Sophia Naishtut, my wife's mother (on the right) and Ilia Naishtut, my wife's father (on the left) and his friends.
I moved in with my wife after the wedding. Zina's parents were born Kievites. I don't know where her grandfathers and grandmothers came from but the family lived in Kiev since 1912. I have no information about my wife's grandparents. Her parents were not religious. They never celebrated any Jewish holidays or remembered any Jewish traditions. Religion was something that Zina did not accept. They spoke Russian in her family. I don't know whether Zina's mother knew Yiddish but she never spoke it, she never even pronounced any words in Yiddish. Zina lived in one room with her mother Sophia Natanovna Naishtut (nee Schupak), born in 1896. She was a widow at that time. Sophia Natanovna worked at the calculator department. Ilia Zosimovich Naishtut, Zinaida's father, born in 1892 studied at the Mechanic Department of Kiev Polytechnic Institute. Before the war he worked as Chief engineer at the Sugartrust. During the evacuation their family was in Tyumashev, Kuibyshev region. In 1947 Ilia Zosimovich died. This happened when Zina had just finished school.
