This is a family photograph showing, left to right: my father Yakov Lidskiy wearing his school uniform, my grandmother Sophia Lidskaya, a stranger, my grandfather Benjamin Lidskiy, and my uncle Lev Lidskiy, my father's brother. This photo was taken in Mariupol on July 23, 1913.
My father, Yakov Benjaminovich (later ? Veniaminovich) Lidskiy came from an assimilated family that led a secular life. They lived in Mariupol. His father, Benjamin Lidskiy was born in about 1875?1877 in Mariupol. He graduated from the law department of the University and was assistant to a well-known lawyer. He married for love. He first saw my grandmother, then a 17-year old girl, at a ball, and they got married soon after.
Benjamin was an intelligent, reserved and educated man, with a kindly sense of humor. My grandmother , Sophia Ivanovna, was a striking beauty when she was young. She remained beautiful as she got older, too. But despite her beauty, she was silly, mean-spirited, capricious and stubborn. My father told me that she always got what she wanted by screaming and shedding tears, even when she was wrong.
My grandparents did not lead a religious life, or even celebrate the Jewish holidays. They had two children: my father, born in 1901, and his younger brother Lev, born in 1904.
Irina Lidskaya's father Yakov Lidskiy, her grandmother Sophia Lidskaya, a stranger, her grandfather Benjamin Lidskiy, and her uncle Lev Lidskiy
Centropa Collection acquired by USHMM
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