The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

Childhood Stories from her Father: Escaping Kyiv and Experiences in Siberia

Watch now:

Polina Markovna Shepherd, Yiddish performer, composer, and choir leader, describes her father's family's move from Kyiv to Siberia to escape the Nazis, and tells a story about her father eating his sister's slice of bread in Siberia.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Polina Markovna Shepherd.

This excerpt is in English.

Polina Markovna Shepherd was born in Tomsk, USSR.