KADDISHEL
A Life Reborn
and organizations were disbanded and officially outlawed. We car - ried on a little, in secret, because we did not lose our sympathy for Israel on command. The Russians also prohibited most religious practices and shut down the cheders, although they looked the oth- er way when people went to shul. One tactic the Russians used to gain control was to get rid of the leaders and the people in the upper classes. They started to selectively harass and persecute the “aristocrats” and bour- geoisie, the people they could not trust and who were consid- ered undesirable. My father fell into this group. Our owner- ship of a big factory made us, in their worldview, capitalist exploiters. In April 1940, the Russians started to issue identity cards; any- one who refused to get an ID card was rounded up and exiled to the interior of the Soviet Union. Each ID card indicated its bearer’s so- cial standing. The intelligentsia, aristocrats, and bourgeoisie were given the number eleven. Foresters, too, were targeted because they knew how to use weapons. If your card had a number eleven, you were deemed untrustworthy and were not considered loyal to the regime. Your belongings were confiscated and your family was forced out of its home and ordered to give away its factories, mills, and properties. You were not given ration cards for food. You were subject to arrest and exile; without notice, families with number eleven were suddenly taken away during the night. Since my father had people working for him, the Russians said that we lived on the blood of the workers and we were given the number eleven. It was irrelevant that my father had been a progres- sive employer. My mother was allowed to keep her photography studio because she was not considered an exploiter — she had only one employee, which did not count for much with the Russians. The Russians told us that we were persona non grata and our fate was to be deported to Siberia. Our business was con- fiscated and the government appointed someone else to run it. My father could not get a job. We had to let go of the help we
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