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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

TABLE OF CONTENTS ITEM TRANSCRIPT

ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2 CITATION & RIGHTS 15

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION -Today is April 26th, 2009. We are in Detroit, meeting a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Please introduce yourself and tell us about your childhood, your school years, what kind of family you grew up in, and what your parents did for a living. How did you come to serve in the Red Army and what were your wartime experiences like?

My name is Leyzer Levikovich Selektor and I was born on April 16th, 1921 in the town of Lokhvytsia, Poltava Region, Ukraine. Dunayevsky and I came from the same town. A year later, in 1922, my parents and I moved to Romny where we lived until the start of war. My father held views that were progressive for that time. He was highly erudite despite having had only two years of religious schooling. He did not have the opportunity to attend school because his father, grandfather Iosif, had a lot of children and did not earn much money as a religious teacher. He was self-taught. At 13 he was sent to work as an apprentice in a clothing accessories shop. He worked there as an errand boy until he was 17, but he did not waste his time and kept honing his skills. By the time he was 17-18 he had mastered his trade. The owner began paying him well and he finally could afford books, which he could no longer live without. His children remember him either at work or with a book in his hand. He never did anything else. When my father came home from work my mother would turn to us children, who had already been fed, and say “Go play outside. Your father is tired after work and I need to feed him.”

My mother was an amazing cook, but unfortunately this was wasted on my father. She would put the food in front of him, but he would open a book and paid much more attention to what was on the pages that in the plate. He was fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Yiddish, and had a profound knowledge and love of their respective literary tradition; a trait that he passed on to his children. Whenever he had free time he read to us, often from memory. He recited Pushkin, Mickiewicz, and Shevchenko for us. He knew many large works by memory.

My mother was from a different kind of family. Her father had been the owner of an alcohol factory in the village of Nedryhailiv, Romny District [now a district seat –EB], Sumy Region. Her family also had many children, but all of them were given an education. My mother graduated from a gymnasium, which was as far as a Jewish girl could get at the time. She met my father after graduating, and even though he was six years older than her, he managed to convince her to marry him. There were four children in our family, two boys and two girls. We also had a stepsister. She was the daughter of my father’s elder brother Zalman, who passed away in 1900. In 1902 his wife went to America and said that she would be back for her children, whom she left with her parents. Of course nobody ever came back, so my father took his niece Sonya in and raised her. His other brother raised Zalman’s son Zinoviy. That pretty much sums up our

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN family.

Our parents loved each other and we never heard our father raise his voice, or our mother chewing out our father for something he did. I was the third child in our family, which embraced us with love. My eldest sister, who was nine years older, was like a second mother to me and spent all of her free time with me. My elder brother, who was seven years older, protected me from all of the trouble of the streets. We lived happily and supported one another as best as we could. When I turned five a religious teacher began coming to our home in order to teach me prayers, Yiddish, Russian, and arithmetic. By the time I turned eight I had completed the elementary school curriculum. The religious teacher was named Mr. Tsiriulik. He was a tall and strict man, who demanded that I learn everything that I needed. Fortunately, I was a capable student and my studies progressed smoothly.

When I turned eight I had to start school, but there was the question of which school to attend. The schools nearest to us were Russian School No.4 and Yiddish School No.5. Since my older siblings had attended the Yiddish school, it was decided that I was to follow in their footsteps. However, I was bored because even though I enrolled directly into the second grade, I knew everything that the teacher was teaching us. This was true in third and fourth grade too. This made me restless and I would often come to school with a baby mouse, frog, or whatever else interested me in my pocket. I was on good terms with my classmates. In fifth, sixth, and seventh grade we began studying in earnest and the work became much more difficult. I cannot omit a mention of my teachers. At our school the teachers went above and beyond what was expected of them, and treated each pupil as if it was their own child that they had to educated and share all they could with. We were taught everything with great quality and depth. They not only imparted us with knowledge, but also taught us how to learn and how to achieve what we wanted in life.

