Iyah Dziekovskaya and her sister Inna Dziekovskaya

This is me, Iyah Dziekovskaya, and my sister Inna Dziekovskaya. This photo was taken in Dnepropetrovsk in 1937. This photograph was taken in summer. Inna and I were dressed up in fancy white dresses to be photographed in a photo shop. I was looking into the objective lens expecting to see a bird flying out of there.

My older sister Inna was born in Ozarichi village Mogilyov district in Byelorussia  in 1930.  After Inna was born my parents moved to Dnepropetrovsk and grandmother Ethel followed them. I was born in 1931 in Dnepropetrovsk. Grandmother Ethel looked after my sister and me. We often played in the yard where there were many other children. We played hide-and-seek, kazaki-razboiniki (similar to hide-and-seek, only the sides had name of kazaki and razboiniki) and girls played with skipping-ropes. In summer my mother took my sister and me and other children to swim in the Dnieper. She looked young and when we took a tram people were surprised that there was 'such a young mother having so many children'. Another childhood memory: I was invited to a birthday party. It was winter and it snowed. My sister and her friend 'got harnessed' in the sledges and rode me to the party.  My mother liked to recall when one of our neighbors was taking few children from our yard for a walk. They also called my sister: 'Iyah, come with us, but take Iyah home. She is too small and it will be too hard for her'.  Inna was eager to join them, but she didn't want to leave me behind.  My mother was watching this scene through the window thinking: 'So what's going to happen?' Inna was firmly holding my hand sobbing loudly, but stayed with me.  This describes very clearly the nature of our relationships. We were devoted to one another, which didn't stop us from having arguments once in a while.