This is a picture of my brother Misha, our neighbors and me on the porch of our house in Gomel. The photo was taken in 1938. My parents got married in 1917. My older sister, Broha, was born in 1921. Misha was born at the beginning of 1924, Lisa in 1926, Abram in 1928 and I in 1937. My younger sister, Zhenia, followed in 1939. We spoke Yiddish in the family. We also knew Russian, of course, but we preferred to communicate in Yiddish. We observed Jewish traditions, observed Shabbat and celebrated Jewish holidays. I remember my mother lighting candles on Shabbat. I liked it a lot.

At the beginning of the war my father was called to the front. Misha finished secondary school, then went to the front and perished there. Almost all his classmates perished, none of the boys returned from the front. Almost all girls from the class, in which Misha and Broha studied, also perished.