This is my parents' wedding picture. My parents Olga Kann and Alexander Kann can be seen in the background. Members of the Jewish student organization Limuvia are congratulating the newlyweds. The picture was taken in Tartu in 1934.
In the early 1930s my father’s sister Nata left for Paris, France. There she met a young man, an immigrant from Russia called Sergey and married him. Nata and her husband had a traditional Jewish wedding. My grandparents and father went there. At that time Father was a student. He met my mom in Paris at the wedding party of his elder sister.
Strange as it may be, my mother’s family as well as my father’s had the surname of Kann, but they were not relatives. They had actually never seen each other before. They just happened to share the same surname. My mother’s family lived in Moscow before their departure for France.
Somehow my mother made friends with my father’s sister Nata. My parents met at her wedding and fell in love with each other instantly. Father had to finish his studies at the university. He stayed in Paris for a little bit and then left for Tartu. Mother and he decided that they were going to get married. They were separated for a little while. Mother was not willing to wait for Father to finish his studies and come to Paris. In 1934 she went to Tartu. Her parents were shocked. My maternal grandmother was sure that her favorite daughter was leaving for a village, where cows were walking along the streets. Mother promised Grandmother that she would return to Paris upon her fiancé’s graduation. My parents got married, when Mother came to Tartu. They had a true Jewish wedding with numerous guests. After the wedding they settled in Grandfather’s house. Their house was large.
