I see Stalin standing in front 
of me, he looks at me
as if to say:
"go ahead, take a photo"
I pressed and got this photo
which has been published in all the press.
People are still holding it up today
in communist demonstrations.
This is the famous picture from May 2, 1945.
Which is still published
all over the world.
Of course I'm proud of this photo.
All the leaders of the country 
passed in front of my lens
But the most complicated, 
the most impressive
to photograph was Stalin.
Stalin was like a god
to the people, we perceived it like that. 
When he appeared
in front of us, the photographers, 
we would tremble.
I photographed all the other leaders too.
After Stalin, it was Krushchev, Brezhnev,
Andropov,
Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev and finally Yeltsin.
I don't know who the next leader will be...
or if I will even still be here 
to take his photo.
OCTOBER 1917
I am 80 years old.
I was born on March 10, 1917 in the Donbass,
in a mining town: Jouzovka.
The year 1917 was quite eventful.
It was the revolution in Petrograd
and in Moscow, but there, in Ukraine, 
there were still Jewish pogroms.
And my family were victims.
On March 13 1918, I was just a year old,
the Black Hundreds broke down the door.
they started shooting and stabbing...
they killed my mother, my grandfather, 
and two friends of my mother
who had come to have tea. 
They even killed our maid...
A tragedy.
My mother held me in her arms.
A bullet went through and came out
and was lodged here in my chest.
We extracted it from below a rib, 
I still have the scar.
This is how my childhood started.
I keep this for memory, 
it's my parents.
here is my father after his remarriage, 
a sister...
...another sister 
...yet another sister. Their fate ...?
They died during the last war.
We threw them alive down a mine shaft
when the Nazis occupied Donetsk.
It's painful to bring up 
those memories, you know.
A short break?
My grandmother, my babushka, 
always asked me to play
"The tears of Israel" on the violin. 
An air from the Jewish repertoire.
Then she would give me 5 kopecks 
to buy ice cream.
I still remember this melody.
UKRAINE 1930
In the 1930s there was a famine in Ukraine.
I had to go to work in the factory.
I was just a 13 year old kid.
I worked in a locomotive depot.
I was cleaning the soot.
I received the same ration as the other workers ..
800 grams of bread per day.
such was my childhood.
I was also growing more and more exited 
by magazines of that time,
like "Ogonjok". I liked very much, when there was
an event in the world ..
In America, Moscow, or Berlin
they let a photographer be there to capture it.
Like me at Jouzovka, even after all these years 
I can still enjoy this work.
all this stimulated me, you see ..
Its what got me started.
And I fell in love with photography.
At the time, a camera was an inaccessible object.
It was not like today, where we find plenty of equipment.
I had to build my own device
out of a cardboard box
and one side of my grandmother's glasses as a lens.
I managed to photograph my first objects.
Here it is, it's interesting.
I was developing under my bed 
on my stomach, under a blanket.
I lit a candle a in a small red lantern.
I folded the cover and, there it was, it had developed.
the passion was so strong 
that by photographing this church
for the first time and seeing
the photo, I felt pretty
amazed at noting that this church, 
located 2 km from here,
was now right here on my plate... 
There it is.
But there was a new revolution
The monuments were demolished
Jouzovka cathedral was a beautiful church,
and look what has become of it.
We blew it up.
I perfected my craft and I started getting published in various journals.
When I was 36 years old 
I was hired by the Tass agency in Moscow
The radio speakers are spread out on
the rooftops.
People gathered to listen..
That was the photo service of the Tass agency ...
MOSCOW 
JUNE 22, 1941
It is with this photo that the war began.
That is why it too made history.
Its title: "The first day of the war."
We see the street, Moscow, the Kremlin, 
the emotional faces of people,
I took this picture.
Addressing the people, 
Stalin spoke:
With frankness and sincerity, 
he declared that this war was
a matter of life and death 
for the Soviet state.
"comrades, citizens, brothers and 
sisters, soldiers and sailors,
It is to you that I am speaking !
My friends, a deceitful armed 
aggression by Hitlerian Germany
against our homeland began 
on June 22 and continues.
