Boris Girshov’s sister and mother

Here you can see my mother and my sister.

Their photo was taken in 1960s in Kuibyshev.

My mum Raissa Isaacovna Girshova (Rohl-Leye Brook) was born in 1900 in Usvyaty, too. Mum was a beautiful woman. Before her marriage she lived in Vitebsk together with her sisters. Her sister Mira and brother Lev lived in Vitebsk (in Belarus).

There Mum worked as a shop assistant. She told me about strictness of the senior clerk at that time in compare with later period of time. At that time she was a girl, nevertheless he demanded much of her.

After her marriage Mum continued working. She worked at the factory producing soft drinks, kvass and lemonade. Mum was responsible for washing bottles.

By the way at that time manufacturers used to hammer corks in the bottles. During my childhood parents (both father and mother) worked all the time.

My sister Nina (Nekhama) was born in 1925. We studied at the same school. She actively helped mother about the house: tidied up rooms.

In 1941 she was 16 when the war burst out. Together with parents and our brother she left for Kuibyshev. In Kuibyshev there lived my mother's aunt Blume Rosenfeld (a sister of grandmother Hana).

At first my parents lived at hers, later they rented an apartment. Soon (in 1943) father died of tuberculosis. Mother was still a young woman (43 years old); she worked as an unskilled laborer at a warehouse. In Kuibyshev my sister finished school and entered the Pedagogical College (faculty of foreign languages).

Her profession was a teacher of German language. The College did not stop studies notwithstanding severities of war. Nina graduated from it and became a good teacher. She spoke fluent German (I guess because she knew Yiddish), and started working at a Kuibyshev school as a teacher.

They sent her to a German school, where German children (children of people sent to Kuibyshev from Germany on business) studied. She taught them different subjects in German: geography, history, Russian language.

Later that school was closed, and she worked at ordinary secondary school teaching German language. She was a good teacher, and was considered an authority. They often sent her to Germany as a head of school delegations.

In Kuibyshev my sister got married. Her husband is Zakhar Solomonovich Braynin (we call him Zolya). Their son Sasha was born approximately in 1950. Sasha became a doctor. He graduated from the Medical College. He took his doctor's degree and at present works in Kuibyshev (now Samara) as a therapist.

Nina's husband is a press photographer. He worked in Pravda and Izvestia newspapers and also in local newspapers. He had a photo laboratory, worked at theatres of Kuibyshev, made highly artistic photos and photo advertisements.

At present together with my sister they live in Israel.
They left there in 2000, being already pensioners.
In Israel they live in Ashkelon.