worked in Austria and
believe they meet the
qualifications should write
to:
Pensions-
versicherungsanstalt
Der Angestellten
Friedrich Hillegeist
Strasse One
A 1021, Vienna, Austria
Writers should ask to pur-
chase the verserungszeiten
(insurance time) necessary
to qualify for a pension and
attach documents showing
their qualifications for the
payments.
The
Workbench
inter Sale
Those qualified in-
dividuals who have worked
in Austria, should contact
the particular state owned
insurance company that
covers them. If the worker
doesn't know which com-
p any covers him, the
Austrian Embassy or a local
Austrian consul can be of
help.
The new legislation could
also allow people receiving
small pensions to increase
the amount of their checks
by purchasing more in-
surance time in the system,
Hoyos said. ❑
Ex-Communist Official
Isn't Your Typical Emigre
>
DAVID HOLZEL
p
Special to The Jewish News
Toter Krater is an
anomaly among
Soviet Jewish
emigres.
A card-carrying Commu-
nist Party member, Krater
rose to the upper reaches of
the Soviet system. Until his
retirement in 1986, Krater
was deputy secretary of de-
velopment and construction
in Tadzhikistan, a landlock-
ed Soviet Asian republic
bordered on the south by
Afghanistan and on the east
by China.
As a member of the Soviet
elite, Krater, now 71, was
pampered with his own
chauffeur-driven limousine
and groceries delivered to
his four-bedroom apartment
filled with, as he puts it, the
best furniture. "With one
phone call I could ac-
complish things that others
couldn't," he says matter-of-
factly.
Here is a man whose per-
sonal effects include 16
medals for his military ser-
vice in World War II and for
his later work as a civil en-
gineer, a man who holds a
congratulatory telegram
from Nikita Khrushchev
among his papers and docu-
ments.
And the wonder of
Krater's story is not that he
was stopped from reaching
the top because he was a
Jew, but that he got as far as
he did despite being a Jew.
So what's he doing living
— together with his wife,
Berta — in his son's Atlanta,
Ga., apartment? Ironically,
it was Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev's perestroika pol-
David Holzel is staff writer for
our sister paper, the Atlanta
Jewish Times
icies that led to Krater's
emigration.
Over coffee and the Rus-
sian cigarettes he's trying to
give up, Krater, who came to
Atlanta in mid-December,
recently discussed why he
abandoned the Soviet good
life.
"Even though life was
good for me, I couldn't use
my influence to help my
kids," he says in Russian
translated by his nephew,
Zvi Beckerman. "Gorbachev
came in with new laws that
officials couldn't help their
children anymore."
Krater's son and daughter
saw no future in the USSR
and wanted to leave. The
family wanted Pioter and
Berta to leave too. But
Krater knew that a high of-
ficial's request to emigrate is
tantamount to treason. And
there was another reason
Krater wanted to stay:
"I said, 'How can I leave
Russia after what it has
done for me?' I know every
stone in Russia."
But Krater's attachment
to his family proved stronger
than his love of the land or
his gratitude to the Soviet
Union for bringing him into
the Communist aristocracy.
"I said, `Dima [his son], if
you can get us out, do
anything you want. But
don't involve me."'
Dima got the family out
through bribery. The family
estimates he spent $6,000 to
buy their way out of the
Soviet Union.
They spent 10 days in
Vienna in August before
moving on to Ladispoli, Ita-
ly.
Dima and his wife Ann left
Ladispoli in November, to be
reunited with Beckerman in
Atlanta. Krater's daughter
Alla and son-in-law Mark
remained with the Kraters
Don't get left out in the cold.
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up to some incredible buys.
Bedroom furniture. Dining tables
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(313)352-1530
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(313) 540-3577
ANN ARBOR
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(313)668-4688
OPEN SUNDAYS.
CHECK YOUR LOCAL STORE FOR HOURS.
Ronald D. Kerwin, M.D., P.C.
is pleased to announce the relocation
of his
Dermatology Practice
to the
Atrium Medical Building
6330 Orchard Lake Road
(North of Maple Road)
West Bloomfield, Michigan 48322
(313) 855-3366
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
35