Maria Koblik-Zeltser with her family

This picture was taken in our house in Rezina on Pesach 1938, when my brother and I came to Rezina on holiday. I came back from Orhei, where I studied at the lyceum and my brother Abram from Kishinev. Sitting from left to right: my brother Abram Kozhushnyan, mother Soibel Kozhushnyan, father Yankel Kozhushnyan, and I.

My elder brother Abram, who was then living in Rezina, became an active member of an underground Komsomol organization. In Iasi, where he studied at the university, he was seeing a girl and when her parents insisted on the wedding, Abram rejected his bride. He was totally devoted to Communism and reckoned that he couldn’t be tied with a nuptial knot. Mother was really worried and shed a lot of tears because of that. Abram was arrested a couple of times, but he didn’t stay in prison for a long time. He was released in a couple of months. He was banned from living in Rezina after he graduated from university, because our town was a frontier one, and the Soviet Union was on the opposite bank of the Dniestr. When Abram graduated from university he began to work for a law firm in Kishinev. Then he moved to a little town close to Bucharest. 

After finishing elementary school I went to the Romanian State Lyceum. It was a co-ed, where boys and girls studied. It wasn’t hard for me to pass the entrance exams and I was accepted without any bias. There were a lot of Jews in our class as the town was predominantly Jewish, and there was no Jewish lyceum. I had studied there for three years and then the lyceum was closed down.

My family decided that I should go on with my studies. In September my mother took me to Orhei and I entered a lyceum there. I lived with Aunt Rivka for some time. Then Mother rented a room for me. I shared it with two more girls from the lyceum. I lived in Orhei for a year. My parents often came for a visit. My brother Abram came once. I went home for Jewish holidays. Abram used to come as well. Both of us were at the festive table.