This is my father's passport photo. My mother removed it from his passport, when Estonian passports were to be replaced with Soviet ones in 1940. This photo was taken in Tartu in 1937.
My father was born in 1888. He didn't enjoy his childhood. He was sent to study a vocation at an early age and started working at the age of 13. My father tanned skins for tanners. Later, he went to work as a supplier for a factory in Tartu. My father had a religious education. He studied in cheder and could read in Hebrew. His mother tongue was Yiddish.
By the time I was to finish the gymnasium my father was severely ill. My older brothers were still in university and the family had to pay for their education, while I had to work to support the family. Before my father fell ill he worked at the tannery, owned by a Jew called Uzhvanskiy. I went to work as an apprentice accountant at the factory and later became an accountant.
As I said before, my father was severely ill even before the war. The hardships of evacuation were too much for him. He died in 1943.
