Sara Gurovich

This is my mother Sara Gurovich. This photo was taken in Odessa in 1933.

My mother Sara Maidannik was born in Zhmerinka, Vinnitsa region, in 1910. Her parents died when my mother was seven years old. My mother was raised by her older sister Rosa and her husband Isaac. My mother finished seven years at school in Zhmerinka and in 1925 she moved to Odessa where it was easier to find a job and get a profession. My mother went to work as a leather cutter at the shoe factory. She also studied at a ‘fabzavuch’ school. [Fabzavuch schools are factory or plant vocational schools.] My mother rented a room and also paid for her meals to the owner of the apartment. She met my future father at the factory.

My parents got married in 1927. They had a civil ceremony. My mother said they couldn’t afford a wedding party. My father was against my mother’s going to work after they got married. My mother quit work and became a housewife. My parents never told me in what apartment they lived before I was born. I think they either rented a room or lived with some of their relatives.

In 1933, my father got an assignment to go to a village near Odessa to work on the improvement of agriculture. My mother and I followed him there. We had a small house and kept livestock in that village. We kept a pig and a German breed cow with black spots. It gave 22 liters of milk per day. We left some for the family and gave the rest to the sovkhoz. My mother also kept geese, ducks and chickens, so we also had eggs. My parents told me that this livestock helped us to live through the period of famine in Ukraine in 1933. My father worked as an accountant in the sovkhoz and he also received food products for his work.