Tatiana Tilipman

This is a photo of me taken in Yampol in 1934. I gave this photo to my friend Rachil Shoichet in 1935 for the memory. During the Great Patriotic War Rachil and I lost each other. In 1994 we met in Israel. I asked Rachil to give this photo back to me since I had lost all of my prewar photographs. In this photo I am wearing a blouse that my brother Moisey Krupnik embroidered.

I finished 7 grades in 1933. Then I didn't go to school for two years. I was tiny and weak and suffered from frequent headaches. They thought I head rheumatism and a local doctor tried to cure me with aspirin. In 1934 I entered a prosthodontic school in Odessa, but I couldn't stay in Odessa. I had no place to live: my relatives didn't have a space to accommodate me and there were no vacant beds in the dormitory. I returned home.

In 1935 I went to Odessa again and entered a rabfak in the Medical College. After two years of studies I was admitted to the College. I enjoyed my studies very much. There was no anti-Semitism and we were friends. I joined Komsomol, like the majority of my peers. I believed that everybody else around me had as much fun and found life as interesting as I did.