Leon Bakst - Life under the Russians
Transcript: We didn't have it too bad under the Russians -- because they didn't kill us. But you know what they did? They took merchants. They want rich people -- that they call it. In Russian, they called them the "Bourgeoise" -- that means rich people. That means the Communists. They were Communist rule at that time in 1939 in Russia under Stalin, so when they came to us, they tried to liquidate the rich people. They claimed that they took advantage on the poor people. You know, they worked for them and they didn't get enough money paid, so they sent them all to Siberia.
To labor camps in Russia, in Siberia -- have you heard about Siberia? It's in the cold area of the country. Over there, it's a half a year or more is always winter. And not 20 -- could be 40 below zero there. That's where they send punishment in labor camps over there, so when they send those rich people over there, it was a tragedy at home between the Jewish people. How could they take families and send them to camps? It was like labor camps over there.
It was a tragedy, but you know what? It turned out they lived to survive because they were there. The German never occupied that part of Russia in World War II. So they survived. They had tough times, rough times, you know, but they survived -- Nobody killed them, you know. But there was a tragedy when they left.