Michael Katz

This is my cousin Michael Katz, the older son of my father's sister Sophia Katz, nee Breizman. This photo was taken in Kiev in 1939. My father's sister Sophia had a row with their stepmother and left for Kiev. This happened shortly after World War I. In Kiev she married an ugly Jewish man whose last name was Katz. She didn't love him but married him to get a place to live. Sophia's husband was a shoemaker. They had a traditional Jewish wedding. Sophia had four children: three sons and a daughter. The name of her oldest son was Michael, then came Alexandr, whose Jewish name was Shaya, and the name of her youngest son was Boris. I don't remember her daughter's name. During the Great Patriotic War Sophia's sons went to the front. Michael was a marine and the two others were recruited to the front. The two older sons perished and Boris, the youngest, returned home. He lives in Canada with his family now. Sophia died in Kiev in the 1950s. Sophia's daughter lived in Kiev before the Great Patriotic War. I haven't been in contact with her. Perhaps, she still lives there.