Evgenia Gendler’s sister, Elena Krut with her friend

My older sister Elena Krut (on the right). She sent us her photo when she moved to Sverdlovsk after finishing school. This photo was taken in Sverdlovsk in 1938. My older sister Elena was born in 1920 in Novosokolniki, a district town in Kalinin region in Russia, in about 500 km to the south of Leningrad [520 km to the west from Moscow]. We were poor. My father was the only breadwinner. My mother was a housewife. My father earned little money. My father also worked home in the evening to earn some additional money. He was a roofer and tinsmith. I remember our small wooden house. There was a plot of land near the house. There was a cellar and a shed in the backyard where we kept a cow, geese and chickens. There was a big vegetable garden near the house. I helped my mother work in it. We grew potatoes, tomatoes and cabbage. It was a big support for the family. My parents didn't buy fiction books. Our parents spoke Yiddish at home. My sisters and I spoke Yiddish with our parents and Russian between us. We celebrated Jewihs holiday at home. In 1938 the life of our family changed dramatically. My father had an accident at work. He fell from the roof he was working on and injured his lung. Since there was no hospital in Novosokolniki my father was taken to hospital in the neighboring town of Velikie Luki. He developed pneumonia and died in the hospital. We had nothing to live on after our father died. We often had nothing to eat. My older sister Elena finished secondary school in 1938. Elena wanted to continue her studies. She went to Sverdlovsk [over 1000 km from Moscow] where one of my mother's distant relatives lived. He offered Elena to live with his family. Elena failed at the entrance exam, but decided to stay there. She went to work as a laborer at a plant and studied in an evening accounting school. Elena got married in Sverdlovsk in 1943. Her husband was in evacuation from Chernovtsy. His parents died in evacuation. A bomb hit their boat. He was among few survivors. I don't remember Elena's husband first name, but his last name was Korenburg, he Jewish. He was born in 1920. They had two sons: Michael and Semyon, born in 1946 and 1950, accordingly. Elena's son died shortly after he got married. He was under 30. Her second son lives in Sverdlovsk with his family. Elena died in Sverdlovsk in 1992. Her husband passed away a year after.