Rafael Genis and his family

Rafael Genis and his family

This is my kin. The first row, from right to left - my grandfather Nakhman Maoerer, Uncle Liber Rupel, Aunt Golda Rupel, her daughter Aza and son Meishe Rupel. To the right in the second row: my father Yankle Genis (with mustache), then my mother Feiga Taube. I stand second from the left in the top row, to the left of me my brother Dovid, the fourth on the right is my brother Liber. The others are our distant relatives whom I don?t remember. The photo was taken in the 1930s in Rietavas. I got this photo from my aunt, my father's sister Golda Bromberg, in America when I visited her in the 1980s. I knew my maternal grandfather very well. His name was Nakhman Maoerer. He was a tailor. Grandpa Nakhman lived until the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War and would have still lived longer as he was very robust, which wasn?t common for people of his age. He was shot in Telsiai in the summer of 1941 along with many other family members. My mother, Feiga Taube Maoerer, was born in Gargzdai in 1898. Mother was a very cheerful lady. During my childhood it wasn?t common to ask one's parents about their past. So, I don?t know how my parents met. Most likely they were introduced by shadkhanim, who married off practically all Jews. My mother got married when she was very young. My father, Yankle Genis, was born in 1888. He only finished cheder and a Jewish elementary school, but he was literate. He knew how to read, speak and write Yiddish, Russian and Lithuanian. Since his childhood my father helped Grandpa and also became a butcher. There was a butcher's at our place. Father made kosher meat for Jews; he removed all tendons and vessels. Rich Jews ordered meat and he sent me to them to deliver it. Father cut the meat and sold the rest of it to the Lithuanians, including sausages. In 1916 the first-born, my elder brother Dovid, came into the world. Liber was born two years later, Isroel ? in 1920 and in 1922 ? Abram. On 21st June 1923 I was born. Mother was expecting a difficult parturition, so she left for Klaipeda to give birth there. Thus, I came into the world in Klaipeda and my birth certificate in Lithuanian and German was issued there. I was named Rafael.
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