Thread by @just_whatever

My #JewishPrivilege... oh, where do I begin? It’s a history of a Pale of Settlement privilege.

1) Members of my family (some will never get their names back) were killed in pogrom in Malin in April 1919. All my grandpa remembers is that his great-grandparents were killed in it.

Who else? He doesn’t know. His parents remember, but we will get to their privilege later. My grandma vaguely remembered her relatives were killed in another pogrom in Proskurov in 1919. But who, how, when, and where they were buried? We don’t know already.

2) Another chapter of privilege was famine in USSR known as Holodomor. My grandfather had 2 younger brothers. His first brother named Jan (but family called hin Janek) died of malnutrition in 1933. Grandpa and his other brother managed to survive, eating anything they could find.

3) Next one: some of my relatives had small businesses before the revolution. In 1936 and 1937 they disappeared after being summoned by NKVD (secret police) for questioning. Family was told they got 10 years without the right of correspondence. Executed.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Without_t…

4) Great period of privilege was between 1941-1945. My grandma’s dad, grandpa’s parents and grandparents and his aunt with all 5 children, entire family of grandma’s uncle (uncle was in Red Army and survived) were “privileged”. 24 people that we know of and listed in Yad va-Shem.

5) Expulsion to Far East of Russia (where yours truly was later born) in late 40s by Joseph Stalin (grandma’s family). Living in harsh conditions among swamps with mosquitoes and gnus, severe winters and harsh summers. Grandpa’s younger brother was sent to orphanage.

6) This brother as a teenager stole some food, was sent to Magadan to one of the camps, and spent a decade and a half there (firstly in a camp and then just stayed to work) before returning to Birobidzhan and seeing my grandfather. He lost all his teeth and got numerous illnesses

7) Grandpa in 1943 was recruited and served in the Red Army until 1950 (7 years). He never talks about his service and war with Germany and later with Japan, but said once he hopes nothing like that will ever happen again. He went back to see his shtetl - no one was left there.

6) Another favorite - in 1950s & 1960s my family had to disavow relatives who emigrated to USA and Mandate Palestine (from 1948 Israel), because they were Zionists/capitalists and my grandparents were getting letters from them. Grandpa burned them. Connection was lost for decades

7) Also stories of privilege from my father and my mother. My favorite story is when my father went to VGIK, applied to Director’s faculty back in 1974 and when he passed all the exams... he was told by head of the commission that quota for Jews is full. Go back to “Vladivostok”.

8) We got to my privilege finally. Famine in the end of USSR and early Russia? Checked. Thanks to that I had eye problems and stunted growth in my teenage. E.g. I had my first hamburger in 1993 when my father brought it to me from his first trip from abroad - to San Fransciso.

9) [here you can put many stories of fellow kids who joked about you being Jewish, asked if you have horns, telling me Jews are bad because you control everything and etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.]. Also, plenty of bullying from fellow kids & issues about my nose (still get them, btw)

10) I’m omitting a lot of stuff, like running into actual Nazis in Moscow and pretending I’m not Jewish for obvious reasons, or an antisemite from AirFrance who back in 2015 had shared his opinion on “feuj” and put a sticker on my boarding pass so I had to go through body checks.

I mean by now you can probably understand how lovely and privileged Jewish lives were. And yet, in spite of it, I’m here, and I am a proud Jew. And it’s a privilege to be one and to honor all my ancestors who went through hell and a bit more in order to make my life happen.