Determined to profit from the searches of the previous day, we arrived at the archives (where the SBU told us my grandfather’s case files could be found) 1/2 hour before they opened. It took a while and some explaining, but we were finally given access to my grandfather’s files, bound in books. All three volumes of them. Since you can’t bring the files out of the archives, they allow you to take photos of some of the documents, except the ones called “protocol” – which were the hand-written (and often re-typed) interrogation questions and answers (confessions). The reason you can’t take photos of protocol files was to protect those who named names from retaliation by those who were named. I must’ve photographed a hundred pages of documents on my grandfather’s arrest, re-arrest and eventual release and rehabilitation. There was even a letter hand-written and signed by my grandmother.
From there, we met with Idan (the head of The Jewish Agency for Israel in Ukraine) who brought us to the historic Brodsky Synagogue – built in 1882 – and introduced us to the head rabbi there. The rabbi had his own interesting story — growing up in Leningrad and attending an underground yeshiva at the rist of being arrested. It’s a good thing the Soviets wanted to show the world their religious tolerance so they kept one “show” synagogue in each large city. I asked him about the history of the synagogue, the Jewish people in the region and about the quote from rabbi Mazeh to Trotsky.
Last but not least, we finally tracked down and I met my grandfather’s first wife’s nephew and his wife. They filled in some more pieces of the puzzle of my grandfather’s life. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the information conflicts with information from other sources.
Stopping for some dinner, we were off to the central railroad station where we boarded the overnight train to Moscow.
Next stop — Russia.