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Aunt Fania Kogan, my mother's sister.
My 10-year-old mother took Fania, her 7-year-old sister's hand and they headed to Uman. They got the town committee. They could provide shelter during the day only and they told them to find a place stay at night by themselves. The girls were living with a drunkard woman in some basement with brick floors. It was cold and damp. They lived so for some time until they were sent to different Jewish children's homes. Children's homes often moved and children were sent from one home to another and the sisters lost each other. They met in 29 years afterwards, in 1949.
In the summer of 1950 we went to Moscow. My mother saw her sister Fania for the 1st time in 29 years. (I can't remember how exactly they found each other after the war. Probably via their common acquaintances or friends, but I remember that my mother wrote letters to Fania since 1949).
Fania's husband was working at the Tushino aircraft plant. Her nephew Misha Aloets worked there, too (Fania arranged for Misha to stay in Moscow after the war). Fania and her husband had 2 children: Misha and Vera.
