Margolia Schneerson Remembers

English translation of the notes by Margolia Schneerson, a second cousin of Ramash, daughter of Levik Schneerson and a nephew of Mendel Repker.

The photos, via archival work of Boruch Gorin (can’t link to him because he blocked me). Translation from Russian via mentalblog foundation and in memory of artist Anton Rozenberg.

Prison Photo. Mendel Schneerson AKA Rebbe Repker (a Rov in Repka and later in Chernigov or Chernihiv in Ukrainian). Born in 1864 in Lubavitch. Father of Zalman Schneerson from Paris. Uncle of Levik Schneerson (photo below). Alter zeider of MM Schneerson from Crown Heights. RAMASH's grandfather was his brother. They were both sons of Levi Yitzhak, who was son of Boruch Sholom, the oldest son of Tzemach Tzedek. Margolia Schneerson calls him "дядя Фетер" or “uncle Feter”. This branch of Schneerson family seemingly moved south to Ukraine from Belarus.

Repka or Ripky between Podobryanka an Chernigov

Prison Photo. Levik Schneerson father of Margolia Schneerson and nephew of Mendel Schneerson Der Repker. Born in 1889 in Podobryanka. He ended up in the same place in Kazakhstan as Ramash’s father and his cousin and he died there. Two Leviks S. in the same forsaken hole called Cheeli…

Podobryanka where Margolia’s father Levik was born.

Margolia Schneerson Remembers:

Text in Russian- Live Journal.

On the night of March 8, 1939, at 12:35 am there was a knock on the door of our room. We opened it. With the words: "Weapons on the Table!" - several people came in. We had no weapons. I remember a long table on which books were stacked during the search, many books. They searched for a long time. They carefully sorted through each book, shook things up, reviewed my brother's [Abram’s] sports equipment, my correspondence with the newspaper Pionerskaya Pravda. It is strange that they didn’t pay attention to the already banned book of the repressed M. Koltsov "Spanish Diary". Officers left and took my father with them. In the morning we learned that Father's uncle Mendel Schneerson, whom we called "Uncle Feter", had been arrested that night. Mendel Schneerson was a well-known rabbi in Chernihiv: "Rebbe der Repker", - a rabbi from Repka.

In the morning, Mom went to the NKVD. She was informed: "Your husband [Levik S.] is a spy." Chernihiv is a small city, news spreads quickly. We became "members of the family of the “enemy of the people". I was not accepted into the Komsomol for a long time, although this procedure was carried out as standard: the whole class was accepted at once. My brother Abram graduated from school that ill-fated year. He was not accepted either to the military school or to the Faculty of Journalism. That year there was Marshal Voroshilov draft. Abram shaved his head, hoping that this would help him get into military service. He had an entry in his military ticket: "fit for all branches of the armed forces," he was an excellent athlete, but he was not honored to serve in the army. At the beginning of the war, having refused the exemption [to the army service], Abram signed up as a volunteer, was sent to a reconnaissance school and then disappeared forever.

My father was sent to Kazakhstan - Kyzyl-Orda region, Cheeli station. He was given a five-year sentence. At the beginning of the war, on September 22, we came to my father. Cheeli greeted us with a solar eclipse. But we no longer believed in bad omens. We escaped from Chernihiv under the bombing on August 22, saw death, learned not to be afraid of explosions. The main thing is that we now were next to Dad! He lost many teeth, was thin, blackened from the Asian sun. He worked first as a pharmacist, and with the appearance of evacuees in the village - as a watchman in the Industrial plant. He lived in a clay house. He didn't talk much about prison. He refused to give the name of the informer, he knew who had informed. And I will not now, after so many years, call the name of the traitor. I don't want his grandchildren to find out.

The small village of Cheeli was inhabited in those years by Kazakhs, Koreans and repressed people of different nationalities. There were members of the Comintern, families of "enemies of the people" who received "ten years without the right of correspondence." The exiles had no right to leave the village. They had to regularly report to the police. The exiles lived amicably. I really liked the people. We learned from my father that on the way to exile (to Kharkov), our uncle Feter, Rabbi Mendel Schneerson, died.

In Cheeli, we met my father's cousin and his wife, the Dnepropetrovsk Rabbi Levik Schneerson, who were exiled there. Evacuated and exiled Jews gathered for the meeting of the Sabbath, prayed. I don't know if there was a minyan. Our father died on March 12, 1943, not having lived to see the end of the exile by one year. His cousin Levik was released from Cheeli. He managed to move to Alma-Ata and died three months later. Hasidim still come to his grave to pay tribute to the memory of the father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson. After my father's death, my mother and I left Cheeli.

I graduated from the Mechanical Faculty of the Leningrad Institute of Technology, lived in Chelyabinsk for many years. I retained the reputation of being the "daughter of the enemy of the people."

In 1961. I turned to the chief prosecutor of the USSR Rudenko (he, by the way, is a native of Chernigov) with a request for the rehabilitation of my father. The answer came from the Prosecutor's office of the Chernihiv region: "L.A. Schneerson was engaged in anti-state activities under the guise of conducting religious rites. There are no grounds for rehabilitation with the materials of the investigation and additional verification."

