Asya Hotkina

This is Aunt Asya [1916-1960s], who worked as a librarian in the House of Arts in Nevsky Avenue, now, in my opinion, it is called the Palace of Arts.

Very educated, very clever and talented. Here she is still young. It was even before the war, she was 15-16 years old. The inscription is: "To dear parents, sister, brother and niece".

Asya and Tasya are sisters of my Mum. Asya is the youngest, and Tasya was born after Maryasya. They all bear the name Zaretsky, Grandfather's daughters.

They were four: Asya, Tasya, Maryasya and my mother. Asya worked as a librarian in the Palace of Arts in Nevsky Avenue, then [1950s] referred to as the House of Arts.

There I met Simonov [a Soviet actor, the people's actor of the USSR], and many other prominent actors, who came to see her. They all respected her. She knew the English language, was very gifted. Her daughter lived here. In honor of grandmother she was named Inna Zaretsky.

So Aunt Asya and Aunt Maryasya were librarians, and Tasya worked as a booking office cashier at the Moscow railway station. There she got acquainted with her Russian husband. Her grandfather "crossed her out of the list" after she married a Russian.

The Centropa Collection at USHMM

The Centropa archive has been acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. USHMM will soon offer a Special Collections page for Centropa.

Academics please note: USHMM can provide you with original language word-for-word transcripts and high resolution photographs. All publications should be credited: "From the Centropa Collection at the United States Memorial Museum in Washington, DC". 

Please contact collection [at] centropa.org (collection[at]centropa[dot]org).