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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

ID NY004.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b45z53

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

TABLE OF CONTENTS ITEM TRANSCRIPT

ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2 CITATION & RIGHTS 21

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

ID NY004.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b45z53

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION -Today is June 1st, 2007. We are in Brooklyn meeting a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Please introduce yourself and tell us about the family in which you grew up. What did your parents do? Did you have any siblings? Please, go ahead.

My name is Aaron Iosifovich Bekker and I was born in 1912 to a large Jewish family. My parents had seven sons and three daughters. All of my siblings got along well and our family happily lived in Odesa. My eldest brother was Arkadiy, then came Grisha, followed by Semyon, Mark, Lyova, me, and Sasha was the youngest. My three sisters were named Betya, Olya, and Raya. We lived there until 1927. You see, during the NEP my father opened a clothing store in the Novy Bazar in Odesa. By 1924, the NEP had run its course and the new so-called “NEPmen” were saddled with high taxes. My father was no exception. He paid the first few installments, but when he ran out of money to pay with, the government seized the store and even took the furniture from our apartment. This left ten children to fend for themselves and left my parents without voting rights. Then we moved to Leningrad, where my father found a job and I began my studies. We lived pretty well. I finished a military school and went on to serve in the army in 1934 as a telegraph operator in Pskov. In 1939 I was drafted again, this time as an officer, and sent to fight the Finns.

In 1940 all of our military units that were fighting near Murmansk, beyond the Arctic Circle, were ordered onto trains and taken to Tbilisi on the Turkish border. Stalin was counting on capturing Erzurum. We stayed in Tbilisi for three months, but the war never began because Turkey managed to bring its troops to the border with German help. Then we returned to Leningrad and were demobilized. As for the Great Patriotic War, this is how it all began. I was working at the Leningrad City Communications Center, I am a communications operator by trade, and one Sunday I decided to go to Sestroretsk in order to spend some time with a few women. Everything was splendid until we heard Molotov on the radio at noon. He said that a Great Patriotic War had started and that the Germans had launched a surprise attack on the USSR. He then mentioned that all military personnel must report immediately to their draft offices. We cut our outing short and by 2:00 pm I was already at the draft office and ready to serve. I was assigned to the 23rd Army as a communications operator. I served as the deputy chief of communications of the 17th Fortified District. When our forces had retreated from the Finnish border we re-equipped the old fortified districts so that the Germans and Finns could not approach Leningrad from the Finnish border. Until 1943 we protected our border. Then we began to break through the blockade. The soldiers literally took all the weapons we had in our bunkers and managed to break the German lines. I took part in this by providing communications. After the end of our first engagements the officers began to receive medals. As one of the combat communications operators I was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

Then… the chief of communications of our army, Major General Timofeyev made me his aide, so I served in the Communications Department of the 23rd Army until the end of the war. I was demobilized in late 1946. He wanted to send me to Germany to continue my service. He said “Captain, you will be promoted to major and then after five years of service you will have 25 years of military experience, which will allow you to receive a full pension.” I said that I was 34 and wanted to start a family; I requested to be demobilized. Since then I have been a civilian. This is pretty much my whole story. Four of my brothers also served in the army. Senya, the oldest moved to Israel after the war. He served in an anti-tank battalion that salvaged damaged tanks from the battlefield. He was wounded and is a disabled veteran. My brother Mark commanded an armored unit with a division, became a major, and served out the entire war. Lyova was in the artillery. He worked with anti-tank cannons and was the first in his squadron to be awarded with the Order of the Red Star. He then underwent officer training and went on to fight in the Battle of Konigsberg where he was wounded in the hand by an exploding round. He did not let the doctors amputate it. My youngest brother was a machine gunner. He sat atop Saint Isaac’s Cathedral in Leningrad with a four- barreled machine gun. He spent the whole war at that post, firing at German planes when they flew in to bomb Leningrad.

