Isaac (Aizik) Vaisbein was born in the town of Sarata (Bessarabia) in 1924. As he would recall, the town was multiethnic, its population composed of Jews, Moldavians, Ukrainians, and Germans. The German community was the wealthiest of all, owning several factories and a mill. Veisbein's neighbors were mostly peasants who worked the land. Aizik's parents were observant Jews, and they visited the synagogue on holidays. His father Mendel worked as a construction technician, and was involved in the construction of the Kishinev railway from 1914 to 1916. Apart from his professional work, he also worked at a manufacturing shop and owned a wood stock. Aizik had two older sisters. As there was no Jewish school in Sarata, he initially attended a German school, switching to a Romanian one after the first year. When Aizik was thirteen, his father invited a rabbi to prepare him for his Bar Mitzvah. He finished seven years of school in 1937.
As soon as they heard about the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in June 1941, the family decided to evacuate, since rumors of the brutal mistreatment of the Jews by the Nazis had already reached them. Aizik's father tried to persuade his brother, who had a big family in Sarata, to join them, but the latter refused. This entire branch of the family would be annihilated by the Nazis. Aizik's family was evacuated first to Odessa, then to the Crimea, and finally settled in Kazakhstan. In 1942, Aizik was drafted into the Red Army. He completed military courses in Khabarovsk, and was sent to the Leningrad Front six months later. There, he served in the navy, on a minesweeper in the Baltic Sea. The vessel's primary mission was mine detection and disposal. Eventually, his trawler was destroyed by a mine. Aizik survived, and managed to save an injured fellow sailor, but the vessel was destroyed, and most of the crew perished. Aizik was then transferred to a different trawler.
In 1945, Vaisbein's ship docked in Narva, and then in Tallinn. They were preparing to land troops in the Baltic region, but, by that time, the war was over. Aizik went on to serve in the Red Army (now renamed the Soviet Army) for another five years. He would recall witnessing certain manifestations of antisemitism on the part of his fellow soldiers. In response, he invariably tried to prove his willingness to undertake dangerous and important tasks, to avoid being accused of cowardice.
After being discharged, Vaisbein was reunited with his parents. He completed two years of secondary school and decided to pursue an academic education. He attended the Mathematical Department of Kishinev University, and eventually married a fellow student. Their first son was born shortly thereafter. After their graduation, the couple found jobs as secondary school teachers in a small Moldavian town, and they worked there for three years. After the birth of their second son, they moved to the city of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, to be closer to Vaisbein's parents. Initially, they had to live in very cramped conditions, all sharing a single room. Later, they were able to move into a new apartment.
In 1967, after the Six-Day War, the idea of immigrating to Israel first crossed their minds. At that time, they experienced strong antisemitism. The wife of a local Party leader even told Vaisbein, "Too few of you (Jews) have been killed! You should have been finished off!" This experience marked the point at which he no longer felt entirely at home in his native country. In 1973, the Vaisbein family received permission to leave, and moved to Israel.
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Vaisbein’s intervew
In an interview given to Yad Vashem in the 1990s, Aizik Vaisbein recalled how dangerous his military work had been:
After the trawler had dragged the mines ashore, they had to be detonated, to eliminate the danger they posed. When the commander asked for volunteers to carry out this assignment, I, as a Jew, would always be the first to step forward, to disprove the allegations that the Jews were cowards. In a rowboat, the two of us would cautiously approach the shore, use our bare hands to throw the TNT and the detonation cord onto the mines, set fire to the cord, and row back to the ship. As soon as we reached it, the mines would explode. I detonated at least thirty mines. It was very dangerous work.
From: Yad Vashem Archives, 0.3
