Maks Skoblo with his mother and siblings

This is a picture of my father Maks Skoblo with his mother and siblings. The photo was taken in Vitebsk in the 1920s.

First from left is Maks, my dad. Second from left in the lower row is Rakhil Sklobo, who died at an early age. Third from left above is Mira Lanina, nee Sklobo. I don?t know what happened to her. Second from right in the lower row is Peisya Borisovna Skoblo, nee Sorkina, my father's mother. First from right standing is my father's brother Isaac. He was biologist. His Jewish wife, Vera Isaacovna Lvova, was also a biologist. They were in evacuation in Kislovodsk, got into occupation there and perished. They had two children, Lyonya and Inna. I don?t know who the other two young men in this picture are.

Our family was absolutely non-religious. We didn't think about religion in those times. Although my father was a very educated man, knew Yiddish and Hebrew, and had his bar mitzvah as a child, he didn't pray or celebrate Jewish holidays as an adult during the Soviet times. He became an atheist and a communist.

The Centropa Collection at USHMM

The Centropa archive has been acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. USHMM will soon offer a Special Collections page for Centropa.

Academics please note: USHMM can provide you with original language word-for-word transcripts and high resolution photographs. All publications should be credited: "From the Centropa Collection at the United States Memorial Museum in Washington, DC". 

Please contact collection [at] centropa.org (collection[at]centropa[dot]org).