In 1943, when the siege was broken, he rode to Strelna on the back of a truck with his machinegun. There he was surrounded by the Germans, but managed to break out, being wounded in the hand in the process. He was a sergeant and after that he received his first “For Bravery” medal. So there were five of us who fought. When we demobilized we all gathered at my mother’s, who was waiting for her sons to return from the front. We were all wounded. We all took a picture together. I could provide some more details, but since time is an issue… I think I have provided a succinct summary for the events.

-Did your parents remain in Leningrad during the blockade?

No, my father died in 1931 and my mother and sister went to… Sverdlovsk, where she worked at the largest factory….

- Uralmash.

Yes. My sister worked at that factory and gave birth to her son, who now also lives in America. I sent my mother 1,000 rubles of my officer’s salary each month. That is how they survived. Later everyone from my family returned to Leningrad. Since I was the deputy chief of communications for our army I had a phone in my apartment, even during the war. I visited Leningrad frequently during the war, it was in terrible shape, many people died.

- Where was the HQ where you served?

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

It was in Syargi, near Toksovo. It was underground and we… it was responsible for our units all around the Gulf of Finland from Sestroretsk to Beloostrov and to… that whole stretch of front was controlled by our forces, which protected Leningrad from the Germans and the Finns. What else can I add?

- I want to go back to your childhood in Odesa? Did you attend school there?

Yes. I studied at Jewish School No.57. All my siblings studied there too, but then we transferred and since my father was involved in the NEP, we had to pay for our education. This was very difficult since his shop had been seized, so he first moved to Moscow and then to Leningrad, where we were forced to join him. It was a very difficult time. Odesa is a wonderful city, and those of us who were young back then still remember the American steamships that came to deliver ARA aid. We children got by as best as we could. I still remember haidamakas [a term used to refer to Ukrainian Cossacks] riding down Pushkynska Street, as well as the Petlurites [forces belonging to the Ukrainian People’s Republic 1917-21], the Greeks, and the French. I was just eight at the time and the experiences were overwhelming. However, our best times came after we moved to Leningrad and began to work and study. That is how we got by until we moved to America.

- Did you have to pay for your schooling in Leningrad?

No. My father found work at a store, so he was now considered a worker and our family no longer needed to pay for school. All of us graduated, some graduated from a tech school, but I completed my studies at a military school and became an officer. And then… Leningrad was such a serious and interesting city, that we…

- So from late 1941 to the lifting of the siege in 1943…

Yes, yes.

-… was there any heavy combat, or was your front relatively quiet?

We were shelled. You see, in 1941 our army was stationed in Petrozavodsk. This was on the very border. During the Finnish War we annexed a piece of Finland so that it could not shell Leningrad. Our HQ was stationed there and when the Germans and the Finns attacked us, we came under a terrifying air raid. We were forced to retreat and slowly made our way back to the old fortified district. The air raids were absolutely horrifying. I was even wounded during the retreat. We retreated through a whole series of districts. I remember retreating past Rayvola [now Roshchino], which was on fire.

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

I entered, since I was a deputy communications chief… I had served in the army… I entered the telephone bunker. There was a woman sitting there, everything ablaze around her. I told her to wrap it up and get out; the enemy forces are approaching and something bad could happen to her. She said that she could not because she served as the only line of communication between our military units. A short time later a bomb landed directly onto that house, destroying the telephone. I do not remember what happened to that woman because our forces continued to resist and retreat all the way back to our old border between Sestroretsk and Beloostrov. There we stopped and fought to the death. No matter how hard the enemy tried to dislodge us, we did not retreat and prevented the Germans and Finns from entering Leningrad.

- Were you facing Finnish or German units?

These were German units for the most part, the Finns only provided support. There were many German units around Leningrad. One time the general sent me to the front HQ in Leningrad. I decided to visit my brother at Saint Isaac’s Cathedral. I called up to him “Sasha, c’mon down, we’ll take a walk together.” As soon as we began walking the city came under heavy bombardment. Do you remember the building across from the DLT [supermarket in Leningrad]? An entire wall of that building came down, exposing clocks and wall paintings on the opposite wall. I told Sasha to take care of himself and went home.

- Who was under your command?

