Ilya Abramovich Shneerov, Manya Borukhovna Shneerova (nee Livshits), and Arkady Shneerov

This photo shows my father - Ilya Abramovich Shneerov (1911), my mother Manya Borukhovna Shneerova (nee Livshits, 1920-1996) and my brother Arkady Shneerov. My father - Ilya Abramovich Shneerov - was born in 1911 in the town of Lyubavichi [Lubavitch] in Smolensk region, Rudyansk district. The family was religious; everyone spoke Yiddish. They surely lived in a religious way - prayed, observed Sabbaths and all Jewish holidays. Daddy's family moved to Leningrad from Smolensk district in 1934. In 1938 Daddy went to work in Vasiliesky Island, at a defense industry factory. It was a secret enterprise and he worked there uninterruptedly until he retired in 1994 -- 56 years! He worked as a mechanic, a shop foreman, and also in the supplies department. It was from that factory that he was called up to the army, and after the war he returned to the same plant. Daddy fought on the Leningrad front. My mother knew Dad and his family before the war ? they had lived in the same communal apartment in Communications Union Street. Sewer pipes passed through her room, and the exit was through the kitchen. At that time Mom and Dad had no relations. But after the war, in 1945, when Daddy came back home from the front, they met by chance on Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge. And this, probably, was the key moment in the life of my parents. They registered their marriage on Mom's birthday, August 20, 1945, and in 1946 my brother Arkady -- Alik -- was born. They all had to live in that same room with the sewer pipes. Very often the pipes leaked. Mom would take her baby Alik and spend the night in the kitchen. They lived very poorly - Dad was the only one who worked. There was not enough food, and Mom told me that she used to serve Daddy his meal and then go out into the street, so that she would to see him eat, because she was so hungry.