived with me for three months. They wintered through the
winter.
Boder: Hm.
Neiman: We were registered with a Jewish faction, of
course
with
a Jewish organization with whom we now have arrived.
Boder: Aguda? [Adudah]
Neiman: Aguda. [Adudah]
Boder: So.
Neiman: In Lodz. And we decided...and afterwards they
accepted
us. They registered us first. And afterwards it was impossible
to
travel
in the winter. It was, of course, difficult to travel with
children.
Boder: So.
Neiman: And afterwards in March...in the month of April
we
already
departed.
Boder: And how did the father come
/join/ you?
Neiman: And the father had arrived when we had written.
Boder: Together with mother?
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: Oh.
Neiman: Together with mother and the family. And the
sister,
too, with the family.
Boder: How come? Did they come like Poles or like
/word not clear/?
Neiman: Well, they...my husband, too, /came/
like a Pole.
Boder: Hm.
Neiman: My husband, too, as a /word
not
clear,
possible equivalent: a Polish citizen/. And as to
mother
it was permitted /as/ announced in
the
newspaper
that one who has in Poland a son or a daughter may leave
/for Poland/.
Boder: Aha.
Neiman: And mother. /She for some
reason
fails in general to mention the father/, mother has
remained
alone /in
Kutais/ and as an old person.
Boder: So.
Neiman: My two brothers now study in the Yeshiva /school
of higher Judaic
learning/. They have decided to
go to
America.
They study in a Yeshiva in Luxenben, in the city of Luxenben.
Boder: Luxemben?
Neiman: Luxenben, yes.
Boder: They are now in Luxenburg?
Neiman: They study in the Yeshiva. They study.
Boder: The younger.../?/
Neiman: The youngest..the youngest two brothers. Yes.
Boder: So.
Neiman: But they have not left yet.
Boder: So.
Neiman: And that is how we got here. We live here
already
five
months. Thank God.
Boder: That means you have two brothers, younger ones,
studying
in the Luxemburg Yeshiva.
Neiman: /They talk in unison:/
...two
brothers, younger ones, in Luxemburg Yeshiva.
Boder: Now where is that, in Lux- ...in Luxemburg?
Neiman: In Luxemburg there is a large Yeshiva, and they
study
there.
Boder: Why do you say that they intend to go to America?
Neiman: They already...they had already the visa in
their
hands,
but for some reason they have not left yet. Only one of them /of
the students?/ had a chance to leave. Meanwhile we had
contact
this
week...last week, with two people /from
there,/
and they told us that they /the brothers/
have not left yet, and that we should write letters to them.
Boder: Aha. Now then...
Neiman: They don't know yet that our mother has left.
Boder: Aha. They don't know yet about your mother?
Neiman: No, nothing.
Boder: And you, have you received letters already?
Neiman: No, we have received nothing from mother. Why
she
does
not write I don't know. But those who have left on that steamer
with
mother
write that everything is very well, that they are fairing very
well in
Tel-Aviv, and that some of them, the young people, have joined a
Kibbutz,
while some have remained in /word not
clear/.
Boder: Now tell me, you don't know yet that your parents
have
reached Palestine?
Neiman: They...we know. It was reported.../sounds
like: the Czechs/ have reported that /of/
the steamer which has arrived at /name
not
clear,
posssibly a port on Cyprus/ they have set free nearly
all. Some
of them left for Tel-Aviv, and some remained at /name
not
clear/.
Boder: So. But from your mother...
Neiman: But from our mother we have heard nothing.
Boder: And from your father you have received nothing /no
word/.
Neiman: No, nothing.
Boder: Aha. Now tell me this. During the war you were in
Kutais?
Neiman: In the city of Kutais.
Boder: And the war did not reach it?
Neiman: There were twice strong bombardments, only two
times.
There was no war /there/.
Boder: So, but...
Neiman: The war was about twenty five.../corrects/ hundred
twenty five kilometers away /word not
clear/.
And
afterwards
they
were
driven
back.
Boder: Aha. Now with whom are you here in Henonville?
With
your
husband?
Neiman: With my husband and baby.
