Leo Lubich’s mother Malka Lubich

My mother Malka Lubich in evacuation in Izhevsk, photographed to give pictures to her children. The photo she gave us was signed on the back, "To children Rosa and Leo from Mama, 11 March 1945, Izhevsk."

In August 1941 my parents, sister Maria and her son David, and my brother Jacob and his daughter Nelia evacuated to Izhevsk. In Izhevsk my parents, my sister and brother stayed in a big four-room apartment in the center of the town that uncle Boris arranged for them. He also helped my father get a good job: Director of the Special Military Trade Agency. My father had tailor, shoe, and hosiery shops under his guise. My father got a good salary and received special food packages. As a result, we didn’t starve like many others in evacuation.

In 1945 my parents, Maria, Jacob and their children left for Kiev. My parents lived in their apartment with Maria and her son until they received their own in the 1960s. My father went to the synagogue in Podol after the war. My parents celebrated all the Jewish holidays like they had before the war. They were pensioners and helped Maria with the house. I visited them once in two or three years during my vacation. My father died in the early 1960s and my mother passed away in the 1970s when she was ninety years old. They were both buried in the Jewish section of the town cemetery - there were no Jewish customs followed.