Gitah Dudak and her friend Rasa Dudak

My mother Gitah Dudak, nee Kloz, is on the left, on the right is her friend Rasa Dudak, who married my father's second cousin Shmuel Dudak. When the Great Patriotic War began, Shmuel ran away with the Communists leaving his wife Rasa and their children behind. They perished during the occupation, and Shmuel held some important position in Vilnius after the war. Our family didn't have any contact with him. This photo was taken in the 1930s, in the photo shop on 4, Sodu Street, in Jonava. My mother Gitah, born in 1905, was the oldest of her siblings. She had some education. I don?t know where she studied. I think she studied for a few years in a Jewish school. She knew Russian, could read in Russian and Hebrew and later she also learned Lithuanian. My mother and father grew up in traditional Jewish families, respecting Jewish traditions and religion. My parents were seeing each other for about ten years. They got married in 1929, when my father had firm ground under his feet and could provide for the family. They had a religious wedding and it couldn't have been otherwise. My parents were married under the chuppah in the synagogue in Jonava. After their wedding my parents rented a small apartment. I, Yankl Dovid, was born in this apartment on 30th March 1930. In 1933 my brother, who was given the name of our not so long ago deceased great-grandfather Mende, was born. In 1935 our younger brother Simon was born.