Anna Gandelsman and Nelia Berman

This is a picture of my mother Anna Gandelsman and my older sister Nelia Berman, nee Boguslavskaya. The photo was taken in Kharkov in 1930. My mother finished grammar school in St. Petersburg and after the Revolution she and her aunts moved to Kharkov. In Kharkov my mother entered a course in law. She never worked as a lawyer but she was a very educated woman. In 1925 my mother met my father and they got married in April 1926. They had a civil ceremony, which was common at that time. They didn't have a Jewish wedding although my grandfather Zakhar insisted that they did. They rented an apartment at the beginning until my father, who held an important position at the Ukrteztile trust, received an apartment. My older sister Nelia Boguslavskaya was born in 1927. My grandmother Zlata came to look after Nelia and my parents hired a nanny. My father had a high salary and my mother could afford to stay at home. Nelia married Evsey Berman, a Jew, in 1955. Nelia died of cancer in 1980. My father died in 1982. He was devoted to the Communist Party until the last days of his life. My mother moved in with me. She died in Kiev in 1985.