An entire army. Every division has a communications battalion, every regiment has a communications company, and each separate battalion has a communications company. All of the communications operators in our army were under the command of our general. We worked with the type of communications we were trained with, telegraph or telephone. It is a great… when a private is at war, he sits in a trench. However, the communications personnel cannot do that. Every time the cables are severed, they have to crawl out. Communications units lost men at a greater rate than everyone else because we had to leave the trenches so much. We received fresh recruits with every wave of reinforcements. To serve in communications was considered very… very important because the army could not function without us. Our general picked aides that could maintain communications with other military units, our division’s regiments, and brigades.

– So you mentioned that detached battalions had their own communications company.

Yes, each battalion had a communications platoon.

- So it was a platoon.

And each regiment had a company.

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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-OK. Did the commander of the communications platoon take orders from the battalion commander, or from you?

Both. He answered to us because we supplied his unit with equipment and everything like that, but his commander also gave him orders since he commanded one of the unit’s platoons. This is why communications units were always on the road. We even had a special mail service. This is pretty interesting because we also could receive letters and newspapers, so this was all directed by the communications directorate in our army. You know, it was quite remarkable. While everyone sat at home… in their trenches, the communications units were always traveling down major roads. They were bombed, killed, shot… communications personnel were always on guard.

- Were the mail carriers included...?

Yes, they were also subordinate to the communications directorate. I even wrote a poem for my friend, the head of the field postal service of the 142nd Division. His name was Khaykin and he was from Zhlobin, Belarus. He told me about his service and I wrote him a poem. It is quite interesting and people seem to like it. By the way, in addition to my duties I also read a lot of literature as a hobby.

-Could you tell us a bit about your daily life? You held a pretty senior position in the army HQ…

Yes. When we stopped somewhere… if the HQ stopped in a field, we lived in dugouts. Every communications directorate was always stationed underground in dugouts. If we stopped in a town or village, we would take up several houses instead. This was also true of other directorates that managed field engineers, the artillery, the military council, and all others. It was a complicated system and… we had to run communications lines to everyone. For the most part this consisted of radios, telegraphs, and telephones which required spools of wire to be laid out through the fields. Every time a shell severed them, they needed to be repaired. Our communications personnel would crawl out to repair the lines and some were killed. It was all difficult. Of course, I would not say that I was in the heat of battle… I was wounded twice, once in the chest and once in the leg.

-Could you tell us about being wounded? When and where were you wounded in the chest?

This was during our retreat from Rayvola. We were hit by a powerful German air raid, and despite being wounded I could not fall behind my unit. I was bandaged on the go. The shrapnel hit me right here. When we reached Sestroretsk the shrapnel was removed at a hospital.

– What year was this?

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

This was in 1942. In 1943 we broke the siege and began to advance.

- Could you tell us how you were fed?

We were fed simply. When I was in the 17th Fortified District we had a cafeteria attached to the fortified district HQ. All the communications personnel along with our chief, Colonel Ivanov, to whom I was an aide, ate there. When I assisted the Army Communications Director we had a cafeteria that was run by the military and we ate there. Officers were given a small additional set of rations every month. This could be a can of meat or some cookies. Also we received our 100 ml of front-line vodka.

- Did you receive the vodka every day or only before offensives?

No, every day we received 100 ml. We saved it because 100 ml is not that much. We drank occasionally. In general the food was quite bad. It was a terrible situation because there was no food in the besieged city. Supplies had to be delivered over frozen Lake Ladoga. Just imagine how many people drowned, how many planes were shot down, how many shells were fired. We even salvaged the vehicles from the bottom of the lake and tried to dry out the crackers, pasta, and whatever else they had. In general, I must say that the food was quite bad, but we ate what we could.

- So you were in a technical unit.

Yes.

-As for the relationship between officers… Were people closer during peacetime, or were things the same? An order…

An order is law. The person with the most senior rank ran the show. If I had a lower rank than you, I had to obey. In terms of ethnicity, Jews were probably the most trusted group in the army. Why? Because they never surrendered and could therefore never commit treason. They could not go AWOL. They were always at their posts because they understood that capture meant death. For this reason, everyone knew that Jews could always be trusted.