When I finished seventh grade… I forgot to mention that we lived on a military base. The 21st Rifle Regiment of the 7th Red Banner Division was stationed in Romny and the barracks were in the building of the former seminary school. Our home was not far from the former seminary and the synagogue. A man named Polotskiy had owned a group of buildings and we lived in one of them. Slowly but surely the base commander began requisitioning those buildings, and soon we found ourselves surrounded by the military. This made me want to join the military, so after seventh grade I applied to the Odesa Cavalry School. That same day the base commander met with my father and said “You need to get that dumb idea out of Leyzer’s head. Braiding horses’ tails is not for him. Let him finish a ten year school, and if he still wants to join the military, we’ll find a better school for him.” My father talked to me about this. Later the principal of our school invited me and a few of my classmates and said “Kids, there is a chance that we could open an eighth grade at our school and turn it into a ten-year school. However, we need at least 20 pupils in eighth grade.” He invited the most popular students in seventh grade and they managed to

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN facilitate the creation of grades eight through ten. All the subjects such as math, physics, chemistry, and geography were taught in Yiddish. Only Russian, German, and Ukrainian were not taught in Yiddish. We were very lucky when it came to Russian because our teacher was a former literature professor at Moscow State University. She had been diagnosed with tuberculosis and had to relocate to a more favorable climate. She was originally from Romny and the principal invited her to teach at our school. We were also lucky with our German teacher. He was a real German named Ludwig Zamrau. He had been taken prisoner during WWI, married a Ukrainian woman, and never returned home. He was extremely demanding of us. All of our teachers were demanding, but within reason.

I graduated from high school and had to figure out what to do with my life. My brother was studying at a flight school in Perm and said to me “We already have one pilot in the family, and that is enough.” My father said to me “You can do whatever you like, but please do not go into trade. I would give my right hand to make sure that you don’t go into that field.” He worked in trade himself. My family and I deliberated. In 1933 the fascists came to power in Germany and even though I was 14, I already understood that a fight to the death is inevitable, so I must prepare. I was the first secretary of our school’s Komsomol organization, and I used my influence to rally the boys in my class. I said to them “Lads, we must be ready for battle. We will inevitably fight the fascist one day, but if we do so with only rifles and pistols, it will not be enough. You must join the armored forces, the air force, and the navy so that you can wield weapons that will most effectively strike at the enemy.” All the boys from our class except two applied to military schools after finishing tenth grade.

I graduated high school with perfect grades and received a gold diploma, which meant that I could enroll at any school I wanted. The diploma itself was quite interesting, but unfortunately I no longer have it. It was written in Yiddish with a Ukrainian translation under it. I decided to apply to the Leningrad Naval School, which trained mechanics for the navy. I chose to train as a submarine mechanic. I had read a lot of Jules Verne and romanticized submarines. Back then submariners were respected the same way cosmonauts are today. Life for the two is very similar; you are completely cut off from the outside world and depend entirely on the machines around you. You had to know the machines to the tiniest detail. I arrived in Leningrad and was accepted to this one-of-a-kind school without any discussion. I was in the first class that would be trained to work with diesel engines. I did not have to take any exams. However, the company commander made it challenging for me. He told me that my acceptance to the school was contingent on me successfully assisting a certain Golubkov in enrolling. If Golubkov, who had already served in the military and had four triangles on his insignia, were accepted, I would be accepted too. He did not tell me that I had already been accepted even though he knew. He really wanted Golubkov because he was already a sergeant major. I spent more time helping Golubkov study than I would have spent studying on my own. Volodya Golubkov passed his exams with Cs and Bs and was accepted. When our company was formed the commander rewarded me by making me a unit commander.

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

I began my service in the Navy. Once again, I was lucky to have good instructors. Most of the instructors were officers who had finished their training in tsarist times. These were well-educated and cultured people to whom I can only sing praises. For example, we would be learning about the different kinds of munitions and were looking at a cross section of a torpedo. Captain First Class Puzyryovskiy called me up and told me to describe all of the torpedo’s mechanisms. I had to come up to the torpedo and point to all the components and say what they did. He interrupted me at every word. I had graduated from a Yiddish school in Ukraine and my pronunciation was so strange that the other lads in my company would laugh at me… The instructor said to me “I know very well that you understand how the torpedo work, but one day you will have to explain to the seamen.” This is why he corrected me every time I put the stress on a word incorrectly, or when I made a sentence improperly. Now just listen to how I speak Russian!

