Evgenia Gendler’s daughter Victoria Gendler

My daughter Victoria on the beach in summer. This photo was taken in Anapa in 1961. In 1956 our daughter, Victoria was born. Our children brought us happiness. They studied well, liked reading, going to the theater and doing sports. Our daughter had a beautiful voice. She studied singing at the music school. My husband and I liked spending time with our children. In summer we traveled to the Crimea and the Caucasus Mountains. Our children liked swimming in the sea and we enjoyed our time together. Sometimes we spent vacations with our friends. My husband and I went on tours to different places in the USSR. When our children grew up and had other things to do my husband and I went to recreation centers in Subcarpathia. My daughter Victoria entered the Faculty of Vocal at the Conservatory. Her teachers said she was going to become a wonderful singer, but it was not to be. My daughter died of anaphylactic shock during a trivial larynx flushing with penicillin in 1979. I won't even mention what a hard blow Victoria's death was on us. We buried her in the town cemetery in Uzhhorod. It wasn't a Jewish funeral. After my daughter died I lost interest in life. I became of retirement age and submitted my letter of resignation at work. My colleagues told me that I would feel better being among people, but I left. We didn't observe Jewish traditions in the family. In my husband's position it was not allowed to bring up our children knowing that they were Jews. Of course, the children knew that they were Jews and they didn't keep it a secret, but we were not raising them Jewish.