This is me with my parents Samuel and Ita Serman. My elder brothers and sisters had left the parental house and I was the only one who stayed with my parents. The picture was taken in Rakvere in 1929.
I was the only one from our large family, who stayed with the parents. Before going to compulsory school, I went to cheder. When I was to start school, Father decided that I should go to a German lyceum. There were quite a few Germans in Rakvere and most students in the lyceum came from German families. But still, there were Estonians and Jews too. All subjects were taught in German. I did well.
In 1931 I went through my bar mitzvah. My brother and sister, who lived in France, decided to give me a present on the occasion. They invited me to France. They paid for my trip. In 1932 Mother and I went to France for the first time. Father stayed in Rakvere as he did not want to lose his job. We stayed with siblings for a while and came back to Rakvere. When we were in France, Ekhonon was hired by a large company producing fashionable clothes and he went to Canada to purchase 20,000 white foxes in Canada. He was considered to be a great expert.
In 1933 Hitler came to power in Germany. We knew a lot about fascism: oppression, sequestration, imprisonment. Estonia disapproved of fascism and refused all German things. In that period of time Father changed the spelling of our surname: Sherman sounded German and he changed it into Serman, as it more resembled Estonian.
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