When did you find out that for Jews being taken prisoner meant death?

In 1942. We heard rumors from Finland that the Germans wanted to kill all the Jews, but that the commander of the Finnish Army, what was his name?

- Mannerheim?

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

Yes! He said, “we do not have Jews, we only have Finns.” Later, during peacetime I worked with the manager of our base. He had been captured by the Finns and he said that Mannerheim saved him and other Jews from the Germans. I remember this because I served on the Finnish section of the front. My brothers served near Petrozavodsk, Luzhki, Pskov, and Novgorod, but I only served on the Finnish part of the front. It was a better place to serve because we had bunkers, pillboxes, and could even use the suburbs of Leningrad as fortifications. An artillery brigade was stationed in Toksovo. In any case… it is a pity because I wanted to write a memoir, but I had a stroke and could not write. I did manage to publish a book of poems.

-Ilya Ehrenburg was very popular during the war. You must be familiar with his famous article “Kill the German!”

Yes, I read it in a newspaper and it was remarkable. You know, some people hold firm no matter what, they are real heroes. Ilya Ehrenburg is one of them. I read his books in France.

- “The Storm.”

Yes, I read it here. It was wonderful. He wrote that he did not sign… the document about the expulsion of Jews.

-How did people in general respond to his slogan of “Kill the German!” Did everyone want to kill the enemy at the first opportunity?

Yes. In Leningrad we had a unique attitude because… they brought so much hardship. Approximately a million people died during the siege, so we were particularly motivated to fight the Germans. They killed so many families through hunger and cold.

When I returned to my apartment, everything had been burned. The couches...

- Did you ever come into contact with POWs?

German ones? Yes, I saw them.

- When?

In 1943 when we broke through the German lines. They were pretty worn out and did not look so hot. However, I did not speak German, so I never had to deal with them directly.

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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- I understand, but when you did encounter them, did you think back to Ehrenburg’s slogan? Or maybe since they were not armed, your malice was tempered?

I think so. I only felt it a little bit, I never felt any kind of strong hatred. By the time they got to us, they were so despondent, so worn out, so… they could not wash at their lines… When they were marched down the street we felt anger, but we also knew that we would have to make peace sooner or later. Personally, I think that everything was done correctly and now we have peace with them… this way their sons…

- Could you tell us a bit about the communications equipment? You mentioned that you mostly had wired communications, but what about radios?

Our radios were very… I must mention that our personnel was very good because our general handpicked the smartest people. Half of the people in my HQ were Jewish.

- I wanted to ask you a question: what is the main difference between the phone hanging on your wall, and a military telephone?

The main difference is that [inaudible]. This is a government line and nobody could intercept it. It was a special type of communication. This was only for the government line. Additionally, there were regular phones. Of course privates had telephones that they carried with them, but it was very important to have a direct line to the Kremlin from our army’s HQ. It was all done through the GPU and through the other top secret services. By the way, our normal communication was secret too.

- I understand, but what about the phones carried by the privates, they were probably different form the phones we use now? Was someone operating that phone able to both transmit and receive simultaneously, or did they have to take turns doing these things?

No. It was a regular phone that could be hooked up and used like any other. I had one, my aides had one, and everything was OK.

- We have to dial a number, what about...?

There was no dial. We just had a lever that we would press to connect to HQ. In our regiment there were no male operators because of the blockade, so 700 girls served instead. They served as telephone operators everywhere.

- If I was a fighter on the front and dialed the HQ, how did the call reach the battalion commander?

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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It was not just one line to the battalion commander, but there were several options to choose from. For example, the regiment commander also had his own number. If you dialed No.1 or No.2, you would reach different people. Everything was analog and simple.

- Was there only one wire, or did each number need its own wire?

The wire would reach the switchboard at the communications battalion. All the companies were connected through that switchboard. You would request, for example, to speak with No.12 and you would be directed to the commander of a specific company. A soldier operated the switchboard and connected everyone who needed to be connected. The most secretive apparatus was the radio. We had regiment, battalion, and division radios. They required a lot of equipment. You cannot even imagine how much equipment they required.

