name (for instance, the person’s name is Müller or Papandopoulo but he calls himself a Russian, Belorussian, etc.), and if the real nationality of the person in question cannot be determined at the time of registration, the “nationality” line is not to be filled in until the applicant produces written proof. 110 Germans, Poles, and Greeks were subject to “mass operations”; Jews and Russians were not, but the procedure was the same for everyone. When the Nazis came, most Soviets had no trouble understanding their language. When the Nazis came, most of Hodl’s children knew that they were, in some sense, Jews. They may never have been to a synagogue, seen a menorah, heard Yiddish or Hebrew, tasted gefilte fish, or indeed met their grandparents. But they knew they were Jews in the Soviet sense, which was also—in essence—the Nazi sense. They were Jews by blood. When the Nazis came, they began killing Jews according to their blood. Inna Gaister’s Grandma Gita was killed soon after she returned home, and so was Mikhail Agursky’s grandmother and also his great-aunt, and so was my grandmother’s only brother who did not emigrate from the Pale, and so was Tsaytl, Tevye’s daughter, who stayed in their native Kasrilevka, and so were most of her children, grandchildren, friends, and neighbors. Killed were the old artisans and experienced craftsmen [wrote Vassily Grossman on reentering Ukraine in the fall of 1943]: tailors, hatters, cobblers, tinsmiths, jewelers, painters, furriers, and bookbinders; killed were the workers: porters, mechanics, electricians, carpenters, stonemasons, and plumbers; killed were the wagoners, tractor operators, truck drivers, and cabinetmakers; killed were the water carriers, millers, bakers, and cooks; killed were the doctors: physicians, dentists, surgeons, and gynecologists; killed were the scientists: bacteriologists, biochemists, and directors of university clinics, killed were the history, algebra, and trigonometry teachers; killed were the lecturers, assistant professors, masters and Ph.D.’s; killed were the civil engineers, architects, and engine designers; killed were the accountants, bookkeepers, salesmen, supply agents, secretaries, and night guards; killed were the grade school teachers and seamstresses; killed were the grandmothers who knew how to knit socks, bake tasty cookies, cook chicken soup, and make apple strudels