My father Josef was born in 1892 in Dyusseldorf.
He finished a secondary school (common, not Jewish) and, odd as it was, sang in a choir of some Orthodox church. In Russia it was hard for a Jew and, what was more, from the Caucasian region, to enter an institute.
So after finishing of a secondary school father went away to Berlin and entered the Medical Institute there in 1911.
As grandpa had a big family, which he could hardly support, my father had to pay both for his living and study. He worked as a bartender; in other words, sold beer in a bar.
Unfortunately, father didn't succeed in completing his study in Germany. In 1914, as everybody knows, World War I burst out and all Russian nationals were sent away from Germany.
My father arrived in Kiev and entered the medical department of the Kiev State University. He graduated from it in 1917. At that university he met my mum.