- How did the radios transmit information?

It was coded. There were special radio operators. Our classified unit had to… All the regiments and divisions from our front were connected through us. There were people from the security services who knew the location of all of our units. They were treated differently.

- Were you ever able to intercept German or Finnish communications?

That was not my job. I was a telegraph operator. My task was to ensure that the telephones and telegraphs in different places were connected and functioning. If the lines were broken, it was my job to send a team out to fix them.

- When the siege was lifted which front were you dispatched to?

We returned to Vyborg and remained on the border near Beloostrov. Our whole army remained in Vyborg until the end of the war. We were… just 40 km from Helsinki. Once the Finns sued for peace we were ordered to stay there until 1946. In 1946 I was demobilized, received all of my paperwork and returned to Leningrad. I got married. I was 34 and did not have… I told the general that I had to get married. I found a 22-year-old girl from Belarus and married her. I had two sons with her and they are good men. It turned out that my wife’s entire family suffered from high blood pressure. My parents passed away as did my sisters and I was left to take care of my two sons. I became both their mother and their father. Before passing, my wife asked that they do not get a stepmother. I raised both of them and they became engineers. One of them still works back home while I am here in my old age.

- Did you write letters during the war?

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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Yes. I also wrote poems.

- Did you write to your family?

Yes. I sent my mother my 1000 ruble salary. I always made sure to stay in touch. I know so much about my brothers’ service because we wrote to each other also. Since I was in communications it was easier for me. On top of that I served near Leningrad and frequently visited the city. This is how I was able to keep my apartment.

- Did your fellow servicemen also write and receive letters...

Yes, through the field post.

-There were joys and misfortunes. Did people talk to one another about their problems if they did not have anything to do with work?

Yes. Each division, each brigade, and each corps had its own front-line post service. And there were those army newspapers in addition to regular papers, there were letters… it was quite an operation. One of the communication branches was the front-line postal service. I managed it when I served at the communications directorate. I had friends in that branch and was quite interested in its work.

There was a huge military postal service base where all our supplies were delivered. It was staffed entirely by women. On top of that, every division had its own military postal service. It was a separate unit. Women served there too. There was not a moment’s rest there because everyone was always getting ready to go somewhere. I was most interested in those units because they had to deliver mail during battle in Finnish territory, which is made up entirely of forests. In the forest they had to find where each battalion, each company, and each platoon was based. I had a friend in that service, and if I show you his memoirs… he was such a good man. I later transferred him to work at our base before he was sent to Poland. He was my friend.

-While we are on the subject of friends, did you maintain ties with those who had served with you? Did you meet up and write to one another?

Yes, it was wonderful. Every year we gathered to drink and celebrate Victory Day. Then there were some special dates… each unit has its own holidays. There were many women among us. Sometimes we had to… that friend of mine met a girl from Pskov and she was half famished. He took care of her, married her, and had a good life. He was dispatched to Lidnice [?] Poland. What else can I say…

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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-If we take for example a battalion, that is about 100 men?

Yes.

- How many were in the communications department?

The communications department?

- Yes.

There were ...

- Of a battalion.

A battalion did not have its own communications department.

- But there were communications servicemen in each battalion.

Yes, there was a communications platoon.

- How many men were in one such battalion?

Approximately 40-50.

- So only 50 for a unit of 1,000?

Yes, and they were killed quickly. We had to send many replacements. Since we did not have any reserves, we filled the positions up with women.

- So they were in the trenches on the frontlines?

No, they were at HQs. We tried as best as we could to keep the girls… the boys went into the trenches and the girls ran the switchboards and the telephones in departments, platoons, and companies. We tried to preserve the women.

- Who ended up in communications units at the front?

It was a very difficult job. People were selected for it. You had to crawl out of the trenches under fire.

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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- But how were they chosen? Was education a factor?

