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Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

ID IS056.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4dm32

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

TABLE OF CONTENTS ITEM TRANSCRIPT

ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2 CITATION & RIGHTS 12

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Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

ID IS056.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4dm32

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION - Today is March 2nd, 2008. We are in the city of Hadera, meeting with a WWII veteran. Please introduce yourself. Where were you born? What was your family like? Tell us about your childhood.

My name is Moisei Solomonovich Malkis. I was born in Odessa in 1924, July 31st. My father's name is Solomon Iosifovich. My mother's name is Rachel, she was born in Detroit, state Michigan.

- How did she happen to be in Odessa?

Well, it was very... I can tell you how it happened. At the end of the 1800's there was a depression in the US. My grandfather and his brothers had money so they went to Russia to invest. My grandfather built a factory in Odessa. His brother built Nikolaev South Shipyard in Nikolaev. His other brother built a metallurgy plant in Dnepropetrovsk. When they brought my mom there she was twelve. They arrived on a steamship to Odessa...

When the Civil War began everything was taken away from them. Their plants and factories were confiscated and my parents were kicked out on the street. My mom told me that in 1920 an American steamship arrived to Odessa. She got on that steamship and told them that she was an American national. A man there told her to embark immediately. But she said she wasn't by herself, she had a husband and a child... So he stopped talking to her altogether. That is my origin.

- Tell us about your childhood and your school.

I went to school in Odessa in 1932. It was a middle school No.58. Its address was 12 Tiraspol Street. I studied there until 1941. The war began and my family was evacuated on one of the last motor ships first to Sevastopol, then to Novorossiysk. From there we were sent to the village of Labinsk in Krasnodar Krai. In some time my parents realized that the front was approaching and we left for Almaty Region, Kazakh District, Turgen village. I was seventeen then. There I went to the school of agriculture mechanization, upon graduation of which I became combine operator. I worked at the local kolkhoz "Politotdelets". I earned a bag of wheat and was drafted into the army. The wheat I left for my parents.

I got drafted to the front. I was sent to the Leningrad Front. It was August of 1942.

First I was sent to the town of Ladoga where the naval academy was located. When I arrived there with my detachment the academy was already disbanded. I was sent to Kronstadt. Here I have a badge "Defender of the Kronstadt Fortress". I didn't serve there for too long. I was a marine there and served as a guard.

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Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

ID IS056.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4dm32

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

Next, before the preparation of a break-through of the Siege of Leningrad, my crew and I were sent to Nevskaya Dubrovka. We called it Nevskiy Patch. It was mainly the most bloody place in the history of the Leningrad Siege. It was a piece of land five hundred meters deep and a kilometer long. It was the piece of land which we won back from the Germans on the left bank of the Neva River. That is where my actual war participation began.

Then I was assigned to the platoon of regiment reconnaissance. We went out on a reconnaissance to the front border by the Neva lighthouse. I remember this because we were almost taken hostage. They started shooting at us but we left just on time. Then, before the break-through of the Siege of Leningrad, we had an intensive training in martial arts. Moreover, we were making narrow ladders, boat hooks and anchors that were attached to ropes and had sharpened hooks so that at the break-through of the Siege of Leningrad we could conquer Shlisselburg. At night we heard the clanking of metal buckets: it was the Germans pouring water over the steep river banks so that it could freeze over night to make it harder for us to climb breaking through the Siege.

Telling you about the breach of the Siege of Leningrad... is the greatest honor for me. The breach of the Siege began on January 12, 1943. I remember that morning was foggy. Then artillery training started and it lasted for about two hours. I hadn't seen anything like that before. After Germans bombarded the opposite shore of Shlisselburg and its front border, our signal rockets signaled green and we proceeded on the Neva's ice towards Shlisselburg. My comrades, one in the front and one in the back, were carrying those narrow ladders. I ran carrying Degtyaryov's hand-held machine gun. It was very heavy - 32 kilos. I was running on the Neva River towards Shlisselburg. Right after our artillery training our troops started bombarding with Katyushas. When we began the offensive Germans started heavily bombarding us because the entire shore of Shlisselburg was covered with trenches with barbed wire in front. They opened fire and I saw so many soldiers fall on the Neva River: some were killed, some were injured.