In 1939 Navy Day was first celebrated in the Soviet Union. To celebrate a large exhibit of navy military hardware was put on display at the Kirov Central Park of Culture and Rest in Leningrad. There were different displays, including one about naval mines and torpedoes. There were two naval schools in Leningrad at the time. There was the Frunze School which trained specialists such as gunners, minelayers, navigators, and so forth; the second school was the Dzerzhinsky School which trained mechanics. I was chosen from the many cadets of these two schools to answer any questions the public may have about the mines and torpedoes on display. Captain First Class Puzyryovskiy managed to convince everyone that I was the best man for the job, despite this not being my specialty. Of course I was very happy. At just 19 I was standing in the Kirov Central Park of Culture and Rest and explaining how everything worked to all the interested boys and girls; I had a very smart look on my face.

My studies were going well. I found that could always learn the required material, so during my three years of study in 1939-41 I was selected three times to participate in a parade in Moscow along with a battalion from the Baltic Fleet. During the last parade in May 1941 I marched at the front of the column as a sergeant major with a boatswain’s whistle around my neck.

When the war began the academy kept working as usual and we kept to our schedule. However, when the Germans approached Kotly and Kingisepp an alarm was sounded and we were ordered to roll up our trench coats and issued footwraps to put on over our navy pants. Everyone had a rifle… we took up defensive positions around Kotly and Kingisepp. On our right flank the defensive positions were manned by a people’s militia. What can I say… of course it was terrible. I think that the people’s militias were a really stupid mistake. They were made up of people who were unfit for military service, with no military training, and no idea of what to do it battle. What could they do at the front? My best friend from school David Liubinskiy was killed in such a unit. He ended up in the militia because he was studying at the Polytechnic Institute… His hearing was damaged by scarlet fever in his childhood. He was an excellent student, but at

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN the front a deaf man is cannon fodder. As soon as the Germans attacked his unit was wiped out and he was killed. They could not put up any sort of resistance.

We fought as best as we could. Fortunately, a regular division came to our aid and we managed to hold the line. Three days later we were rotated out and we returned to the academy, but we could not resume our regular studies. We were assigned to units that were charged with spotting German aircraft and communicating their positions. These units were based in the suburbs of Leningrad. I was put in charge of five men and we performed these, and military police duties in the town of Pavlovsk. In late July the question of evacuating the military school was raised. We were put on barges and evacuated to Baku along the Mariinsk Canal System. We made a stop in the town of Balakhna near Gorky. The local paper mill and palace of culture was under construction. We stayed at the palace of culture. Third year students were ordered to quickly prepare for land battle. We received training in land combat tactics and began orienteering training. We also learned to dig trenches and build dugouts.

In early September we graduated from the academy and were organized into marine infantry units. I was assigned to the 69th Marine Rifle Brigade, which was being assembled in the town of Anzhero-Sudzhensk in the Kemerovo Region. Our brigade was made up of seamen from the Pacific Fleet, Party activists from the Achinsk District of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, as well as hunters from that district, who were real warriors. We were equipped very well. It turned out that the mining settlement where we were based had massive military warehouses… They were the size of football pitches. The sergeant majors could stand and pick out felt boots of the right size for everyone. A second warehouse of the same size was completely filled with jackets. This went on for some time as we prepared for combat in a northern climate. We were outfitted very well and had decent weapons. We were not issued any artillery pieces, but on the way to the front a few cars loaded with cannons were hitched to our train.

