In 1941 we were evacuated

Lidia Tapalatski: I was born in Moldova in the town of Telenesti in 1938. When the war began in 1941, we were evacuated.* We lived in Russia four years. My mother died in Russia. She died of hunger. Then it was just me, my father and my older brother. In 1947 we returned to Telenesti, but we had nowhere to live. Everything was destroyed: our house and everything that we had built.

*When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, many Jewish families were evacuated or fled on their own.

My father put me and my brother in a boarding school and things got easier after that. They gave us clothes at school, they gave us food. And we studied. After I finished school I wanted to work. My grandmother lived in Orhei, and she said I should come stay with her. She said she would find me a job and take care of me. I went to Orhei and worked there. I enrolled in some courses and became a technician at a mill. I worked there four years. But of course I did not forget about my father or my brother. On Saturdays I came back home and washed and cooked. And when my brother joined the army (the Soviet Army), I saw him off. 

But I wanted to keep studying, so I went to a school for teachers in Soroca (a city in the north of Moldova) and I studied education. In 1958 I got married. I have two children – a son and a daughter. 

In 1993 my husband died. And two years after that, I came to be with my children in Chisinau. 

Alice Popovici: What were your happiest moments? 

Lidia: My happiest moments? I had a husband who was a very good man. It was a good family. He died in 1993 and I had to come to Chisinau. I retired the same year. When I came to Chisinau I wanted to do something good, to help. I have always wanted to help. So I came to Hesed and became a volunteer.*

*Lidia volunteers at the Jewish Cultural Center KEDEM, which also runs the Kishinev Welfare Center Hesed Yehuda. JCC KEDEM put me in touch with a few of the people interviewed for this project.

Alice: How often do you volunteer?

Lidia: Sometimes one day a week, sometimes two. 

Alice: And what do you do? 

Lidia: Different groups come here every day – I’m talking about older people. I meet them at the door when they arrive, I help them with their coats in the winter and fall. I walk with them to the room, making sure they don’t trip or fall. I help them sit down at the table. Then I prepare a meal for them and serve it. After this is done at 3, they go home. I help them put on their coats and take them to the car. 

Alice: I asked you about your happiest moments. But what were the hardest moments of your life? 

Lidia: It was hardest when my mother died. I was seven years old. When there was famine it was very difficult. We had nothing, nowhere to live. But my father took care of us, and put us in the children’s home so we wouldn’t die of hunger. And when we came back (to Telenesti) he put us in the boarding school. All of this was hard for me, and sad. I cannot forget those times.

Recorded April 30, 2013 in Chisinau, Moldova.