Together with my attack crew we got there and started using those narrow ladders to climb up. Besides that we hurled those hooked anchors. It is a kind of anchor that they usually have on the ships. So we hurled those hooks up and used the ropes attached to the hooks to climb up. We managed to reach the front border. We cut the barbed wire and began the attack. Germans started shooting and were jumping out of their trenches. We even had to engage in an unarmed combat, that is, hand-to-hand fight. Germans couldn't handle it and started retreat. My platoon - the regiment reconnaissance platoon - together with the others received an order to force conquer the Preobrazhensky Hill in Slisselburg. This was the key to taking over the city. We took the hill by storm and participated in further attack. Germans left Shlisselburg. They stopped six kilometers away from our front defense border.

I'll remember that attack for the rest of my life because of how bloody it was. We lost a lot of people but we

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Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN still took over Shlisselburg. After that we the soldiers of the Volkhov Front. During the attack of 13-17 of January combat action took place and we united with the troops which were approaching from the opposite side from the Volkhov direction. We took over some workers' villages. By the fifth, workers' village, the Leningrad Front, and the Volkhov Front met. We were happy, gave each other hugs and threw our hats in the air. We breached the Leningrad Siege! We finally were able to lift that Siege! We arranged communications through Ladoga and then through the railroad which was near the front - that is how Leningrad was connected to the mainland. Food supply and weapons started arriving to Leningrad. For a few days we stopped at the second echelon in Slisselburg. There we discovered a German food warehouse and we were happy to have found it because we were starving. Our food situation was very difficult. We entered that warehouse and we saw those plastic orange boxes with butter in them.

Besides that we found bread wrapped in cellophane paper with the production date 1932 on it. That is, Germans already then started preparing for that war, started preparing food supplies in addition to the weapons.

After lifting the Siege of Leningrad, we moved further towards Sinyavino peat bogs by the Sinyavino field in the direction of Sinyavino. There we executed the so called attack-night search. Here is what it means. We initiated the attack and Germans opened fire at us. Meanwhile our commanders were in the trenches and were making note from where Germans were shooting, recording their fire coordinates to use this information against them later on. We cut the wire fence again and advanced to the neutral line. That is when Germans opened a hurricane of fire at us. They used six barrel mortars, the nebelwerfers. Every bomb whistled with its own particular howl. The scenery was terrifying. In that combat I got injured. My head was injured, right here, in my jaw. One Kazakh saved me. His last name was Garifulin. He got me out of there. My entire body was covered with blood. He pulled me out of the battle field. He was Tatar. He brought me to the hollow where the battalion first aid post was located. My comrades already started putting bandages on me already at the injury location. At the post the nurses put more bandages on me. I was all covered with bandages and could drink water from a sipping cup.

After that I was sent to medical sanitary battalion. After I was brought into that battalion they took off my bandages and found small shell fragments in my body. The surgeon said I had to be sent to Leningrad for an X-ray to see what parts of my body are damaged. So I was sent to Leningrad. I remember Molodetsko- Selskiy avenue, the 86th evacuation hospital. There I was operated on and the shell fragments were taken out of my body. I had a concussion. I stayed at that hospital in Leningrad for about two months. After that we were sent to the recovering battalion. I was recruited for a three month training course for junior lieutenants. I was studying and training and received a title of a junior lieutenant. After that I was directed to the 45th automobile platoon.

- What year was it?

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Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

It was 1943.

It was a reserve regiment consisting of Leningrad residents. They were affected by dystrophy and lost a lot of weight from hunger. Our regiment was evacuated to the Northern Caucasus, the city of Beslan. It's near the city of Ordzhonikidze. Our task was to transport American automobiles and ammunition that came to us from Iran. American drivers brought it to us and we got on the transported cars and delivered the ammunition by the Georgian Military Road to an ammunition warehouse in Beslan.