There was a reserve regiment that was based on our second line of defenses. All the soldiers who were sent to us as reinforcements were stationed there. Depending on… they were trained as communications or artillery personnel. Based on the needs of the army they were assigned to different units. There was also a communications school where we taught people how to use and set up the telephones, how to use the radio station, how to disconnect everything, and how to speak into them. There was also a reserve officers’ regiment, the other reserve regiment was really more of a brigade. The officers were sent there to be assigned to a unit that best fits their specialty… I remember searching for someone to head up the field postal service because its commander had been killed. It was almost impossible to find a specialist.

- Did the captured German telephones and radios differ significantly from Soviet ones?

Yes.

- How?

The Germans had better equipment. But I have to say that we were used to using our equipment. You would just get to your destination, place the device on the floor, and ask to be transferred…

- What was the difference?

The quality.

- Did this have an effect on clarity and range of transmissions?

We did not consider those things back then. We thought of more mundane things, like where to sleep, where to work, where to, you know, we just wanted to survive. It was all very difficult, but we managed. There was a factory in Leningrad called Krasnaya Zaya [Red Dawn] and another one named after Karl Marx. Do you remember them?

- Was it not evacuated during the war?

It was, along with all of our other factories. My sister and her husband worked at an aircraft factory in Chelyabinsk when they were evacuated. In general, many communications equipment factories had to be evacuated. Only five of the seven brothers in my family served at the front, the rest worked in the defense industry.

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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I think that we did all we could. Of course, it is not like picking up a rifle and running at the enemy killing him, being killed, being hit in the head, that is an entirely different story. Dealing with the commander at HQ has its own perils, for example the Germans were always trying to bomb us. We had to hide out in dugouts, which leaked, were infested with mice, and were always damp. It was so bad that even thinking about it is frightening.

- Did people frequently take ill in this conditions?

They did, but what could they do? They did not go anywhere and got better despite their colds and illnesses. We had many army hospitals that we also needed to provide with communication support.

- When were you demobilized after the war?

In late 1946.

-You told us about your marriage and family life, but what did you do for a living? What did you do after the war?

You see, in 1947-48 the whole story with the Jews began. First, the commanders who had many Jewish subordinates were asked why they were “putting together a synagogue.” I can assure you that this happened.

- And in your unit... oh, you mentioned that you demobilized by then.

I did and I wanted to return to my job at the City Communications Center where I had worked before the war. I had served as the city’s senior communications inspector. I was not allowed to come back to that job. Every time that I showed up, I was told to come tomorrow… I tried even though I could see… A sergeant major turned up and asked me whether I wanted to work for him as a clerk. I asked him if he was joking. He was afraid of even coming within 100 steps of me. He was a sergeant major and I was a captain. On top of that I was an aide to the army’s chief of communications. He told me to come by and that I will be happy with my work. I searched around for a bit and then went to work for him. As soon as I began working there, the management asked me if perhaps I wanted to take the sergeant’s job and have him answer to me. I said that I was not going to do something like that to him, after all I got the job because of him. I began to climb the ladder because I was trusted.

- During the war years in 1942 and 1943, did you ever sense any type of anti-Semitism at the HQ where you served?

No. Just imagine that. The war was raging at the time and everyone only thought about how to get out of

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

ID NY004.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b45z53

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN our predicament. Especially in Leningrad. It was a terrible… I was supposed to be assigned to the front HQ. The general sent his aides in his place. I could see what was happening. Oh well, what is done is done.

- That is a different story.

Yes it is. I applied there, I had people that I could talk to…

- When did you retire?

I retired on the very day that I turned 60. I worked in trade, which is very difficult work. I ran a prominent store with a staff of 54 and had to deal with shortages of goods. This is why I applied for retirement right away. Since I was a veteran, I was entitled to special treatment. We were given opportunities to take vacations, travel to resorts, and rest however we pleased. I took advantage of that. Perhaps I would not have even had the time to come here, but I visited my relatives. I had four brothers and a sister here and I came to visit them. That is when one woman convinced me to stay here. Now I have been living here for 15 years. It was quite a struggle to get political asylum papers, but this falls outside the scope of your…

- I want to ask you about that photo there. When was it taken?

