In the center of this photo is my husband Naum Tikhiy-Shtilerman. On the extreme right is his father, Meyer Shtilerman. Standing behind his father are Naum's two sisters, Dina and Buzya Shtilerman. The photo was taken in the village of Emilchino around 1937, prior to their father's arrest.
Naum and his sisters attended a Ukrainian school, but were placed in a Jewish class. It was not a class where Yiddish or Hebrew was the language of instruction, but simply a class into which were collected all the Jewish children from the neighboring villages. According to my husband, relations between Jews and Ukrainians in their village were wonderful. Even though his family spoke Yiddish at home, Naum also spoke fluent Ukrainian and considered the Ukrainian language to be his native tongue.
Naum was fifteen when he entered the University before the war. He wanted to study in the Philology Department. He was a very gifted person. He passed all of his high school exams early and then aced his entrance exams. He was accepted even though his father was a member of a repressed minority. Perhaps he was accepted because he had gained entrance into the Ukrainian Department, which was 'out of fashion' in those days - everyone wanted to study only the Russian language and literature.