In quite some time our regiment was transferred to the town of Kuntsevo near Moscow where the regiment finished its formation. We had about a thousand of American Studebakers that got loaded with food supplies, ammunition and we left... Our regiment, the 45th automobile regiment, was renamed into the CSHC Regiment - the Regiment of the Council of the Supreme High Command. We took orders from Moscow and the council there, whenever necessary, they sent us to the fronts where combat operations were about to begin. First, we were sent to the First Ukrainian Front in the Krakow area. When we reached Krakow, our reconnaissance found out that Germans want to blow up the city. When we entered the city we really saw the trenches, the wires laid in them, those cables and explosives to blow up the city. I suppose our council had been aware of that.

The Vistula-Oder Offensive had to be taking place there. The Third Tank Army had to advance towards Oder but, having found out about the situation, that Army turned south, thus threatening to encircle Germans just like it happened in 1943, near Stalingrad when a huge German army was captured. 330 thousand people army was in Russian captivity. Germans were afraid to be encircled and began their retreat towards south-east, towards Silesia. After that we were ordered to continue moving forward. And we knew that on the way we would have to go through the concentration camps: Auschwitz, Birkenau and others. We received an order to be careful, not to shoot, not to open fire because there were people imprisoned in those camps. But we were still ready for combat. It happened so that Germans, as I said, were afraid to be encircled and therefore rushed to retreat. So we took Auschwitz almost without fighting.

We entered the camp. I entered together with one general, then a few more generals entered the camp. At that time I was already the battalion komsomol organizer. We saw that barbwire that Germans made electric. The arch through which we entered had an inscription on it - "Arbeit macht frei" - "Work makes one free". Upon entering that territory we saw people in striped clothes. Two women came up to me - one of them started clapping her hands and the other... was just happy. One of them gave me a kiss. She looked at me - my short fur coat was unbuttoned - she looked at my awards. I remember that day, the wet snow was falling and melting. We entered one of the barracks, it was women's barrack... We saw excrements and blood on the floor, something had a fetid stinking smell. It turned out there were dead decomposing bodies in the corner. Nobody carried them out.

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Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

We stayed there a little bit and left. We crossed the territory where there were gas chambers and where the corpses were burnt. Germans blew up those chambers where dead bodies were burnt. Then we stepped away from there. I received an assignment to get medical sanitary battalions on our cars so we could organize decontamination stations. We brought those medical sanitary battalions, they unfolded their tents and started cleansing those people... I mean they gave those people an opportunity to clean themselves. Besides that I had an assignment to transport provisions - field kitchen to feed those people. We were ordered, I mean not us but the cooks were, to give those people only a little bit of food, not to give too much. We were told that if they ate a lot, many of them would not be able to handle it and could get sick and so on. So in those circumstances we spent twenty four hours. Then we continued towards the south of Silesia - Dabrowa Basin. We took part in... Germans were fiercely defending themselves. We took Katowice, then Sosnowiec and then turned west towards the town of Nowa Socz near Vistula.

I missed this part. I received my first award - the "Medal for Battle Merit" for participation in conquering the Preobrazhenskiy Hill in the town of Shlisselburg. I was eighteen then. We stopped in the town of Nowy Sacz for a day. Then, having crossed Vistula, we entered the Czech Republic. I remember the city of Ostrava. A meeting of political workers of the Fourth Ukrainian Front took place in that city at that time. I took part in that meeting. Brezhnev, the head of the Fourth Ukrainian Front, gave a speech there.

Then we moved west again toward Prague. I will never forget the 8th of May, 1945. I was riding a Harley Davidson, the American motorcycle. Such a powerful motorcycle, I should say. I was on my way to the headquarters of our regiment to deliver a message. The headquarters were located on the forest where there was an opening and a house. Because the victory was attained May 8th, general's Shrengel's alignment, that was fighting against us, was still on our territory. They were dispersed throughout the forest and continued fighting until the 16th of May. Even after the victory we kept losing our people. They were dying. When I was approaching the regiment headquarters I heard a burst of gun fire. It seemed to me as if I was right in the center of that shooting that was happening between the alignment and our regiment. Very slowly and carefully I continued going towards the headquarters and finally reached its territory. There I saw that our guys were shooting into the air and screaming, "Victory! Victory!"

I sat down and started crying. I couldn't believe that I stayed alive and that destiny granted me life.

