Igor Brover’s parents Yakov Brover and Ida Brover at the meeting of the council of the Jewish kolkhoz 'Schtern'.

Igor Brover’s parents Yakov Brover and Ida Brover at the meeting of the council of the Jewish kolkhoz 'Schtern'.

These are my parents Yakov Brover (the second from the left) and Ida Brover (the fourth from the right) at the meeting of the council of the Jewish kolkhoz 'Schtern'. This photo was taken in Ivanovka village Odessa region in 1930. My father was born in Petroverovka [present Zhovten'] in Kherson province [present Odessa region] in 1912. He went to cheder and finished three forms at school: for his time he was thought to have got sufficient education. His mother tongue was Yiddish, but he couldn't write in it. He could write in Russian, though. My father was relatively tall, his height was one meter seventy five centimeters [ca. 5'9"], of average constitution, dark-haired. When collectivization began in 1928, in Ivanovka village of Odessa region the Jewish kolkhoz 'Schtern' ['star' in Yiddish] near the Yeremeyevka station in 50 km from Odessa. My grandfather and grandmother and their 16-year-old son, my father, moved to Ivanovka and joined the kolkhoz. When I remember, my father worked as a crew leader in the kolkhoz, i.e., he was responsible for all housekeeping activities. He was energetic and hardworking and very smart since one couldn't manage Jews without certain skills. He had skills. He was reserved, not too strict, rather witty and looking for compromise; he could come to an agreement with any person. My father met my mother in the kolkhoz. My mother Ida Popovskaya was born in 1912, but I don't know where. My mother went to school for three years. She spoke Yiddish, but she could only write in Russian. Like my father she came to Ivanovka in 1928. My mother was a receptionist in a milk shop where milk was processed into cream in a separator. In summer, when there was a lot of field work to do she worked in the field harvesting crops. My mother wore common clothes like all other women in the kolkhoz: a skirt, a shirt and a kerchief. She was tall and thin, had black hair and bright beautiful face. She was hardworking and restless. She had hot temper. In 1932 my parents got married. They were both 21 years of age. They had a civil ceremony, but no religious wedding.
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