Osip Hotinskiy and his wife Zoria Hotinskaya

My daughter Nina [Hotinskaya] loved trying on my uniform cap which she was allowed to do, when she deserved an incentive for her good behavior.

This photo was taken in Moscow in 1960 .

I got married to Zoria Petrunicheva in 1952. Zoria and I have two children: Nina, born in 1956, and Nikolay, born in 1963. They grew up like all other Soviet children. They were pioneers and Komsomol members.

I spent as much time as I could with them. In summer we went to the seashore or to the mountains, at weekends we went for walks, to the cinema or theater.

We had family dinners in the evening where we discussed what had happened during the day, shared our thoughts and supported each other. We were very close.

We celebrated Soviet holidays at home: 1st May and 7th November, Soviet Army Day and New Year's Eve. Of course, Victory Day, 9th May was the most important holiday.

On this day we went to the monument to the Unknown Soldier where we laid flowers. In the evening we had a gathering of veterans where we shared memories and sang wartime songs.

Zoria and I wanted to make our children's life easier and registered them as Russians in their passports, though they had my surname.
But they faced anti-Semitism anyway.