VLADIMIR MAHLIS

Please, tell us about the origin of your family.

I was born with the name Vladimir, and in the official documents it was written that way. But my grandfather and my grandmothers called me Velvl. My family on my father's side were all Lubavitcher Chassidim. My father's father, Aron Makhlis, was from Odessa. He lived only until the age of fortyfive.
His profession was originally Jewish – he was a shoemaker. His wife, my grandmother, Leya Alterovna (maiden name Tenenbaum), was born on the border between Ukraine and Poland. She spoke Russian very poorly, because her native language was, of course, Yiddish. It was very difficult for me to communicate with her, since I only spoke Russian, and she only spoke Yiddish. If she even tried to say something in Russian, it came out very funny and incomprehensible. In 1949, my father, mother and my older sister lived in Moscow, and my grandmother lived in Kharkov. At that time, my father had a business trip to Kharkov and he took me with him. I was 5 years old. I remember that I went with him to the market, where everything was filled with black trousers, jackets and hats. That’s when I understood that they were Jews. When we came to my grandmother’s home, she sat me down for dinner and gave me my favorite chicken soup. Usually I ate everything with bread, but my grandmother didn’t give me bread this time – she probably forgot. I asked her to give me bread, but since I spoke Russian, my grandmother did not understand me. I told my father that I didn't see any bread, and he translated it into Yiddish for my grandmother. At that moment, my grandmother's eyes became square and she said a phrase that I did not understand then, but I remembered for the rest of my life: “Broit? Nisht kain broit!" My father translated for me: “Today there will be no bread.” Then I refused to eat. After that, they took me to a neighbor (it was a communal apartment) and transferred chicken soup there, and I ate my chicken soup with bread. For 15 years I asked my family members why my grandmother, who loved me so much, refused to give me a piece of bread. My family tried to avoid the question, and no one really explained anything to me. Later, when I was a studying aviation, among the thousand cadets there were only two Jews, including me. Of course, we quickly found each other and became friends. My friend came from a family of very religious Romanian Jews. He was the only one with whom I shared stories about my family. When I told him this story and added that to this day I can’t understand why my grandmother didn’t give me any bread, he immediately inquired: “What time of year did this happen?” And I remember very well the time of year of this story. I answered: "The end of March - the beginning of April." He thought for a couple of seconds and said: “Now everything is clear: it was Passover. That's why you didn't get any bread." After that, I decided to double-check the information received.
What Jewish literature was then available?
Books by Sholom Aleichem.
Not only. Fans of Jewish literature could read the works of Sholom Ash and Mendele Moyher Sforim translated into Russian from Yiddish. And then I learned that Jews cannot eat bread on Passover. Since then, during Passover, I have always avoided leavened food.
Have you encountered manifestations of anti-Semitism?
Often. From the second grade of elementary school up to and including the
fourth grade, I was constantly beaten by classmates on my way to and from
school. When I entered flight college, I failed the entrance exam in mathematics, although I was one of the best in this subject at school. Later I was told that this was done at the direction of the vice chairman of the selection committee. I appealed this decision, and was assigned a re-examination. This time I got an A. The re-examination was attended by the chairman of the selection committee, to whom I told that I was going to inform the newspapers about what had happened and that only anti-Semites were sitting in the selection committee. He asked me, “Do you know my name? Semyon Aronovich Levin. Not all anti-Semites are here.” So I entered the flight college and went to study in Kremenchug for three years. It was there that I met the second Jew of the school, who told me about Passover. Four months before graduation, I felt that I was tired of the constant manifestations of anti-Semitism (“You Jews did not fight, you fought for Tashkent”, etc.). I delivered a speech in the barracks: “The Jews fought at the front just like all the peoples of the USSR. Half of my family was destroyed by the Nazis. All the men of the family participated in the war, two of them died.” After my speech, one of the cadets reported me to the political officer. And after that I was called to the teachers' council and accused of all sins, including the fact that I listen to foreign radio voices. In addition, they found a well-hidden Hebrew textbook. As a result, I was expelled from the school, although later reinstated.


To be continued