Tag #155913 - Interview #103947 (Faina Volper Biography)

My sister lived in Kholmogory in Arkhangelsk region in the north of Russia in 1500km to the north of Moscow. She was a pretty girl and had many local admirers. My sister was a doctor in the local hospital. She met her future husband there. He was a patient of the hospital. He was Russian. His name was Cyril Shyrokov. He was a nice man. He fell in love with my sister. She didn’t want to marry him, but she decided that marriage would protect her from annoying passes of local men. My father was indignant when he heard the news. Her marrying a man of different faith was a disgrace in his opinion. My father demanded that my sister divorced her husband and came home. But my sister couldn’t quit her job. She was liable for military service and had to stay where she was assigned. My sister came home after the war. She was pregnant. Return to Starokonstantinov prior to divorcing her Russian husband was out of the question. The family couldn’t go back home in such disgrace. Just to think about appearing in sight of the rabbi and neighbors was impossible.

End of the war was a big holidays for the people. There was much joy in the streets with everybody kissing and hugging. We looked forward to going home in our warm Ukraine. In 1945 our parents decided to go to Nikopol where my mother’s older brother Moshe and his family lived. We didn’t know what happened to our house or where we would find accommodation. My parents were hoping that my sister would divorce her Russian husband and we would be able to come back to Starokonstantinov. My mother was looking forward to seeing her brother who she hadn’t seen for almost 20 years. But Moshe had been shot in his truck before we arrived. It happened in 1945 after the war, so his murderer might have been an anti-Semite or something.