Despite the heroic resistance 
of the Red Army, a mortal danger
threatens our homeland. "
This photo also has its history.
It's a reconnaissance
detachment, heading to Murmansk, on the right flank
of the patriotic battle.
These scouts patrol at night.
There are seven here. By dawn there were only 
four left, the other three
are dead. All that remains of them
is this photo.
We had bombers...
They put me in the hold,
they tied me in place of the bomb,
and closed the hatch
and we took off.
Somewhere in Bulgaria,
we land on a runway
covered in mud .. and when the plane
landed - I was in the hold -
Wham! - I was riddled with rubble, 
with such strong splashes of mud
that my cheeks were lacerated.
The Germans began to bomb Murmansk.
On that day, they dropped 
350,000 incendiary bombs.
The city, built of wood, 
was completely burned.
Just imagine, 
there were only chimneys.
They were the only thing 
that remained standing in Murmansk.
And then suddenly,I saw this woman 
walking with a wooden suitcase.
I was there with my camera.
I take the photo. She stops and says to me:
"Aren't you ashamed 
to photograph our woes?"
Embarrassed by the question, I answer:
"grandmother, what else can I do?"
"I would rather you photograph 
our aviators bombing Berlin!"
A woman so simple,
who suggested such an idea to me!
I made her a promise:
"Grandma, if I get to Berlin, 
I will do what you asked me,
I promise you."
And I was lucky. When I got to Berlin,
I saw a little old woman walking through the ruins..
and I remembered my promise.
These two old men were seated.
A blind man with his armband,
and the other, his guide... 
they looked so sad.
I approached them and took this photo.
The guide smiled at me and  the 
blind man asked him: "What's going on?"
"We are photographed."
"what for ?"
"I don't know, ask him" 
He calls out to me:
'Why the picture?" I answer: "For history"
And he said to me: "And war is for what, 
we have nothing left,
no family, no house, no wife, 
no children.."
I then ask him: 
"Where are you going? Where are you from?"
He replies: "We don't even know ourselves,
neither where we came from, nor where we are going."
It was January in Budapest.
We freed up a few neighborhoods.
And one was the old Budapest Ghetto.
I saw atrocities there, the synagogue full of corpses,
all with their stars, huddled together,
where they had been left.
This photo... I saw a man 
walking with his wife,
They both wore the star of david. 
I understood right away
that they were husband and wife. 
The city was already liberated.
but they were still wearing the star. 
I approach them, but I
was wearing a black leather coat 
and they looked terrified..
they  took me for an SS man!
I approach and I say to them:
"Machen zie," in short, rough Yiddish, I say "Wait..."
I approached them.
I snatched the star from the man then 
from the woman, they were afraid,
I tell them: "No, no, I'm Jewish 
and soft too ...Shalom Aleichem"
As soon as I said "Shalom Aleichem" 
the woman burst into tears
and threw herself into my arms:
"Oh, we were terrified, terrified" 
Plus she said: "It was unbearable
to wear it all the time, 
this brand, this star of David. "
This photo, you know, has been 
denied everywhere for 50 years.
No exhibition in Russia 
has accepted it. I sought
to present it. No ! Finally, 
when we celebrated 50 years
of the victory, it was published 
abroad, but not with us.
Even now. We don't want to 
publish it. But alas, it's like that.
Now I'm going to tell you about this famous photo
that symbolizes the end of the war 
and which has toured the world.
Apparently, to do it, 
I just needed a flag...
Returning to Moscow,  boasting 
of Vienna, my boss tells me:
"Return to Berlin immediately"
I head straight for the Tass Agency 
depot. The steward
there was my friend, Gricha Lioubinsky,
a nice little jew. I tell him:
"Gricha, didn't you have red tablecloths somewhere?""
- "Yes, why?"
- "Usually you put out a red tablecloth 
when there were
Party or Union meetings."
"Come and see."
I took a look and saw all these red fabrics ..
I said:  "Gricha, you lend them to me for 
a moment."
"Why ?"
