Boris Gutman

This is my mother's brother Boris Gutman, photographed for his identity card in the early 1930s in Korosten.

In 1893 my mother’s mother died at childbirth. Boris, who was born then, was raised by his older sisters. Grandfather Faidysh died shortly after his wife passed away. My mother told me how hard life was treating them – her sisters took any daytime jobs and my ten-year-old mother stayed at home looking after the baby. My mother dipped bread in sweet water and gave it to the baby instead of milk.

Boris was my mother’s favorite. I don’t know what he was doing before the revolution of 1917, but after the revolution he worked in the system of consumer services. During the Great Patriotic War Boris and his wife were in evacuation. Their daughter Bronia Gutman, a medical nurse, was recruited to the army and was a nurse on a sanitary train throughout the war. Boris died in Korosten in 1975, Bronia died in 2001.