These are our neighbors photographed in the yard on our house. Our neighbors, 2 Jewish families, are sitting. Standing: I, Arkadi, on the right, my cousin Lubov, my father's brother Unchl's daughter, is on my left, and my younger brother Igor. This photo was taken in Tomashpol in 1947.
We kept staying in our house after the WWII. Surah [father' sister in law]and her daughters and Moshe [father's brother]with his wife - they returned from evacuation - also lived in this house. Moshe died in 1960s. He was buried at the Jewish cemetery. His wife moved to her sister in Kiev. She died in 1970s. I have no information about my cousin sisters. My father, his brothers and sisters were religious. They were religious through their whole life. My father's brother Unchl was a tinsmith and his wife was a housewife. They had five daughters: the oldest one's name was Rosa, the next one was Lubov - her Jewish name was Liebe. As for the others, I don't remember their names. In 1937 my father's older brother Unchl died. He was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Tomashpol according to Jewish traditions. His wife Surka [short for Surah] and their older single daughters kept living in grandfather's house in Tomashpol. Uncle Unchl's three younger daughters were married and lived with their families in Moscow.
My younger brother finished a higher secondary school in Tomashpol. He studied very well. He only had one 'good' mark, the rest were excellent. His single good mark was for the Ukrainian language. They didn't want to award a gold medal to a Jew for his successes in studies. My father was very upset and even complained of school authorities, but it didn't help. My brother successfully passed his entrance exams to the Mechanical Faculty of Zaporozhie Machine Building College. When he finished it I asked him to arrange for a job assignment in Uzhhorod. I wanted him to be near. My brother came to work at the machine building plant in Uzhhorod. Igor is a skilled employee. He was promoted to Deputy Technical Manager and then he became a Technical Manager. He met Rosa Babiak, a Slovakian girl. They got married shortly afterward. My father was more indulgent to their marriage than to mine. They had two daughters: Svetlana, born in 1970, and Marina, born in 1974.
