Rakhil Shames was born in 1915 in Ivanopolis (Yanushpol) in 1915. Her father was a millworker. During the war she evacuated to the east and returned afterwards to Khmilnyk. She worked most of her life as a bookkeeper.
Toward Israel
Khmilnyk
Rakhil Shames remembers in this clip an active religious life with an operating synagogue during the aftermath of World War II. According to Rakhil, the majority of Jews left Khmilnyk for Israel later on. This exodus resulted in a drastic shrinkage of the community and therefore less of a possibility to conduct a traditional way of life.