Rosa Gershenovich with her mother Elizaveta Veltman
and cousin Dora Fridman

My mother Elizaveta Veltman (on the left) with me (in the center) and my cousin Dora Fridman on a photo taken in 1945 in Pyatigorsk. During the war I was in evacuation in Namangan, Uzbekistan. My husband knew that his house in Kiev had been destroyed. His commanding officer got an assignment in Lvov in the summer of 1945. He suggested that Ruvim should go to Lvov and said he would help him find a job. Ruvim found an apartment for us and called me to come to Lvov. On my way from Namangan to Lvov I spent two weeks in Piatigorsk visiting my cousin Dora. We had a wonderful reunion. Her husband was still in Germany and she was living in Piatigorsk. Dora was my mother's sister Surah's daugther. My mother and Surah were very close. [Before the war] Surah lived in Rybnitsa, a small town in Moldavia. When my father died in 1919, my mother tried to find a job in Odessa. In 1919 she took a medical course and completed it successfully. Unemployment in Odessa was high and it was next to impossible to get a job. Surah invited my mother and me to come live with her there. My mother packed up and we left. Surah's husband owned a store that sold kerosene, candles, matches, soap, and other things. Their house was not very big.The family gave us a room to live in. My aunt had 3 children. The oldest, Gidal, was born in 1912 and perished during the war in 1943. Volodia, born in 1924, also went to the front, but survived. He married after the war; he worked at a plant in Odessa and was promoted to foreman. After retiring he still lives in Odessa. Dora was born in 1916. She finished her studies at the Medical College in Odessa and married Naum Fridman, a military man who provided well for his family. Dora was a housewife. They now live in Israel.