My husband's nephew Mosia, the son of his stepbrother on his father's side Moishe Freidkin. This photo was made in Bessarabia where Moishe's family lived before this area was annexed to the USSR. This photograph is signed: 'Mosik the Little one, sends this photo to aunt Yelizaveta and uncle Petia and Mishen'ka, 1939, Soviet Bessarabia.
My husband Peretz Freidkin was born in 1910 in Kalinindorf, a Jewish colony in Kherson region. His parents Zalman Berl and Rasia Freidkins also dealt in farming. Besides, my father-in-law was a shoemaker and it made his additional earnings. My husband's family was a traditional Jewish family. He studied in cheder and then finished a Jewish elementary school. He also finished the Agricultural College in Kherson and became a zootechnician. My husband worked as a zootechnician. In 1937 after our son Mikhail was born we moved to my husband's parents in Kalinindorf. We had a good life together. My husband's parents had a nice big house and a garden.
This was a concerning period. In 1939 Jewish refugees from Poland appeared in our area escaping from fascists. In 1939 my husband's older stepbrother on his father's side Moishe Freidkin, his wife Kleina and their five-year-old daughter and little son Mosia arrived at Kalinindorf from Bessarabia. We began to receive letters and photographs from him after Bessarabia was annexed to the USSR. Of course, we knew about Hitler and fascism, but we didn't have thoughts about a war: it all seemed to be so far away.
Mosia and his parents perished during the shooting of Jews in Kalinindorf in 1941.
