Sore-Reyze Goldman in exile at the quarry

This is my elder sister Sore-Reyze Goldman (to the right with a buggy) in exile at the quarry. The picture was taken in Sovetsk in 1941. The deportation on 14th June 1941 changed the life of our family completely. Three families - my mother and I, my sister and her husband and my brother and his wife - were exiled. We were taken to the town of Kotel'nich, Kirov oblast. It was a deportation depot, wherefrom people were allotted to the destination of exile. Our family was to go to the town of Sovetsk in Kirov oblast, about 100 km from Kotel'nich. We were not to live in the town itself, but we were to go to the place of the quarry, located about 10 kilometers from the town. There were only barracks for the exiled and quarry workers. There were terrible conditions in the barracks: 14 people were housed in one room. Of course, adults dreaded that, but I found it adventurous. We were lucky that my brother, and Isaac, my sister's husband, stayed with us. They were not enemies of the peoples, just members of a family of an enemy of the people. Who knows what might have happened to Perets and Isaac, if they hadn't been in exile. They might have been sent to the front and perished there. Apart from us there were was a man with a son of my age, a woman with a son, older than me, and another woman with a daughter. Two people shared one bed. I shared a bed with my mother. There was another room in the barrack, also meant for 14 people, and a smaller room. On the first day all adults were sent to the quarry. Men blasted stone, fragmented it with picks. Women were to load the stones in the trolleys and took them to the embankments. After a couple of months, women over 50 were exempt from work. They were supposed to stay in the village. My sister and Sima kept on working in the quarry.