Dora Slobodianskaya's father Wolf Melman and his family

This is a picture of our family. Sitting on the left is my father Wolf Melman holding my younger sister Rachel. Third on the left is my mother Golda Melman [nee Shnaiderman]. Standing on the left are my husband Boris Slobodanskiy and me. The other people are friends and relatives who came to my sister's 10th birthday party. The photo was taken in Chernovtsy in 1952. After the war my parents were thinking of moving to a bigger town with more Jews and more opportunities for us to study. They corresponded with my aunt Khaya, who lived in Chernovtsy, and decided to move to Chernovtsy. My father was a laborer at the garment factory. He had a low salary, but he had to go to work. There was a law against jobless people. They were called 'parasites', and militia offices were responsible for making them go to work. My father made hats at home. He purchased sheepskin from villagers and treated them until they were ready to make hats out of them. There was a wood-shed in the yard of the house where my father placed barrels with tanning and painting solutions. My mother assisted him. She, poor thing, rolled the drum with sawdust at night. The earnings of my father's extra work were often higher than his salary. My mother stayed at home looking after my little sister and my brother. He was sickly after our time in the ghetto. When he couldn't go to school my mother helped him do his homework. My parents celebrated Sabbath and Jewish holidays after we moved to Chernovtsy. Every Friday my mother lit candles, and afterwards the family sat down for a festive dinner. In the first years in Chernovtsy my mother made matzah at home. Later a Jewish bakery was opened. All Jews in Chernovtsy knew its address. They brought flour for matzah at dusk and returned to pick up bags with matzah late at night. My father and mother went to the synagogue on holidays. We were short of money, but my father made contributions to the synagogue and also paid for a seat for himself and my mother. My mother also saved money from my father's salary to buy food for a festive meal on holidays. She always managed to make gefilte fish, chicken broth and strudels. My father always conducted seder on Pesach. My parents followed all fasting rules. We spoke Yiddish at home. My brother and sister finished the College of Light Industry in Chernovtsy. They became production engineers in the garment industry. My brother was a production engineer, and my sister became a forewoman in a shop. My brother married a nice Jewish girl and they had two children. In the 1970s my brother and his family moved to Israel. They live in Bat-Yam. My sister married Isaac Dinishenskiy, a Jewish man, in 1962. They have a son and a daughter. Since my sister was born in the ghetto she always had health problems. She died in Chernovtsy in 1989. Her older granddaughter was named after her.