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This is how she and my sister Vera got to Tashkent: they were at a dacha in Svyatoshino in the summer of 1941. Usually, Vera's husband, Kayum Kayburov, a famous violin player, took her to a sanatorium in the summer, but that summer there was some cultural festival and he had to be in Kazan. He was highly evaluated as one of the few Kazakhs with a university education, and he was also a wonderful violin player. They met at the Conservatory. So, in the summer of 1941, my mother went with Vera instead of Kayum. The war broke out unexpectedly. What could they do? Nadya and her film studio [Dovzhenko] were evacuated to Tashkent, and she insisted that mother and Vera should also go there. When I learnt that my mother died, I went to Vera in Tashkent. I cried all the way because I knew that my mother had died but Vera was told that she hadn't died, but that she had lethargic sleep. I brought Vera to Moscow from Tashkent, but I couldn't save her. She died in 1943 of a heart attack.
Father stayed in Kiev. I still have his letters. He never asked for anything in his life, but this time he suddenly wrote me and asked for money because he had nothing to eat. I sent him the money and, miraculously, he got it! He wrote me that he went to the market and bought meat. And I wrote him to leave Kiev immediately, but he didn't want to. He remembered the behavior of the Germans during World War I, so he stayed. After the war, Vera was told that when everyone was told to gather their belongings and go to the square our father said, 'We will be led to death,' and didn't take anything. He was killed in Babi Yar in 1941 [11]. My brother Abram was also killed, just as his wife Musya Rudnik, and their children Gena and Lara, and Musya's mother, and father's sister Vera Lyakhovetskaya. We aren't sure whether she was shot in Babi Yar, or whether she just died. But she died.
My mother's family lost my cousin Anya Rodnyanskaya [the daughter of her sister Khaya Smekhova] and her little daughter, and Bella Frumkina. They were killed in Belarus.
We had very big family - about 80 people: 32 cousins, with children and grandsons, 10 aunts and uncles. Some left for Israel, some went to America. Some of them (father's nephews) stayed and still live in Kiev. My cousin Lev Gertsenshteyn is the leader of one of the Jewish communities in Moscow. We have always made an effort not to lose contact and wrote each other letters. Some came to my 90th birthday. In order to mention all of them I'd have to write a long book.
Father stayed in Kiev. I still have his letters. He never asked for anything in his life, but this time he suddenly wrote me and asked for money because he had nothing to eat. I sent him the money and, miraculously, he got it! He wrote me that he went to the market and bought meat. And I wrote him to leave Kiev immediately, but he didn't want to. He remembered the behavior of the Germans during World War I, so he stayed. After the war, Vera was told that when everyone was told to gather their belongings and go to the square our father said, 'We will be led to death,' and didn't take anything. He was killed in Babi Yar in 1941 [11]. My brother Abram was also killed, just as his wife Musya Rudnik, and their children Gena and Lara, and Musya's mother, and father's sister Vera Lyakhovetskaya. We aren't sure whether she was shot in Babi Yar, or whether she just died. But she died.
My mother's family lost my cousin Anya Rodnyanskaya [the daughter of her sister Khaya Smekhova] and her little daughter, and Bella Frumkina. They were killed in Belarus.
We had very big family - about 80 people: 32 cousins, with children and grandsons, 10 aunts and uncles. Some left for Israel, some went to America. Some of them (father's nephews) stayed and still live in Kiev. My cousin Lev Gertsenshteyn is the leader of one of the Jewish communities in Moscow. We have always made an effort not to lose contact and wrote each other letters. Some came to my 90th birthday. In order to mention all of them I'd have to write a long book.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
lubov ratmanskaya