This is a picture of my mother's daughter from her first marriage, Freida Rivkina. The photo was taken in Ekaterinoslav in 1915. This is what Freida looked like when my father and I went to visit her.
My mother, Khasia Rivkina, was born in Ekaterionoslav in 1875. When I grew up I often wondered what it was like to marry a man with grown-up children. Only despair could push a young woman into such a marriage. My mother's first husband's name was Rivkin. Their daughter, Freida, was born in 1893. I don't know under what extraordinary circumstances my mother divorced her husband and why the rabbi of Ekaterinoslav gave his approval for the divorce. My mother didn't want to discuss this matter. Of course my mother couldn't have high expectations for another marriage. In 1899 she and her 6-year-old daughter settled down in the colony.
She for Ekaterinoslav before I turned 5 or 6. She worked at a greengrocery there and got married. I saw her once because my father took me with him when he went to that town on business. She seemed an adult woman to me, I addressed her as I would address a stranger and everybody laughed at me. Then there was the Civil War and my mother died, and we lost track of Freida. In the 1950s Iosif and I tried to find her. We found out that she had perished during the war, but her son was alive. We correspond with him. He lives in Israel now.
Freida Rivkina
The Centropa Collection at USHMM
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