It seems that initially our unit was to help defend Moscow, but the situation in the north was getting quite bad. The Germans were closing a second ring of encirclement around Leningrad and had taken Tikhvin. They had to be pushed out because otherwise they would cut off the railroad between Murmansk and Leningrad. A second ring of the blockade would mean totally cutting of Leningrad. We had to liberate Tikhvin. The 314th Division was sent to do so, but they could not push the Germans out so our brigade was sent to assist.

- This was in 1942?

This was in November of 1941. We disembarked the train at the station of Oyat near Tikhvin and immediately entered battle. We were ordered to take Tikhvin, take no prisoners, and push the Germans

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN back. We were told to conserve ammunition and let the cold kill the Germans. The Germans hightailed it out as soon as we entered Tikhvin. The marines were called the Dark Cloud by our enemies and the Navy Guards by our allies. We simply called ourselves marines. Whenever the marines showed up, the Germans knew that it would be a fight to the death. I showed you a photo of Vasiliy Zhukov, the head of the 1st Battalion recon unit. He never even carried a gun, opting to use his dagger instead. Whenever he went out on recon missions he would always offer to catch a German for questioning.

They worked quietly and took out the sentries without firing a shot. The Germans also never took the marines prisoner. Every marine felt as if they were a Jew, if you did not kill the Germans, they would kill you. They fought accordingly and never even considered surrendering. They would kill you on the spot after torturing you for a bit. We quickly pushed the Germans out of Tikhvin and they retreated to Lodeynoye Pole, where we chased them without firing a shot. We opened fire on them if they tried to stop and build a fire for warmth. Their equipment failed right away because they were equipped for a summer blitzkrieg. Their tanks and SPGs were oiled for summer temperatures and the brake fluid on their cannons was designed for the summer. They had summer uniforms. When we pushed them out of Tikhvin into the November cold, not a single one of them reached Lodeynoye Pole alive. When we approached Lodeynoye Pole we could not spot a single enemy position, so our battalion commander Captain Shevchenko took all the officers and set up observation points. This was a huge mistake. The Svir River cuts Lodeynoye Pole in two. We approached from the east, near the deserted part of town where everything was quiet. We advanced along a path to get to the river bank and observe the other side. The opposite side of the river was held by the Finns who had the area covered by their artillery. They opened artillery and mortar fire and the shells began exploding right between us. Two men died, but everyone except the commander and me was wounded. Of course I ran to help my comrades… This recon mission taught us a few things.

We began digging in. After setting up good fortifications we took up defensive positions. We could not cross the Svir and the Finns did not attempt to do so either. The Finns always positioned the Lagus Brigade opposite of us. If the Finns moved the Lagus brigade to a different section of the front, our brigade was moved accordingly. Most Finns knew Russian quite well, especially those over 30. One time a Finnish recon unit crossed into our territory and tapped into our radio communications. During wartime, you cannot name commanders over the radio, instead they are assigned numbers… One time I was in the commander’s dugout when the radio rang. The commander picked it up and said “This is One, go ahead.” In response they said “Who the hell is ‘One’, you are Captain Shevchenko. This is Corporal Such-and-Such of the Finnish Army. I’ve been on your tail for a long time…” You can imagine the commander’s reaction… The submachine gunner platoon commander Fimka Borukhovskiy was there. The commander turned to him and said “F**k, Fimka! Bring him here alive.” They set out on skis, racing not for medals, but for their lives. He caught the Finnish recon unit and came back. “What should we do with them comrade commander?” he asked. We had a chat with them and then wondered what to do. It was getting dark, so

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN we put them in a dugout. When we came to pick them up in the morning they were already fraternizing with our soldiers and sharing tobacco… We escorted them on skis to brigade HQ. Two of them tried to make a dash for it, but they were killed.