"I'll give them back to you in two days."
I ship everything, I go home, I call my tailor
Israel Solomonovich, and I say to him:
"Israel, tomorrow morning I leave
for Berlin. You have to sew flags."
So we measured and cut three flags.
The hammer and sickle are also 
made of fabric, not just painted in white.
I drew them and cut them out. 
We sewed all night ...
I followed the troops, I discovered 
the vestiges of an unknown city,
in ashes, the ruins still smoking. 
The fires, the soldiers,
tanks, cannons... 
How do I find my way around?
I ask the soldiers where they are going. 
- "To the Reichstag, to the
Brandenburg Gate," they answer me - 
The main places of the city.
Troops flocked from all fronts,
from all of the armies, of the 5th 
Shock Army, the 8th Guards.
Everyone was walking towards the center, toward
the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag.
I burst into the Reichstag 
when it was still dark,
early in the morning at 7am on May 2nd. 
There was smoke and soot everywhere.
I take out the flag,
the last one I have left.
Three soldiers approach me: 
"Lieutenant, we're going to the roof."
I ask him: 
"Do you know the way?"
- "Yes. Let's go." 
And us four, we crawl and climb
on crushed stones, pebbles.
in short, we arrive at the top,
the dome of the Reichstag.
But under the dome there is a fire.
Impossible to climb it... 
"Where are we going to go?" I ask.
We find a stick for the flagpole, 
we put the flag on and I put myself up
to look for the right framing.
I have a whole sequence of photos. 
The soldier stands there, I say:
"No, we can't see Berlin. 
Can you climb higher?"
- "If the other holds my legs, okay, 
otherwise I risk falling"
"Go ahead. Do you have it?"
"I have it."
He climbed up there
and immediately I saw the composition.
"This is it! I'll do it from here!"
The other one is holding him by the legs
and I machine-gun them with the camera..
I emptied a whole roll to make this photo.
This photo has a story, of course.
The same night, I flew back to Moscow. The editor
of the Tass agency, Palgunov, 
was supposed to sign it.
I walk into the office, 
he shows me the photo in a small size
and asks: 
"What is this?"
- "The flag... On the Reichstag..."
- "Didn't you see the soldier 
is wearing a watch on each wrist,
one on the left, one on the right?"
"No, I only saw the flag 
on the Reichstag, over Berlin..."
"No, no way, this is a looter...
A true Soviet soldier does not loot.
You fix it quick, take it off the negative."
- "Alright, you want it erased, I'll erase it..."
I had to give in.
In the office, I took a pin and 
scratched the watch off of the right wrist.
Isn't that something!
The picture went around the world.
As they say, America is rich 
and so are its newspapers.
A girl called me on the telephone: 
"Are you there?
I'm here with an envelope from Time "
200 dollars for this little piece of shit...
Photo ! Pardon my french!
That's not translatable into French is it?
Excuse me, it escaped me ..
I will lend you my scissors to cut that part out.
Ah, here it is, this comes from Time. 
So you don't think I'm lying.
I'm spending this on sausages.
We'll spend it all on sausages,
and then, sometimes, it's for sausages.
It was like that on Red Square. 
She was not tall enough
to welcome everyone, our beloved Red Square..
On a gray morning on June 24, 1945,
the Victory Parade took place.
Here was the orchestra. 800 people!
They started playing 
"May God be praised...",
The march of Glinka, the composer.
The gate opened and Zhukov appeared.
I was thrilled. At the front, during the war
I had never been afraid, I never 
trembled. And suddenly...
Zhukov on his white horse. THE Zhukov!
And here there were soldiers.
I photographed them one time, then they went around
along the GUM [Department Store].
I ran another ten meters and near this grid here
I took this photo, which has gone down in history.
Zhukov himself appreciated it very much.
It's appeal is that none of the hooves touch the ground.
I took the photo. Then I felt 
paralyzed, the camera hung
around my neck, I couldn't move my little finger...
- Do not film.
- Ah? What? What's the matter?
- You shouldn't be filming.
- What? It's me, it's me who's being filmed
"Do they have authorization?"
