Clara Shalenko and her friends

This is me and my friends. From left to right: Luba Voitushka, Mark Kreeger and I. The photo was made in Odessa in 1940.

In 1933 my father became secretary of the Party unit in the children's recreation center of general type in Kholodnaya Balka, a smaller town in 10 km from Odessa. He commuted to work every day. I spent my summer vacations at the recreation center. There was a big park there and children were well fed: I enjoyed my time there. My father and I stayed there through a summer and my mother visited us at weekends. I made friends with children of my father's colleagues. I remember children of my father's colleagues Mark Krieger and Luba Voitushka. Mark was a Jew and Luba was Russian. We played a ball, hide-and-seek, and climbed tress and walked. After the Great Patriotic War Luba lived in Slobodka neighborhood in Odessa, but I have no information about Mark Krieger.