My older brother Berl and his co-students from the Machine Building College. Berl is the one standing first on the left. They were photographed after finishing the 1st year of their studies. The photo was taken in Odessa in 1932.
My brother was born in 1916 in Ladyzhin. He finished secondary school in 1932 and entered the Odessa Machine Building College. He studied there several years, but then quit and went to work as a nickel plater with my father in the Caucasus. He fell ill in 1938 and died in 1940. He was a very talented and handsome boy. His death was a terrible blow to our family, and my father said that there wouldn't be any music or entertainment in our house for a year. After a year had passed, he turned on the music and said that life was to go on. My brother was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Slobodka. During the war the cemetery was ruined and we couldn't find his grave after the war.
Rachel Gitelis' brother Berl Gitelis with friends
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).