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This is I, Efim Geifman, and my mother Reizia (Rosa) Bekovna Loshanovskaya. Novograd-Volynskiy, 1921.
I was born on 8 August 1923 in the small town of Novograd-Volysk in Zhytomir region. My ancestors must have come from Belarus. I had many relatives there. My grandfather Elia Berko Geifman lived in Novograd-Volynskiy. He had a small house there.
My mother told me what Petlura soldiers were doing in their town, how one of the bandits ran after her sister, throwing his rifle with a bayonet in her direction but missed. My parents had a friend in the partisan unit. His name was Froim. He was a rabbi's son and he left his family to take part in the revolution. He perished in 1919. His Party nickname was Efim. I was called after him. Children are usually named after their deceased relatives, but I was named by the Party nickname. The civil war left many children orphans. My mother and few other volunteers opened a Jewish orphanage in Novograd-Volynskiy. My mother was its director for some time, but then she was assigned to go to Kiev to continue her education. She finished the Jewish Pedagogical School . Ten my mother returned to Novograd-Volynskiy and was director of a kindergarten. She worked in the institutions for children all her life as a tutor and music teacher. She had a beautiful soprano. When I was a child I was in the care of our housemaid. She milked the cow and gave me some milk. After my father's death we moved to my grandmother Lashanovskaya. She also died and we moved my mother's friend. She and her husband and her son (we were the same age) lived in the house of an Orthodox priest. His was a very big house. At that time people like him having bigger living quarters let other people get accommodation in their houses. Such was the rule at that time that did not allow people to own bigger living areas. There was a beautiful orchard near the house. We, kids, were allowed to eat whatever we wanted there and play with dogs. However, even this well off priest didn't have power supply or running water in his house.