On November 17, 1989, I again applied to the Prosecutor's office of the Chernihiv region and received a certificate of rehabilitation. I asked for permission to get acquainted with the case. The KGB officer said that they don't like to show cases to relatives so as not to upset. Finally, two volumes of the case were brought out to me, but they did not give it into my hands. I read the names of the informers that day, found out that the case was a group one - four were convicted.

In 1994, I applied again, already to the SBU. For two days, from morning to evening, I read my dad's file: denunciations, interrogations, confrontations, witness statements.

Case #108076 under Articles 54-10, Part 2 and 54-11 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR. Names of the accused:

• Gavril Shlemovich Kogan, born in 1879, a native of the town of Antolat (Poland), a Jew, not a member of the party, shames of the synagogue, lived before his arrest at the address: Chernihiv, Shevchenko str., 74-a

• Levik Abramovich Schneerson, born in 1889, a native of the town of Poddabryanka (Belarus), a Jew, not a member of the party, who worked as a poultry slaughterer [убойщиком птицы] before his arrest, lived at the address: Chernihiv, Shilman str., 11

• Mendel Levikovich Schneerson, born in 1864, a native of the town of Lyubavichi, Mogilev province, a Jew, [иждивенец - don’t know how translate this word, no such thing or even concept in English] who lived at the address: Chernihiv, Chekhov str., 7

• Samuel Borokhovich Shulman, born in 1877, a native of Sednev of Chernihiv district, a Jew, not a member of the party, who worked as a poultry slaughterer, who lived before his arrest at the address: Chernihiv, Uritsky str., 11.

My grandfather (on his father's side) was the son of a rabbi, "Hereditary Honorary Citizen" of Russia ("потомственный почетный гражданин"), he died early. My father was brought up in a heder, worked as a billet, a melamed, studied in a yeshiva in Nevel, received a specialty shoikhet (resnik), worked in Soviet institutions.

A historical reference was placed in the Case: "In the 18th century in the Russian Empire, a religious Hasidic movement arose in the town of Lyubavichi. The whole point is in strict observance of the Torah. The initiator of the movement, Rebbe Schneerson, was arrested in 1798, imprisoned as a Turkish spy (on false denunciation) [a mix-up here between Turkish and French?], placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress, sentenced to death. The Tzar in the costume of an officer came to him, but he paid him honors [even KGB is not impervious to Chabad legends...]. Then Schneerson distinguished himself in the Patriotic War of 1812, Alexander I granted all descendants of Schneerson this hereditary title: “Honorary citizen of Russia”. It was before the October Revolution." [I would note that connection to the Tzar, for people who wrote this into the case, is not a plus but a big minus].

The person who denounced my father often visited our house, came with sympathy after my father's death. Visiting the Jewish cemetery, I pass by his monument with the inscription: "Дорогому отцу, деду от детей и внуков - To dear father, grandfather from children and grandchildren."

The arrested were accused of creating a religious anti-Soviet Jewish organization, because they had a connection with Joseph Schneerson from Warsaw [Rayatz], Zalman Schneerson (a cousin of my Mendel Schneerson) from Paris [I think she really means Zalman Schneerson, son of my Mendel Schneerson?], and a former Chernigov Rabbi Leib Daniyah from Palestine, who send significant sums for the “subversive activities” in the USSR.

During the search at Mendel Schneerson home they seized $13 and a savings bank book for Two Thousand Rubles. They searched by Samuel [Shulman] and Gavril Kogan but found nothing...

They were accused of creating an underground charitable society and a religious Jewish school, calling for observance of traditions and religious rites, organizing matzo baking, Schneerson’s and Shulman's unwillingness to work on Saturdays, opposing the assimilation of the people, having ties with emigrants, giving them espionage information about the political and economic situation in the USSR, and calling for emigration to Palestine. Investigators Zotov and Vorobyov "worked" with the arrested. Interrogations were conducted at night. But they did not achieve confessions, there were clearly not enough materials for the trial. Senior investigator Zotov and the prosecutor for special departments Kosman referred the case to a Special Meeting of the NKVD of the U [Ukrainina] SSR. By the decision of the CCA of 17.11.39, without reference to the norm of the criminal law, all four were deported to Kazakhstan for a period of 5 years.

My father died in exile. His brother - on the way to exile. S. Shulman, having served his exile, applied for the removal of his criminal record and was refused. G. Kogan, who suffered from thrombosis of the lower extremities, was released from custody on September 19, 1940 to home arrest under the supervision of the NKVD. In 1947, Kogan and his family managed to escape to Israel. I don't know anything more about them.

Mendel Schneerson's son Boris was a deputy director of the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant before the war, his daughter Gesya is a doctor in Dnepropetrovsk, his daughters Frida and Judith are alive; his grandson (Zalman's son) and two great-grandchildren live in the USA. Everyone who was part the case #108076, were rehabilitated posthumously. Over the past ten years, everything that my father and his friends dreamed of has appeared in Chernihiv. The Jewish community operates legally, a newspaper is published, a Sunday school is open, there is a women's club and youth organizations. Envoys of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem-Mendel Schneerson (my second cousin) openly come to Chernihiv.

- Margolia Schneerson.

This 1961 document by KGB in Chernigov in response to petition by Margolia to rehabilitate her father (that was denied till 1989). Provides very accurate details of Rayatz’s biography. Maybe will get around to translating this as well.