Brocha Mere Reznik and her brother Motle Rozenbergas

Brocha Mere Reznik and her brother Motle Rozenbergas

These are our children - daughter Brocha Mere Rozenbergayte and son Motle Rozenbergas. This picture was taken at our home in Jurbarkas on New Year holiday 1955.

In 1947 I gave birth to a daughter and named her after our mothers, Brocha Mere, and in 1948 I bore a son and named him after my father Motle. At first, our life was hard from the financial point of view. My husband was the only one who worked in our family, as I took care of the children. I went to work, when the children were a little older. In 1950 I sold half of our house and bought a cow with that money. Now our children had milk. Life was getting better and we weren’t going to leave Jurbarkas.

In spite of our Communist beliefs both I and Sholom observed Jewish traditions at home. Of course, my husband and consequently I had to go to work on Saturday and we couldn’t observe the kashrut as there were problems with any food products, not to mention the kosher ones. I have always fasted on Yom Kippur and on Jewish holidays I made a feast for my family and Jewish friends. Following my mother’s tradition I made the biggest feast on the holiday of Simchat Torah. We always celebrated Pesach, even in the hardest years for the Jews. We bought matzah from women, who ran the risk of baking it at home.

We spoke Yiddish at home so it was the mother tongue of my children. My children were raised as true Jews. They were proud of their purely Jewish names and even didn’t try changing them for any comfortable European ones. At school they were called Mere and Motle. My children didn’t feel even an iota of the anti-Semitism that we had to feel. Both of them went to school, where there were a lot of Jews. There was a very friendly and warm relationship between the Jews and other nationalities. My daughter was very active. She took part in all possible extra-curricular activities. Upon graduation both of them entered a university – my son went to Kaunas Polytechnic Institute, construction department, and my daughter to Vilnius University.

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