Frieda Rudometova with her relatives

This is me, Frieda Rudometova (standing on the right), photographed in Sevastopol, in a local photo shop, with my relatives during my visit there in the late 1950s. Standing from the left is my aunt Malka Schneider (nee Ladinzon), sitting in the center is my grandmother Pesia Ladinzon, on her left is my cousin Yakov Schneider, sitting on the left is aunt Malka's husband Pinhus Schneider.

I have met my husband in evacuation in in Zelenodolsk Tatar ASSR in 1934, we got married there. My daughter was born in Arudovo village where my husband's mother lived, in December 1945. I named the girl Lisa after my sister. Pyotr was serving in our army in Germany at this time. I need to say that Pyotr was very good to me. My nationality didn't matter to him. His mother also loved me. Pyotr served in Liepaja, Latvia, 15 years. Our daughter Nathalia was born there in 1951, and in 1956 our son Sergei was born. We had a good life. My husband supported the family. I also worked as a telephone operator few years.

My grandmother Pesia after the WWII lived with aunt Manyusia in Sevastopol. I visited her several times. Sometimes I went to see her with my children. I felt myself Jewish in my grandmother's house recalling Jewish traditions and customs. I could not celebrate holidays or observe Jewish traditions at my home: my husband Pyotr was a military man and a party member. With all his love to me he would not have allowed this. Grandmother Pesia died in the early 1960s at the age of over 90.

My aunt Malka, or, Manyusia, as she was affectionately called in the family. She was born around 1890. Malka married her second uncle Pinhus Schneider. After the revolution of 1917 and the Civil War they moved to Sevastopol and worked in a state owned pharmacy. Malka and Pinhus had the only son. His name was Yakov. He was born in Murafa in 1913. There is a common prejudice that children from related spouses are born with physical or mental defects, but Yakov had none. He studied successfully at school, finished the Faculty of Economics of a higher educational institution and worked many years as chief of the department of labor and salary of the Black Sea Fleet. Aunt Malka died in the middle 1960s. She had blood poisoning that resulted in psoriasis. Yakov died in Sevastopol recently at the age of a little under 90.