Naum Baru’s parents: father Isaak Baru and mother Anna Baru

My parents: my father Isaak Baru (1897 - 1983), and my mother Anna Baru (nee Barats). My mother didn't go to the synagogue and didn't have an opportunity to follow the kashruth. We lived in a communal apartment (sharing it with few other families), but my mother always celebrated Jewish holidays at whatever cost. My mother went to the synagogue to get some matsa and kept it a secret from my father. I knew there was a synagogue in Kharkov, but I didn't know exactly where it was. We always had matsa in the house at Pesah. My father ate it, too. My mother always cleaned the apartment thoroughly and cooked the traditional Easter food: stuffed fish, chicken clear soup with matsa, made strudel with nuts and raisins. I still remember the taste of this strudel. My father was in Poland at the time heading towards Germany. My farther served in the army of Marshal Konev. Then my father called my mother to Sandomir bridgehead and she followed him as far as Vienna. This was at the end of the war: October 1944 through May 1945. My mother worked as an orderly in the officer's dining room. And my father was Head of financial department of these mobile artillery shops.