Family Stories

My Memories

Anna's Story

Memories of David Trostianetzkiy

David, my mother’s second cousin, was born in Bershad (Ukraine) in 1940. His mother Faina was from the nearby shtetl of Khashchevatoye. The family of his father Isroel lived in Bershad, so after the wedding Faina moved there. At the time WW2 started, the young couple had a house on a central street of the town and had two young sons - a two year old Yakov and 8 month old David. When it became clear that it was dangerous to stay there, Isroel found a carriage and together with his wife, two little sons and his sister‘s family started moving eastwards. But soon they were stopped by the Soviet Army and their horse was taken away. Soon after that Germans caught up with them and arrested and led away both men, Isroel and his brother in law. Nobody ever saw them after that, but after the war Faina found a Ukrainian that claimed he saw how they were executed. Left without their husbands with young children, the two women decided to return to their hometown. Faina returned to her father in law’s home since her house was taken by the fascists. Between Bershad and Khashchevatoye there is a river called South Bug. The river was the border between two territories: the one occupied by Romanian army and the other one occupied by the Germans. Bershad was on the Romanian territory and Khashchevatoye on the German territory. In 1941 fascists made ghetto in Bershad and Jews from many other places were transported to this town. Little David with his mom lived in a his grandfather’s workshop, that was turned into two tiny rooms. Life in ghetto was very hard. Multitudes of Jews were brought there from everywhere, and many people had to share each room. People were dying from diseases because of overcrowding. Before the war there were about 15000 Jews in Bershad. But during the war 45000 Jews were crammed in the ghetto. David remembers that in the same small apartment where he lived with his mother they housed another family, a woman and her daughter, who was sick with tuberculosis. David’s mom was terrified that he could catch it too. That young woman died from her disease. Before the war, Jews in Bershad had a beautiful two story synagogue in the center of the city, built with pink marble. It was destroyed by a bomb. Now every week in the other synagogue, in a small and ugly building, there was a funereal service called “a levaye“. Because David’s home was on the street leading to the synagogue, little boy saw those who died when they were carried part his home on stretchers. People died every day. Also fascists executed anybody who committed “crimes” against there regime. For example David’s uncle was executed for making a donation to support local partisans or guerrilla groups. One of those partisans came to collect the money. The roster with the names of those who made contributions fell in the hands of the fascists and all the people on that list were executed. When police was looking for one of those partisans he was hidden in a casket and smuggled outside the ghetto with the help of a woman, who was mentally ill, and was told to walk behind the procession and wail. Sometimes Faina would manage to go visit her parents and older son Yakov who stayed with grandparents in Khashchevatoye, where there was also a ghetto. Only Ukrainians were allowed to enter and exit ghettos. Faina did not have a typical Jewish appearance so she could be taken for a Ukrainian woman. The Ukrainian peasant that drove her usually would tell the police that she was his wife. One day in 1944 Faina decided to visit her parents and her older boy, but David fell very ill with a high fever and she had to cancel her trip. Next day the Ukrainians that came to Bershad’ let her know that yesterday all the Jews in Khashchevatoye were exterminated. Faina’s parents, her 6 year old son Yakov, her brother Naum, and her sister Ester with her two daughters all were killed there. 925 people were shot to death. The shooting was done by the Ukrainians, there was only one German officer present. But among the Ukrainians there were 5 families that had hidden Jews, despite the death threat to themselves and their children. There was one girl that survived, managed to climb out of the ditch where the victims were piled up. When the war ended, she recognized one of the shooters and he was arrested and executed. All the above details Faina found out after the war was over. She returned to Khashchevatoye with little David and he remembers how two of them walked on foot 7 kilometers ( 5 miles) from the town of Gayvoron to Khashchevatoye. David remembers that a woman by the name Leah met them and walked them to the cemetery where the Jews from Khashchevatoye ghetto were massacred and buried. This woman was one of those rare people that were hidden by the Ukrainians. David remembers how his poor young mother screamed and wailed there at the cemetery where her son and her family laid in a mass grave. He said that it took him a whole year to stop seeing this horror scene in front of his eyes. David was only five years old at that time.

Galina's Memories

Спогади про Хащувате

As told by Galina Lisnitchuk born in Khashchevatoye

The Bazaar, the Oil Press, the Post Office and the School

The living heart of the town

The bazaar stood where the teachers’ house is today. I remember the stalls on which goods were displayed — I went there many times with my mother. Below the house of Solhutovsky L. I., a narrow path led straight to the market, and everyone took that path.

The oil press (олійня) was behind the house of Igor Kovalchuk. How wonderful the oil smelled!

