Liya Kaplan with her family

This is my family. From left to right, front row: me, my elder son Rimon, my mother Frieda Berkovits, my father Isaac Berkovits holding my younger son Avi, my husband's sister Berta Kaplan. The back row: my husband Marcus Kaplan, my sister Vera Berkovits and friends. The picture was taken in our house in Tallinn in 1950. I met my husband-to-be Marcus Kaplan in the last but one grade at school. Both of my parents liked Marcus and things were evolving, so I was to marry him after leaving school. But the war was unleashed on 22nd June 1941. We left on 9th July 1941. The five of us went: my parents, my brother Rudolf, my sister Vera and I. It was a long and tiring trip and finally we reached Arsk station, in Tatarstan. All those who were evacuated were split up in kolkhozes. We took the cart and went to a kolkhoz in the village of Surda. Having been demobilized after the war, Marcus finished medical school and found a job as an assistant to the doctor at the sanitation station. Marcus did well at work. He was appreciated at work and sent to refresher courses. He worked there until the last days of his life. Our first son was born in 1946. When we were in Kirghizia I saw a pomegranate tree in bloom. It was so beautiful: orange and ruby-red flowers like little roses. In Ivrit, the pomegranate is called a Rimon. I made up my mind, if I had a son, I would call him Rimon, or if I had a daughter, Rimona. So I gave birth to a son and called him Rimon. My second son was born in 1948. My husband wanted to name him Movsha after my husband's father. In Ivrit Avi means ?my father" and I called my second son Avi. I knew that I should get an education. There was a course to become a technical information expert at the Tallinn Polytechnic Institute. I finished that course. I left the repatriation department and worked as a technician at the design institute Esgiproselkhozstroy for a short period of time. Then I went to work for the design bureau of furniture and the wood processing industry as a director of the engineering library. I put in a lot of effort for our library to become the best. Then I was assigned as head of the information department. I was fluent in Estonian, Russian and German, and had basic knowledge of English. I worked with foreign manuals, searching for materials for furniture manufacturing, lacquer materials and patents for our designers. I translated those materials into Russian from Estonian, German and English. We were subscribed to 120 journals. I was supposed to browse all of them and find the necessary information there. I loved my job and found it interesting. I worked in the design bureau until I retired.