This was in 1945 when I was given leave to visit my mother. I put on my new uniform and traveled to Sverdlovsk. When I arrived I knocked on the door and heard my mother shout “Olya, I think Aaron is back. She opened the door, and there I was. Ah…

- How old was she?

She was quite old, she passed away at 83.

- When?

I no longer remember what year it was.

- It is not important.

I came back and was quite good-looking. I was immediately found by that 22-year-old girl.

- You were a captain?

Yes. My general offered me a promotion to the rank of major in exchange for five years of service in

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Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

ID NY004.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b45z53

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

Germany, after which I could have a good pension. I told him that I was 34 and would be 40 by then.

- I understand. Please sit still for a moment as Marat takes a few more shots.

I really enjoyed literature and attended a literary group that was led by a poet. I wrote a poem about Victory Day. Since I served in Leningrad during the blockade, I titled it “Victory Day in Leningrad.”

My friend, pick up your glass

And remember the heat battle of the days gone by,

The night and day without silence,

But we are not the ones to blame.

Our cursed enemy lit the fire,

And caused immeasurable harm.

He burned homes and cities,

And brought tragedy to Leningrad.

And you, and me, and everyone else

Rose up and went to war

To fight the armored demon.

Our whole city was ablaze.

My friend, pick up your glass,

May your fervor never fall.

And let’s remember all our friends,

And the bitterness of those days.

Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

ID NY004.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b45z53

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

We did not bow our heads,

By Leningrad and Moscow

We fought long battles to the death

For earthly peace and our tranquility.

The Victory did not come easily,

The soldiers, as if at a monastery

Bowed their heads

Those tragic memorable days.

My friend, pick up your glass,

I have not finished with the war,

There are quite many at the table

They will raise their glasses to the past.

The years have passed, the thunder waned,

And lyrical poetry was heard.

In it we smell the hearth

To our joy and foe’s dismay.

To us the world is very dear.

The fire of hearts and hearths,

Bright and crystal children’s laughter.

To this it is no sin to drink.

Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

ID NY004.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b45z53

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Applause.

I finally had the opportunity to read it. I can read another one. There was Victory Day and it seems that we survived them with a great understanding of what happened. In this next poem I laid out how I feel about everything in retrospect.

After many years, it is no small occasion

Today on the backs of soldiers.

He brought the Victory home,

Having finished off the war of many years.

But this memory, the memory

Of distant army days,

The greetings are like a military horn,

Which calls us to battle to muster.

No matter how long life will last,

My friends, we will continue meeting,

In order to raise a glass again

To the battle trumpet and our glorious position,

That our soul tended in those days

And how it helped to fight the foe

In the soldiers’ labor,

That walked beside us night and day.

My friends, from years of war,

Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

ID NY004.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b45z53

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Please forgive me, I am no poet,

But during this Victory Day in May

I will recite a poem as a toast.

For you, who are gray with age

Who have trod the hard path of war,

In all these years, you have not lost your inspiration,

And still create this mood just like before.

The veterans have gunpowder,

They are too young to be decommissioned.

They have the mind and experience of glory.

They carry a great mark.

Let’s raise a toast to the blooms of May.

To peace, to good fortune,

To this gathering,

To friendship and to bread and salt [Russian hospitality symobls]

May wars all end

And may our life lead us to our sacred dreams.

Each of us has their own,

But please, let there not be war.

Applause.

Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

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You see, I attended a literary club. The spark of inspiration is not enough to write poetry. Do you remember Yuri Levitan?

- As if I could foget.

I dedicated a few more lines to him. And what I told you about that friend… Oh! … The “Field Post.” Here it reads “Dedicated to the soldiers and officers of the field postal services during the Great Patriotic War. Also to my friend Grisha Khaykin, the chief of the Field Post of the 142nd Infantry Division. You can stop filming. I will read it for you so that you can hear what I wrote for a Jewish lad.

Aaron Bekker. Full, unedited interview, 2007

ID NY004.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b45z53

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

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