Lev Drobyazko's uncle, mother's brother Aron Vaisblat.

My uncle, mother's brother, Aron Vaisblat. The photo was taken in 1922 in Kiev. Aron, was born in 1900, and Emil, or Milya, was born in 1915. I will talk about them together because their lives were similar and they died together. Aron became a dentist, worked as a senior lecturer at the Kiev Stomatology Institute, and had a private practice of his own. Emil was only able to graduate from the Stomatology Institute before the war broke out. Aron served as a military doctor at the front. In the first month of the war he found himself in the German encirclement and then in the Syrets camp for prisoners of war in Kiev, which was practically the same as Babiy Yar. Emil was there as well. My mother and I learned about them after the war from those few prisoners of the Syrets concentration camp who survived - by the way, due to Aron and Emil. Both brothers worked as doctors and took part in an amazing, even unique procedure that was carried out by the Germans. In addition to the normal procedure employed by the Germans to identify Jewish males, which was pretty simple, due to Jewish circumcision, there was also a skull examination and special blood tests, which were supposed to make Jewish identification definitive. Aron and Emil were supposed to conduct such tests - and they did their best to help people escape being identified as Jews. I personally heard these stories after the war, but unfortunately, I was too young back then, so I don't remember the details. I am not even sure how the brothers died. They may have been shot and thus shared the destiny of all Babiy Yar victims. Or they could have committed suicide by taking the poison they possessed as dentists. There was a custom at my grandfather's house: every dentist had in his possession gold and strong poisons. When they went to fight the fascists, they put strong poisons into the lockets they wore around their necks. Both brothers died without families. They left only good memories behind.