Boder: With one baby. That is your family.
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: So. Now tell me how do you live here. You have a
separate
room for your family.
Neiman: A separate /room/.
Everything
is fine.
Boder: So.
Neiman: We live, thank God, well. There is food, there
is
drink,
cleanliness. Everything one may say is fine.
Boder: Now tell me. You say that in your locality
were...you
in Saratov or Samara?
Neiman: In Saratov.
/A few sentences not clear./
Boder: So. And there was a large number of "Russians"
who
have
become Jews?
Neiman: Yes. But they, too, have departed from here.
They
do
not remain there
Boder: So. And who were your rabbis?
Neiman: In Saratov
there were
many Jews.
Boder: So. Our mother...mother's own sister lived in Saratov
in the city of Saratov.
Through her
she became acquainted with Jews in general, and so she decided
to go to
Judaism. /Consistently it is the mother,
not the
father or the parents/.
Boder: She was not originally married to a Jew?
Neiman: Mama? No, no. No, no.
Boder: And your father was then a pure Russian.
Neiman: Yes, yes. No, not a pure /Greek
Orthodox/. They were sectarians.
that
is
why
they
got
into
/words not clear/. They were digging /debating,
urging,
hesitating/ digging, digging, and decided to go over,
to
adopt the Jewish religion, because it is proper to have this
belief,
not
the belief they had before/
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: And so they went over.
Boder: Now. And you speak Yiddish,
too?
Neiman: /From here the dialogue
proceeds
in Yiddish,
which
she
speaks
beautifully./ Yes, I speak
Yiddish.
Boder: /Wondering:/ You
speak Yiddish?
Neiman: Yes, I speak Yiddish.
Boder: Where did you learn Yiddish?
Neiman: I? When did I learn it? When we lived...when we
left
Russia and lived in a Jewish city.
Boder: Where?
Neiman: In the Ukraine. In the Ukraine.
Boder: In the Ukraine. In what city was that?
Neiman: /In Russian:/ In
the
city
of Kamenets Podolsk. The
city
Kamenets.
Boder: Kamenets Pololsk. [Click to see map.]
Neiman: Podolsk. /In Yiddish:/ Not
far
from
Kamenets.../word not clear/
Boder: /In Yiddish:/ And
here...with
the child you talk what?
Neiman: Russian...but I want him to learn to speak
Yiddish.
Boder: /One word not clear./
Neiman: /With laughter:/ Yes.
Boder: Aha. And your husband? What does your husband do?
Neiman: He is a tailor. /Sentence
not
clear;
she speaks exceptionally fast./
Boder: Can you read Hebrew? Can you pray /read
from prayer book/?
Neiman: Hebrew? No. I pray in Russian, the translation,
one
side
Hebrew one side Russian, the translation.
Boder: What do you have, a prayer book with a
translation?
Neiman: A prayer book with a translation.
Boder: Oh. And /words not clear/.
Neiman: And the whole Torah
/Bible/,
too, /word not clear/. I have a
translation
of the whole Torah.
Boder: You have a translataion.
Neiman: I read it to him
/husband?/,
too,
But
I
have
to
speak
Yiddish /it is proper
that
I speak Yiddish/.
Boder: Now. And when do you think you will be in Eretz
Yisroeil [Land of
Israel]?
Neiman: Alevay /may it only be so/,
that
is
not
known. /Laughter./ Alevay, as
soon as possible. We want it as soon as possible, but...
Boder: And your family..your father and mother got there
/to Palestine/ illegally?
Neiman: /In a whishper:/
Not
legally.
Boder: How did they go? What did they have? A ship, or
how?
Neiman: Yes. They went to the city of...
Boder: Marseilles?
Neiman: Marseilles, Marseilles.
Boder: From Marseilles?
Neiman: Yes. There they waited for a week's time, and
then
they
departed /whispers some words not clear/.
There were a lot of people, a large group.
Boder: Did all get into Palestine.
Neiman: Yes. There were Zionists. There were
a lot
of
people.
Boder: Aha.
Neiman: They waited there for a week's time, and then
they
departed.
Boder: Now tell me...
