Minna Birman’s parents Sophia and Mordko Birman with her daughter Yekaterina Cherniak

These are my parents Sophia and Mordko Birman with my daughter Yekaterina Cherniak. This photo was taken in Odessa in 1950.

My parents and I returned to Odessa in 1944. There were other tenants in our apartment. We went to court. We felt anti-Semitic attitude toward us. Since my mother and father were members of the party since 1919 and they wrote a complaint to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine they managed to obtain a residential permit for us to live in Odessa. They returned one room to us. The judge said: 'This is sufficient for three people'. My brother was at the front. I didn't work at first. I donated blood and received a food package and a meal for it. My mother began to work in the city finance department and father soon got a job of inspector in savings-bank. 

My daughter Yekaterina was born in Odessa in 1946.