My father, Gersh Givand (in the center, wearing a suit and tie). The photo was taken in Puscha-Voditsa, outside Kiev, during a rest cure at a health center. Next to him are his friends who were also at the same health center.
My father, Gersh Shimonovich Givand, was born in 1904 in the town of Volodarka, outside Belaya Tserkov, in the area of Kiev. His parents, my grandparents, Shimon and Anna Givand, were killed in pogroms. Besides that, my father's elder sister Rukhlya was also killed. The pogroms were terrible; entire Jewish families were murdered. I cannot tell you about their deaths in more detail because my father never told me much, sparing my childish sensibility. Following that pogrom three brothers remained: my father was the eldest, then came Israel, born in 1908, and finally the youngest - Naum, born in 1912.
My father graduated from forestry college around 1927, and then worked in an organization that dealt in the transportation of wood. He had a good position and our material life was pretty good.
As soon as war broke out, my mother and I began to prepare for evacuation. My father told us that we would need to leave because Hitler would kill all the Jews.
In 1945 I received a letter concerning the death of my father, and later , another one reporting the death of his brothers Israel and Naum Givand. Because their families were already dead there was no one else in the family but us to receive those letters. The brothers were killed somewhere outside Kremenchug during the first year of the war.
