Maya Zouber with her sister Emma and mother Bronya

To the left is my wife Maya Zouber in a jacket, her sister Emma Zouber and mother Bronya are next to her. The picture was made in Bobruysk in 1947.

In 1956 I met a Jewish girl, who was hired by our plant as an economist. I liked her at once. She also fell in love with me. Soon I proposed to her. My fiancee Maya Zouber was born in Byelorussian town Bobruysk in 1935. Maya's father was a gifted engineer but he was not admitted to the institute as his father was a shochet. Having no higher education, Maya's father was in charge of tractor station. In 1937 when repressions were in full swing [Great Terror] he like many others was charged with sabotage and arrested. Maya's father was sentence to ten years without a right to correspond with anybody. Maya's mother Bronya Zouber went to Moscow and tried to find out the truth. She was directly told if she wanted to save her and her children she should ask no extra questions. Maya did not know her father. He was most likely executed shortly after arrest. During the Great Patriotic War Maya, her mother and elder sister Emma were in evacuation in Siberia. When the Great Patriotic War was over, they came back to their native town. Maya entered vocational school of timber industry. Upon graduation, she got a mandatory job assignment in Vilnius. Like many other unfairly condemned, Maya's father was rehabilitated after Stalin's death and ÕÕ Party Congress. It was at the time, when I met Maya and decided to be together.

In March 1957 our marriage was registered in marriage register office. We had neither wedding band nor wedding attire. At home mother made dinner and invited my brother Natan and his wife, aunt Leya with husband and Etka and aunt Vera. We lived with my mother. In May my wife and I went to Bobruysk. I met my mother-in -law Bronya and wife's elder sister Emma. Here we also marked our wedding. Since that time I was a dear guest in Bobruysk and my wife's kin came over to see us as well. Now my mother-in-law and Emma are living in the USA. They immigrated there in early 1990s.