Those who survived the blockade of Leningrad will understand what I am talking about. As we sat in this taiga, we were given two pieces of dried bread per day. A soldier’s daily rations were two pieces of dried bread and pea soup. You could either eat the soup dry, or you could actually boil it into a soup. We also received a bit of tobacco, but that was it. Later we also began receiving 100 ml of alcohol per day. We lived like that until April 1942, constantly moving from place to place. We were constantly digging new fortifications and settling in. In April 1942 high command decided to break the siege of Leningrad. The main direction of our advance was the swamps around Sinyavino. I discovered later that our objective was to distract as much enemy forces as possible so that they were not available to fight our main advance. We received an order to break through the enemy lines and break the siege. We were told that the fate of Leningrad was in our hands and ordered forward. We broke through two enemy lines and then got some space to maneuver. We asked for reinforcements … But the 7th Army had no reinforcements to spare, so we could do no more and were ordered to return to our initial positions, which meant even heavier losses than during the assault.

We returned to our initial positions. The next morning we got an order to break through the enemy lines again. Again we broke through both lines and again we were ordered to retreat. At most 60% of our brigade survived. After that we were taken off the front line and relocated to brigade HQ in order to receive reinforcements. Our unit was reinforced and sent back to the front, but I was no longer with them because I was ordered to build a road connecting two villages. We arrived at the village where the corps HQ was located. We cleaned up and I invited a female sergeant to go dancing with me at the local social club. I was a good dancer and we danced for a while. When the night was over and I was returning home I was stopped by a patrol and asked why I had not greeted the military policeman. I asked him if he wanted me to fight him instead of the enemy. I was with a group of marines and he saw that they were disengaging the safeties on their submachine guns. He decided to leave it alone and I thought that the incident was over. The very next morning an orderly woke me up and said that I was being summoned by the chief of engineering at the crops HQ. I had never met the colonel before and had no idea why he wanted to see me. He said to me “You are an engineer. I am ordering you to build a road between these two villages.” I told him that I was not a civil or field engineer, but that I was a mechanic that worked on ships’ power plants. He said “But you are an engineer, so you must know how to build roads. I am putting you in charge of a field engineering company, a rifle company, and number of horses…” I had never built a road before, especially not through a swampy taiga, but what was I to do?

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

I lined up my men and asked if anyone had any experience in forestry. Several men stepped forward, among them a senior sergeant. I told him that he would be responsible for chopping down the trees. Then I asked who had any experience in agriculture or landscaping. I continued on in this fashion. We had tools like saws, axes, and shovels. We began working and eventually completed our project. That same day my brigade was sent back to the front. It turned out that the sergeant I had taken to the dance was the field wife of the corps chief of staff. He was afraid that I would steal her from him, so he sent me away.

- You returned to the trenches?

Of course, back to my trenches and battle stations.

- What year was this?

This was in 1942. I had a very good relationship with Battalion Commander Shevchenko. He was a talented soldier and from 1941 to 1944 was promoted from senior lieutenant to major general. He went from leading a platoon to commanding a corps. He was killed as a general at his post. He had led charges toward enemy positions as a senior lieutenant. His observation post as a major general was quite far away from the front line, but a stray shell exploded and a piece of shrapnel hit him right in the temple. Everyone has their own fate. I did not get along well with the battalion’s commissar.

- This was a rifle battalion? You had submachineguns?

It was a separate marine rifle battalion, but it was the size of a regiment. The battalion included 6,000 men and had all the capabilities of a regiment. Our commissar was Senior Politruk Nakonechnyy. Before the war he was a Partorg at a kolkhoz somewhere in Siberia. He was sent to Siberia because he was a former kulak in Ukraine. He had a score to settle with Soviet rule and was not a fan of Jews. As soon as my commander would nominate me for an award or promotion, the commissar tore up his recommendation. This went on until June 1942 when the commissar let it slip at brigade HQ that he was going to “wipe that kike off the face of the earth.” Our brigade commander was Captain First Class Verkhovskiy, himself a Jew. I was a the very front commanding an infantry platoon. A colonel came up to me and said “Comrade lieutenant, would you perhaps like to join an artillery unit?” Of course this was much better than the infantry, but I needed an order. “Consider the order written. We are transferring you to a 76 mm gun squadron under the command of Major Arkhipov.” That is how I transferred into an artillery unit.