- Here is your authorization. It was me
 who took these pictures here 50 years ago!
- Authorization, please.
- Where is she?
- He's a hero...
Wait, they're filming me with my 
photos that I took here
50 years ago, you understand? 
 here are the troops, here is Zhukov,
it was called 'The Victory Parade' and now
it's my turn to be filmed.
What was all that about...
This is still OUR place...
We knew there was going to be 
a big conference in Berlin,
we did not know exactly where, 
in Potsdam or elsewhere.
Suddenly a car stops, a commander gets out and says:
"Hey! the correspondents, is there a 
certain Khaldei among you?"
"A telegram for you." 
- "Where from?"
- "From Moscow, from the Tass agency: you are accredited to the Conference
in Potsdam as a photographer
Please contact the staff
of Marshal Zhukov. "
They all rush towards me and then ask the commander:
- "Why Khaldei ?,
I represent Pravda !
And I represent the Red Star !
And why not me? .. "
- "I don't know, they gave it to the staff of Marshal Zhukov,
It is an official telegram. I have to pass it on to him. "
Before Mr Churchill departed the Conference,  
the three heads of state
provide an opportunity for the photographers 
and a cameraman to film them
on the Palace terrace.
We only had 3 minutes to shoot.
I climb on a chair, Stalin arrives 
and puts away his papers
lowering his head, he looks at what's on the table
Two minutes pass, I only have 
one minute left. What to do ?
Suddenly Molotov asked Stalin a question.  
Stalin raises his head
and gives him a look ... Clack! - it's in the box !
The photo is done. 
See for yourself. Stalin .. a win !
I was then appointed as Soviet representative
to cover the Nuremberg trials. The great trial of Nazi
war criminals accused of crimes against humanity.
Gentlemen of the court.
October 1, 1946.
Goering was the criminal Number 1 
and I absolutely had to be
the photographer.
Here's how I did it. Here in this seat,
sat the secretary of Judge Nikitchenko, a Soviet officer.
I approach him and say: "Vassia, do me a favor
I have to photograph Goering on this platform,
if you can take a long lunch, I'll take
your place and I will pretend to be the 
secretary and discreetly take the picture. "
He says .. "OK, what are you giving me 
in exchange?"
- "Two bottles of whiskey tonight. " 
- "Okay."
During lunch, I take his place, I hide the camera
on the ground so that the 
American guards do not see it...
Goering enters, sits down in the gallery.
The soldiers are at attention
with their batons. And gently, 
I press the button.
Here is the result. A remarkable photo 
that has been published
in a lot of newspapers around the world.
The Americans especially loved the powerful 
image of American soldiers with
their batons...
Nobody made such a photo, 
neither the Americans nor the French,
Nobody else.. yet they had many photographers there.
No, no one had this idea of ​​doing it like me
thanks to 2 bottles of whiskey.
or maybe I put it here.. 
the one where Goering is eating...
Goering saw me and thought it was dishonorable
that a Soviet photographed him
eating out of a bowl.
Here is Goering's lunch.
When we were leaving Nuremberg,
I got photographed
with Goering, to keep as a souvenir.
Goering, seeing that I wanted 
to be photographed with him,
took revenge by hiding his face in his hands ...
50 years ago, I walked faster.
They want to show that I'm dragging myself ..
This way..
It was here.
50 years have passed but I can 
still see it as if it were yesterday.
I arrived, I installed my tripod here, 
for a good view of the grandstand.
Okay, this is where I'm going to take 
the photo. I didn't have a Leica,
no, I had a big American 
"speed graphic" camera
Given to me by Robert Capa in Berlin.
With a 400mm telephoto lens.
At first sight, it had to go.
Stalin appeared, Molotov, all the leaders of the Party.
On that day there were guests
 in the gallery, Czech friends,
Novotny and a few others.
I knew that a boy and a girl had to offer flowers to Stalin
and to Molotov. So, I was ready.
Suddenly I hear
The applause of the athletes, shouts ..
"Hoorah! Hoorah!"
