Please tell us about your family.
My grandfather, Berl Katz, was not just a religious Jew, he was a Lubavitcher Chassid from a long-time Chassidic family. He owned a shoe workshop in a Belarusian town, where all his five sons worked from childhood. Later, one of them, my father, Gershon Katz, worked at the Kharkov shoe factory, and later the Party sent him, among the famous 25,000 people to create a Jewish collective farm.
My mother came from a family of a wealthy merchant of the 1st guild. They had nine children, and, of course, everyone spoke only Yiddish. The Soviet government deprived them of all their property, and they were exiled to the Crimea. Later, in Zhytomyr, my mother and two sisters graduated from Yiddish pedagogy.
I studied in the district town of the Jewish Autonomous Region not far from Birobidzhan. By that time, the teaching of Yiddish was banned in Jewish schools. When I graduated from school in 1956, the 20th Party Congress was held in the country. It was a truly revolutionary event: Khrushchev made a report on the exposure of Stalin's personality cult. We were told to take our history books, and the final exam in this subject was cancelled.
You belong to the category of people who are called "children of war.” Please tell us a story related to the war.
For me, this story began in the Central Baths in Moscow, when from a nearby cabin I heard: "It's a well-known case - the Jews fought in Tashkent!" This common phrase was the reason for writing my story.
In the 80s I worked as a doctor in one of the Moscow hospitals. Once, my friend, the famous actor Vasily Livanov (the “Soviet Sherlock Holmes”), needed a medical certificate, and I turned to the deputy chief physician of our hospital for help. She wrote out the necessary certificate and asked me to convey greetings to Vasily from Volodya, which I did. “From which Volodya?” Livanov asked. "From her brother, Volodya Gall.” "Do you know who it is?!" shouted Livanov. I will tell you his story.
In May 1945, after the capture of Berlin and the signing of the surrender, the Spandau Citadel near Berlin did not surrender. Soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht, their families and civilians were hiding in it. The fortress was surrounded by an impregnable moat filled with water. The Germans watched the movements of the Russians from above. Our people were not mentally prepared for the assault: after the end of the war, no one wanted to die. A Soviet Major was sent to the square in front of the main gate. He was accompanied by an interpreter, a young Captain. The Germans could have killed them in one burst, but they reacted to the white flag and threw a rope ladder from the outer wall, which the commandant of the fortress and his deputy descended. The conversation was short.
Soviet Major: “You have no chance. The capitulation has been signed, Berlin has fallen, no one needs victims. There are women and children in the fortress. If you surrender, your lives will be spared. There is no point in defending."
Germans: “We know nothing about surrender. We will pass on your conditions to the head of the garrison. Answer at 18:00.”
In the evening, the Germans replied: “The garrison will not surrender! The command does not believe in pardon, so we will fight.”
And suddenly the young Soviet Captain-translator unexpectedly took the initiative: "We must try to explain everything to them again." But for this it was necessary to climb the rope ladder and be in the fortress – and this is almost certainly certain death. As if to confirm this, the German commandant said: "We cannot guarantee your life." But the Captain was already rushing towards the wall like an arrow, and the Major had no choice but to follow him. A crowd of armed Germans, including SS men, gathered in the courtyard of the fortress. The Captain felt that the fate of the world was in his hands, and now, at this point, he could stop the war. He spoke to the Germans about peace, guaranteed the preservation of lives. At this time, the General who was standing in the group of the Nazis began to slowly deliver the parabellum. The air seemed to heat up from the impending tension. The Captain thought: "Is it really the end?" But the General, throwing his pistol on the pavement, headed for the exit. All the Germans followed him, throwing personal weapons to the ground…”
Twenty years later, the German screenwriter, director and writer Konrad Wolf made a film called "He was 19.” This episode was included there, witnessed in the last hours of the war by the author of the film, who was in the courtyard of the fortress among the German soldiers. All roles were played by German artists, and only a Soviet actor, Vasily Livanov, was invited to play the role of the Captain-translator. They also found a prototype of the hero, Vladimir Samoilovich Gall, who went to war from the third year of the Institute of Foreign Languages, Maurice Thorez. Gall, in fact, single-handedly took the fortress, and was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War for heroic courage.
By the way, the Soviet command fulfilled Gall's promise to save the Germans' lives. The civilians were released immediately, and the military personnel in the mid-50s after captivity. The fate of the SS men is not known. And the last thing: Vladimir Samoylovich had never been to Tashkent, but heroically risking his life, he fought on the fields of war.
What are your plans for the future?
I am 83 years old, and I would like the Almighty to reward me with the opportunity to dance at the wedding of my wonderful grandson.