Service in the artillery was different. When I reported to the squadron commander, he took out a map and told me to locate a particular set of coordinates. For me this was a fourth-grade geography problem. I was trained as a navigator in the naval school and knew how to read a map quite well. I immediately found the

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN coordinates. Then he put his finger down one the map and told me identify the coordinates that he was pointing to. I immediately told him the coordinates. He said “You must know how to direct fire to that location. Here is a blank sheet of paper, please do the calculations.” I was given all the conditions including the direction and speed of the wind, as well as the weight of the shell. I looked at the problem, got a ruler out… and gave him the answer. “Why are you wasting my time? You can’t figure it out like that!” he exclaimed. He then took out a pencil and spent 20 minutes performing the calculations. Then he looked up at me and said “Your results were right.” Of course my life in the artillery unit was very different. The artillery was transported by horses and I suddenly had many at my disposal. I had only seen horses on pictures and around town prior to that. Unexpectedly, I was presented with a saddled horse that had belonged to the previous platoon commander. The previous commander… was Senior Lieutenant Tkachenko, a Kuban Cossack.

The colt’s name was Hurricane and I was terrified of him. I turned to my deputy and said “Get this horse out of here for now, and let me learn on something calmer.” They picked one out and I learned to ride. My next horse was named Signal and it understood me without words. It helped me out on many occasions. It was loyal to me like a dog and would always poke its nose into the pocket of my trench coat where I kept a piece of bread or sugar for him. When we set up new positions we had to build defensive trenches for us, for our guns, and for the horses. Captain 3rd Class Kochegarov came to inspect our positions and asked “Where are the tsibaliny to tie the horses to? Do you want them to run off?”

- What is a tsimbalina?

Wait one second, I will tell you. After he finished shouting I said to him calmly “Comrade Captain 3rd Class, I would like to ask you two things. First, when someone shouts at me, my ears close up and I cannot hear anything. Second, if you want me to do something, you must clearly give me an order and I will do it. Please tell me what a tsymbalina is…”

End of Tape 1

- You said that you were transferred back to the navy in 1944?

Yes. In 1944 there was an order to return all naval officers to the fleet.

-You fought to break through the blockade of Leningrad until 1944? The blockade was broken and then totally removed in 1944. The blockade was broken in 1943 and completely removed in January 1944.

We were not involved in breaking the blockade in 1943. We were breaking enemy lines at other fronts.

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

-Were you at Nevskaya Dubrovka?

No, not there. I only fought near Lodeynoye Pole and Podporozhye on the Svir River.

- In 1941...

From 1941 to March 1944.

- In 1943 you took up defensive positions...

Yes, and I think that high command was saving us as reinforcements for breaking the blockade. When the advance began our brigade was sent to Pechenga and later to Konigsberg, but this was after I left.

- When were you awarded the Order of the Red Star?

I was awarded the Order of the Red Star after the war. I did not receive any awards during the war. It is strange, but I began the war as a junior engineer-lieutenant, and ended the war with the same title.

-When you arrived your first order was to expel the Germans from Tikhvin. You were with a brigade of marines. What kinds of weapons did you have?

A pistol.

- Did you take part in any charges?

There were no charges to speak of. As soon as we came into town shouting our battle cries they understood that this was the end of them and ran. We chased them out of town and did not let them stop.

- Were there any battles before 1944 that you will remember forever?

Yes. That incident with the tsymbaly had an impact on my future career. Captain 3rd Class Kochegarov was recalled from the front and was in charge of the cadre department for the Northern Fleet. Later he became the deputy head of the cadre department of the navy. After our argument about the tsymbaly he and I became close. He knew and remembered me as a frontline officer. When the war was over and… all the anti-Semitic steps were taken to prevent Jews from being promoted, he followed my career and made sure that I got what I deserved. I was serving in Moscow when I decided to apply to the military academy. Even though I passed all the exams with perfect grades I was not accepted. I was young and hot tempered. I came to deputy naval commander Admiral Azarov and asked why I was not among those accepted to the

