This is my husband Sholom Ruvim Rozenbergas. The picture was taken in Jurbarkas around 1937-38.
In July 1945 Aunt Leya and I came to Kaunas. I was yearning to go back to my native town and in a while my aunt took me to Jurbarkas. Our house wasn’t destroyed, but it was occupied by Lithuanians, and we had to wait for it to be vacated. Then the house was vacated and I was summoned to the municipal ispolkom and given the permission to live in our house. I still wonder why they didn’t accommodate anyone with me as the house was large.
At that time the son of my parents’ good friends, Sholom Ruvim Rozenbergas, came back from the lines. I had known him very well before the war, but since he was five years older than me, I never used to have common interests with him, as there was quite a big gap between us in my childhood. Now, as the two of us were lonely, we were attracted to each other. First, we had recollections that bound us, then we fell in love with each other. In the middle of 1946 we got our marriage registered at the regional marriage register. Of course, both of us wanted to be wed under a chuppah, but there was neither a synagogue nor a rabbi in Jurbarkas. During the occupation Fascists made Jews destroy the synagogue with their own hands, stone by stone, and then they shot them on that spot.
My husband was born in Jurbarkas in 1923. His father Dovid owned a store, and his mother Mere took care of the children and household. Sholom’s parents and his sister Pesya perished in the occupation. He was in the lines, serving in the 16th Lithuanian division. He was awarded many orders and medals. He came back to his native town with the rank of sergeant-major. Sholom didn’t have any special education. He went to school in Kaunas before the war. He was a very gifted man. First he found a job at the canteen, later he was appointed for management positions. He became a member of the Communist Party. When he was to join it, he sincerely believed in the Party.