I turn around..
the children run with their bouquet of flowers.
Schoolchildren from Moscow have delegated 
these two children to hand over
their presents to comrades 
Stalin and Molotov.
Comrade Stalin thanks Comrade Youra Volnov
for the flowers.
So Stalin takes the boy
and hoists him on the podium.
Then, it's Molotov.
But I could only take one photo, a plate.
It was not like today, with a Nikon 
at 15 frames per second.
When should I press?
I can only press once!
So Stalin lifts the kid who got to him first.
Then the girl arrives at Molotov, 
Molotov grabs her and
...  - clack, I press the button. 
I'm starting to feel nervous,
I tremble, eyes closed,
I close the box... Is it good ?
I lean on the parapet. The stadium burst into applause
hooray, hooray - everyone shouts 
and I have only one thought:
"My God, is it successful? This is what is important."
I return to the agency I pull the film 
and develop. Stalin, Molotov,
..The flowers, the children, 
everything is there. My God!
And this photo has been around the world.
And none of my collegues,
like Izvestija or Pravda.. had anything successful.
"Fighters, soldiers and officers"
- these were the words of Stalin,
after the victory -
"life will begin for you,
beautiful, wonderful, comfortable, 
you will be happy
to have won the war."
Me too, I reasoned thus.
I didn't ask for much.
I got married, then my daughter 
was born in 47, we built
a family little by little, when suddenly...
In 1948, all over the country,
a kind of popular hysteria
had begun. This and the Jewish 
question emerged. Some didn't like
the more the Jewish 
consonance of their name, we started to change
our last names, the layoffs have started
especially on the 'ideological front'.
At the agency,
all the cameramen, veterans
but who were Jewish,
were relieved of their duties,
it was a mass phenomenon, we were all fired,
not even "warnings" .. Fired!
The remarkable collective of the Jewish theater 
of Mikhoels, Mikhoels himself,
Zouskine, the Jewish writer Perets-Markich,
the whole committee.
anti-fascist Jews were exterminated,
all were exterminated.
How could I keep their photos, I had all their
photographs, Mikhoels and the others ..
Obviously I was afraid to keep these photos ..
I had to burn them.. and I broke the glass negatives.
Yes, the list of what could not be kept at home is very long.
One day in 48, I was summoned.
I was told there was less work,
that there was nothing more to do in the photo department
and that we were going to reduce the workforce.
5 people will be dismissed.
Including me.
Well, the other four people that were fired were Russian. 
I was the only Jew. At the time,
I didn't even understand 
that it was because of my origins
that I was fired.
Apparently a month after the layoffs
they rehired the other four
but not me.
I finally understood that it 
was indeed this damn star
registered in my passport...
Cain's seal.
Here is that damn passport.
See there - Jew -
and that is Cain’s seal.
All this tormented me, 
but what could I do then?
Many of my friends 
suffered the same fate...
Despite everything, I sent a letter to the Central Committee, a complaint.
I am a qualified photographer ..
Nothing .. No answer ..
Until recently, the Khaldei case, heard at the Central Committee, was kept secret.
The researchers did not have access to it.
Today, study and research
on such subjects is just beginning.
Here is Khaldei's letter 
dated January 1950.
It is addressed to Souslov, 
the secretary of the Central Committee.
Having received such a letter, Souslov 
ordered his apparatus  to make him
a report, and within 2 months, 
the information
was provided to him, bringing 
to his knowledge in particular
... that the special examination carried out by the authorities of the Ministry
of State Security demonstrated 
that Khaldei was not
to be employed in the media 
and had been dismissed
in accordance 
with KGB recommendations.
So Khaldei received no clear answer
and could not receive any at the time.
Why was he fired from Tass 
without any explanation?
Today it is possible 
to answer this question
one hundred percent: 
the end of the year 1948
marked the start of the campaign 
against cosmopolitanism.
They would no longer shake my hand,
they would call me cosmopolitan.
There were those who called me a 'youpin' of a Jew
Can you imagine? But it was like that, 
there was nothing to do.
And I remember very well who it was,
clearly...
