Yerakhmil Eidlin and Feiga Zvyagina

This is my father Yerakhmil Eidlin with my sister Feiga Zvyagina, nee Eidlin, in Kherson in 1928.

I remember how Feiga, my younger sister, was born. She was born at home in 1926.

A midwife came to help my mother. She was paid for it. It was a custom in Kherson to give birth to babies at home. Nobody took a woman in childbirth to a hospital. I don't remember if there were gynecologists or maternity hospitals.

In 1929, after my mother died, my father got married a second time. Aunt Khaya in fact married him off. Father remained alone with four children: Mordekhai, born in 1917, Volf, born in 1920, my sister Feiga and me.

Mum's sister, Aunt Fani, was a very smart woman; she wrote letters to father after my mother's death: 'Don't seek a mother for your children, you won't be able to find any. Better look for a wife, you are to live with her!' But aunt Khaya found a woman.

I don't know how she managed to do it. Her name was Anna Lazarevna. She was a Jewess. She took my father's last name. She gave birth to two children: Lena and Ilya. Their whole family perished during the war in Kherson.

When mum died my younger sister Feiga was three-and-a-half years old. Aunt Fani, mum's elder sister, adopted her and took her to Leningrad.

Feiga is still alive and lives in Leningrad. She finished a secondary school in Kherson and graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Leningrad University.

Being a final-year student she got married and thus acquired a free certificate, without any assignment. Formerly, the Party assigned all institute graduates to workplaces prepared in advance for young specialists.

It was called 'the assignment.' Feiga worked for a long time, all her life, at a laboratory of a children's hospital. She is retired now, but continues to work. She is 73.

Her husband, Berg Zvyagin, a Jew, is a candidate of physical science. Feiga took his last name. Berg was in the army during the war and had been to many fronts.

After the war he defended a thesis and taught physics at the Leningrad Institute of Mines. Now he is an activist at the synagogue, attends it and observes all Jewish ceremonies.

He and his wife are present at all Jewish events. They have a daughter, Marina. She graduated from university, became a candidate of mathematical science and works as a teacher.