Family Stories and Memoirs

Alex KOPELBERG  (Haifa, Israel)

An excerpt from the memoirs of Etl URMAN (Emilchino)

My father - Ezra Urman Benyaminovich 1890 of birth, place Emilchino. When he was 14 years old, he was sent to a tailor to learn tailoring business. But in the beginning, he nursed the child, cleaned the apartment and had to run errands. He studied a little in cheder. In 1914 he was drafted into the army, as the start of the first imperialist war. He was taken prisoner by the Germans, and because he knew German, he began working as a translator. Indeed, in the area Emilchinskom lived many Poles and Germans, who in 1939 was exiled to the Urals, and Kazakhstan. In captivity, my father fled with another man from Emilchino.

My mother - Urman Mikhlya Moiseevna, September 10, 1898 birth, m. Emilchino. Her mother - Shapiro Khana, born 1871, m. Emilchino. Her husband died young, at 28 years old, and left her with two children. The eldest son of Haim and my mom Mikhlya.

Being illiterate and having no means of livelihood, she took up with a tailor Barats Moishe, who after his wife's death, had four children for a total of six children.

His own brother was also a tailor, and he served the family of Count Uvarov, who owned the entire area Emilchino district. The villages were named after his family. For example, Stepanivka, Sergeevka, Uvarovka, Varvarovka, and Parenino. In winter they lived in St. Petersburg, and in summer in Emilchino.The church, which was built by Count Uvarov in Emilchino, was destroyed in the 30’s. When the summer they came to Emilchino, my father was invited to the palace to sew coats, suits, tuxedos.

In 1919 dad married my mom. And in 1920, June 6, was born, my older sister Elka (Ella), in 1922, May 2, was born, my brother Benjamin (Nyman), and in 1923, 5 September, I was born in Emilchino.

We did not have his own house, lived in one room, and then Dad added onto the room to another two, hallway, kitchen and barn. And then we have been better.

In 1920 a group of people killed Jews, and many families were hidden by Ukrainians. And then came the Budenovtsy who arrived naked and barefoot. [editors note: The Budenovtsy were from the !st Horseman Army founded by Semen Budyony that fought as a Red Army Unit.] It was papa that help sew their clothes. Tailors, shoemakers, and hat makers worked at home,  and joined the cooperative farm. He sewed at home and paid tax to the financial department.  

In 1930 I went to Hebrew school in Grade 1.  My sister was in the second grade. My brother graduated at the Jewish school, but it was closed in 1937. It was turned into a Russian school to accommodate all the children of Russian officers who were stationed in Emilchino.

In 1937, after 7 years at the Jewish school I went to the 8th grade Ukrainian. In 1940 I graduated from grade 10 and went to Kiev take exams in medical school. I did not succeed getting into medical school because I was a nonresident and they took in mainly urban students. My sister Ella in 1940, married an engineer, whose father lived in Emilchino.