These are my parents Tsilia and Moses Zelbert in 1926. My parents loved each other, our family was friendly and happy. Father was very kind, tactful and wise. Mother was a beautiful woman and a good housewife. She was a great cook. She cooked the best traditional Jewish dishes you can think of. Mother always cooked them for Jewish holidays. For Pesach she baked Strudels and made very tasty dishes from matzah. On Purim she baked Hamantaschen – triangular pocket-pastry filled with poppy seeds, raisins and nuts. We enjoyed all these dishes without knowing that they were only cooked for certain Jewish holidays.

My parents spoke Yiddish between themselves at home. Neither my sister nor I were taught Yiddish. Our parents thought that there was no future in Yiddish and wanted us to speak Russian without any accent.