This is my mama Yulia Falevich. The photo was taken in Slutsk in 1959.

Mama and my father met in Slutsk. They got married in 1924 or 1925. My father held a rather responsible position at the time – he was director of the Slutsk vegetable storage base and a member of the bureau of the Slutsk district party committee.

On the first day of the war my father left us and went to the front. He was a tank soldier, a reserve lieutenant and commanding officer of a tank platoon. When we were saying goodbye to him, he said to Mama, “Yulia, take care of the children!“ He kissed us and went away. That was the last time we saw him. We know very little about what happened to father.

After the war, Mama received notification that my father was missing. We didn’t lose hope that we would find him, but this hope vanished with the years. Mama died in 1986.