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

Leningrad Academy. My wife and children were in Ukraine at the time and I had told her to meet me in Leningrad because I would be accepted to the academy… Azarov said to me “Comrade senior lieutenant, we cannot do anything for you. You are 29 and you have until you are 32 to apply. This year we had a captain 3rd class, who is 32, apply. You have three more years to get in, but this is his last chance.” I was not satisfied with his response. My commanding officer, Colonel Ushakov was in Moscow… He said to me “We’ll find everything out for you. Come over on Saturday with a bottle and we’ll drink it along with Colonel Obidin. He works in the cadre office and should know something.” I came with not one, but two bottles and then we got to talking. The colonel said “Guys, what can I say, there is a standing order not to accept Jews into the academy.” I was crushed, but soon got an appointment as the commander of the cadet units at the Baku Military Naval School. It was a position meant for a Captain 2nd Class and I was just a senior lieutenant.

- This was after the war.

Yes. This was all thanks to Kochegarov and his tsymbalyna.

-I want to ask you about the war. Did you ever find yourself face to face with the Finns or the Germans during battle?

Of course, we shot at one another. But there was no talk of… it was kill or be killed… that was it. You only had one goal and one desire, to kill.

I read your questionnaire and you had a section in there about how we treated prisoners. I will say again, that I never saw a German prisoner during the war. We did not take them prisoner just like they did not take us prisoner. I did however work very closely with the Germans after the war. In 1946 I was assigned to the Polar Star Floating Submarine Base. This Polar Star happened to be in dry dock for repairs in Rostok, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The seamen were warned that saboteurs could be active. Every German repairman was overseen by a Soviet seaman. After several days the seamen came up to me and asked to assist the Germans who were working quite well. The seamen said that they would be operating all the equipment and that they should work on it too.

- The treatment of the Germans changed...

Keep listening. Work goes well at a factory when there is a master in charge. To them the master is the main person in any factory. He employs workers and gives assignments. The masters were all elderly…

- These are details and we are in a hurry...

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

No, this is very important. The hull master was missing for a week and the quality of the work was shoddy. Sir… why were you gone, I asked. He said that he was 70 and that he wanted to see his grandchildren. Also he said that he was too hungry to work. There was hunger in Germany in 1946-7. I went to the ship’s commander and said “Ivan Nikolayevich, we must feed the masters.” He said “No problems Leyzer, they will eat after the master sergeants.” Our relationship with the German engineers… My German was quite good, I even knew it better than I know English now.

- Were there other Jews in your marine brigade?

Yes, the commander was Jewish.

- What about the rank and file?

Yes, the submachinegun platoon in the 1st Battalion was led by Fimka Borukhovsky.

- Was there any anti-Semitism among the rank and file?

What are you talking about? We were ready to sacrifice our lives for one another. When I was in the artillery I was sent to provide fire support for an infantry company. The commander was a Tatar. He was fighting the enemy and I helped him take out the machinegun nests. I supported him for two days. After the battle we were so close that he invited me to visit his village and meet his beautiful sister Bibinur. Bibinur means “a ray of moonlight.” There was no anti-Semitism in the marines… Everyone knew that his actions could mean life or death… People were taught that on a ship the actions of every seaman can impact the entire crew.

Your father loved to read. Did you practice Jewish culture at home?

Yes, my mother was very religious. My father was less so, but my mother kept the house kosher and I never had a bite of non-kosher food until I went to the academy.

- Your brother perished at the front.

Yes.

- What was his name?

Iosif.

- When was he killed?

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

He died at Sinyavino in 1942 while trying to break the blockade.

- What branch did he serve in?

He led an infantry platoon.

- Did your family receive a death notice?

Yes, that was his fate. He only got married in 1940. If you read his letters, he only talks about Musenka, his wife… I am a happy and lucky person in many ways. The first is that my parents raised me to be always willing to help and to never be jealous. The second is that I survived the war, although I should have been killed a thousand times. Thirdly, I raised a good family.

- Thank you very much.

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Leizer Selektor. Full, unedited interview, 2009

ID MI011.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4xg06

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

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