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: When did you actually leave Russia? In what year?
Neiman: I left — I will tell you — I
/hope I/ have not forgotten. I left...it is
already...you mean
from
Russia to Gruziya.
Boder: No. When did you leave Gruziya for Poland?
Neiman: Oh, for Poland. That trip we made already a year
ago.
It is already a year.
Boder: Already a year. Well. First you intended...
Neiman: /Interrupting:/
No,
no,
no, we went first /few words not clear/.
Boder: First you thought to remain in Poland.
Neiman: No. We did not think so. We specially were going
away
from /word not clear, possible from
persecution/.
You
understand?
When
we
got
to
Poland
one
could
not live
/?/ in Poland. You understand? So we first went to
Poland, and
in
Poland we could see already where people are going. And so...
Boder: Where people are going...
Neiman: Yes /chuckle/.
Boder: And how did you get from Poland to France? Tell
me
that.
Neiman: How we traveled by train. We traveled in small
groups
by ancua /? She uses apparently a
French
colloquialsim
or mispronounces the word; it means bus/.
Boder: How did you travel?
Neiman: I traveled by /sounds
like avcua/.
Boder: The whole...What does it mean, avcua?
Neiman: We traveled altogether four days to /word
not clear/.
Boder: Aha.
Neiman: And there we waited a month's time.
Boder: Yes. Where did you wait month's time?
Neiman: Well, in rooms.
Boder: At a committee /shelter
house/?
Neiman: Yes, at a committee. It was arranged by the
Aguda.
[Adudah] There
was food...
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: There was drink and...
Boder: Oh. The Aguda has taken you over already from
Poland?
Neiman: From Lodz. Right from Poland. Yes.
Boder: Yes. And they took you from Lodz and...
Neiman: From Lodz through...
Boder: To Prague.
Neiman: Yes, to Prague. From Prague we also came by avcua/bus/.
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: We traveled by bus.
Boder: By bus you traveled?
Neiman: Yes, yes, and illegally.
Boder: How far, all to France? In busses?
Neiman: Yes.
Boder: So you passed Germany?
Neiman: We passed through. Yes. There we met our
brothers.
Boder: /Surprised:/ O-oh.
Neiman: This is how we found them. I shall tell you. We
arrived
at dawn.
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: You understand? I was to. We left...we traveled
four
days. So it came to be Friday night /the
eve of
the
Sabbath/.
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: So we had arrived on Thursday...
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: ...coming to France. And Friday we were already
in
the
hotel.
Boder: Hm.
Neiman: And there we already...and from there I
transferred /rest
of sentence not clear/.
Boder: Was the Rabbi Horwitz with you?
/See Chapter 42./
Neiman: Not there, not there, not there. He was already
later.../correction/ they
had come earlier. They were already here at this place /?/,
but a few families /?/ were still
in
Paris.
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: They were mot transferred?
Boder: Well.
Neiman: And so since we were in Paris, we ate in a
refectory.
Boder: Hm. /Pause./ Now
then, and
what are you doing here all day?
Neiman: Here? No worry. I do what I wish
/?/ My husband goes to work in the garden. And I have
to take
care,
of course, of the little baby. I have to watch /?/
him.
Boder: Aha. And where do you eat? You eat in the...
Neiman: In the refectory.
Boder: In the refectory. Aha. All together? Or you
eat–the
women
separately from the men?
Neiman: We eat separately. In the same refectory, but /we
sit/ separately.
Boder: Yes. You eat separately. And the same when you go
to
prayer.
You are separated.
Neiman: Yes. For breakfast, for dinner, for supper /?/.
Boder: Yes. So you don't have to cook for yourselves.
Neiman: No.
Boder: And for the baby?
Neiman: No, for the child they don't cook, Surely I
cannot
take
the child to the refectory /?/.
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: I have in my place a little oven, so I cook /for
him/
on the oven.
Boder: You have a little oven.
Neiman: Yes. A primus machine /a
kerosene
cooker/.
Boder: Aha.
Neiman: /Words not clear./
Boder: And your husband? He is a tailor as well
/in addition to his agricultural work/?