This time, it was the Jews
who were the enemies of the interior.
It happened gradually,
step by step.
First, the elimination of Jews 
from the governing bodies of the Party
and the state. Then we moved on 
to the industry. We discarded
the most talented directors
who had distinguished themselves
during the war, but who were also Jewish...
Then came the turn of science, art, literature.
Then a new euphemism was invented: cosmopolitanism.
We couldn't dismiss someone 
because he was Jewish, no,
but because he was cosmopolitan, unpatriotic,
more attached to world culture
than to Soviet culture.
When I filled out the
questionnaires to apply for
a job, it was the same refrain each time:
- Khaldei? No, no thanks, we don't need it.
They fled to me as if I were plague-stricken. 
Do you know what is plague?
The plague? I don't know how we say in French.
The word "Jewish" began to mean outlaw.
Finally, I managed to get 
hired by Club magazine,
a union newspaper, 
which was pretty good.
Here is my work after Tass.
A photo that speaks volumes.
This is my repertoire: 
dances-chvances, libraries
and all the rest..
Sad, these were very sad conditions.
But you had to survive.
And I survived.
Today I tell you as a historian:
in the end, we arrived at a massive deportation plan
for the Jewish population of
Central Russia to Siberia
and in Central Asia.
The concentration camps were ready,
the Gulag was ready to welcome Soviet Jews.
Fortunately it didn't happen, 
the plan was interrupted by Stalin's death.
The atrocious measures of the Stalinist 
genocide against the Jewish population
People can't hold back their tears anymore
farewell to the one 
whose name for each is incompatible
with the very idea of ​​death.
And I too was moved, because I was .. How to say,
because all my life ..
In 53, how old was I?
I was in my thirties ...
and I grew up under Stalin, 
in addition it was not yet clear,
the crimes he had committed ...
Nobody wanted to know his faults
Everything he had done was considered necessary,
It was necessary, yes, it was necessary;
so, it was very difficult ...
Yes, I was moved like everyone else
but I was still taking pictures ..
In 1957 I got hired at Pravda. And for 15 years,
I traveled all over the country 
I photographed sports, industry,
the artists.
PRAVDA 1957 -1972
I followed life as it went, 
what was happening in the country.
I participated in the building of communism.
I first built socialism, but I didn't arrive
at the stage of communism.
I was photographing what was 
going on in the country, what there was
good, of course. The negative things,
I did not photograph them.
No photos of drunkards,
queues in front of bakeries ...
For me it was only a passing episode, 
it was going to change.
But the lines for red or black caviar, 
I photographed them.
The new personnel manager has arrived,
a notorious anti-Semite - there are hidden anti-Semites,
but he declared it - and he said:
"I will not be quiet
as long as there is only one Jew 
in the newspaper" Can you imagine?
There is nobody left..
And then it was my turn.
I had been looking for stories...
And one fine day I was kicked out.
It is said today that the Jews are responsible for all ills.
Starting with the revolution of 1917, 
as if it were only they who were
the culprits and not Lenin. And for everything else,
everything that happens.
we don't pay wages
to the teachers, it is the fault of the Jews, 
the miners are not
paid for 5 months,
it's the Jews again.
That's how it is, ask
to anyone, they will tell you:
"Yes, of course..."
Unfortunately, it's like that.
Down with the agents of the 
judeo-masonic world government !
Cosmopolites with dual nationality, 
out of government !
All this was fomented by the Jews it was their goal:
divide our Soviet Union. 
And now they're going to break up
Russia. There are only Jews in government,
and this is the result !
But when we finally wake up,
we will drive them all away
to israel and it will immediately be better for us
and all over the world !
To your good heart ladies and gentlemen.
There, I finished with "The tears of Israel"
It was my grandmother's favorite air
When I was little, I would play it for her,
and she would give me 5 kopecks to buy ice cream...
Oh yes, it's sad, very sad ...
There is no more grandmother, 
no more grandfather, no more father ...
A generation of good people is leaving, mine.
a generation full of wise and courageous people,
who were building communism, 
who all had faith ...