The post office and the primary school classes were located where the Kulebiakin house now stands. The clinic was down the hill from the center, heading toward the old bridge, in the first house on the right — where my classmate Tosia Mukharska lived. I remember my mother taking me there for vaccinations, and midwives receiving women patients.

School and children’s games

Where Kulebiakin’s vegetable garden is today, there used to be the school yard. In front of the entrance, a large open area served as our playground during recess: we played knucklebones with pebbles and skipped rope. We were obedient children. In class, the silence was absolute.

A poor but dignified childhood

My childhood was poor. I had neither fine clothes nor proper shoes. My brothers wore kirza boots (synthetic military leather), and I wore their hand-me-downs. Well-off families were few in those days. My mother bought me my first winter coat in the upper grades — oversized, so I could grow into it. I finished school without ever reaching the coat’s size. But I am grateful to my mother. After my father died of cancer, she raised us alone and taught us the value of hard work.

The Water Mill of Antonova

A mill built by Jews

The water mill in the village of Antonova was built by Jews*. In 1895, it was managed by Sevastian Artemovich Petrov, in what was then Podolia Governorate.

Note: Sevastian Artemovich Petrov was the grandfather of Eva, Yael’s research collaborator on Khashchevatoye. Galina had already shared this story in 2024.

Childhood memories by the water

I remember going as a child with my mother to carry grain to the mill to be ground into flour. One memory has stayed with me vividly: the fear of walking on the planks beneath which the water churned and roared. Carts came from many villages to have their grain milled. The road was full of ruts, and in bad weather, deep in mud.

What a shame that this landmark has not survived. Today, only a fragment of a wall remains, about two meters from the riverbank. The young people of the village now call this spot “Grushka” (Грушка), after a pear tree that grows there. But for me and my contemporaries, this place will forever be “the old water mill.” And even today, you can stand there for hours watching the water rush and churn!

*The water mill and sugar factories in the Khashchevatoye area were part of the Gunzburg family enterprise. In 1863, the Gunzburgs purchased a vast estate in Gaysine district, Podolia province, named after the nearby village of Mohilna (now Mogilnoye, 4–5 km from Khashchevatoye). Covering 8,338 desyatinas (over 9,000 hectares), it became under Uri Gunzburg (1840–1914) a model agricultural enterprise with beet-sugar factories, a mill, and extensive farmlands. Sophie de Gunzburg, David Gunzburg's daughter, described the estate and "the village of Mohilna, population 5,000" in her memoir published in Lucy Dawidowicz, The Golden Tradition. The full account can be found on the Visiting page of this site. 

A family memory: my father the cobbler

My father, Lisnichuk Vasyl Leontiiovych, worked in one of these artels making men’s shoes. One day he filled out a delivery slip incorrectly — he was sentenced to 20 days in prison in Balta, Odessa region. His sister Liza walked the long distance on foot to bring him parcels.

That’s how they punished people in those days! And nowadays, they embezzle millions and just post videos about it...

Forced collectivization and the Holodomor

In 1930, forced collectivization began with the creation of five kolkhozes. In 1932, the Holodomor — the genocidal famine — began. Dear friends, I will publish for you the memories of my late mother, Lisnichuk Nataliia Mytrofanivna. A few years before her death, she shared her testimony about this terrible tragedy with a student from the Khashchevatoye school.

Arlene's Stories

From the memoir of Arlene Laudo's father, son of Frima (Fannie) Nudelman of Khashchevatoye

The Live Chicken Market

Nothing went to waste in a Jewish kitchen. Here is how Arlene’s father remembered his mother buying and preparing a chicken:

“I would go with Mom to the live chicken market and watch her turn into a gynecologist. She would check to see if it had any unborn eggs. Then she would blow through the feathers looking for lice. She would make her prognosis and then take it to the shochet. He would cut its neck then put it upside down in a pot and let the blood run out. She would sit down with a lot of other women and flick the chicken — pull out the feathers.”

“After it was koshered she would make chicken soup, never skimming off the fat. We ate all parts of the chicken. The skin from the neck was stuffed with matzo meal and potatoes; she would sew up both ends with white sewing thread. The pupick, heart, crest, neck and feet were fricasseed. She would take all the fat from the bird and render it along with the extra skin, making chicken fat and gribenes.”

Homemade Wine for Passover

Many Jewish families made their own wine for the holidays. Arlene’s grandparents were no exception:

“My Mom would buy a small bushel of Concord grapes, put them into a five-gallon earthen vat, add sugar, seal it and place it out on the fire escape to let it ferment. They would take it in just before Passover and, at night, sit on the kitchen floor and squeeze the grapes through cheesecloth. After a batch was squeezed, they would sit and eat what was left of the grapes. By morning they were both crocked.”