This is my brother Boris Falevich prior to his service in the army. Boris had been to the military office and was given a military uniform. He asked to have his photo taken before he left to give it to Mama as a memory. It is signed on the backside “For the long and kind memory to Friedrich from Boris. 26.01.1949, Slutsk.”

These were hard years; even the memory of them is horrible. When my brother went to the army in 1949 life became even harder for my mother and me. Our main food was potatoes, but we didn’t always have them.

There was no hope for the better or any opportunity to earn some money. I don’t know how mama and I lived through these years before Boris returned. When my brother returned home and saw how we lived, he was terrified. The following day he went to the plant he used to work at. When I finished school in 1953, Boris went to the evening school, and quit his studies after finishing the eighth grade.