Then a meeting with Americans was organized. We had a celebration not far from Prague. We were sitting right next to Americans and were congratulating each other with victory. That was the end of my war epic story.

- You said you were eighteen.

Yes, in 1943 I was.

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Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

ID IS056.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4dm32

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

- Can you tell us about the relationship between officers and soldiers?

Well, they were fine. Officers did their service, were in charge, gave out orders that we followed. By the way... I remember this incident on Nevskaya Dubrovka. I was walking in the trench and I felt something soft under my feet. I looked and saw a dead body. Here is why. The food supply was delivered to us... Our sergeant-major took a few soldiers with him and they crawled from the right shore with the canisters with porridge and of course a canister with alcohol. Why? Because everyone was supposed to get 100 grams per day. But he took supposedly a canister for a company. And for that period of time - just for that one day - the company reduced by more than half. So the soldiers drank their 100 grams and the portion of those who were dead. And of course they got drunk fast. They were wandering around and got their heads out of the trench. And German snipers in disguise were right on the Neva. They shot many of our soldiers like that. That is what I remember.

Here's another thing I remember. When I was walking in a trench I met a soldier. He stood aside walking by me and said, "Excuse me, I'm sorry". And I thought that he was probably a former tsar functionary because amongst our guys we cursed and swore quite often left and right. And that one sounded cultured and educated.

- Were you able to maintain your sense of humor in those conditions?

Yes, of course, we told each other different jokes. I remember I was in the hospital and students from school came to see us - that is, they were our patrons. I don't remember exactly how many beds there were in my room but they came and sat down next to me on my bed because I was the youngest. They came and brought what they could congratulating us that we stayed alive. Of the students, a girl, brought a jar of jam for me. Let me remind you, it was a period of big starvation. Her last name was Sevastianova, I remember. I was always thinking, "where could she possibly get that jam?" That's what I remember. We were writing letters to each other for some time and then we just lost each other. She was a Russian girl.

- What is your most... painful memory?

The most painful? Let me think. First, when I was in the fleet in Kronstadt, they called us "salazhata"[from "salaga" - young unexperienced soldier]. We were wearing tarpaulin uniform. The sergeant-major was always pushing me... he put a swab in my hands and I had to scrub the floors. And at some point we had a little fight: I hit him and he fell. I was big and strong, unlike now. But then we became friends. This is kind of an unpleasant memory though.

But the worst was the storming of Shlisselburg. It was quite a storming, such an intense combat. By the way, right before we started the attack, we put together a brass band that, at first, played the

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Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

Internationale. After that we rushed into the attack. That is what I vividly remember. In terms of war memories, I didn't really have the unpleasant ones... There was an incident when we were in Nowy Sazc by Vistula. We were in a house and the host brought us tea on a tray. He looked at me and said to my boss in Ukrainian, "This guy looks like a Jew." In Polish they say "jew" if they refer to a Jewish person. My boss replied, "No, he's Russian, he's with us." This made me feel so uncomfortable.

- Besides that episode, did you feel antisemitism?

No. Maybe because I was in the Regiment Reconnaissance platoon. We protected each other and helped each other. By the way, we agreed - my friends and I who were soldiers just like me - that if anything happens... First, we agreed to help each other get out of the combat zone if any of us was injured. Besides that, if something is to happen to any of us we agreed that the others would write to our parents to let them know about the location of death and burial. We gave each other the addresses of our parents. But luckily things turned out well.

- Did you know where your parents were?

I was mobilized from the village of Turgen in Almaty Region. I knew. Here, I brought post cards: I was writing to my parents. They saved those post cards. After demobilization I saw those cards and I saved them. But there was one unpleasant thing. I imagined my mother when she received the message that I was injured. I wrote to her that I was injured in my face. She thought that I was a crippled and a freak. She worried so much... When I arrived for vacation in 1945 after the war she was so happy to see me almost healthy. She's tough, she went through a lot. She really had to go through a lot in the Soviet time. I told you already that the Soviet government just took everything and threw my parents into jail. They were demanding that she give them all she had. She gave what she could. But it looks like she didn't give some of the gold that she had because in 1932 there was famine in Odessa and she was able to exchange that gold for bread and other food that saved us.

- Was your family religious?

