Evgeniia Kozak was born in 1926 in Bershad. She attended a Ukrainian school for eight years. Her parents, who were cousins, were both born in Bershad. Her father was a furrier. She had a younger brother and sister. She survived the war in evacuation in Bezopasnik, Orlovsky Region in the Caucasus and then in Andizhanskaia in the Stalinska region in Central Asia. When she returned to Bershad after the war, in April 1944, her mother worked as a baker. She married in 1958 and has two sons. Her husband died before her second son was born, when her first son was just one and a half years old.
Other Interviews:
Stuffed Neck with Chicken FatA Pair of Shoes
Food on Sabbath
Evgeniia's Gefilte Fish
Postwar Charity
Bershad, Ukraine
For the survivors of the war, the first few years after liberation were very difficult, but charity was an important means of sustaining the community and providing for the sustenance of its members. In this clip, Evgeniia Kozak recalls that when her family returned to Bershad from evacuation poor and hungry, they were offered charity from the synagogue. The rest of the community was poor as well, though, and she recalls that her family refused the help.