Susanna Sirota with her father Avraam Sirota and mother Anna Sirota

This is our family: my father Avraam Sirota, my mother Anna Sirota and I, Susanna Sirota. This is our first family photograph. This photo was taken in Priluki in 1923.

My father was a painter. I remember how he climbed on the roof of the church. It was restored. It was hot and sweat was running down his face and he tied a kerchief on his forehead to protect himself from sweat. He wasn’t religious and he wasn’t an atheist. He just didn’t talk about this subject. He read many contemporary books. He considered himself an advanced Soviet man. He was very happy when he bumped into a Jewish surname in a newspaper. He showed me and said, ‘Look, this Jew is colonel and that one is a writer. It wasn’t possible before the revolution, you know.’ He was grateful to the Soviet regime for having equal rights and so were many others in his circle. 

In 1921 my father went to order some medication in a pharmacy. He met Anna Ghivertz, a pharmacist. They got married shortly afterward. They registered their marriage in a registry office. They didn’t have a wedding party. It was a customary thing at the time. After they got married my parents moved to Lubny, 95 km from Priluki, probably looking for a job.

I was born in Lubny in 1923. It was hard to find a job at that time. My mother’s older sister Rosa lived in Lubny at that period and my parents moved there. I don’t remember Lubny. After a short while we returned to Priluki.