Neiman: He is a tailor, a good tailor for men's, women's
/these
few words said in Russian were not clear./
Boder: What does that mean?
Neiman: /In Yiddish:/ For
the
man
and for...
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: ...the woman.
Boder: Oh. /Repeats the Russian
words:/ Men's
and women's.
Neiman: Men's and women's
Boder: Hm, a men's and women's tailor. So in Palestine,
in
Eretz
Yisroeil what do you think you will do? You will have a tailor
shop or
you will work on the land?
Neiman: He...he will give up tailoring. All the time in
Russia
he neither worked at tailoring. He worked on the land. He likes
in on
the
land.
Boder: He likes...
Neiman: On the soil. He will go to work on the soil.
Boder: Aha.
Neiman: He likes it on the soil...
Boder: Well, Clara Adamovna, that is very interesting.
You
have
told us, indeed, someting completely new, and I think we will
all be
interested
to hear it. Anything else that you want to tell me, some other
interesting
things that you have lived through during the war? /Pause./
Neiman: /Laughter./
Boder: How old is your little boy now?
Neiman: I...my little boy? The second year.
Boder: One year?
Neiman: A year...no the second.../in
Russian:/
a year and a half.
Boder: /Repeats in Russian:/ A
year
and
a
half. /In Yiddish again:/ And how
long
are you married?
Neiman: I? Already three years, the fourth year.
Boder: The fourth year. You had no other children?
Neiman: No. It's the first child.
Boder: The first child.
Neiman: A boy. /Laughter./ A
big
brat. /She uses colloquial expressions
hence the
question:/
Boder: A big what?
Neiman: /Still laughing:/
A
big
brat.
Boder: What is that?
Neiman: Well, a big /in Russian:/
mischief.
Boder: Well. I thank you very much.
/In
English:/ This concludes the interview with Mrs. Clara
Adamovna
Neiman, at Hennoville near Paris, in a Kibbutz, rather...of a
rather
religious
organization. She is a representative of a Russian family which
became
converted to Judaism through Molokanism, /?/
for motive of marriage. And she was brought up as a Jew by her
parents.
Her parents are already now in Palestine, and /so
is/ one brother. Resuming the dialogue: Oh, yes
/in Yiddish:/ you failed to tell me how you happened to
meet in
Germany your brothers?
Neiman: /Chuckle. She resumes the
narrative
in Russian:/ Yes, we skipped that.
Boder: Well speak Russian.
Neiman: We traveled for a long time. We were in a hurry.
We
arrived,
and we had to stay over night.
Boder: Where did you arrive?
Neiman: We arrived in Luxen-...in Luxenburg
/changes to Yiddish:/. It was like /two
words
not clear/. My husband went to the Synagogue. What does
he see?
The students of the Yeshiva.
Boder: /A few words not clear./
Neiman: My husband enters: they were going to prayer
/two Hebrew words/. He entered the Synagogue. So he
says, are
there
here a couple of boys, Gers /Christians
converted
to
Judaism/.
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: Yes, they say they are in the Yeshiva /?/
Boder: Aha.
Neiman: So, my husband quickly run over to them, and he
sees
they were indeed our brothers, the little
/younger
ones/. /Full of joy:/ They
had
grown
much, had recuperated. They were /before/
so down trodden, in the general...
Boder: Yes.
Neiman: /Few words not clear/.
They
were
now
well
dressed.
We
then
took
leave
from
them
/the wire is noisy for about a sentence/. I don't
know..., but
of
course they will go to America.
Boder: Thank you very much. /In
English:/ This
concludes the interview. Illinois Institute of Technology wire
recording.
Note: For page 5 (2674): The Molokans
represent one of the many religious sects which through the
centuries
split
off from the official Russian Greek-Orthodox Church, protesting
against
innovations and subservience to civil authorities. They
originally
formed
a faction of the Dukhobors who were at times intensely
persecuted by
the
tzarist government. [Molokans
and
Doukhobors split from Iconobors.]
—THIS IS THE END OF THE TEXT AS FOUND IN THE TRANSCRIBED VOLUME
—