No.

- When did you find out what happened to Jewish people?

The thing is, there was actually a special government commission created that dealt with German crimes on the occupied territory. From time to time we were getting war leaflets and newspapers from the front. That's how we found out about the Holocaust. Besides that when we were crossing the territories that were

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Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN occupied we were told about what happened. Here's another incident I remember. When we were crossing Belarus, our cars moved in one row on the road and we were accompanied by the airplanes for the purposes of security. At some point we stopped for a break so the soldiers could inspect their cars and eat. At that moment I saw people approaching us from the forest. Those people were so exhausted and thin, in shabby clothes. They lived there in earth houses. They escaped from their villages because Germans burnt everything around them having left only stove pipes. I... despite everything gave an order to all the soldiers... We were transporting American supplies - bacon, canned meat, some grains - so I gave out an order to unpack all that and give to those poor hungry people. So we did it. Afterwards I thought that I would probably get in trouble after we arrive to the front warehouse, get unloaded and check what was left. I thought I'd end up at the tribunal. But everything turned out fine... nobody inspected anything. It felt good to do such a good thing for those people.

- Did you happen to encounter the prisoners?

When I served in reconnaissance we took people captive. We took the ones who spoke the language and brought them to the headquarters for interrogation. Oh, I forgot something. When we were in Shlesselburg one frau came to us to teach us German so that we could talk to the prisoners - ask them from what unit they came and what weapons they have. But Germans, after they were imprisoned, didn't resist any more.

- What was your attitude towards them?

I knew that my relatives in Odessa stayed occupied. We didn't know whether they were alive or not. We were very worried. Then prisoners were redirected where they were supposed to. I didn't see that... they were mistreated.

- How were you prepared for the front?

At first we were in the reserve regiment and we were taught everything: shooting, war tactics, how to crawl in the trenches. So we practiced all of that. Besides that we had to decide how to storm: how to attack, how to use those pre-made ladders and boat hooks. We were taught how to shoot.

- How many months did it last?

Well, let's count... I arrived there in September... for a few months I was training at that reserve regiment. Afterwards we were directed to lift the siege. At the beginning, as I said, I was in Kronstadt and from there we were redirected to the First Baltic Crew in Leningrad. We stayed there a little bit. Then we were sent to

Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

ID IS056.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4dm32

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN the transit post on Karl Marx Street by the Vitebsk Railway Station, as I remember. We were given the infantry uniform and sent to Nevsky Pyatachok.

- When did you arrive to Israel?

In 1990.

- What was your life like after the war?

After the war... I went to medical school and became a dentist. I worked in a clinic for a few years. I didn't expect but... I really fell in love with my profession. I thank my mother for it. When I was demobilized and arrived home I was concerned about what I would do with my life. After I graduated school I didn't study anymore. But I had a driver's license. I said to my mom, "I have a driver's license so I'll be a truck driver." But she objected, "No, go to school." Thanks to her I went to school. My mom... she was very... very American mom. To be perfectly honest I wanted to move to the United States. I wrote to my sister in San Diego. But she responded that it was way too difficult to send an invitation to me and that I should move to Israel. She even underlined that part about Israel. Besides that, when we were deciding as to where to immigrate, my brother-in-law, a clinical doctor, may he rest in peace, said that he had to go to Israel. Why? He said, "I'll get hire right off the plane. I have great experience but I don't speak English. I won't pass the medical exam in the US. That is why let's go to Israel." So it was decided and we came to Israel.

- Do you have children?

I have a son and daughter. I have grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Thank god... My son is employed, he's an engineer. My daughter is a mathematics teacher in school. My oldest grandson is now on six months business trip in the US. In April he should come back. He really likes it there.

- One more question: what were the relationships like between men and women in the army? Were there women in the front?

Yes. Well... I mean, it was different for everybody. Some people could have a "field wife", as they refer to them then... I didn't have such a wife at the front. After the war I met a woman and got married. I'm widowed now, she died seven years ago.

- Thank you.

No, thank you. I'm happy to have helped you.

Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

ID IS056.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4dm32

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

Moisey Malkis. Full, unedited interview, 2008

ID IS056.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4dm32

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

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