Kharkov, 1927.

My father, Lyonya, six years old at the time, lived in Kharkov with his parents – David and Rizal, as well as his two brothers – Isaak and Ion. Isaak was a year older than Lyonya and Ion, or Ionchik, as everybody in the family called him, was still a baby. Rizal (or Baba-Rosa, as I used to call her) was busy with baby Ionchik and taking care of the household, while David worked all day long. Isaak and Lyonya spent every day together, learning and playing. Learning was a big deal for David, who wanted the best possible education for his sons. Every day, when he came home from work, he would ask Isaak and Lyonya – “What did you learn today? What did you read today?” They had to answer in different languages – and they had not even started school yet.

David and Rizal, 1918

David came to Kharkov from Warsaw, where he was born in the old Jewish community. The First World War and the Pogroms – violent and cruel attacks against Jews – forced him, as well as many others, to run for their lives. His brother Moshe, a trader by occupation, decided to go with his family west, across Europe, to Paris. David selected Kharkov. Because of the war he could not go there directly, but had to detour North – through Lithuania, then East, and only then – South toward his destination. While on his migration, he met Rizal. They fell in love and continued their journey together.

So, Isaak and Lyonya would have to answer David’s questions in both Ukrainian and Russian, and sometimes in Polish, but not in Yiddish. Yiddish was a language David and Rosa spoke to each other – they kept it as a “secret” language. Lyonya told me that the kids learned a little Yiddish – it was impossible not to learn Yiddish in a Jewish neighborhood – but pretended they did not understand a word to discover their parents “secrets”. The only language spoken at home with the kids was supposed to be Russian, but unlike David, Rosa barely spoke it and easily switched to German. Lyonya described the language situation at home as the Tower of Babel.

When the time came for Isaak to go to school, it was a tragedy for both Isaak and Lyonya – they were so used to being inseparable and doing everything together. They came up with a plan – Isaak will go to school, as he was supposed to, while Lyonya would come with him and hide under the desk. There were two other boys from the neighborhood, who were in the same class, that were eager to help.

As funny as their “plot” was, they succeeded. Every day they went to school together and came back home together. I asked Isaak and Lyonya – how come no one, neither Rosa nor David, noticed that Lyonya was missing everyday, for half a day. They never gave me a definitive answer – they assumed that maybe it did not go on for long – only a couple of weeks, or perhaps Rosa was so overwhelmed with small Ionchik, or maybe everybody just figured that they were always together. I talked to them when they were in their late-40’s and they both giggled like kids, telling me that story.

In a couple of weeks their plot, of course, was uncovered, but not in a way one would expect. It was due to a test that the kids in the class took. Isaak had a problem with one of the questions and Lyonya, from under the desk, tried helping him. Either Lyonya was too loud or someone betrayed them, but either way the teacher delivered both Isaak and Lyonya directly to the principal’s office. The principal heard their explanation and made King Solomon’s decision – he said “Good. You will both take the test here, in my office – right now. If you both pass it – you both stay. If not – you will both go to juvenile hall” – and that was not an empty threat.

After the The Great War, the Revolution, the Civil war, and the national destruction in Russia during the 1920s, there were thousands of homeless children of all ages who survived by committing crimes. Those children were often used by adult criminals and, as a result, had no chance to get free from that web. Think Oliver Twist. Many got sick and many died. The government did everything to try and stop that trend. Many special schools and institutions were established whose goal was not to punish those children, but help them get back to a normal life, a life that most of them never experienced. Not all such schools were good, but one of the few successful ones was right on the outskirts of Kharkov – Makarenko’s Gorky Colony and later the Dzerzhinsky labor commune school. That real success story was described by Makarenko, in his bestseller book “Педагогическая поэма”, known in English as “Road to Life”. Sadly, most others schools were not so lucky and were just prisons for children. So, the principal’s threat was very real.

Isaak and Lyonya knew it too. They understood that they did not have a choice and they both passed the test. Whew!

What happened at home when David came back from school after having a conversation with the principal is a totally different story. Isaak and Lyonya didn’t go into much detail when they told me about this specific family meeting, but this time they did not giggle.