Bronislawa and Boris Peisakhov

My sister Bronislawa (Bebah) and her husband Boris (Ber) Peisakhov. The photo was taken on 31.8.1945 in Kiev. My sister Bronislawa was four years older than me. We called her Bebah at home. In 1940 she graduated from high school with honors and entered the Mechanics and Mathematics Department of the Kiev University without exams. At the time, it was a grand event. When our family lived back in Vasilkov, we had a piano, on which young Bebah played 'The Cry of Israel' to the deep emotions of the Jewish community. When commissars came to our house to look for gold, the young child told them where grandfather had hid it. Grandfather Lazar and his two sons were immediately arrested. They were released two months later, and since that time nobody ever had gold in our family. In 1937 we were pioneers and adored Lenin and Stalin. Our favorite prank was to run into the Catholic Cathedral wearing our red pioneer ties and put out all its burning candles while shouting up the hall. When we grew up a little bit right before the war, and we began to keep up a correspondence with boys from the naval academy that was right across our school building. Through windows we would set up dates.