Boruch Smushkevich
Boruch Smushkevich, 1864 – 1952, Pyratin, the Ukraine. Boruch was the son of Aron Smushkevich.
Nelli Medvinsky
It was May 1948. Only three years passed after World War II. My parents and I visited my father’s uncle Boruch and the family of his son Nachemiy in the city Gorky (now Nizhniy Novgorod). It was a happy and sad encounter. The war was over, we survived but there were many terrible losses. Everybody lost close relatives. At that time I was 9 years old and I have a vague memory of Boruch. I remember only that there was a tall, thin, old man who spoke with me. Boruch was my grandfather Moisha’s younger brother.
Memories of Ludmila Smushkevich
New Jersey, August 2005
Boruch Smushkevich, my grandfather, was born in 1874. I do not know the exact place where he was born, but it was somewhere in the Ukraine. When my grandfather got married he and his wife Berta lived in the Ukraine, in Station Graborovka, Piratinskovo District, in the Poltava Region. He came from a poor family and he had a typical poor Jewish boy childhood in the Pale of Settlement. He did not become a rich man but his family had prosperity.
They had two children: Ilya and Nachemiy. My grandmother and grandfather had housekeeping and my grandfather worked on a mill. According to my father, the owner of the mill was my grandfather’s father-in-law. They lived in a small house, but had everything they needed. They collected gold coins and had many of them, but all of that disappeared in the war. After the Revolution his sons moved to big cities and they were admitted to universities and eventually graduated. Ilya became a biologist. Nachemiy became an engineer. Boruch and his wife stayed alone in Pyratin but they were always in touch with their sons and their families.
In the summer of 1941, Boruch’s wife went to Dnipropetrovsk to see her son Nachamiy’s family. Boruch and his wife could not go together because they had domestic livestock. They also grew some vegetables for themselves in their backyard and somebody had to take care of them. After his wife returned, Boruch went to visit his son Nachemiy’s family.
When World War II started, Boruch was in Dnipropetrovsk. His sons decided that Boruch would evacuate with Nacheimiy’s family, Ilya went to Pyratin to take his mother and then the family was reunited. Unfortunately, the Germans occupied Pyratin in the beginning of the War. Ilya came to Pyratin with his family but they did not have time to escape the Nazis. In the first days of occupation the Nazis hung Ilya and wrote: "Jew and Communist". The Nazis also killed Boruch’s wife, Ilya’s wife, and his daughter.
During and after World War II Boruch lived with the family of his son Nachemiy in the city of Chelyabinsk (the Urals). In my memories, my grandfather was taller than average, light haired, had grey eyes, and had a beard. He was a very nice person and helped many people during the terrible times of the war. He spoke only Ukrainian, but he met many people and became friends with them. All of these years he tried to find out the fate of his wife and son, but only in 1944 he found out that they were murdered. After the war was over Boruch had no reason to return to the Ukraine. Their loved ones did not even have graves.
In 1947 new tragedy hit their family: Nacheimiy’s son Leonid was struck by a car and died. After this tragedy Boruch with his son’s family moved to Gorky (now Nizhniy Novgorod). The first year in Gorky my grandfather was active and very often had friends coming over. I remember how happy he was with them and he gave them many treats. He was very proud of his son and wherever he could he told stories about him. Because of what happened previously with the war and many deaths, my grandfather was paralyzed in 1948. Even though his son brought him to the best doctors nothing could be done. Those four years were terrible for him. During the war, my grandfather lost his wife, his son and his family, two of his brothers, Zeival and Moisha, and after the war his only grandchild. All of that damaged his health severely. My grandfather died in 1952 and was buried in the cemetery called "Red Etna" in Gorky.
In 2000 my family and I had immigrated to the USA. Now Boruch’s great-granddaughters with their children and me, Boruch’s granddaughter (Nachemiy’s daughter), are living in New Jersey.
