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Emerich Grinbaum - January 8, 2001

Of the Ukraine, okay.

Right. Part of Ukraine. The Soviet Union. USSR.

You know, there's a history of the Ukrainians just published.It's the first history of the Ukrainians in English.

Uh, interesting. No, that was Ukraine, but you know the languagebilingual. There were schools Ukrainian schools and Russian schools, you know.So I went to Russian school but we, we learned the Ukraine also. I speak Ukrainianfluently as well as Russian.

But your friends you said were Hungarian.

Yes, most of the friends were Hungarians.

But they didn't identify as Hungarians any more, they couldn't.

They, they did.

They did. Not as Ukrainians.

No. They were Ukrainian. And they were some people they uh, mixedas Ukrainian, they were some. But they-those who, I have couple of good friendsand still I have connections with them. And I, I see, they moved to Hungary,some of them they move Hungary. I see them when I go to Hungary.

Now if it wasn't dangerous to be a Jew anymore, it would seemto me to be dangerous to be anti-Communist.

Uh, I tell you. No.

But anti-Communism is another story.

Yeah, but we didn't vocalize. We' didn't...[telephone rings]

[interruption in interview]

So tell me about COMSOMOL.

No. The COMSOMOL was you know, that, everybody. First of allwe studied all the Communist uh, in the high school and later on we spentfifty percent of our studies, especially in the medical school of differentCommunist uh, studies you know, Marxism, Leninism, history of the Communistparty, political economy, whatever, you know.

Do you remember what COMSOMOL stood for?

COMSOMOL um, ??? something, ??? Communist Youth Organization,something.

Yeah, okay.

Now, matter of fact, majority of the children they were, theyentered the COMSOMOL during the-in the high school. We were reluctant so weentered the first year in the medical school. But we had to and, and that,sooner or later, we knew that. I tell you, I graduated in '49 and at thattime was already uh, consensus that they took very few Jews to the highereducation, very few Jews. There was no open, but we knew that the Jews toget in, especially to medical school or uh, others-certain places were easier.But uh, for instance, music, musical school, musical uh, institutions wereeasier. Uh, mathematics was easier. Military, forget about that. Some peoplewanted some kind military or political or diplomatic. Practically closed.Medical was very difficult.

So you were still identified as a Jew, even though there wasno...

Sure, yeah. In Russia you know, uh, uh, on the contrary, forinstance, in Hungary they didn't say Jews in the, the passport. In Russiathat was the fourth question. Nationality. Not religion. Religion was...

Was dead.

Nationality. Your race. That's what everybody knew. Your race,that was written there. And there was-very few were taken. We were lucky,we were lucky. I know, if not that uh, we were not ha...didn't have too muchchance to get in.

Both you and your brother?

Yeah.

Both of you went into med school?

Yeah, both, both. A brother also, he was a year later. Thosewho graduated high school with this distinction, they uh, they got uh, accessto any higher institution in the Soviet Union. So I could go to Moscow. I,I graduated-I was thank God, thank God I graduated all, all distinction, goldmedal, you know. And I had, I could go to Moscow the best m...uh, medicalschool in Moscow-Leningrad. But at that time we were very much afraid to goto that far. Russia was like, like you know, far. Later on ??? but the firstyear there was the, only local. Fortunately they opened the, a, an universitynext to Munkacs in Ungvar-Uzhgorod. And that was a, not a good school, butbecause they're beginner you know, small school. But okay, we went there,so.

Do you think there was a sense among the three of you, thatum, you didn't want to be separated again?

Oh sure. We never, we never were separated. We didn't want togo far away. Ungvar was forty, forty kilo-forty-two kilometers and we couldcome every weekend almost to, to visit my father.