My mother Perlia Mariasis, nee Patlazhan. Photo made in Bendery that belonged to Rumania then in 1933.
My mother Perlia Patlazhan was born in Kishinev in 1900. My mother, however, remembered the pogrom in 1903. She was only 3 years old. But she remembered how one of her relatives in Kishinev was blinded. She remembered these horrible things and told me the story mentioning some names, but I don't remember them. My mother studied music, like her sisters, and there was a teacher to teach the girls Yiddish, their "mother tongue" and Hebrew. My mother studied at the Goldenberg private Russian grammar school for Jewish girls. Kishinev was a trade center. There where many rich Jewish merchants living there. There was a standard rate of 5% for the Jews at grammar schools. Private schools were established to give education to Jewish children. They had the same educational programs as state grammar schools; only there was a rabbi to teach religion instead of a Christian priest. My mother, her sisters and friends had a typical childhood of children from rich families: music lessons, walks and parties. My mother told me about her friends, but I didn't listen to her, I wasn't interested and was far from this subject at the time.
