My sister Rozalia Dubinskaya and her husband Jonah Saltsov. The photo was made in Rakitnoye, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky district, in 1929, following their wedding. The photo was sent to their relatives in Kiev.
I was the fifth and the youngest child in our family. My eldest brother was Yakov, he was born in 1911; then brother Leonid was born in 1914, then sisters: elder - Rozalia, born in 1908, and Maria, born in 1919. Elder sister Rozalia went to a Jewish school, while Maria went to a Ukrainian school (she started in the Jewish school, and after two or three years there our parents decided that she should better study in a Ukrainian school; many did so back then.)
Our brothers were much older than me, so in my childhood I played and made friends mostly with Maria because we were the closest in age.
Sister Rozalia married in 1929. Her husband, Jonah Saltsov, worked at a sewing factory. He adjusted big industrial sewing machines. Before the war they had two little children: Zhenya and Dima. That is why sister Rozalia did not work, but stayed home and took care of her children. They lived in the village of Rakitnoye, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky district.
During the war Jonah Saltsov and Rozalia with children were evacuated somewhere in the Middle Asia, but I'm not sure where. I only know that Johan was very sick: I believe he had double stomach. He did not live long after the war and died in around 1958. Rozalia's children Zhenya and Dima went to Israel, and Rozalia certainly left with them. She is no longer alive. She died in the beginning of the 80-s.
When I turned eight, I went to school. I went to a Ukrainian school because there were no Jewish schools in our area.
There were Jewish schools and kindergartens in our town. My eldest sister went there, and learned such songs as, "Hey, play and dance, sing, mede loch mach a zoy, mede fis lach mach a zoy" [sings]. My sister who was born in 1919 also studied at a Jewish school for two or three years, and then she was transferred to a Ukrainian school.
