Dayle Vasserman and her family

This is my mother Dayle Vasserman with my elder sister Sore-Reyze Goldman (nee Vasserman), my father Hertz Vasserman and my brother Perets Vasserman. The picture was taken in Tallinn in 1920. My parents got married in 1914. They had a traditional Jewish wedding, there was no other way. Father was a tradesman and mother was a housewife. Father went to Riga to take goods for his store, and in the evening he came back home. Father was deeply respected in town. He was considered to be an intelligent and decent man. Father was one of the few dwellers of Friedelstadt, who got the Jewish newspaper. It was issued in Yiddish. Father was subscribed to that paper, and when the new issue came out, the town dwellers came to my parents to discuss the news. After the wedding, my father bought a small house, the same size as that of my grandparents' and of other residents of Friedelstadt. Following Grandmother, my mother took care of the garden and bred poultry. They had a regular calm life. In 1914 World War I was unleashed. When the Germans entered the territory of the Baltic countries, as per order of the Tsar in 1915 all Jews were to be exiled from here to the remote areas of Russia within 24 hours. My parents and Mother's family were not willing to go to the unfamiliar region. Nobody knew how long they would have to live far away from the vernacular place. Some distant relatives lived in Minsk and they decided to go to them. Military actions were being held in that direction and they couldn't cross the front line. Then they remembered that some of their relatives, the Goldbergs, were living in Tallinn, so they went there as they had no choice. Thus, our family turned out to be in Tallinn. Grandfather Perets Gordon died in Tallinn in 1915. He was buried according to the Jewish rite in Jewish cemetery of Tallinn. Shortly after Grandfather's death in 1915 my parents had their first-born. My brother was named Perets after Grandfather. My sister was born in 1919. She was called Sore-Reyze. I was born in 1928, and I was named Mariasha.