Peter Rabtsevich's family

This is our family photograph. From left to right, standing are Haya Rabinova [nee Levzina], the wife of my older brother Lev, my sister Riva Kotova [nee Rabinova], my sister Esther Warshavskaya [nee Rabinova], and her husband Abraham Washavskiy. Sitting are I, my mother Pesia Rabinova [nee Korzh], my father Ruvin Rabinov and my younger brother David Rabinov. In the lower row is my younger brother Aron Rabinov. This photo was taken in Pinsk in 1938. My parents got married in Lyubeshov at the very beginning of World War I. They had a traditional Jewish wedding. My father, Ruvin Rabinov, was a Swiss cheesemaker. I was born on 25th May 1923. I was named Erukhim-Fishel at birth, after my mother's father Fishel. We lived in Drogitchyn until 1924. In 1924 my father was employed by a landlord called Orgi to work on his estate in Mokraya Dubrova, Brest province. We were the only Jewish family on the estate. My brother and I fasted on Yom Kippur. The children in our family began to fast when they were 5 years old. I finished school in 1936 and went to study at the Jewish trade school in the town of Pinsk. Our parents rented a room for us from a Jewish family. I studied at trade school, and my brothers, David and Aron, were studying at the Sniftarbut Jewish school (this school got its name from the owner of the school, a Jew called Sniftarbut). The ghetto in Pinsk, where all my relatives stayed, was eliminated on 29th October 1942. All inmates were taken to the village of Galevo [5 km from Pinsk] and shot. My mother, my father, my sister Esther, her husband Abraham and their daughter Gita, my brother Lev's wife Haya and their daughter Dina were killed on that day. My family, my acquaintances and my life perished along with them.